Justice was served in guilty verdict for Lori Vallow Daybell | Opinion
Justice prevailed on Friday.
An Idaho jury unanimously found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty of the murders of her children, Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, grand theft, as well as conspiring to murder Tammy Daybell, the late wife of her husband and accused co-conspirator, Chad Daybell.
It will likely be months before a sentence is rendered.
In the meantime, we hope that those who survive the victims — their friends, family and neighbors who continue to mourn them — can take some solace in the jury’s decision.
It’s been nearly four years since JJ and Tylee were last seen alive. It will be three years on June 9 since police located the remains of JJ and Tylee on Chad Daybell’s property in Salem, in a rural part of eastern Idaho.
Family members have waited too long for answers. The trial hopefully answered many of their questions, but many others remain unresolved. Hopefully, the coming trial of Chad Daybell will offer more details.
Evidence in the case was shocking. Shortly before the murder of her two children, Lori Vallow Daybell texted Chad Daybell that she was “so tired of taking care of demons.” The web of cultish beliefs that precipitated the murders was bizarre and shocking.
At times, this led some to fixate on these bizarre and shocking details. And they are worth continued thorough investigation.
But what is most important at a time like this is that Idaho remembers those whose lives were taken — Tylee Ryan, JJ Vallow and Tammy Daybell. No verdict or sentence can return them to those who loved them or restore lives cruelly cut short.
Hopefully, the verdict brings their surviving family at least some measure of peace.
All of Idaho stands beside them today.
This story was originally published May 12, 2023 at 1:57 PM.
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