Lori Vallow Daybell, the Idaho mother convicted in 2023 of killing her two children and conspiring to murder her fifth husband’s first wife, is breaking her silence from prison.
In a clip from an upcoming Dateline episode, Lori insists she’s innocent and shares her belief that she and husband Chad Daybell — who is serving a death sentence for his role in the murders — will be exonerated.
“I have seen things in the future that Jesus showed me when I was in heaven,” Lori tells Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison in the clip for the episode airing on NBC at 9 p.m. ET on Friday, March 7. “And we were not in jail and we were not in prison and they were still in the future, from now.”
The episode also features interviews with Lori’s son, Colby Ryan, former FBI Supervisory Special Agent Doug Hart, Madison County Sheriff Ron Ball and Rexburg police Detective Ray Hermosillo, per a press statement shared with us.
In July 2023, Lori was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of the 2019 murders of her two children, 7-year-old Joshua “J.J.” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan. She was also found guilty of conspiring to murder Chad’s first wife, 49-year-old Tammy Daybell.
Joshua “J.J” Vallow and Tylee Ryan. Rexburg Police Department (2)
Lori was also convicted of grand theft by deception in the case for collecting government payments after the murders of her children.
The following year, Chad was sentenced to death after being convicted of the murders of the children as well as Tammy. (Chad was married to Tammy for nearly 30 years and had five children with her.)
Prosecutors have said that Chad — an author of religious doomsday scenarios — and Lori’s life together revolved around a small doomsday cult that believed in preparing for the imminent end of the world and eliminating people whose spirits had turned “dark.”
Tammy Daybell. Facebook
The remains of the slain children were found buried on Chad’s Idaho property in June 2020, nearly nine months after they were reported missing by J.J.’s out-of-state grandparents, Kay and Larry Woodcock. (The Woodcocks celebrated Lori’s guilty verdict.)
Tylee had been dismembered and burned; J.J. was wrapped in plastic and bound by duct tape. It was revealed at Lori’s trial that J.J. was asphyxiated while Tylee’s cause of death was undetermined due to the state of her remains.
Chad Daybell.
AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool
Tammy died at the home she shared with Chad in October 2019. Her cause of death was also revealed to be asphyxiation, though it was initially ruled accidental. Just weeks after Tammy’s death, Chad and Lori married in Hawaii.
Prior to Lori’s sentencing, Judge Steven Boyce called Lori’s crimes “heinous and egregious,” saying that Lori hadn’t shown any remorse for her actions.
