She faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, but she escaped the death penalty, which the judge ruled out.
An American mother strongly involved in apocalyptic theories was convicted Friday of killing her two children and complicity in the murder of her new husband’s ex-wife, in a case that shook the United States and inspired a Netflix series.
And a court ruling was issued convicting Lori Vallow, in particular, of killing her 16-year-old daughter and her 7-year-old adopted son, whom she considered, according to investigators, to be zombies (the living dead).
Vallow, who believes in reincarnation, was being prosecuted by a judge in the state of Idaho in the northwest of the United States, accused of involvement in the three murders along with her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, author of books on esoteric theories.
The couple, members of a Mormon extremist group preparing for the end of the world, were also prosecuted for fraud because they continued to collect family benefits for the two children after they went missing.
Lori Vallow, who according to testimonies sees herself as the savior of humanity, has pleaded not guilty in the case.
She faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, but she escaped the death penalty, which the judge ruled out.
Her fifth and last husband, Chad Daybell, has not yet been tried and could face the death penalty in this state, where the punishment is still legal.
This case, which shook the state of Idaho and the entire United States, began in 2019 when the two children were reported missing by the grandfather of one of them, but without any communication from the mother.
-The investigation soon takes a horrific turn when the police notice a series of suspicious deaths among Lori Vallow and her new husband.
-In 2018, her third husband, the father of the murdered boy, reportedly died of a heart attack. And in 2019, her fourth husband, from whom she was in the process of divorcing, was shot and killed by Laurie Vallow’s brother, who cited self-defence.
The latter himself died shortly after, after he was found unconscious in his home.
Also in 2019, Chad Daybell’s ex-wife also died of “natural” causes.
Two weeks later, Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell left Idaho for Hawaii, where they were married.
In June 2020, the bodies of the two children, who were last seen alive in September 2019, more than nine months after they went missing, were found near Chad Daybell’s home in Rexburg, a small rural town in that state.
Lori Vallow, who was raised Mormon and radicalized over the years, believed she could communicate with angels.
In 2018, at a religious gathering in Utah (west), she met Chad Daybell, who was then the head of an extremist Mormon sect preparing for the end of the world.
This story inspired the Netflix documentary series “Sins of our mother”, which the platform launched last January.
