On day six of testimony in the trial of “cult mom” Lori Vallow, the jury heard a recording of a phone call between the defendant and her eldest son from the early months of her incarceration.
Colby Ryan, Ms Vallow’s son from her second marriage, was called a witness for the prosecution. He is her only surviving child following the murders of daughter Tylee, 16, and adopted son JJ, 7, in September 2019.
In the emotional call between mother and son, Ms Vallow refused to switch on her camera, while Mr Ryan demanded to know whether Jesus had really told her to murder his siblings.
The jury remained focused during the call, which was played at the end of Mr Ryan’s testimony and is believed to have taken place in early August of 2020.
In the call, he said he had been praying for his mother and her fourth husband Chad Daybell, with whom she is accused of the murders of his brother and sister “as much as I want to hit him in the face with a shovel”.
Mr Ryan pleaded for Ms Vallow to tell him the truth about what happened leading up to the discovery of Tylee and JJ in shallow graves in a pet cemetery on Mr Daybell’s property in Rexburg, Idaho.
In an especially visceral moment, he said: “My siblings, my whole family, my dad — everyone is gone except my mom and you’re in jail because of it. You ripped my heart out. You ripped everyone’s heart out."
Mr Ryan also called her out for texts he received from his sister’s phone in the weeks after she was last seen and how Ms Vallow must have known and lied to him about her whereabouts.
An incredulous Mr Ryan, himself a devout Christian, asked why with all that had happened, how could Ms Vallow then say that Jesus Christ was on her side, when, he says, she will be judged by him.
Ms Vallow in response laughs and says that only Tylee and JJ know what happened.
“They love me and they are fine and they know the truth and we are the only people that do,” she says.
Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell’s beliefs of an impending doomsday and Second Coming included a concept of people being taken over by dark spirits and demons that had to be cast out. She said her children and husband had been taken over by such entities.
Tylee and JJ were last seen in September 2019. Their bodies were discovered on 9 June 2020 after months of searching.
Ms Vallow’s husband Charles was shot and killed by her brother on 11 July 2019. Tammy Daybell died by asphyxiation on 19 October.
Mr Daybell and Ms Vallow were married on 5 November 2019 in Hawaii.
On 20 February 2020, she was arrested and charged with two felony counts of desertion of dependent children.
Mr Daybell was arrested upon the discovery of the children’s remains on his property and on 25 May 2021, they were both indicted on the charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, first-degree murder, and grand theft by deception for the deaths of Tylee, JJ, and Tammy.
They are being tried separately.
