Zulema Pastenes: Lori Vallow ex-sister-in-law gives speaks out after cult mom murders 2 adopted children
BOISE, IDAHO: In the chilling case of doomsday cult mom Lori Vallow, 49, her former sister-in-law Zulema Pastenes gave insights into her bizarre world filled with beliefs and creepy rituals and claimed her children were "possessed by evil spirits." Vallow is accused of murdering her adopted son Joshua "JJ" Vallow, her daughter Tylee Ryan in September 2019, and her fifth husband Chad Daybell's first wife, Tammy, in October 2019. She has pleaded not guilty in the high-profile, dramatic case spanning multiple murders and unexplained deaths.
Pastenes, who married Vallow's brother Alex Cox the month before he died in December 2019, testified on Friday, April 14, in Boise, Idaho, and said Cox "believed everything" Vallow and Daybell told him about possessed people and evil spirits. Pastenes also highlighted how Cox shot and killed Vallow's husband Charles Vallow in July 2019 and when confronted him, "if he was okay after he had just shot someone," thinking he might be struggling, he strangely replied, “Zulema, he was a zombie.”
RELATED ARTICLE
Lori Vallow's 'made up' disturbing beliefs and rituals
Pastenes and Vallow met in 2018, at the home of the latter's former best friend Melanie Gibb. The 49-year-old "was doing a testimony that she had visitations of angels and that she had visitations of the angel Moroni that she was giving her instructions and that she was a personal witness of Jesus Christ," which Pastenes described as "convincing" and "vivacious" and had a "very high spiritual standing." "If someone is telling the truth about that, I would not be questioning them. I would be believing they are telling the truth, because I would never think that someone would lie about something as sacred," she said.
During the testimony, jurors overlooked disturbing pages from Pastenes’ journal, where she detailed how Vallow claimed a "possessed" person could be dealt with. Pastenes wrote "dispel, burn, cast out" and "get rid of them" with "binding" another technique. The court also saw a hand-drawn diagram that illustrated how the spirit of a possessed person would remain in "limbo." Pastenes added, "Chad claimed he had been [the] heavenly father and Jesus and Holy Ghost. He would have been spiritually the highest of anybody… He had chosen [Lori] to be his wife and they had already been seven times before on this earth… That was his companion and therefore put her in the same spiritual standing."
However, when asked during the testimony, if she still believed in the legitimacy of the castings, Pastenes responded, "not anymore." "There are two children that died, a mother of five who died - I would consider that evil now." She added that initially, she believed they were "kind, loving, righteous and law-abiding." "I don't believe anything that they said... They made it all up. I just don't believe that Chad, Lori would have the authority to do that [castings], nor the right intentions."
'Lori Vallow's and Chad Daybell's first meeting'
Pastenes recalled Daybell and Vallow's first meeting at one of the events in 2018. She claimed the pair chatted at a book stand, where he was selling apocalyptic novels. "At first it was just regular talking and then it was obvious that Lori was very flirtatious towards him, very giggly and putting on the moves on him," the court heard. The mother of three claimed she felt like a "third wheel" between Daybell and Vallow because the pair were so flirtatious. Pastenes who used to work for Vallow said, Daybell would often give her insights into her past lives and say she was Vallow's daughter and died aged 14 after she was raped.
'Cult mom Lori Vallow's downfall'
Nevertheless, things began to take even darker turns when Vallow began to claim that Charles Vallow "had been possessed by a dark spirit or demon Garrett" around February 2019. "She expressed how different he was, he was acting different… He was a completely different person, he even looked like he was shorter," said Pastenes, as reported by Daily Mail. Vallow said the "evil spirit had been following him for a couple of years, so he could learn everything about him and now had possessed him." Vallow, Pastenes, and a group of girlfriends began to do castings to remove the demon from Charles.
"She said that we had to be holding hands and in a circle and each of the participants would have a different part to say or do in order to complete it," said Pastenes. Later, Vallow began to tell friends that "another, more powerful and more skillful demon" had taken over Charles, named Ned. Pastenes said, "After Ned was removed, an even more powerful demon has possessed Charles’ body… [The demon] had done the same thing for hundreds of years." Vallow then made similar claims about Chad Daybell's wife, Tammy, and said she had been passed by a demon named Viola.
She allegedly said, "That was the reason why Tammy had passed away because they were finally able to do a casting of a demon." Vallow gave bizarre theories about "things she needed to do to usher the second coming" and "cleanse the earth" adding that "Charles' death was part of the steps towards the second coming." Vallow also made similar claims about Jesus Christ visiting her before murdering her two children. Tylee and JJ were last seen alive in September 2019 before their bodies were found buried on Vallow’s new husband, Daybell’s property in June 2020.