Lori Vallow Daybell.Photo: Tony Blakeslee/East Idaho News
Closing arguments began Thursday duringLori Vallow Daybell’s murder trial, where the Idaho mom stands accused of murdering her two children, J.J. and Tylee, and her husband’s first wife, Tammy Daybell.
“Who benefits from these murders?,” Prosecutor Rob Wood asked the jury, according to theEastIdahoNews. “Lori Vallow gets Tylee’s money, she gets JJ’s money [following the deaths of their respective fathers]. Chad and Lori get Tammy [Daybell]’s money. What does your reason and common sense tell you? You’ve seen what happened to her children, what happened to Tammy.”
Wood added: “[Lori] never reported the children missing. She lied and she lied and she lied about where they were, and while she lied, she kept collecting the money.”
(Prosecutors believe Lori kept the children hidden so she could continue to collect social security benefits for them.)
“Lori Vallow is the one who ties this all together,” said Wood, according to theEast Idaho News.
Lori Vallow (center).Lisa Cheney of Boise, Idaho
“Lori uses sex to manipulate Chad and Chad seeks confirmation from Lori repeatedly,” he said.
Prosecutors alleged both Lori and Chad also used their fringe religious beliefs to rationalize the killings, accomplishing their mission with the help of Lori’s brother Alex Cox.
“To be clear, nobody here has been charged for their religious beliefs,” he said. “They have been charged for using those beliefs to justify murder.”
“It does not matter what they believed,” Wood said. “It matters what they did. They can believe whatever they want. But when they use that to justify homicide, that changes. They used religion as a tool to manipulate others. Lori manipulated Alex Cox through religion. She manipulated Chad through emotional and sexual control. They manipulated their friends.”
He added, “A white plastic bag was placed over his head where it was secured tightly with duct tape wrapped around and around from his forehead to his neck. The evidence says he struggled, and we’ll never know how long he fought before they wrapped tape around his wrists and ankles. He stopped breathing, his heart stopped beating and he died. It was a brutal, horrific murder of a 7-year-old boy with special needs.”
J.J. and Tylee went missing in September 2019. Tammy, 49, died in the home she shared with Chad on October 19 of that same year. Two weeks later on November 5,Lori and Chad— an author who wrote about religious doomsday scenarios — married in Hawaii.
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Earlier in Lori’s murder trial, J.J.’s cause of death wasrevealed to be asphyxiation, according to multiple outlets.
Lisa Cheney of Boise, Idaho
Tylee’s cause of death was undetermined, Warren said, according to the outlets. Warren also said Tylee’s autopsy took longer than J.J.’s because her remains were not found intact.
“What was left of Tylee was found. Charred remains. A mass of bone and tissues. That was what was left of this beautiful young woman,” Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake said during the first week of trial. “Her DNA was discovered on a pickaxe and shovel and later found in Daybell’s shed.”
Chad is charged in connection with the deaths of Tylee, J.J. and Tammy, but will be tried separately. He has pleaded not guilty.
From left: Lori Vallow Daybell, J.J. Vallow, Tylee Ryan, Tammy Daybell, Chad Daybell.
Lori’s trial is ongoing. In March, it was ruled that Lori, who spent time in a psychiatric treatment facility before being deemed fit for trial, would not face the death penalty in the slayings. She faces life in prison if convicted.
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source: people.com
