Lori Vallow’s web of lies: How she made out her kids were fine
On June 30, 2020, Lori Vallow was charged with two counts of conspiring to destroy or alter evidence in addition to the felony charges she is already facing for the disappearance of her children, JJ Vallow, and Tylee Ryan. Even more harrowing: the evidence she’s charged with tampering with are the remains of her children.
JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan’s remains were found on Lori Vallow’s husband, Chad Daybell’s property when police were conducting a warranted search on his property. A DNA test revealed who they were, leading to speculation that Lori Vallow murdered her children, or knew they had been killed.
Another part of the implication is that Lori Vallow had a history of lying to the police throughout the case. A mother whose children disappear is usually heartbroken and would do anything to get them back. Vallow instead lied to the police and insisted they were with friends or grandparents. Here’s all the lies she’s told.
Lori Vallow lied to JJ’s school
The first lie Lori Vallow told was to JJ’s school, claiming she was removing him to homeschool him. On September 24, 2019, she told the school JJ would no longer be in attendance. This set off some alarm bells, as JJ had special needs, including an autism diagnosis, and he needed the resources school provided.
Lori Vallow asked friends to lie for her
Lori Vallow asked a longtime friend of her and Chad Daybell, Melanie Gibb, to lie to police and say they were with their grandparents in Louisiana. Gibb wasn’t the only person who contributed to the lie. When police asked Vallow’s brother where Tylee and JJ were, he said they were with their grandparents.
The problem? JJ Vallow’s grandparents were the ones who ordered a welfare check done on their grandson. On November 26, police conducted that check, asking Lori Vallow’s brother, neighbors, and Chad Daybell about where her children were.
Chad Daybell lied to police about knowing Lori Vallow
When police conducted the welfare check on November 26, 2019, they visited Chad Daybell. He said that he and Lori Vallow didn’t know each other well. However, they were married in Hawaii a week or two before the check.
Lori Vallow lied to police twice
On the same day as the welfare check, police reached out to Lori Vallow. She told police that JJ was in Arizona with a friend, contradicting at least two of the stories police heard that day. When police asked her to call her friend to corroborate her story, Vallow claimed they were in a movie, so she could not reach them.
Lori Vallow’s lie is found out
On December 1, 2019, police contacted the friend in Arizona who Lori Vallow claimed JJ was staying with. Not only was JJ not in Arizona with the friend, but both Vallow and Chad Daybell called that friend separately asking her to lie to police about JJ’s whereabouts. At that point, both Vallow and Daybell flew to Hawaii.
Lori Vallow lied to people in Hawaii
The FBI and Idaho police declared JJ and Tylee missing on December 20, 2019. When Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow escaped to Hawaii, they told their new friends and neighbors that they were childless. It must have come as a shock to them when Vallow was served a court order on January 25, 2020, to produce her children in Idaho court.
Ignoring the court order
Lori Vallow completely ignored the court order, failing to appear with her children on January 25. Since this was a federal case now, investigators wasted no time serving her a search warrant the following day, looking for Tylee and JJ’s belongings. They found their birth certificates, JJ’s iPad, and Tylee’s credit card, but no sign of the children.
On February 20, Lori Vallow was arrested on two counts of child desertion, obstruction of justice, contempt of court, and criminal solicitation. The obstruction of justice charge was for her multiple lies to police during the investigation, and her attempts to cover up the disappearance. Criminal solicitation was for trying to get her friend to lie to police.
Melanie Gibb tells all
Melanie Gibb, the friend Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell contacted to lie about JJ’s whereabouts, told reporters that Vallow said she took JJ to her grandparents because he had cancer. Then, Vallow told Gibb that she took him to the airport and left him with his grandmother.
Gibb also revealed the erratic beliefs of Lori Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell. Vallow told Gibb one weekend that JJ had turned into a zombie and was possessed by a dark spirit. Vallow received that insight from Chad Daybell, who claims to be a doomsday prophet.
