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“Doomsday cult mom” Lori Vallow has been found guilty of the murders of her two children and conspiracy to murder her new husband’s first wife in a case that has horrified the nation for the last three years. Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 8, vanished without a trace in September 2019, sparking a multi-state search while their mother jetted off to Hawaii to marry her fifth husband Chad Daybell. The children’s bodies were finally discovered nine months later buried in a pet cemetery on Mr Daybell’s property in Idaho. One month after the children disappeared, Mr Daybell’s wife Tammy was also murdered in her home. At the time, her sudden death –aged 49 – was ruled natural causes until an exhumation and autopsy revealed she died by asphyxiation. Vallow and Mr Daybell were ultimately charged over their murders, with prosecutors alleging that the couple conspired with Vallow’s brother Alex Cox to kill the victims – for both money, lust and to follow their own cult beliefs. Cox mysteriously died three months after the children’s disappearance. After a six-week trial, Vallow was convicted on Friday (12 May) on all charges over the deaths of Tylee, JJ and Tammy. The verdict may mark the culmination of a chilling case that spans bizarre cult beliefs, missing children, murder and mystery deaths, but the saga is still far from over. Here’s what’s coming next in the shocking case: Sentencing Vallow is facing life in prison at her sentencing. The 49-year-old had been facing the death penalty before a last-minute ruling by the judge just weeks before the trial took it off the table. Judge Steven Boyce said that the sentencing will take place within the next 90 days. Chad Daybell’s trial Vallow’s lover, fellow cult leader and alleged accomplice Mr Daybell is yet to stand trial for the three murders of Tylee, JJ and Tammy. He is facing the same charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and grand theft in connection with the deaths of JJ and Tylee and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Tammy. Mr Daybell is also charged with an additional count of the first-degree murder of Tammy. Mr Daybell is facing the death penalty on the charges. The doomsday cult couple were due to stand trial together before the judge ruled in March – just weeks before the trial was due to begin – that the cases would be severed. While Vallow’s trial began as planned in early April, this pushed Mr Daybell’s case back to a later date. In a scheduling conference in early May, the court set a rough date of June 2024 for his trial. Vallow’s trial over fourth husband’s murder Separate to her trial in Idaho, Vallow is also awaiting trial in Arizona in connection to the murder of her fourth husband Charles Vallow. On 11 July 2019 – two months before JJ and Tylee were murdered – Vallow’s brother Alex Cox shot and killed Charles at her home in Chandler, Arizona. Charles and Vallow had been married since 2006 and had together adopted JJ – who was the biological grandson of Vallow’s sister. In early 2019, they became estranged with Charles filing for divorce, saying that he feared for the safety of himself and the children and that Ms Vallow had threatened to kill him. That February, he had pleaded with authorities to stage a mental health intervention for his wife, warning that she believed she was a god preparing for a second coming. Court documents reveal that he had also learned about Vallow’s relationship with Mr Daybell that June and had emailed Tammy with the information. He and one of Ms Vallow’s other brothers were planning an intervention over her cult beliefs at the time of his death – an intervention she is believed to have been tipped off about. That morning, Charles had gone to Vallow’s home to pick up JJ when he was shot dead by Cox. Cox initially claimed self-defence, saying that Charles attacked him with a baseball bat. However, Cox did not perform CPR on Vallow and waited 43 minutes to call 911. Investigators say that Charles was also already down on the ground when Cox shot him a second time. At the time, Charles’ death was ruled self-defence. Almost two years later, a Maricopa County grand jury charged Vallow with conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree. She is accused of conspiring with Cox to murder Charles. The Maricopa County Attorney’s office announced that it did not charge Mr Daybell over Charles’ murder – but only because there was “no reasonable likelihood of conviction”. Read More Lori Vallow trial – live: ‘Cult mom’ turns on Chad Daybell in closing argument as murder verdict looms Lori Vallow is facing life in prison for her children’s murders. We only know one side of the story Lori Vallow turns on ‘nutty’ Chad Daybell in final bid to avoid murder conviction

“Cult mom” Lori Vallow has been convicted of murdering her two youngest children and conspiring to murder her new husband Chad Daybell’s first wife in a shocking doomsday plot that has horrified the nation for the last three years. The 49-year-old mother-of-three was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft over the deaths of her daughter Tylee Ryan, 16, and son Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, in Ada County Court in Boise, Idaho, on Friday. She was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Mr Daybell’s first wife Tammy Daybell, 49. Dressed in a black suit, with her blonde hair down in waves around her shoulders, Vallow stood between her two attorneys as the verdict was read out. She showed no reaction as she learned that the jury had returned a verdict of guilty on all charges. JJ and Tylee vanished without a trace back in September 2019, with their mother refusing to reveal their whereabouts to both authorities and the children’s desperate family members. One month later, Tammy – an otherwise healthy 49-year-old – also died suddenly. Her death was initially ruled natural causes. This bizarre spate of disappearances and death came just months after Vallow’s fourth husband Charles Vallow was shot dead by Vallow’s brother Alex Cox in Arizona in July 2019. With Vallow’s children and both of their spouses then out of the way, she and Mr Daybell embarked on a new life together – flying to Hawaii to get married in a fairytale wedding on the beach. But, with months passing since the last signs of life of Vallow’s children, concerns continued to grow, prompting authorities to exhume Tammy’s body. A subsequent autopsy revealed that she had died by asphyxiation. In June 2020 – nine months after they were last seen alive – Tylee and JJ’s remains were found buried on the grounds of Mr Daybell’s property in Rexburg, Idaho. JJ, who had autism, had been smothered with a plastic bag taped over his face, his little body still dressed in a pair of red pyjamas. Tylee’s cause of death meanwhile has been impossible to establish as the teenager’s dismembered, charred bones and body parts were found scattered in the ground on Mr Daybell’s pet cemetery. Jurors in Ada County Court in Boise, Idaho, took almost seven hours to find Vallow guilty on all charges over the three murders after a grueling 27-day trial where the panel heard harrowing details about the doomsday mom’s path of deadly destruction and were shown graphic images of the murdered children’s remains. The state called over 60 witnesses to lay out its case that Vallow was motivated by both her doomsday cult beliefs but also lust for Mr Daybell and financial greed when she conspired with him and her brother Cox to kill the three victims. In a bombshell move – that may now have proven fatal – the defence shocked the court on Tuesday when Vallow’s attorneys announced that they would not present any defence case or call any witnesses, paving the way for closing arguments to begin earlier than anticipated. During closing arguments on Thursday, prosecutors argued that Ms Vallow had been driven by “money, power and sex” to kill the three victims. Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell met at a religious conference in October 2018 when they were both married and began an affair. As their romance grew, so too did their cult beliefs and conspiracy to kill. Jurors heard how the doomsday couple believed that they were on a religious mission to gather the 144,000 and that there was a “rating system of light and dark” for the spirits of the people around them. In the weeks and months before the murders, Ms Vallow allegedly told friends that JJ and Tylee had become “demons”. Prosecutors said that Ms Vallow used these beliefs to “justify” the murders of her children and love rival. The state argued that the murders were “premeditated” and “planned” – pointing to evidence including the stash of burner phones the three alleged accomplices had, Cox’s practice at a shooting range prior to a botched attempt on Tammy’s life and a deliberate plan for Ms Vallow to be in Hawaii at the time of Tammy’s murder. Days before each child was killed, Ms Vallow then allegedly altered their Social Security payments so that the money would be paid directly into her account. Prosecutor Rob Wood told jurors that Ms Vallow was the ringleader of the murderous plot, and that she “groomed” and “manipulated” both Mr Daybell and Cox to commit the murders. “They used religion as a tool to manipulate others. Lori manipulated Alex Cox through religion,” he said. “She manipulated Chad through emotional and sexual control.” Ms Vallow was the “one common thread” tying all the suspects and killings together, he said. Meanwhile, in the defence’s closing statement, Ms Vallow’s attorneys flipped the narrative, arguing that – instead of being the leader – Ms Vallow was the “follower” of her new lover Mr Daybell. In what marked the first time Ms Vallow has turned on her lover in the almost three years for the case to go to trial, her attorney Jim Archibald sought to paint her as a hardworking “good mom” whose life suddenly unraveled when she met Mr Daybell. “One year after meeting Chad, four people are dead,” said Mr Archibald. The defence attorney argued that Ms Vallow was “under the control” of the doomsday author, under the spell of the “craziness” of his cult beliefs. The defence attorney went on to blame the murders of Tylee and JJ squarely on Mr Daybell and Cox saying that there was no evidence placing Ms Vallow on the scene of the three murders or on Mr Daybell’s property when the children were buried there. Ultimately, the panel of 12 jurors disagreed and found the evidence showed, beyond reasonable doubt, that Vallow murdered her children and conspired to murder her love rival. Vallow’s alleged co-conspirators are yet to face justice over the killings. Mr Daybell was due to stand trial with Vallow but the cases were severed weeks before her day in court. He is now due to stand trial in 2024 over the three murders. Meanwhile, the third person accused by state prosecutors as a co-conspirator in the case won’t ever be have his day in court. On 11 December 2019 – hours after Tammy’s body was exhumed – Cox died suddenly at the age of 51. His death was also ruled natural causes, with indications of a blood clot wedged in the arteries of his lungs. However the overdose drug Narcan was also found in his system. Vallow’s own legal troubles are also far from over as she is still facing trial in Arizona on charges of conspiring with Cox to murder Charles Vallow. Read More Lori Vallow trial – live: ‘Cult mom’ refuses to give defence after court sees poolside video following murders Cult beliefs, hazmat suits and charred remains: Key revelations from Lori Vallow’s murder trial What we know about the Lori Vallow Daybell ‘doomsday cult’ murder trial