The doomsday cult mom who allegedly killed her children out of religious fixation looked up the kids’ life insurance weeks before they vanished and searched for wedding dresses online the day her then-boyfriend’s wife was buried, law enforcement revealed in Idaho court this week.
Lori Vallow Daybell, 49 — who is on trial in Boise for the murders of her children Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and conspiring to kill her husband Chad Daybell’s first wife — had shocking internet history around the time of all three of their deaths, FBI analyst Nicole Heideman testified Monday.
Heideman said that someone using Vallow Daybell’s “lollytime4ever” Gmail account googled “gerber life insurance policy” and “life insurance for children – the Grow-Up Plan” in July 2019, the East Idaho News reported.
Gerber Life Insurance’s website lists the Grow-Up Plan as a children’s life insurance policy that builds cash value.
A few days later, the same Gmail account also looked up how to sell a service dog, Heideman said. J.J., who was on the autism spectrum, reportedly used a service dog.
Tylee and J.J. were last seen alive in September 2019, just weeks after both searches were made. Vallow Daybell never reported either child missing, and missed a court-ordered deadline to produce them safely on Jan. 30, 2020.
A few months later, in June, authorities uncovered Tylee and J.J. ‘s remains in Daybell’s backyard in Salem, Idaho. Earlier trial testimony revealed that Tylee had been dismembered and burned, while J.J. had been wrapped in plastic and duct tape, People reported.
During opening statements, prosecutors argued that Vallow Daybell killed both children in a fit of religious obsession fueled by a fixation on the second coming of Christ.
In addition to killing Tylee and J.J., prosecutors pointed to online activity that suggested Vallow Daybell conspired with her then-boyfriend, doomsday author Chad Daybell, to kill his first wife, Tammy.
According to the East Idaho News, Vallow Daybell — who at the time was married to her fourth husband, Charles Vallow — and Daybell met at a religious conference in Utah in 2018. Before they crossed paths, Vallow Daybell was said to be “obsessed” with Daybell’s books.
A few months after Vallow Daybell and Daybell met, Charles Vallow filed for divorce, citing his wife’s worsening state of religious delusion. On July 11, 2019, he was shot dead by Vallow Daybell’s brother.
Less than two weeks later, on July 22, Vallow Daybell and Daybell texted about “‘the plan’” and Kauai, Hawaii, where Vallow Daybell previously lived with her children, the East Idaho News said.
Rexburg Police Detective David Stubbs testified on Monday that Vallow Daybell’s Gmail account also looked up “malachite wedding rings” on Aug. 25 — over one month after Charles died, but while Daybell was still married to Tammy.
The same user ordered two malachite bands totaling $808, the outlet reported.
“We were thinking it was odd for [Vallow Daybell] to be looking at wedding rings at that time,” Stubbs noted.
Tammy Daybell, 49, was subsequently found dead in her and Daybell’s Salem home on Oct. 19. Ten days earlier, she called the police to report a masked assailant who attempted to shoot her with a paintball gun.
On Oct. 22, Vallow Daybell’s Gmail account logged searches for “wedding dresses” and “wedding dresses in Kauai.”
“What also caught my attention was this was being looked at on the same day as Tammy’s funeral,” Stubbs said of the search.
Although the coroner initially listed Tammy’s death as due to natural causes, a December 2019 autopsy determined that she died of asphyxiation, prosecutors said.
Vallow Daybell and Daybell were married on Kauai within a couple weeks of Tammy’s death, and were located by authorities at a luxury condo on the island on Jan. 25, 2020, Insider said. They were indicted for the murders of Tylee and J.J. in May 2021.
Because new DNA evidence was discovered too late to be admitted to evidence, Vallow Daybell is not facing the death penalty in the case. Daybell, 54, has been charged in connection with all three deaths and has pleaded not guilty. He will be tried at a later date.
