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5 months ago
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The sister of killer 'Doomsday Mom' Lori Vallow has thanked prosecutors after a death sentence was passed on the man who she murdered her children with in Idaho.
Summer Shiflet publicly defended her sister and struggled to believe Vallow had killed her own children in pursuit of 'money, power and sex' when she was arrested in February 2020.
But she broke her silence to admit her sister has lost touch with reality over the murders of Joshua 'JJ' Vallow, 7, Tylee Ryan, 16, and Tammy Daybell, the former wife of her accomplice Chad Daybell.
Daybell, 55, expressed no emotion on Thursday as he was sentenced to death for his role in the murder of the children, but Shiflet told delegates at CrimeCon 2024 that justice had been done.
'I had no expectations but when I heard those words, it was everything I needed to hear,' she said.
Summer Shiflet blames Chad Daybell for turning her sister Lori Vallow into a deluded killer
Daybell, 55, expressed no emotion on Saturday as he was sentenced to death but Lori Vallow's sister Summer Shiflet thanked prosecutors for their work
Lori Vallow murdered two of her three children and the ex-wife of her new husband but told her sister that they are all doing well
Prosecutors, who called 67 witnesses throughout the trial, said the couple justified the three killings by creating a detailed and apocalyptic belief system, part of an elaborate scheme to eliminate any obstacles to their relationship and to obtain money from survivor benefits and life insurance.
The children disappeared from their home in September 2019, shortly before the couple flew off to Hawaii for their wedding.
The bodies of JJ and Tylee were found the following June in shallow graves in Daybell's Fremont County, Idaho property.
JJ had been asphyxiated with a plastic bag but Tylee's remains had been dismembered and so badly burned that investigators were unable to determine a precise cause of death.
Shiflet said on Saturday that Vallow, 50, has convinced herself that her dead children are doing well.
'One thing for me, personally, in coming to understand why this happened, which is a huge question, is: how does your sister and this mother get to this point from a one-year period from meeting Chad Daybell to having your kids murdered,' Shiflet told a panel.
'How does that happen? How do you get to that point?
'So, for me, it's been helpful to understand her diagnosis and to understand that her reality is as real to her as our reality is to us.
'And she 100% thinks she is sane. She does not think there is anything wrong with her.'
Joshua Vallow, 7, left, and Tylee Ryan, 17. They were last seen on Sept. 23, 2019 in Rexburg, Idaho, before their remains were discovered on Daybell's property nine months later
Vallow told the court told that her murdered children were still 'happy' and 'busy'
Daybell and his ex-wife Tammy Daybell before she was murdered in October 2019
In this aerial photo, investigators search for human remains at Chad Daybell's residence in Salem, Idaho, on June 9, 2020 - they found the remains of Vallow's two youngest children, JJ and Tylee
Prosecutors successfully argued that the doomsday mother became obsessed with ideas of an impending apocalypse, and the only way to save her children's souls so they could be among 144,000 people who would survive was to kill them.
Jurors heard how the couple saw her children and Daybell's wife as 'obstacles' to the romantic life they envisioned for themselves in Hawaii.
Prosecutors said Vallow and Daybell believed - or chose to believe - that those who stood in their way were 'dark' possessed individuals who they referred to as 'zombies.'
She was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole last year by Judge Steven Boyce who listed her mental health issues as 'delusional disorder' mixed with 'hyper-religiosity' and a 'continuous and unspecified personality disorder' with narcissistic features.
She told the court that her deceased children were 'happy' and 'busy'.
'I have had many communications with Jesus Christ, savior of this world, and our heavenly parents,' she added.
'I have had many angelic visitors have come and communicated with me and even manifested themselves to me because of these communications.
'I know for a fact that my children are happy and busy in the spirit world. Because of my communications with my friend, Tammy Daybell, I know that she is also very happy and extremely busy.'
The pair were convicted of three counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, insurance fraud and grand theft.
Daybell, 55, was stone faced as the sentence was handed Saturday as the Idaho jury unanimously agreed that no mitigating factors would make a death sentence for him unjust.
'It's not an overstatement to say that I lost everything, but more importantly we all lost Tylee and JJ,' said Colby Ryan, Tylee and JJ's brother, Lori's only living child.
'I stand here today motherless, fatherless, sisterless and brotherless.'
Tylee Ryan's aunt, Annie Cushing, said, 'She was intelligent, clever, funny, sarcastic and had the voice of an angel.'
JJ Vallow's grandmother Kay Woodcock noted he would have turned 12-years-old earlier in the week if he were still alive.
'Would he have been the next Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Tim Burton, Elon Musk? We will never know,' Woodcock said.
A string of mysterious deaths emerged involving family members on both sides
As public interest in the case grew, the couple fled Idaho for Hawaii, marrying on the beach in a romantic ceremony that they gleefully documented in photos
Vallow was served poolside in Kauai on January 25, 2020, with demands to produce her children to police after they had been missing from Rexburg, Idaho since September 2019
Tammy Daybell's younger sister Samantha Gwilliam said, 'My sister was ripped from our lives, because of her murder, we lost a beloved mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and daughter. She is irreplaceable.'
