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A project with so much potential, a unified and successful team, but then chaos, missed deadlines, no communication, and a trail of digital tumbleweeds. This wasn't just any project failure, folks. This was the case of the collapsed collaboration. But there's a way to rewrite this story. Monday.com can illuminate any project, assign tasks, track progress, and share files and updates all in one place with no mysteries. Tap the banner to go to Monday.com.
Lori and Charles eventually left their Kauai paradise, packed up their life, headed back to the mainland, suburban Phoenix, Arizona, with their kids Tylee and JJ in tow.
April Raymond was sad when her friend Lori left Kauai, but she knew island life wasn't for everybody. And Kauai is a sleepy sort of place. Paradise, yes, but like a small town. It can be easy to feel trapped here. Island fever. Before you know it, you're talking to a volleyball.
Lori and the family had lasted four years, so yes, April was sad but not surprised when Lori left. They kept in touch, though. Talked on the phone like many long-distance besties. Worked on genealogy projects together. Mapped April's family history. Everything seemed normal. So April was surprised when one day in February of 2019, she got a most peculiar phone call from her friend Lori.
She had just landed on Kauai. She was leaving Charles, and she asked if she could stay with me. What did you think when you got that call? I thought they're having a fight. She's just, it's going to blow over. She just needs some time to have a break, a timeout, and she'll probably be on a plane within a week going back home. That's what I really thought.
But the Lori who appeared on April's doorstep did not seem like the same woman at all. Her bags were filled with papers and notebooks, and this was truly weird, multiple cell phones. Tylee was with her, making fun of the burner phones buzzing in her mom's bags. But no JJ. What was she like when she arrived? She was very different. She...
She seemed very disorganized and very, I don't know the right word to use. I think one of the words I heard you may have used at some point was manic. A little manic, yeah, definitely. And she was talking about...
All these events that had taken place before leading up to her arrival. And none of it made any sense. Like what? Saying that Charles had an affair and that she was leaving him. And she described all these fights that they had had and all the things that kind of went on. Did you also suspect the story about the affair? I didn't think it made any sense. When she was describing it, it just...
I didn't believe it. I felt like she believed it, but I just, it didn't make a sense. Didn't make any sense to me. April was friends with Lori's husband, Charles, too. And these stories just didn't sit right. Divorce happens. Marriages fall apart. But this felt like something much darker. Lori was different. And her changed behavior came with a whole new set of religious beliefs.
You're very familiar with traditional LDS theology. Yes. It was very divergent. It was not even close. It was their own version of something. Like they'd come up with a new religion? It's what it felt like. What was the basis of it? The basis seemed to be preparing for the end.
Lori was changing. From the friend and all-star mom people once knew to someone who cared more about her new religious beliefs than her own kids. On this episode, we'll meet the man behind those beliefs. I saw him as the hand and her as the puppet on that hand. They were both like gasoline and fire. The question remains, where are those kids? This past year at Dateline, we've been investigating.
In this episode, the six-month search for two missing children will lead us to the fringes of religious belief, to conventions dedicated to the end of times, to disturbing events in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, and up through Utah to a town called Rexburg, Idaho, cozy under a blanket of snow. This story is about Lori Vallow, her two missing children, and the new love of her life.
You're listening to Dateline NBC's newest podcast, Mommy Doomsday. Lori had always believed in other spiritual worlds, even before she left Kauai. She shared her religious beliefs with her friend April back then. Like many in the LDS church, she had always talked about preparing for the end times, according to April. What degree of importance did this seem to play in her life?
To me, it just seemed like an escape. Like, it seemed, you know, how people are fascinated with a certain period in history, and so they read everything about the Civil War. But now, something quite new had happened to Lori Vallow. Suddenly, it seemed her beliefs were on a different plane entirely. It all started when Lori moved back to Arizona from Kauai. She met a new friend with similar interests.
