'Cult Mom' Lori Vallow found competent to stand trial for killing her own children for being 'zombies'
IDAHO COUNTY, IDAHO: A judge in Idaho ruled on Wednesday, November 16 that "cult mom" Lori Vallow Daybell is competent to stand trial after a 10-month evaluation in a mental health facility. District Judge Steven Boyce previously stated in a letter dated October 6 that the case was "suspended until a determination of Mrs Daybell's competency to stand trial."
Daybell was previously found incompetent to stand trial in June 2021, and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare took care of her for ten months. Vallow, 48, was arrested in February 2020 for the deaths of her daughters Tylee Ryan and Joshua "JJ" Vallow in September 2019. Her husband Chad Daybell, who will also go on trial for the children's killings, was also arrested with her. The bodies of Tylee and JJ were discovered in June 2020 at Chad's farm in Idaho. It had been Vallow's fixation that her children were possessed, had turned into zombies, and had to be killed in order to be "freed." Chad and Vallow are accused of killing their two children as well as Tammy, Chad's ex-wife. They have entered a plea of not guilty and could receive the death penalty. Judge Boyce banned cameras from the courtroom in September because he thought the pictures may hinder a fair trial.
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Meanwhile, a judge denied a request from Chad’s attorney to sever his murder trial from his wife’s. The ruling set the stage for the two to be tried simultaneously next year.
In November 2019, when her two youngest children, Ryan, 16, and JJ, 7, were reported missing by extended family members, Idaho law enforcement officials began looking into Vallow and Chad, Vallow's fifth husband. Authorities eventually discovered the children's bodies buried on Chad's ranch in a remote area of Idaho.
In the days leading up to Ryan's 17th birthday, on September 8, 2019, she disappeared. Investigators claim that her body was burned and ripped apart before being buried the next day. On September 23, exactly two weeks later, JJ disappeared. Detectives claim that JJ's body was wrapped in plastic and duct tape and buried that same day.
Prosecutors assert that the couple developed strange religious beliefs in order to advance the suspected murder schemes. In divorce papers, Vallow's late ex-husband, who passed away while the two were still separating, claimed that she thought herself to be a god in charge of bringing about the end of the world.
On the other hand, Chad produced podcasts about surviving the end of the world and created fiction books with a doomsday theme. Law enforcement officers were informed by the couple's friends that they believed in the possession of people by evil spirits and that Vallow referred to her children as "zombies," a term they used to describe those who were possessed.