Sex, money and dark spirits: Inside the doomsday murders trial that gripped millions
Self-styled prophet Chad Daybell told the world the apocalypse was coming and spoke of dark spirits, but prosecutors say he lusted for sex, money and power.
Now the former gravedigger has been sentenced to death after being convicted of triple murder. A jury in Idaho unanimously agreed on Saturday that imposing the death penalty would be a just resolution to the case.
In 2017, Daybell wrote in his book that doomsday, in the shape of a huge earthquake, was coming. Two years later, five people in his life were dead, including two children.
Over the course of two murder trials, a web of lies and dark beliefs surrounding Daybell and his lover Lori Vallow has been revealed. Both have now been found guilty of murdering two of Vallow’s children, and Daybell was also convicted of murdering his first wife, Tammy.
Vallow, who is now his second wife, is already serving life in prison.
Daybell and Vallow identified anyone who stood in their way as “dark spirits” or “zombies”, an alternative reality that gave them pretext to remove them, prosecutors said. His defence team painted a picture of a simple author seduced by a manipulative woman.
“When he had a chance at what he considered his rightful destiny, he made sure that no person and no law would stand in his way,” prosecutor Rob Wood told his trial.
What was it like for Daybell’s followers, surrounded by talk of zombies and spirits, and why did two children end up buried in his backyard?
Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow. Pic: KSLTV
Daybell and Vallow met at a religious conference in October 2018 in St George, a city in southern Utah surrounded by deep red rocks and distant mountains.
He was well known in the Mormon community as a publisher and author, whose books often featured themes of the apocalypse. Heavy set with brown hair, he was giving a talk at the event.
“Lori was being really flirtatious towards him,” her brother’s wife and a close friend Zulema Pastenes told Daybell’s murder trial years later. “She was really putting the moves on him.”
Vallow, a former Mrs Texas beauty pageant contestant with glossy blonde hair, clearly caught his eye. He giggled as they chatted, Zulema said.
Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell met at a conference. Pic: AP
Theirs was not a typical flirtation. He told her that he was the reincarnation of Saint James the Less, who some believe was Jesus’s brother, and told Vallow she had been his wife 2,000 years ago. She was captivated.
Daybell and Vallow were both married to other people when they met at the conference. Within a year, their spouses would be dead in mysterious circumstances.
It wasn’t long after that first meeting that their affair began.
Daybell called Vallow an “exalted goddess”, who had returned to Earth on a special mission, part of which involved being with him.
Daybell gathered followers who listened to his beliefs about dark spirits. Pic: AP
He claimed to receive information from the spirit world through a portal in his home, Zulema said. This portal supposedly told him that his wife Tammy was going to die soon.
Daybell and Vallow shopped for wedding rings while Tammy was still alive. She moved from her home in Arizona to Rexburg, Idaho, with her brother and children to be closer to Daybell.
Daybell would give talks to Vallow and her female friends – who called themselves the “Seven Gatherers” – and would speak of light and dark spirits. The group would communicate on an email chain and meet to conduct “castings”, where they would pray for evil spirits to leave people.
The pair preached that only through spiritual intervention, burning or even death could these dark spirits be cleansed, the prosecution said.
“[Daybell and Vallow] identified those who stood in the way of their dream… as dark spirits or even zombies,” prosecutor Rob Wood told the trial. “It dehumanised people who stood in their way and were labelled as obstacles.”
The search for Lori Vallow’s 16-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan and seven-year-old son Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow went on for months. Pic: AP
The first to die was Charles Vallow, Lori Vallow’s fourth husband, who was labelled as “dark” by Daybell. He was shot and killed in July 2019 by his wife’s brother Alex Cox, prosecutors said, though he was never convicted. Charles claimed his wife threatened to kill him and believed she was a god.
Two months after his death, two of Lori Vallow’s five children vanished. The disappearance of her 16-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan and seven-year-old son Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow sparked a months-long search and grabbed huge media attention across America.
Then Tammy Daybell was found dead on 19 October 2019. At the time it was put down to natural causes, but later examination revealed a cause of death of asphyxiation. Her life insurance was increased to more than $400,000 not long before she died.
Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow and Tylee Ryan. Pic: Fremont County Sheriff’s Office
Barely two weeks later, Daybell and Vallow got married and jetted off to Hawaii to celebrate their union. They laughed and danced on the beach. Neither ever contacted police regarding the missing children.
In December the same year, just as Tammy’s body was being exhumed by authorities who were questioning her cause of death, Vallow’s brother Alex Cox was found dead.
Strangers from around the world became transfixed by the search for JJ and Tylee, and the growing questions about Vallow and Daybell’s doomsday beliefs only made the story spread further.
Investigators looked for human remains at Chad Daybell’s residence in Salem, Idaho, in June 2020. Pic: AP
It wasn’t until June 2020 that police found the mutilated remains of the children at a property in rural Idaho that belonged to Daybell. JJ’s body was wrapped in rubbish bags, his arms bound in front of him with duct tape. Tylee’s remains were charred.
Daybell, now 55, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, insurance fraud and grand theft in connection with the deaths of his wife Tammy, JJ and Tylee.
Speaking at the start of the trial in April, prosecutor Rob Wood said Daybell crafted an alternate reality so he could fulfil “his desire for sex, money and power”.
The prosecution argued that Daybell’s beliefs of dark spirits and the apocalypse were an elaborate scheme to remove obstacles and cash in on life insurance.
He described Tammy as a “vivacious, healthy mother” who was “labelled as a dark spirit to be removed”.
The search for Tylee Ryan and Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow. Pic: KSLTV
Jurors heard grim testimony from police who described finding the children’s bodies in Daybell’s yard, and read dozens of phone records and messages between Daybell and Vallow.
The pair said JJ and Tylee were “zombies” and Daybell allegedly told her in one message that there “is a plan being orchestrated for the children”.
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Chad Daybell was arrested and charged
The prosecution said Vallow’s brother Cox was given a “blessing” by Daybell after they were killed. Daybell told Cox he had “assisted us in ways that can never be repaid” and earned a place in their exclusive religious group.
But in other text messages the pair discussed concerns that Cox could be the one to implicate them. Shortly before his death, as Tammy’s body was being exhumed, Cox voiced fears to his wife Zulema that he was going to be “Chad and Lori’s fall guy”, the prosecution said.
Daybell’s lawyer John Prior painted a picture of his client – who denies the killings – as simply a published author with mainstream religious beliefs.
He told jurors that Daybell’s books about the apocalypse were fiction, based on “premonitions” that he had. He would promote his books in order to make a living.
But Vallow was a different story, Prior argued.
Describing her as “very sexual” and “very manipulative”, he said she drew Daybell into an affair and that’s where things started going wrong.
Lori Vallow in a police photo. Pic: Reuters
Prior pointed the finger at Alex Cox, Vallow’s brother, who the court heard killed Vallow’s fourth husband Charles Vallow. “Whenever there was a problem or a threat to Lori Vallow, Alex Cox came to the rescue,” he said.
Cox died in December 2019, aged 51, apparently from natural causes. But the timing of his death – as authorities questioned what happened to Tammy – and the reported presence of the overdose drug Narcan in his system have fuelled speculation.
“Alex Cox is a murderer, and he is not shy about shooting people,” Prior said, noting that Cox had previously killed Charles Vallow and that the two kids were the only witnesses to that shooting.
Cox never faced any charges over any of the deaths.
Prior argued there was not enough evidence to tie Daybell to the deaths of Tammy and the children, or even to prove that Tammy had indeed been killed instead of dying from natural causes.
Daybell’s son Garth testified that his mother had been fatigued and sickly before she died.
Ultimately, the jury found Daybell guilty of the murders of JJ, Tylee and Tammy. Daybell was stoic as the verdicts were read out.
Chad Daybell seen in court during his trial. Pic: AP
In an autobiography published in 2017 – two years before JJ and Tylee went missing – Daybell wrote about his Mormon upbringing and his claimed brushes with death that he claims left him able to communicate with spirits and glimpse the future.
In one, he described jumping from a 60ft-high cliff into water, an experience he said left him “spiritually changed” having “glimpsed another dimension”.
His second alleged near-death experience apparently saw him hit by a giant wave and cut up on jagged rocks by the sea. He claimed to see a tunnel of light and be visited by the spirit of his grandfather.
From then on, he claimed, he could communicate with spirits and see glimpses of the future – including the apocalypse.
