This story was originally published by East Idaho News.
Lori Vallow Daybell is still in love with her husband, believes the two will be exonerated, and says she did not know her children were buried on Chad Daybell’s property.
The convicted killer spoke with EastIdahoNews.com on her 52nd birthday during a 40-minute interview Thursday at the Estrella Jail in Maricopa County, Arizona. She railed against the legal system, argued the media has misrepresented her with a false narrative, and maintained her situation is a family tragedy, not a string of serious crimes.
Watch EastIdahoNews.com reporter Nate Eaton's full interview with Vallow:
“Everyone in the world knows I didn’t hurt anyone. I’ve never hurt anyone in my entire life,” Daybell said. “The only evidence that ever came out is the evidence the state wanted to put forth. They manipulate the evidence to make it look however they want, and guess who helps them? The media helps them.”
Daybell’s children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, were found in June 2020 buried on Chad Daybell’s Fremont County property. She was sentenced to life in prison in Idaho in 2023 for the murders, along with conspiracy to commit the murder of Chad’s former wife, Tammy Daybell. A separate jury found Chad guilty of the same crimes, and he was sentenced to death in 2024.
Lori Daybell was also found guilty in Arizona this year of conspiracy to commit the murders of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and her former nephew-in-law, Brandon Boudreaux. She will be sentenced for those crimes next month.
“In this unfair judicial system, anybody could be found guilty of anything,” Daybell told EastIdahoNews.com. “Be careful who you’re judging because anybody could end up in orange. You could be living your little life in the suburb bubble like I was and anybody could end up in orange because they could turn this on anybody.”
Daybell failed to give specific answers to questions about why she didn’t talk with the police when her children could not be found and hinted that Tylee may have accidentally killed JJ before taking her own life. Her version of events doesn’t match evidence presented in the Idaho trials that showed Tylee died weeks before JJ and was dismembered before being burned. JJ was found wrapped in tight plastic and duct tape.
Daybell said facts surrounding her children’s remains “are wrapped up around a whole lot of untruth,” and the evidence is part of a “fake narrative.”
When asked why Daybell didn’t tell anyone where her kids were until their remains were discovered, she responded, “It was very traumatic and I was not ready for any of that.” She claimed she did not know JJ and Tylee were buried on Chad’s property as her brother Alex Cox, who died in December 2019, “told me that he put them in a safe place.”
Daybell claimed she had not seen JJ and Tylee’s autopsy photos until her Idaho trial and said she had no control over her cases as a defendant, which is one of the reasons she decided to act as her own attorney in Arizona.
Before standing trial in Idaho, Daybell was deemed incompetent and committed to State Hospital North, where doctors diagnosed her with a delusional disorder marked by hyper-religiosity. After ten months, it was determined she was fit to stand trial. She was also found competent for trial in Arizona.
During her interview with EastIdahoNews.com, she repeatedly referred to her faith and said that in 2017, the Lord told her she would become like Job and lose everything. She said Jesus is her friend, speaks with her often and Daybell spends hours every day in her jail cell writing about her experiences that will one day be “real good scripture reading.”
“I know God put me here for a purpose. Miracles are on the way,” Daybell said. “The Lord is using Chad and I right now as instruments in his hands… He’s teaching people not to judge. Don’t judge something, you weren’t there, you don’t know what happened, don’t judge.”
Daybell is in maximum protective custody in the Estrella Jail. She spends 23 hours a day in her cell and is given one hour a day to shower, make phone calls, watch TV, or walk around a small outdoor space with high concrete walls and a covered roof. She has access to a tablet that allows her to watch movies, play games, or communicate via email through an app.
After she is sentenced on July 25, Daybell will be transferred back to the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center, where she will spend the rest of her life, another fact she disputes.
“That is not going to happen,” she said, referring to her belief she will be exonerated. “It is not going to be 20 or 30 years. I will testify to that right now.”