Her name was Melanie Gibb. She had a lot of the same energy I did, enthusiasm for learning and excitement for the Second Coming. She seemed very similar to my enthusiasm for those kind of things. So like a really, you know, like a sister kind of a friend that you just meet suddenly and just like, this girl's a lot like me. Both were interested in end times theology. Both were mothers.
This friend Melanie played a big role in Lori's story and in her spiritual development because Melanie was part of a group of like-minded people. Soon after Lori and Melanie met, the group held a conference in St. George, Utah. Melanie invited Lori to come along. They drove the 400-plus miles from Phoenix.
If you don't believe in God, St. George is a place that could change your mind. The giant red sandstone cliffs look divinely designed. Ancient lava flows cover the rocks. At the conference, Laurie's friend, Melanie, ran into an acquaintance, Chad Daybell. Tall, heavier set, but an unassuming guy. Jolly cheeks to match his wholesome, leave-it-to-beaver style.
He's an author and publisher of Mormon End Times books. Titles including Day of Fury, Reclaiming Liberty, Martial Law, in which tribulations like earthquakes, bioterror attacks, and a black flu destroy communities and displace families before the Savior's second coming.
Starting in his late teens, Chad was a Mormon missionary. And while in college at BYU, he fell in love with his wife and his true love, Tammy. I mean, his marriage with Tammy was wonderful. I knew her before they got married. We were in a statistics class, the three of us. Yeah, she really...
Brought out the best in him. That's Chad's friend from his missionary days, Trent Price. The young men who served with Chad back then remembered a modest, caring, enthusiastic missionary, the best one among them. You know, what I really liked about Chad was he would write a personal note every once in a while, handwritten, and just say, here, thank you so much. I really appreciate you.
I'm learning so much from you. And it always touched me. By the time he emerged as a conference speaker these years later, Chad had written several novels, end times fiction. But his subject at these meetings was personal and dramatic. His near-death experiences and his predictions about when the world would end. It seems like I've been waiting for 20 years for something to happen. I write all these novels and people are like, when's it going to start, you know?
And all the while, his reputation from his missionary days held, according to Lori's friend, Melanie. He came across as a humble, soft-spoken, meek individual. He talked about his visions that he saw of the second coming and the tribulations that would accompany that. Okay. And a little bit about his life and his near-death experiences as well. That he somehow learned how to cross through the veil back again. In other words, see the beyond. Mm-hmm.
Lori was interested, very interested. She'd already read Chad's books, and when she met the man himself, said Melanie, the connection was almost immediate. She was sharing some of her personal experiences about her spiritual experiences and her spiritual beliefs. And it seemed to be something that drew them close. And then he started talking to her a little bit about the multiple lives idea. Multiple lives?
Yes. By the end of that weekend, Chad confided in Lori. He told her they had both lived multiple lives and had even been married to each other in previous lifetimes. Seven times. This might be the kind of thing that would have some women running for the hills. But Lori, she was leaning in. And it wasn't weird to her? No, she was actually intrigued by it.
She was very drawn to it in the beginning. I mean, well, all the time, but she caught right onto it. Was there some sort of, I don't know, attraction? You know, there's a pheromone thing or something happens between men and women and you can see... Right, right. Was it that too? She was attracted to him on a spiritual level. Okay. And that was her attraction to him. Supposing someone tells you you're destined for greatness, would you laugh it off, walk away?
But what if this person glows like an authority? What if he looks into your eyes and tells you you've been married together, beyond being human? If you're a true believer, you might stand a little straighter. Think about what your purpose is. What are you doing with your life, anyway? In this current life, Lori was still married to Charles, and Chad already had a wife, too, Tammy.
But that wouldn't keep Chad and Lori from getting to know each other spiritually. Got a hunch about this football season? Put it in play with FanDuel's easy-to-use app. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get 200 in bonus bets. Nothing can stop this team. Nothing! Sounds like someone's got an optimistic hunch.
