The latest in a long line of Netflix true-crime documentaries, Sins of Our Mother tells a darkly fascinating, chilling story.
The three-part documentary examines the case of a mother, Lori Vallow, who was dubbed as the ‘doomsday mom’ in the US media following a series of bizarre events involving death, religious fanaticism and a belief in zombies.
Directed by Skye Borgman (I Just Killed My Dad), the docuseries tells the story mainly through the eyes of Vallow’s surviving son, Colby Ryan. Vallow’s mother, Janis Cox, also features, explaining how she went from defending her daughter to believing those accusing her of wrongdoing “were right”.
In an interview with E! News, Borgman said: “Lori Vallow has many faces. That of a mother, sister, wife… and liar. I don’t know if we will ever know exactly what motivated Lori to commit such unspeakable crimes. But to formulate any answer we must look at Lori through the eyes of the people who knew her best.”
But who is Lori Vallow? Read on for everything you need to know.
Who are Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell?
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Vallow, born Lori Cox, grew up in San Bernardino, California, and married five times.
By the time she met her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, she had two children, Colby and Tylee Ryan, and had become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church. The pair adopted Charles’s grand-nephew, Joshua Jaxon JJ Vallow.
The documentary paints a picture of a seemingly perfect mother at this point, with her son Colby telling the camera: “We had a wonderful family before this happened.”
However, during her marriage to Charles, Vallow became entangled with a novelist and fellow Mormon Chad Daybell, who held fanatical, apocalyptic beliefs.
The pair met for the first time in 2018 and things quickly devolved from there. A few months later in 2019, Vallow grew noticeably distant from her family members and by the end of the year, only Vallow, Daybell and Colby Ryan were still alive.
A series of grim events led up to this point. In February 2019, Charles Vallow filed for divorce and an order of protection against his wife, who he claimed had threatened to murder him.
He was later killed by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, who claimed it was self-defence after Charles had attacked him.
And that was only the beginning. In September 2019, Lori’s children JJ (7) and Tylee Ryan (17) went missing and, the following month, Daybell’s wife Tammy died of “natural causes”, it was initially reported.
Two weeks later, Lori Vallow and Daybell fled to Hawaii, leading the authorities to suspect that Tammy may not have died in her sleep after all.
In 2019, Alex Cox was then found dead at his home in Arizona; he is believed to have died due to blood clots and high blood pressure.
It was in January 2020 that walls really started to close in on Vallow, as JJ’s grandmother requested a welfare check on her grandson.
Lori was ordered by the authorities to prove that her children were safe and was later arrested in February 2020. She was charged with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, as well as three misdemeanors: resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime, and contempt of court.
In June of that year, the bodies of JJ and Tylee were discovered by the authorities in a shallow grave in the Daybell family’s back garden.
Lori Vallow: Where is she now?
Following the discovery of human remains in their back garden, two of the charges against Lori – two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children – were dropped. She was then charged with obstruction or concealment of evidence in regards to her children’s remains.
Daybell was arrested and charged with felony murder.
The legal process is still ongoing, with Vallow and Daybell awaiting trial. In May last year, they were both charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, first-degree murder, and grand theft by deception for the deaths of Tylee, JJ, and Tammy.
At that time, Lori was declared mentally unfit to stand trial. Both Vallow and Daybell have pleaded not guilty, and their cases will be tried together in January 2023, by when it is hoped Vallow will be deemed competent.
Sins of Our Mother is available to watch on Netflix now. If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide. Check out our Documentaries hub for all the latest news.
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