Prosecutors will seek death penalty for Lori Vallow if she is convicted

FREMONT COUNTY, Idaho (TCD) -- Prosecutors filed a motion this week to seek the death penalty for Lori Vallow if she is convicted of killing her children or her husband’s first wife.

Fremont County court records show attorneys filed the intent to seek death penalty Monday, May 2. According to the motion published by KUTV-TV, prosecutors wrote they will "seek the death penalty against Lori Norene Vallow, aka Lori Norene Daybell in the event of the Defendant’s conviction for any of the counts of First Degree Murder and/or any of the counts of Conspiracy to Commit First Degree Murder as charged in the Indictment."

The charges against her include the murder of her daughter Tylee Ryan for remuneration, murder of her son Joshua "J.J." Vallow for remuneration, and murder of her husband Chad Daybell’s wife Tammy Daybell for remuneration. Prosecutors noted that the three deaths were "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity."

KUTV reports prosecutors already said they would seek the death penalty against Daybell.

Tylee, 17, and J.J., 7, were reported missing to Rexburg Police in December 2019. Police attempted to conduct a welfare check Nov. 26, 2019, because family members had not spoken to J.J. since September 2019 and "were concerned."

Rexburg Police Department investigators spoke with Vallow and Daybell at the time and they said J.J. was staying with a family friend in Arizona. Investigators learned, however, that J.J. was not in Arizona.

When investigators returned the next day to conduct a search warrant, investigators "determined that Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell had abruptly vacated their residence and left Rexburg."

Neither Tylee nor J.J. had been in school since September 2019.

About a month prior, in October 2019, Daybell’s wife Tammy Daybell was found dead in her home. Her death was determined to be "suspicious." About two weeks after she was found, Daybell and Vallow got married in Hawaii.

On June 9, 2020, investigators served a search warrant at Daybell’s home and found "what appeared to be two sets of unidentified human remains." They were confirmed as J.J.’s and Tylee’s.

According to the Idaho State Journal, J.J. was found with his hands and legs tied with duct tape and a plastic bag over his head. Tylee, however, had reportedly been burned and dismembered. Tammy Daybell was reportedly suffocated to death.

After initially being declared unfit for trial in 2021, a judge declared on April 11 she was "fit to proceed" for her trial, the Idaho State Journal reports. She had been in custody of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare since June.

Vallow’s trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 11.

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