Vallow has been extradited to Arizona, where she faces two charges of conspiring to murder both her ex-husband, Charles Vallow, and Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of her niece.
Daybell faces death by firing squad.
Shiflet said her sister would rather be in prison than address her mental health disorders in hospital.
'She doesn't think she's done anything wrong,' she added.
Timeline of Lori Vallow's and Chad Daybell's alleged crimes
July 11, 2019: Lori Vallow's husband, Charles Vallow, is killed by her brother, Alex Cox, in Arizona. Police initially rule that Alex acted in self defense but reopen the case months later after the children are reported missing.
August, 2019: Lori moves children JJ and Tylee to Rexburg, Idaho, close to where her future husband Chad Daybell lives with his wife Tammy.
September 8, 2019: Tylee is seen alive for the last time during a trip to Yellowstone National Park with Lori, JJ and Alex. In the following weeks Lori tells people that her daughter is studying at Brigham Young University's Idaho campus.
September 23, 2019: The last time JJ is seen at his school in Rexburg. Lori emails the school the following day claiming she is moving the family to California for a new job.
October 2, 2019: Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Lori's niece Melani Pawlowski, is targeted in a drive-by shooting in Arizona. Police identify the vehicle carrying the shooter as a Jeep registered to Charles Vallow, Lori's late husband.
October 19, 2019: Chad's wife Tammy, 49, dies at their Idaho home. An obituary states that she passed away peacefully in her sleep. Chad declines an autopsy and her death is listed as due to natural causes.
October 25, 2019: A friend of Tylee receives a vague 'miss you' text from her phone but says that it didn't sound like the teen.
November 5, 2019: Lori and Chad tie the knot on a beach in Kauai. Receipts indicate that Lori purchased her own wedding ring from Amazon nearly three weeks prior to Tammy's death.
November 26, 2019: Out-of-state relatives ask Idaho police to perform a welfare check on JJ. Lori and Chad claim he is in Arizona with relatives and ask their friend, Melanie Gibb, to lie and say she took the boy there for Thanksgiving. Police soon learn that no one has seen JJ or Tylee, since September.
November 27, 2019: Police execute a search warrant related to the children at Lori's home and discover that she and Chad have fled Idaho.
December 11, 2019: Tammy's body is exhumed from a Utah cemetery and her death is reclassified as suspicious.
December 12, 2019: Lori's brother, Alex Cox, is found dead in a bathroom in his Arizona home. Months later an autopsy determines that he died of natural causes while he had the overdose drug Narcan in his system.
December 21, 2019: Rexburg police issue the first press release about JJ and Tylee, revealing they believe their disappearance could be linked to Tammy's death and asking the public for information.
December 24, 2019: Lori and Chad issue a statement through an attorney saying they love their son and daughter and look forward to addressing 'allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor'.
December 30, 2019: Police accuse Lori and Chad of lying to investigators and say they believe the couple know where the kids are or what happened to them.
January 3, 2020: Police search Chad's home in Salem and remove 43 items, including tech devices and journals. They also comb over sections of the snow-covered yard with rakes and metal detectors.
January 26, 2020: Lori and Chad are seen for the first time in months as police serve them with two search warrants in Kauai. Lori is also served with a court order to produce the children to authorities in Idaho in five days. The couple are approached by the media while officers serve the documents and refuse to say anything about the children.
January 30, 2020: Lori misses the court deadline to produce the children to Idaho authorities.
February 20, 2020: Lori is arrested in Kauai and charged with two felony counts for desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, and one misdemeanor count each for resisting and obstructing an officer, solicitation of a crime, and contempt of court.
March 5, 2020: Lori is extradited to Idaho, where she is held on $1million bond at Madison County Jail.
March 17, 2020: Lori professes her innocence in a statement through her attorney as two other members of her defense team quit and the judge removes himself from the case.
March 24, 2020: Court documents filed in the divorce of Lori's niece Melani and her husband Brandon Boudreaux allege that Lori told people she believed her children were zombies before they disappeared.
April 9, 2020: Authorities reveal they are investigating Lori and Chad for murder, attempted murder and conspiracy in connection with Tammy's death.
June 9, 2020: Police search Chad's home in Salem for the second time and discover human remains in the backyard. Chad is taken into police custody and charged with destruction or concealment of evidence.
May 25, 2021: Lori and Chad are charged with first degree murder in the deaths of the children. Chad is also charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife Tammy.
May 27, 2021: Lori is deemed incompetent to stand trial on the murder charges in Idaho.
August 5, 2021: Prosecution announces it will seek the death penalty for Chad.
April 11, 2022: Lori is restored competency. Criminal proceedings against her in Idaho are ordered to continue.
April 14, 2022: Lori is taken to the Madison County Jail in Rexburg, Idaho, by Fremont County Sheriff officers.
April 10, 2023: Lori Vallow goes on trial for the murders of JJ, 7, and Tylee, 16.
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