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.
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?
Image: 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.
Image: 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.
Image: 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.”
Image: 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.
Image: 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.
Image: 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”.
Image: 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”.
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.
Image: 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.
Image: 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.
Donald Trump has announced he will impose a 30% tariff on imports from the European Union from 1 August.
The tariffs could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the US.
Mr Trump has also imposed a 30% tariff on goods from Mexico, according to a post from his Truth Social account.
Announcing the moves in separate letters on the account, the president said the US trade deficit was a national security threat.
In his letter to the EU, he wrote: “We have had years to discuss our trading relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, trade Deficits, engendered by your tariff, and non-Tariff, policies, and trade barriers.
“Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from reciprocal.”
In his letter to Mexico, Mr Trump said he did not think the country had done enough to stop the US from turning into a “narco-trafficking playground”.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said today that the EU could adopt “proportionate countermeasures” if the US proceeds with imposing the 30% tariff.
Ms von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive arm, said in a statement that the bloc remained ready “to continue working towards an agreement by Aug 1”.
“Few economies in the world match the European Union’s level of openness and adherence to fair trading practices,” she continued.
“We will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required.”
Ms von der Leyen has also said imposing tariffs on EU exports would “disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains”.
Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on the X social media platform that Mr Trump’s announcement was “very concerning and not the way forward”.
He added: “The European Commission can count on our full support. As the EU we must remain united and resolute in pursuing an outcome with the United States that is mutually beneficial.”
Mexico’s economy ministry said a bilateral working group aims to reach an alternative to the 30% US tariffs before they are due to take effect.
The country was informed by the US that it would receive a letter about the tariffs, the ministry’s statement said, adding that Mexico was negotiating.
The US imposed a 20% tariff on imported goods from the EU in April but it was later paused and the bloc has since been paying a baseline tariff of 10% on goods it exports to the US.
In May, while the US and EU where holding trade negotiations, Mr Trump threated to impose a 50% tariff on the bloc as talks didn’t progress as he would have liked.
However, he later announced he was delaying the imposition of that tariff while negotiations over a trade deal took place.
As of earlier this week, the EU’s executive commission, which handles trade issues for the bloc’s 27-member nations, said its leaders were still hoping to strike a trade deal with the Trump administration.
Without one, the EU said it was prepared to retaliate with tariffs on hundreds of American products, ranging from beef and auto parts to beer and Boeing airplanes.
Donald Trump has said he plans to hit Canada with a 35% tariff on imported goods, as he warned of a blanket 15 or 20% hike for most other countries.
In a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the US president wrote: “I must mention that the flow of Fentanyl is hardly the only challenge we have with Canada, which has many Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers.”
Mr Trump’s tariffs were allegedly an effort to get Canada to crack down on fentanyl smuggling, and the US president has expressed frustration with Canada’s trade deficit with the US.
In a statement Mr Carney said: “Throughout the current trade negotiations with the United States, the Canadian government has steadfastly defended our workers and businesses. We will continue to do so as we work towards the revised deadline of August 1.”
He added: “Canada has made vital progress to stop the scourge of fentanyl in North America. We are committed to continuing to work with the United States to save lives and protect communities in both our countries.”
The higher rates would go into effect on 1 August.
Shortly after Mr Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs on 2 April, there was a huge sell-off on the financial markets. The US president later announced a 90-day negotiating period, during which a 10% baseline tariff would be charged on most imported goods.
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“We’re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay, whether it’s 20% or 15%. We’ll work that out now,” he said.
He added: “I think the tariffs have been very well-received. The stock market hit a new high today.”
The US and UK signed a trade deal in June, with the US president calling it “a fair deal for both” and saying it will “produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income”.
Sir Keir Starmer said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, adding: “So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength.”
It comes as Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said a new round of talks between Moscow and Washington on bilateral problems could take place before the end of the summer.
A Palestinian activist who was detained for over three months in a US immigration jail after protesting against Israel is suing Donald Trump’s administration for $20m (£15m) in damages.
Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil have filed a claim against the administration alleging he was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite as the government sought to deport him over his role in campus protests.
He described “plain-clothed agents and unmarked cars” taking him “from one place to another, expecting you just to follow orders and shackled all the time”, which he said was “really scary”.
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Mahmoud Khalil reunites with family after release
Mr Khalil said he was not presented with an arrest warrant and wasn’t told where he was being taken.
He said the detention centre he was taken to was “as far from humane as it could be” and “a place where you have no rights whatsoever”.
“You share a dorm with over 70 men with no privacy, with lights on all the time, with really terrible food. You’re basically being dehumanised at every opportunity. It’s a black hole,” he added.
Mr Khalil said he would also accept an official apology from the Trump administration.
The Trump administration celebrated Mr Khalil’s arrest, promising to deport him and others whose protests against Israel it declared were “pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity”.
Mr Khalil said after around 36 hours in captivity he was allowed to speak to his wife, who was pregnant at the time.
“These were very scary hours, I did not know what was happening on the outside. I did not know that my wife was safe,” he said.
Mr Khalil said administration officials had made “absolutely absurd allegations” by saying he as involved in antisemitic activities and supporting Hamas.
“They are weaponising antisemitism, weaponising anti-terrorism in order to stifle speech,” he said. “What I was engaged in is simply opposing a genocide, opposing war crimes, opposing Columbia University’s complicity in the war on Gaza.”
A State Department spokesperson said its actions toward Mr Khalil were fully supported by the law.
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Asked about missing the birth of his son while he was in prison, Mr Khalil said: “I don’t think there’s any word that can describe the agony and the sadness that I went through, to be deprived from such a divine moment, from a moment that my wife and I had always dreamed about.”
Meanwhile, the deportation case against Mr Khalil is continuing to wind its way through the immigration court system.