He spoke of “destruction and terror” in US cities as a foreign power invaded America, and an earthquake that would tear the land apart.
Cults expert speaks about the trial
Jackie Johnson is a social worker and cult expert who runs the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) which provides information and support for people affected by cults.
While not involved in the trial, she described how charismatic figures like Chad Daybell can draw people in by offering belief systems that resonate with people or offer comfort – to the point that nothing else matters.
Jackie said: “I wonder about Chad Daybell. Part of me perceives him as someone who was very purposeful, it gave him a lot of ego and strength.
“It’s hard to know if he really believes the things that he was teaching people… In any case, he was certainly able to sit back and watch all of the horrific things that happened.”
Convicted in May 2023, Vallow is already serving life in prison for the murders of her children, and conspiring to murder Tammy Daybell.
Before her sentencing, she addressed the court claiming that a near-death experience allowed her to communicate with the “spirit world”.
She told the judge that she knew “for a fact” that her children and Tammy were happy in heaven. She said Tylee and JJ have communicated with her that they are happy after their deaths.
In years to come, it may become known simply as Chequers ’25.
But today’s summit between Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump, at the prime minister’s country retreat, has the potential to be a landmark moment in UK-US history.
There’s plenty of scope for it to go horribly wrong, of course: over Jeffrey Epstein, Sir Keir’s pledge to recognise Palestine, the president’s lukewarm support for Ukraine, the Chagos Islands sell-off, or free speech.
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But on the other hand, it could be a triumph for the so-called “special relationship” – as well as relations between these two unlikely allies – with deals on trade and tariffs and an improbably blossoming bromance.
Either way, this Chequers summit – on the president’s historic second state visit to the UK – could turn out to be one of the most notable one-to-one meetings between PM and president in 20th and 21st century history.
Sir Keir and Mr Trump have already met several times, most recently at The Donald’s golf courses in Scotland in late July and, before that, memorably at the White House in February.
Donald Trump and Keir Starmer wave as they board Air Force One on a previous trip. Pic: AP
It was then that the PM theatrically pulled King Charles’s invitation for this week’s visit out of his inside pocket in a spectacular stunt surely masterminded by the “Prince of Darkness”, spin doctor-turned-ambassador (until last week, anyway) Peter Mandelson.
And over the years, there have been some remarkable and historic meetings and relationships, good and bad, between UK prime ministers and American presidents.
From Churchill and Roosevelt to Eden and Eisenhower, from Macmillan and JFK to Wilson and Johnson, from Thatcher and Reagan, to Blair and Bush, and from Cameron and Obama… to Starmer and Trump, perhaps?
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‘History’ that binds the UK and US
A brief history of relationships between PMs and presidents
Throughout UK-US history, there have been many examples of a good relationship and close bond between a Labour prime minister and a Republican president. And vice versa.
Also, it has not always been rosy between prime ministers and presidents of the two sister parties. There have been big fallings out: over Suez, Vietnam and the Caribbean island of Grenada.
Leading up to this Chequers summit, the omens have not been good.
First, the PM was forced to sack his vital link between Downing Street and the Oval Office, Lord Mandelson, over his friendship with Epstein.
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Trump meets Starmer: What can we expect?
Second, the president arrived in the UK to a barrage of criticism from London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, who accused him of doing more than anyone else to encourage the intolerant far right across the globe.
And third, in a video-link to the “Unite the Kingdom” march in London last weekend, one-time Trump ally Elon Musk called for a dissolution of parliament and a change of government and appeared to encourage violent protest.
Churchill and FDR
Churchill and FDR at the White House in 1941. Pic: AP
Back in the mid-20th century, the godfather of the “special relationship” was wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill, though it was 1946 before he first coined the phrase in a speech in the US, in which he also spoke of the “iron curtain”.
It was in 1941 that Churchill held one of the most significant meetings with a US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, at a Washington conference to plot the defeat of Germany after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour.
Churchill arrived in Washington in December after a rough 10-day voyage on a Royal Navy battleship and stayed three weeks, spending Christmas in the White House and on Boxing Day becoming the first UK PM to address Congress.
The close bond between Churchill and Roosevelt was described as a friendship that saved the world. It was even claimed one reason the pair got on famously was that they were both renowned cigar smokers.
