Lori Vallow Daybell grilled by ‘Dateline’s’ Keith Morrison: ‘Did you watch your kids die?’

In her first-ever media interview, Lori Vallow Daybell expressed no regret for the homicide of her kids and mentioned she feels “nice” performing as her personal lawyer within the upcoming trial over the deadly capturing of her estranged husband.

Throughout an typically combative 90-minute interview at an Arizona jail, Lori, 51, instructed “Dateline” that she was falsely accused and convicted within the 2019 murders of Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7; Tylee Ryan, 16; and her husband’s earlier spouse, Tammy Daybell, 49.

Lori mentioned that she and her husband, Chad Daybell, who was additionally convicted within the three murders, shall be exonerated as a result of Jesus confirmed her the long run they usually weren’t incarcerated.

“After I get exonerated, perhaps I’ll go on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and you may come,” she mentioned to NBC’s Keith Morrison.

For extra on the case, tune in to ‘Lori Vallow Daybell: The Jailhouse Interview’ on  ‘Dateline’ at 9 ET/8 CT tonight.

Chad, 56, self-published finish times-themed novels and claimed to have had near-death experiences that allowed him to see the previous and future and into the spirit world. 

Throughout his 2024 trial, prosecutors mentioned he labeled victims “darkish” or “zombies” earlier than they have been killed. 

Chad was sentenced to demise after his Might conviction in an Idaho courtroom on fees of homicide, conspiracy to commit first-degree homicide and insurance coverage fraud. Lori was convicted individually in 2023 of homicide within the deaths of her kids and conspiracy to commit homicide in Tammy’s killing. She was given a number of life sentences with out the potential for parole.

“Our theme was, ‘That is about cash, intercourse and energy,’” Madison County Prosecuting Legal professional Rob Wooden mentioned of prosecutors’ method in Daybells’ case. “There have been all these tangential non secular points, however it actually was about cash and intercourse and attempting to regulate individuals who have been in the best way that they known as obstacles.”

“They removed them, they usually profited from that,” Wooden instructed “Dateline.”

Investigators mentioned that they think Lori’s now-deceased brother, Alex Cox, doubtless killed Tylee, JJ and Tammy. They consider he tried to fatally shoot Brandon Boudreaux, the estranged husband of Lori’s niece, and he admitted killing Lori’s estranged husband, Charles Vallow, on July 11, 2019.

Cox described the capturing as an act of self-defense, in keeping with an interview he gave to police on the time. However to Doug Hart, a former FBI agent who investigated the killings, Cox was a “cold-blooded killer.”

“He was the one who was keen to do something for his sister and in the end something for Chad,” he instructed “Dateline.”

Within the months earlier than his demise, Charles filed for divorce from Lori and instructed authorities that he believed she may attempt to kill him. In keeping with physique digital camera video of the dialog he had with police in Gilbert, Arizona, he mentioned that his spouse had come to view herself as a “resurrected being” and a god.

“She mentioned, ‘You’re not Charles,’” he instructed police. “‘I don’t know who you might be or what you probably did with Charles … however I can homicide you now.’”

Lori met her new husband, Chad, at a spiritual convention in Utah in 2018 — a gathering she described to “Dateline” as “superb.” 

“I acknowledged him spiritually,” Lori mentioned. “And he acknowledged me spiritually, that we had identified one another for eternities.”

Days earlier than his killing, Charles found his spouse was having an affair with Chad and despatched an e mail to his spouse, Tammy, saying he had “disturbing info” about their respective spouses, regulation enforcement paperwork within the case present.

After her estranged husband’s deadly capturing, Lori contacted the corporate linked to his $1 million life insurance coverage coverage and discovered she was not the beneficiary, in keeping with a textual content message she despatched to Chad.

Within the message, which was launched as proof at Lori’s homicide trial, she appeared to seek advice from Charles as “Ned” and mentioned he’d most likely modified the coverage in March — “earlier than we removed him.” 

“It’s a spear via my coronary heart,” she mentioned, in keeping with the textual content.

Cox, Lori’s brother, died in December 2019 of what the Maricopa County Workplace of the Medical Examiner mentioned was a pulmonary embolism. In 2021, a grand jury indicted Lori on a cost of conspiracy to commit first-degree homicide in connection along with her estranged husband’s demise. 

That cost has since been upgraded to first-degree homicide.

Lori was additionally charged with conspiring to kill Boudreaux, her niece’s estranged husband who additionally lived within the Phoenix space, and shall be tried individually on that cost. She has pleaded not responsible in each circumstances.

In her interview with “Dateline,” Lori cited the upcoming trial and declined to debate the textual content message or different particulars associated to the upcoming circumstances.

“Did you watch your kids die?” Morrison requested at one level.

“That’s a extremely unhappy query,” she responded, including: “I used to be not there.”

Seven weeks after her estranged husband’s demise, Lori moved with JJ and Tylee from Arizona to an condo in Rexburg, Idaho, that was a brief drive from Chad’s rural property.

The kids vanished that September, and their stays have been discovered 9 months in a while Chad’s property. JJ had been buried in a pet cemetery, prosecutors mentioned at trial, whereas Tylee was dismembered and burned in a fireplace pit. 

In her interview, Lori denied that her new husband recognized the kids as “darkish,” saying that was “a story that you simply’ve been working.”

In an interview final 12 months along with her older son on “Scar Wars,” his podcast, Lori implied that her daughter might need killed her son by accident and, crammed with grief, then taken her personal life.

“It should be good and straightforward guilty my useless little sister for every thing,” the older sibling, Colby Ryan, instructed “Dateline.” “That’s all lies.” 

On Oct. 19, 2019 — weeks after the disappearance of JJ and Tylee — Chad and his son dialed 911 to report that that they had discovered his then-wife, Tammy, useless at their dwelling, a recording of the decision exhibits.

Tammy’s demise was initially attributed to pure causes, however investigators later exhumed her physique and carried out an post-mortem that discovered she died by asphyxiation. Chad and Lori married weeks after Tammy died and acquired a virtually half-million-dollar life insurance coverage payout linked to the demise, prosecutors mentioned at Lori’s trial. 

In her interview with “Dateline,” Lori asserted her innocence in Tammy’s demise, saying they “proved” in courtroom that she died of pure causes. 

Lori is now set to face trial in Charles’ killing. A choose dominated in December that she will act as her personal lawyer — a course of she described to “Dateline” as a “nice” however “tough factor to do.”

Jury choice is scheduled to start March 31. A trial date has not been set for Boudreaux’s case.