FORGOTTEN BUSINESS. Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, these children killed by their mother “for the love of God”

Rexburg, November 26, 2019. Without news of her grandson, Joshua Jaxon (JJ) Vallow, 7, for several weeks, Kay Woodcock contacted the authorities and requested a routine visit to Lori Vallow, the adoptive mother of little JJ. On the spot, the police of Rexburg, in Idaho, come across Chad Daybell, an acquaintance of Vallow. The latter claims that JJ and his sister, Tylee Ryan, 16, are vacationing with their grandmother, Kay Woodcock, the very person who sent the police to find her grandson. But then, where are JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan really?

An investigation for disturbing disappearance is opened. But on returning to the Vallows, the police make a puzzling discovery: Lori and her companion, Chad Daybell, have vanished. For two months, the faces of Tyler and JJ are broadcast throughout the country, without result. The authorities then discover that Daybell and Vallow have taken up residence on the island of Kauai, on the archipelago of Hawaii, and the judge orders the young mother to present, by January 30, 2020, her children in court. With the only answer that her children are “safe”Lori Vallow misses the appointment set by the judge. On February 20, 2020, she was arrested for desertion and failure to provide dependent child support and extradited to Idaho. Then follows a series of discoveries, each more sinister than the next…

“Dark” spirits, followers of Satan and zombies

First, investigators learn that Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell married in Hawaii, less than a month after the nebulous death of Daybell’s wife, Tammy Daybell. Moreover, the private conversations of the two spouses reveal very strange beliefs. Both members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vallow and Daybell believe in the return of Jesus to Earth, the apocalypse, and reincarnation. Daybell claims to have lived 31 lifetimes on several Earth-like planets, and to have been married to Vallow in at least seven of them. He claims that Lori herself would be a “be eternal“, having already lived 21 times in the past. Finally, he divides men into two categories: luminous spirits, “disciples of Jesus Christ”and dark spirits, “followers of Satan”. All are identified using a notation system developed by Daybell himself… Tylee Ryan, the first daughter of Vallow, for example, is considered a “4.1 Dark” spirit, which makes she, according to Daybell, a “zombie“possessed by a follower of Satan…

Interviews with Lori Vallow’s loved ones, including her first son, Colby Ryan, confirm what her conversations with Daybell predict: Vallow, a loving and caring mother, allowed herself to be influenced by the beliefs of her new husband. In July 2019, when she was still married to another man, Charles Vallow, she even claimed that the latter was a spirit “dark“. A few days later, Charles Vallow was shot and killed by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, allegedly “in self-defense”. However, the police believe less in a coincidence than in a conspiracy, and the hope of finding Tylee and JJ alive is dwindling…

From courageous mother to infanticidal mother

Until it disappears forever. On June 9, 2020, more than six months after Tylee and JJ last appeared at Yellowstone National Park, the bodies of the two children were discovered on the property of Chad Daybell of Salem, Idaho. The body of young Tylee was dismembered and partially burned, that of JJ put in a plastic bag. A real horror scene, which leads to the arrest of Chad Daybell and the indictment of his companion. Both are accused of the murders of Tylee Ryan, JJ Vallow, but also that of Tamara Daybell, Daybell’s ex-wife. To this day, the couple deny harming the two children. They will be tried together from January 9, 2023. Both face the death penalty.

On Wednesday September 14, the Netflix VOD platform released a documentary series centered on the murders of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow. Title Our Murderous Mother (Sins of Our Mother), she tells in particular the descent into hell of Lori Vallow from the point of view of her son, Colby Ryan, and her mother, Janis Cox.