Churchill and Truman
Churchill and Truman catch a train from Washington in 1946. Pic: AP
After the war ended, Churchill’s “special relationship” speech, describing the alliance between the UK and US, was delivered at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri in March 1946.
The speech was introduced by president Harry Truman, a Democrat, with whom Churchill had attended the Potsdam Conference in 1945 to negotiate the terms of ending the war.
These two were also close friends and would write handwritten letters to each other and address one another as Harry and Winston. Mr Truman was also the only US president to visit Churchill at Chartwell, his family home.
Eden and Eisenhower
Eden and Eisenhower shake hands at the conclusion of their three-day conference in 1956. Pic: AP
But the transatlantic cosiness came to an abrupt end in the 1950s, when Churchill’s Conservative successor Anthony Eden fell out badly with the Republican president Dwight Eisenhower over the Suez Crisis.
Mr Eden did visit Mr Eisenhower in Washington in January 1956, and the official record of the meeting describes the discussion as focussing on “policy differences and Cold War problems”.
Macmillan and JFK
Harold Macmillan and John F Kennedy at Andrews Air Force Base. Pic: AP
But in the early 1960s, a Conservative prime minister and a Democrat president with seemingly nothing in common, the stuffy and diffident Harold Macmillan, and the charismatic John F Kennedy, repaired the damage.
They were credited with rescuing the special relationship after the rupture of the Suez Crisis, at a time of high tensions around the world: the Berlin Wall, the Cuban missile crisis, and the threat of nuclear weapons.
The two leaders exchanged handwritten notes, as well as Christmas and birthday cards. The Macmillans visited the Kennedys twice at the White House, in 1961 and 1962 – the second described in the US as a “momentous” meeting on the Cuban crisis.
The relationship was abruptly cut short in 1963 by Supermac’s demise prompted by the Profumo scandal, and JFK’s assassination in Dallas. But after her husband’s death, Jacqueline Kennedy was said to have had a father-daughter relationship with Macmillan, who was said to have been enchanted with her.
Wilson and LBJ
Johnson meeting with Wilson. Pic: Glasshouse Images/Shutterstock
After JFK, the so-called special relationship cooled once again – and under a Labour prime minister and Democrat president – when Harold Wilson rejected pressure from Lyndon B Johnson to send British troops to Vietnam.
Mr Wilson became prime minister in 1964, just two months after LBJ sent US troops. His first overseas trip was to the White House, in December 1964, and the PM returned to tell his cabinet: “Lyndon Johnson is begging me even to send a bagpipe band to Vietnam.”
Thatcher and Reagan
Thatcher at Reagan’s 83rd birthday celebrations. Pic: Reuters
And even though Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were ideological soulmates, Thatcher was furious when she wasn’t consulted before the Americans invaded Grenada in 1983 to topple a Marxist regime.
Even worse, according to Mrs Thatcher’s allies, a year earlier, Reagan had stayed neutral during the Falklands War. Reagan said he couldn’t understand why two US allies were arguing over “that little ice-cold bunch of land down there”.
Thatcher and Reagan became firm friends. Pic: Reuters
But their relationship didn’t just survive, it flourished, including at one memorable visit to the presidential retreat at Camp David in 1984, where Reagan famously drove Mrs T around in a golf buggy.
They would also memorably dance together at White House balls.
Blair and Bush
Blair hosts Bush in Durham in 2003. Pic: PA
Camp David was also where, in 2001, Republican president George W Bush and Labour’s Sir Tony Blair embarked on the defining mission of his premiership: the Iraq War. It was to prove to be an historic encounter.
The war was the turning point of Sir Tony’s decade in Number 10. He was branded a liar over claims about Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction”, he was vilified by the Labour left, and it was the beginning of the end for him.
And to add to the suspicion among Sir Tony’s critics that he was Mr Bush’s poodle, in 2006 at a G8 summit in St Petersburg – that wouldn’t happen now – a rogue microphone picked up the president calling, “Yo, Blair! How are you doing?”
Cameron and Obama
Cameron and Obama serve food at a barbecue in the garden of 10 Downing Street. Pic: Reuters
Some years later, the Tory prime minister sometimes called the “heir to Blair”, David Cameron, bonded over burgers with the Democrat president Barack Obama, serving a BBQ lunch to military families in the Downing Street garden. They also played golf at the exclusive Grove resort in 2016.