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A project with so much potential, a unified and successful team, but then chaos, missed deadlines, no communication, and a trail of digital tumbleweeds. This wasn't just any project failure, folks. This was the case of the collapsed collaboration. But there's a way to rewrite this story. Monday.com can illuminate any project, assign tasks, track progress, and share files and updates all in one place with no mysteries. Tap the banner to go to Monday.com.
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A few weeks later, Chad was speaking at another conference, this time in Mesa, Arizona, practically Lori's backyard. Charles was out of town for work. So Lori had an event. So she had a really large house, and so she had several people come and spend the night that needed a place because of the event. So they weren't necessarily connected to her. But Chad was there, and he actually spent the night in the large house, and a few other people did come along.
- You too? - Yeah, I was there. - What was that like? - Well, everybody was kind of off talking on their own little parts, but at different points and different times, at one point Shad sat down with about, I don't know, like three or four of us, and he was telling us,
some of the deeper mysteries of God that we weren't familiar with. - Not your average sleepover pillow talk. - He seemed to share that openly with just those people that he was interested in talking to. He didn't share it with, I never see him spoke out loud about it, I'll just say that. Not to a group.
but to individuals. And he seemed to kind of draw people to him a little bit because he seemed to know things that most people never heard of before. - Like these multiple lives? - Yeah. He seemed to know characters that played out. You know, like, so for example, you have the Old Testaments, the prophets, and he seemed to know who they were in their multiple lives. He had this kind of information. - Had he had multiple lives? - Oh yeah. According to him, he did. - How many? - 31.
Yeah, so he was already at that level that he was already past exaltation in his mind. Others were not so lucky. Chad believed some people on Earth were light and some were dark with gradations along the way. The people that were dark were people that came from this planet, but they more were following Satan. So then he would identify them as dark because that's who they really followed.
And the people that were light are the ones that loved Jesus Christ and tended to walk that path. Where did he put you on that scale? Light. Light. Of course. Did he have a designation for you? Had you had other lives too? Yeah, but definitely not as many as they did. So I was definitely on the lower end. Yeah, I was kind of a newbie. Yeah. I thought it was unusual. Lori was near the lightest end of the scale, which meant she was sent from heaven.
Chad determined that Lori was an eternal being. How many lives had she supposedly had? 21. And just five on this planet. Both of them had five on this planet. Oh, wait a minute. Just on this planet. Where were the other ones? Other Earths that were located in the universe.
And suddenly the chaotic, sometimes messy events of Laurie's life shrank to a mere blip in an eternal saga of grand significance and purpose, all revealed by this sweet, attentive, important man. He seemed to have a great respect for women. He seemed to hone in on that idea that women were really powerful. And so I think that was pleasing to Laurie, you know, to hear how he felt about women and
He seemed to be convinced that she was a very powerful woman. And because each of them was so powerful, their connection would surely be the start of something big. Chad didn't seem intimidated by Lori's beauty. He praised her spiritual gifts. And for Lori, that attention, that higher purpose, drew her in. Who doesn't want something big to believe in?
According to Chad, their relationship was written into scripture, foretold. It was something no one had ever seen before. Chad had this idea that him and Lori, once he met her, that they were part, they were the head of this group called the 144,000. It is a scriptural term, but they deemed it and they made it to be like they were in charge of this group and they would find couples or people that would be able to fulfill this calling.
as the days and the tribulations came upon the world. Couples. Couples or individuals, but I think eventually into the idea of being couples. So what would they be? The leaders? The king and queen or something? The leaders, yeah. The king and queen? Well, you can guess what happened next. Did you see evidence that she and Chad were falling in love?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, so that was pretty obvious. Through discussion and through some observation, but mostly through discussion. As Lori and Chad became closer, more connected spiritually, everyone in the group would get closer to salvation. They said that different earthquakes were going to happen, different invasions were going to happen to the country, and...
In that process, they felt that Rexburg was going to be a place that this 144,000, and I heard Chad say that himself. He said, you know, the people of 144,000 are going to move here in like a community of houses or whatever, something like that. And that's where their headquarters would be. He felt that that was the headquarters. Rexburg, Idaho. Current population 29,000. About 30 miles northeast of Idaho Falls. Quiet here.
