‘Doomsday cult’ mum found guilty of murdering two of her kids sends eerie message to son from behind bars
The mum who was found guilty of murdering two of her children has sent an eerie message to her surviving son from behind bars.
Lori Vallow Daybell, the doomsday zombie cult mum, was convicted in 2023 for the murders of her two children - seven-year-old Joshua 'J.J.' Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan - in 2019.
She was also convicted for conspiring to kill her husband Chad Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell.
Lori was given multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.
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The former Arizona resident was in her fourth marriage to Charles Vallow when he was shot dead in July 2019, the same year he filed for divorce.
Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, pulled the trigger but was never charged after dying of natural causes in December of that year.
And just two months ago, Lori was sentenced to two more life sentences after plotting to kill Charles and ex-nephew Brandon Boudreaux. She gave a chilling statement in court.
After Charles' death, Lori moved with her children to Idaho, where she married Chad Daybell, a doomsday author who has written books loosely based on Mormon religious teachings.
Chad is awaiting a death sentence in Idaho for the murders of the two children and his wife from the time when his affair began with Lori.
The murders were committed as part of the couple's belief that people in their lives had come to be possessed by evil spirits.
"[T]he term 'zombie' refers to an individual whose mortal spirit has left their body and that their body is now the host of another spirit," Rexburg Police Department Lt. Ron Ball wrote in an affidavit obtained by People.
"The new spirit in a 'zombie' is always considered a 'dark spirit'."
It comes after Colby Ryan, the surviving child, appeared on a panel at CrimeCon 2025 in Denver over the weekend.
Host and journalist Nate Eaton said Colby's mother found out about the appearance and sent him a message to share with Colby.
"If you talk to Colby, please tell him that 'I love you very much, no matter what,'" the message read, "You can ask him about [Bible verse] Matthew 25."
Colby thought that the message was a sign of her trying to act 'godly'.
“It’s her trying to talk about the wicked and the good being sifted apart, basically. So it’s her way of trying to say she is still good and, basically, godly," he said, telling the audience that her message was a parable of 'the wheat and the tares, and the parable of the 10 virgins, I believe.'
People reports that when Colby was asked if he wanted to talk about his mother again, his response was, 'No'.
Anish Vij