Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison interviews murder convict Lori Vallow Daybell and here's a sneak peek

The infamous convicted murderer Lori Vallow Daybell gave her first television interview to Dateline correspondent, Keith Morrison. In 2019, along with Chad Daybell, Lori murdered two of her children, 16-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old son Joshua Jaxon, 'JJ' Vallow. She is currently in prison serving a life sentence. The two-hour episode on NBC's Dateline titled Lori Vallow Daybell - the Jailhouse Interview will air on March 7, 2025.

In the trailer, we get a sneak peek of the interview. Lori states,

'You’ve got a lot of stuff, Keith... but what I tell you will be the truth.'

In the Dateline episode, Morrison interviews her in the Arizona jail. Lori is confident that her husband and she will be exonerated from the case as Jesus has shown her the future. She said,

‘…We will both be exonerated in the future... I have seen things in the future that Jesus showed me when I was in heaven. And we were not in jail, and we were not in prison, and they were still in the future, from now.’

Lori has often been referred to as the ‘Doomsday mom’ by the media during the trial that shook the country. Lori murdered her children as she claimed they needed cleansing from evil spirits.

As per Oxygen, Morrison said about the harrowing case,

‘This story is as strange and disturbing as any we have ever told. The notorious case of Doomsday mom Lori Vallow Daybell, charged in the murders of her own children, Tylee and JJ, a family destroyed. A couple who decided to play God and their children paid the price.’

In the Dateline special, Morrison also interviews others related to the case including Lori’s eldest son Colby Ryan.

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When Lori met Chad Daybell

Lori lived with her fourth husband Charles Vallow in Arizona. Her eldest son, Colby Ryan, is from her second marriage, her second daughter, Tylee Ryan, from her third marriage. Lori and Charles adopted their son Joshua Jaxon 'JJ' Vallow, who was autistic.

Everything was fine until Lori got close to a fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She met author Chad Daybell at a spiritual conference. A married father of five, he frequently wrote about the end of times. Chad’s vision about the prophesied end of the world influenced Lori.

At the time of meeting, they were both married, and after going back to their respective homes, they stayed in contact. During their calls, Chad told her that her husband Charles was possessed by an evil spirit. In 2019, when Charles came back from his business trip, Lori did not allow him to enter the house. She called him ‘Nick Schneider’, an evil man.

As per the police bodycam footage obtained by ABC News, Charles said,

‘It’s the name she used. I don't know where it came from. I'm just like ... I'm as bewildered as you are…’

He said that Lori allegedly threatened him by saying,

‘”I will kill you because you're not Charles, and nobody will care.’”

In the video, Charles also told the police that during a phone call with Lori, she allegedly told him,

‘”Come take the kids. I don't care what happens to them…”… I don't know what she's going to do to them. I don't know if she's going to flee with them, if she's going to hurt them.’

According to the ABC report, Charles requested the police to do a welfare check at his home. Lori was later asked to receive a mental health evaluation. She in turn accused Charles of cheating. However, Lori managed to return to her regular life.

Charles Vallow was shot to death by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox in July 2019 in the course of a heated argument. Cox claimed the action as self-defence. Alex died in December 2019 of natural causes.

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Lori moves to Idaho and commits murder

Lori moved from Arizona to Rexburg, Idaho, in the summer of 2019 to be closer to Chad.

Lori’s two children, a 16-year-old daughter, Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old son Joshua Jaxon 'JJ' Vallow, disappeared in September 2019. According to an affidavit released by the Madison County Prosecuting Attorney, Tylee was last seen on September 8, 2019 during a family picnic to Yellowstone National Park. JJ was last seen in his elementary school on September 23, 2019, the day after which Lori informed the school that he will be home-schooled.

Melanie Gibb, Lori’s former best friend, recalled to Dateline about how Lori spoke of her son JJ,

‘She was planting ideas to show me that she believed he was a zombie, and to my mind, he looked like typical JJ to me.’

Later, Tammy Daybell, Chad’s wife, was found dead in her house. Two weeks after Tammy’s funeral, Chad and Lori got married in a private ceremony in Hawaii. While initially Tammy’s death was considered to be of natural causes, an autopsy showed that she had been asphyxiated. Bringing attention to the couple from the authorities.

As Lori continued to fumble about JJ’s whereabouts, JJ’s biological grandparents called on police. She told the police first that he was visiting a friend in Arizona, but later the police realized that it was a lie. They also discovered that Tylee was missing. A nationwide alert was issued immediately for the missing children.

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Lori and Chad get arrested

Lori was arrested in February 2020 in Hawaii. The investigators found the remains of the children buried in Chad’s property in Idaho in June 2020. Chad, who tried to flee the scene, was arrested.

As per NBC News, the prosecutors at the murder trial said in their opening statement that Lori and Chad had become obsessed with apocalyptic beliefs and referred to people as ‘zombies’ and ‘dark spirits’.

Lori was charged with two counts of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder in Tammy’s death, while Chad was charged with three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of his wife and Lori’s two children, and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder of all.

According to NPR, Lori read from a statement in the court,

‘I know for a fact that my children are happy and busy in the spirit world.’

In July of 2023, Lori was convicted of all charges. She was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In 2024, Chad was convicted of all charges and sentenced to death. He is currently appealing his verdict.

Dateline’s Lori Vallow Daybell, the Jailhouse interview, a 2-hour special episode will air on March 7 at 9 PM EST on NBC and will also be available to stream on Peacock the next day.

ALSO READ: Dateline: A Walk Through The Woods - Everything we know about the upcoming true-crime episode

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