Conservative? A bastion of traditional values. A gleaming LDS temple shoots its spire to heaven and looks out over the town below. It's a place whose motto says it all. America's family community. Chad lived close by with his wife, Tammy. So did their grown children. And eventually, according to Chad's vision, the 144,000.
I mean, I'm thinking in my mind, they live in a castle on the hill. Well, they didn't think that they would be to the level that other people would be at. So they figured that most people's would end up in tents and things of that nature. But they're like, we don't like to camp. So we're never going to be in the tents, Melanie. You know, we're going to be in a different place. I don't know. I thought that was interesting. They're both on a higher level spiritually. They climb.
But where would Tammy sleep? And what about Charles? Lori and Chad hadn't reserved tents for their spouses. Charles' sister Kay and her husband Larry Woodcock could have seen that coming. Did see it coming, in fact. A full year before Lori met Chad.
That's when Charles and Kay's mother passed away, Miss Tilly, a beloved matriarch. It was a sad day for all of them. The family gathered for the funeral in Louisiana.
But Lori was nowhere to be found. When you start changing a relationship where one of the spouses no longer wants to be there and interface and visit with other people, there's an issue. I mean, that is, that's 101. I could see there was a change going on. Charles must have been hurting attending his mother's funeral without his partner by his side.
But he didn't want to see the writing on the wall. He kept trying to make Laurie happy. In every house they lived in, he ensured she always had a dancing room. No furniture, just an empty room. We're told Laurie liked to dance to Christian music and 80s love songs. And as her religious fervor grew, she began spending more and more time there. And it was a large room, and Laurie had...
put mirrors along the whole, you know, through the whole room. And she would, he told me she has gotten into where she dances two or three hours every night and she'll record herself dancing. Charles told his sister Kay that Lori was emailing those videos to someone, a man named Chad Daybell. I said, Charles, okay.
If you had any, if she hasn't had an affair, she is about to. I'm telling you now that she is in an affair and she's with this man and that's what all this is about. And then Lori disappeared for almost two months. Every day he texts her, sent her pictures of JJ. She never called, emailed, text, nothing. Nothing. No, just silence for 58 days.
We know, of course, as Charles did not back then, that Lori took Tylee and flew straight to April's doorstep on Kauai. Got a hunch about this football season? Put it in play with FanDuel's easy-to-use app. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets. Nothing can stop this team. Nothing! Sounds like someone's got an optimistic hunch.
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A project with so much potential. A unified and successful team. But then, chaos. Missed deadlines. No communication. And a trail of digital tumbleweeds. This wasn't just any project failure, folks. This was the case of the collapsed collaboration. But there's a way to rewrite this story. Monday.com can illuminate any project, assign tasks, track progress, and share files and updates. All in one place, with no mysteries. Tap the banner to go to Monday.com.
But Laurie's unexpected visit was about more than getting space from Charles. She was there to gather April, to be part of this group of 144,000 ordained to go to heaven. And she had just pages and pages of doctrine and lists of, you know, categories that people belonged in. And in fact, my name was on one of the lists, but it was interesting because it was a
printed out list like it had been printed on a computer but someone's name had been crossed out and mine had been handwritten in. Lori was like a manic Santa Claus armed with a list of good people to save and naughty people asked redemption. And she was talking about different celebrities and their lightness and their darkness and she
was really anxious to tell me who the darkest spirit on the planet was. And she said it was Oprah Winfrey. I just was just waiting for the conversation to end. I mean, it started out kind of feeling harmless. And then as it progressed, it was just, it was obvious to me something was wrong with her thinking. The offer of eternal salvation wasn't appealing for April. Not that way, anyway.
"'And who wants to be saved if Oprah can't join?' April turned her friend down. Lori left abruptly and flew back to the house she shared with Charles. She had been gone for two months, and Charles had no idea where she was. In fact, he cried when Lori walked through the door. And all was forgiven. She was back. He put his heart on the line. It was all that mattered to Charles."
