Police in Gilbert, Arizona have released body cam footage in connection to Idaho criminal defendant Lori Vallow Daybell. It’s dated January 31, 2019, and shows her then-husband, Charles Vallow, telling cops: his wife threatened to kill him; locked him out of their house while he was out on a business trip to Houston; took his truck that was left at the airport; removed money from their bank account; refused to tell him where the kids were.
“She’s lost her mind,” he said. “I don’t know how else to say it. We’re LDS [Latter-day Saints]. She thinks she’s a resurrected being and a god, and member of the 144,000.” She asserted that Jesus was “coming next year,” according to his account.
Vallow died months later. He was shot and killed by his wife’s brother Alex Cox on July 11. The shooter said this was self-defense. No charges were filed at the time. Cox would go on to to die in December, reportedly after he was found in a bathroom by his girlfriend’s son. The medical examiner’s office of Maricopa County determined this was a “natural” death.
But Vallow’s wife Lori moved with their children Joshua Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, to Idaho last September, less than two months after the homicide. The kids went missing, she married new husband Chad Daybell in November, and police in Rexburg, Idaho claim she bolted out of town instead of helping investigators find the children.
Through an attorney, Lori Daybell has maintained her innocence in the desertion case. No charges have been filed in her previous husband’s death, though cops continue to look into it, and a reported email from March showed a Chandler, Arizona police detective voicing confidence that she’d be indicted.
Mark Means, an attorney who represents both Lori and Chad Daybell, declined to comment when Law&Crime reached out.
Chad Daybell has not been charged with a crime.
Second Angle of Vallow’s Meeting with Police
The newly released body cam footage gives a vivid perspective on Vallow’s disintegrating married with the woman then known as Lori Vallow.
Charles told cops he couldn’t get in touch with his children, Joshua and Tylee. He claimed that his wife threatened to kill him. In one instance, she allegedly said “I will have you destroyed.” In another instance from the day before, she claimed Vallow was someone else, and meant clearly that she would murder him with her powers.
“She thinks I’m Nick Schneider,” he said on video, adding that he had no idea who he was. According to his account, his wife thought she’s a translated being that cannot be killed or die.
“I love her to death,” he said. “This is killing me, officer.” Things just “blew up” in the previous month, he said.
Lori told another man–identified as “Gabe“–he could take the kids, and that she didn’t care what happened to them, according to Vallow’s account.
A divorce court filing from the ex-husband of Daybell’s niece included the claim that he heard this niece say that Lori and Chad asserted that the children were “zombies”–meaning bodies that they had been possessed a demon or “another dark entity” while the original souls were in limbo.
In another matter, an email obtained by Fox 10 Phoenix showed that Chad Daybell graded Lori’s family on whether they had light or dark spirits, and in some cases, noted their previous lives.
Charles Vallow didn’t discuss this message in the body cam footage, but touched on the concept that had been discussed. He claimed that his wife said he and a certain bishop each had a dark spirit. He attributed her new beliefs to her communicating with people in Utah, telling her how many lives she’s had. In his account, she was purportedly married to James the Just in another life.
Charles said that Lori told him not to go to their home.
“I’m not stupid,” he said. “She could’ve done anything.”
Third Angle of Vallow’s Meeting with Police
Footage shows Vallow letting officers into the garage to the home. He attempted to kick down a door leading into the home. An officer managed to get that done. Police entered the home, but no one appeared to be there.
Officers spoke to another man who claimed to hear Lori’s statement about destroying Charles, but he didn’t her hear say that she was gong to kill him. He claimed to hear the irrational statements about Charles being a different person.
Cops determined that there was no crime as of that night, based on what they’d heard. Lori Vallow’s alleged statements–in particular the “destroy” comment–didn’t constitute a threat.
At the time, Charles Vallow said he didn’t know where she and the kids were. Neither did the cops. But an officer said that as a parent, she had the right to take her children, and she had the right to do so because Charles had been out of town for a business trip to Houston.
Joshua “JJ” Vallow, and Tylee Ryan
Joshua Vallow has brown hair, has brown eyes, stands 4’0″, and weighs 50 pounds, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Tylee Ryan has blonde hair, has blue eyes, stands 5’0″, and weighs 160 pounds. Officials said the little brother “may be in need of medical attention.”
Jesse Weber contributed to this report.
Update – May 22, 11:27 a.m.: Attorney Mark Means responded to a Law&Crime request for comment.
[Screengrab via Gilbert Police Department; image of the kids via National Center for Missing and Exploited Children]
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