They seemed unlikely allies: Obama, the first African-American president, and Cameron, the 19th old Etonian prime minister. It was claimed they had a “transatlantic bromance” in office. “Yes, he sometimes calls me bro,” Lord Cameron admitted.
But not everything went well.
The Tory PM persuaded Mr Obama to help the Remain campaign in the 2016 Brexit referendum, when he claimed the UK would be “at the back of the queue” on trade deals with the US, if it left the EU. It backfired, of course.
Now it’s Sir Keir Starmer’s turn to tread a delicate and potentially hazardous political tightrope as he entertains the latest – and most unconventional – US president.
The greatest dangers for Sir Keir will be a news conference in the afternoon, in the gardens, if the weather permits.
Good luck, as they say, with that.
Before then, there’s the potential for what the Americans call a “pool spray”, one of those impromptu, rambling and unpredictable Q&As we’ve seen so many times in the Oval Office.
For Sir Keir, what could possibly go wrong?
Chequers ’25 could be memorable and notable, like so many previous meetings between a PM and a president. But not necessarily for the right reasons for this UK prime minister.
US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has had his programme pulled over “offensive and insensitive” comments about Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel used his show on Monday night to accuse Donald Trump and his allies of “doing their best to fan the flames” following the conservative influencer’s assassination last week.
The comedian told his audience “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk”.
He added the president’s response to Mr Kirk’s death “is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend”.
Disney-owned ABC said it would be taken off-air indefinitely – and with immediate effect – after network operator Nexstar said it would stop broadcasting the programme.
Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said it “strongly objects” to Kimmel’s comments.
“Mr Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse,” he said, with the show to go off-air to “let cooler heads prevail”.
Mr Trump welcomed the news on Truth Social, writing “congratulations to ABC” and “Kimmel has ZERO talent”.
But Kimmel’s suspension has triggered outrage from Democrats like California Governor Gavin Newsom, who posted on X: “The @GOP [Republican Party] does not believe in free speech. They are censoring you in real time.”
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer called for people “across the political spectrum… to stop what’s happening to Jimmy Kimmel”.
What happened?
Kimmel called out what he believes is hypocrisy in how Republicans have responded to Mr Kirk’s death.
Mr Trump and Vice President JD Vance are among those to cite “left-wing extremism” as a factor in the killing.
In a separate Truth Social post in the early hours of Thursday, the president – who is in the UK for his state visit – announced the anti-fascist Antifa movement would be designated as a terrorist organisation.
Mr Kirk’s suspected killer, Tyler Robinson, appeared in court for the first time on Tuesday. Prosecutors said he had shared negative views about Mr Kirk, an influential media figure in the MAGA movement.
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The killing of Charlie Kirk
On the Monday edition of his show, Kimmel drew attention to Capitol rioters who “wanted to hang” Mr Trump’s first term vice president, Mike Pence, for certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
“Was that the liberal left? Or the toothless army who stormed the Capitol on January 6,” said Kimmel.
His remarks saw the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Trump backer Brendan Carr, threaten to “take action” against Disney and ABC.
A representative for Kimmel did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the cancellation.
Celebrities who have guested on his show joined Democrats in speaking out. Wanda Sykes accused Mr Trump of seeking to end freedom of speech, while Ben Stiller tweeted: “This isn’t right.”
The latest season of Jimmy Kimmel Live averaged 1.57 million viewers per episode, according to media research firm Nielsen – and the show’s YouTube channel has almost 21 million subscribers.
Kimmel follows in Colbert’s footsteps
The abrupt removal of Jimmy Kimmel Live comes after fellow late night host Stephen Colbert saw his programme cancelled, which fans claimed was a result of his criticism of Mr Trump.
Mr Trump presents himself as a staunch advocate of free speech, but regularly rails against media organisations which criticise him. This week he launched a lawsuit against The New York Times.
CBS announced in July it would end The Late Show when its current series ends next May.
In a statement, the network said the move was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Mr Trump praised the move, saying “his talent was even worse than his ratings”.
Colbert’s Late Show won an Emmy for outstanding talk series for the first time at the weekend.
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