The writing was on the wall. The writing was there. And he loved Laurie as probably few men have ever loved a woman. He loved her to death. Yeah, his death. Literally. Pretty soon, Charles would be suffering from much more than a broken heart. 911, where is your emergency? July 11th, 2019.
Lori Vallow's brother, Alex Cox, was on the phone to 911. Alex had just shot his brother-in-law, Charles Vallow.
And listen to how calm he was, as if Alex was on the phone with the cable company. Okay, what part of his body is injured? In the chest. I'm sorry, where? In the chest. Okay, is he awake and responsive or unconscious? Unconscious. Is he breathing? I can't tell. Are you willing to go over to him and check? Sure. Sure, like he's checking to make sure the little light on the cable box was on. It's not moving.
It wasn't long before the cops arrived. Police guided Alex out of the house. Sat him down on the curb outside. Alex was calm, cooperative. Matter of fact...
As inside the house, his brother-in-law died on the living room floor. So, what happened? Well, Alex had a story for the police. He told them Charles had come to pick up JJ that morning, take him to school, but flew into a rage at Lori. And then Tylee went and got a baseball bat to defend her mom, and Charles took it away from her and got all threatening.
So Lori and Tylee got out of there. Very scary. Alex had never seen his brother-in-law like that before. You can hear Alex on the police body cam recording. He's coming back at me, and he's still got the bat in his alley. What are you doing? Alex claimed Charles hit him in the back of the head. So when that happened, he said he went back to his bedroom where he...
at a .45 caliber handgun. Big one. Okay, and you brought a gun with you? Yes. Do you always bring a gun? I have a concealed carry. Okay. Okay, why didn't you stay just in your bedroom and close the door? Is that something you didn't think about? No,
Didn't think about staying in his room or just leaving or calling the police. Just, you know, took out the gun. Okay, so walk me through it. So you go back into your room. I just went back to the living room. I'm like, what is your problem? With the gun in your hand. Yes. And I said, don't want you to put that bat down. He wouldn't do it. And he came at me with the bat again after he'd already hit me in the head. So I shot him to stop him. Okay, and then what happened? That was it. Okay. Okay.
Alex had a small cut on the back of his head, and he kept dabbing throughout the police interview. It really wasn't very much. If Charles had hit Alex with a baseball bat, it wasn't very hard. And that was weird because Charles was a powerful man. Six foot two, 220 pounds, not an ounce of fat. And he'd once played semi-pro baseball. If he had wanted to take a swing at Alex, he could have done a lot of damage.
When detectives Nathan Moffat and Cassandra Inklan arrived, they encountered a virtually empty living room, Charles' body on the floor. You know, the crime scene was, she just, Laurie and Tylee had just moved into the house.
a couple weeks prior. It was sparsely furnished. The Lori apparently, according to friends and family I've found out since then, always liked to have a room to dance in. So she had the main living room where this homicide occurred had no furnishing in it whatsoever.
So... A lot to begin with. Yeah, you know, I don't know. I wouldn't have a dance room, but, you know, I guess she did. So there was no furniture in there. So we essentially had Charles deceased on the floor, the blood on the ground, a couple shell casings, and a bat on the ground. So it was, you know, at least preliminarily or initially, there was not a whole lot to examine or to look at there.
At this point, Lori and Tylee got back to the house. They'd been dropping JJ off at school. Was she aware of what had happened when she got there? She was. Who would have told her? She actually was present when all of this happened, and she left prior to the police getting there. And she admitted that straight out, did she? She did. That's next time on Mommy Doomsday.
Got a hunch about this football season? Put it in play with FanDuel's easy-to-use app. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get 200 in bonus bets. Nothing can stop this team. Nothing! Sounds like someone's got an optimistic hunch. 21 plus and present in Virginia. Must be first online real money wager. $5 deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at FanDuel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
