Lori Vallow’s former husband said her affair with Chad Daybell ‘keeps killing me, maybe that’s your goal’ – just weeks before he was shot dead, her murder trial heard.
Charles Vallow, who was shot dead by his brother-in-law in July 2019, also said on the morning he was killed that his wife was ‘absolutely’ plotting something against him.
The eerie messages, which hint Charles knew he was in danger, were revealed in a tranche of bombshell emails and text messages shown to jurors on the fifth day of Vallow’s trial at Ada County Court in Boise, Idaho.
Vallow also sent messages to her eldest son in November 2019 which suggested her daughter, Tylee Ryan, 16, was still alive – even though she was allegedly murdered months earlier.
In another bizarre message, Daybell told Vallow he ‘felt like a grown-up version of Harry Potter’ in ‘his little space under the stairs’.
Vallow and Daybell allegedly murdered two of her children, Tylee and Joshua Jackson ‘JJ’ Vallow, seven, after claiming they were ‘dark’ and ‘working under the contract of Satan’. They are also accused of the murder of Tammy Daybell, 49.
Charles Vallow, left, was married to Lori Vallow – currently on trial for murdering her two children – before he was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox
Chad Daybell, 54, was due to stand trial alongside Vallow before their cases were separated by a judge
Daybell, who will stand trial at a later date, claimed the second coming of Christ was imminent and that he was ordered by God to lead 144,000 ‘chosen’ humans to the end times. Those who were possessed had to die, the couple claimed.
On Friday, prosecutors at Vallow’s murder trial explored the suspicious death of her husband Charles Vallow, who was shot dead by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, after threatening to expose her affair with Daybell.
As their affair blossomed, Vallow and Daybell spent months claiming Charles was possessed by evil spirits named ‘Ned’ and ‘Garrett’.
In a message to his wife on June 30, 2019, two weeks before his death, Charles wrote: ‘You accuse me of Infidelity [sic] but it’s you who has been having an affair. It just keeps killing me. Maybe that’s your goal.’
In other messages, he also threatened to tell Tammy Daybell about their relationship, going on to Tammy Daybell in an email ‘I have got definitive proof [of the affair] if you care to see it’, although it wasn’t clear whether she read the message. Vallow tells her husband that he is ‘ridiculous’ and ‘Tammy is my friend’.
In another message, he told Vallow he will take JJ to live with him and adds: ‘I will not let him be a part of your apostasy’.
On the morning of the shooting, on July 11, Charles received a message from Adam Cox – another brother of Vallow who was not part of the alleged plot – warning him that Vallow and Daybell are ‘planning something’. Charles Vallow replies ‘absolutely’ – before he was shot dead by Alex Cox minutes later.
Further messages also reveal Lori Vallow was devastated when she learned her husband had removed her as a beneficiary of his life insurance policy before he was killed.
She told Chad Daybell that ‘it’s like a spear through my heart’. Daybell says it is ‘terrible’ and gives the sick response: ‘It would be interesting if he got it changed after he had two bullets in his chest.’
Jurors were also shown an email from June 2019 that was discovered by Charles shortly before he was shot, which he believed was proof of Lori Vallow’s affair with Chad Daybell.
The email, which police later discovered was sent from an email linked to Lori Vallow, invited Chad Daybell to Arizona under the guise of becoming Charles’ ‘ghostwriter’.
The ‘false’ e-mail sent on June 28, 2019, saw Lori Vallow allegedly imitate a message from her husband to trick Tammy Daybell amid an ongoing affair
Charles was shot by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox (pictured), on July 11, 2019
Detective Nathan Duncan, a 19-year-veteran of the Chandler Police Department in Arizona, testified Thursday over the shooting of Charles Vallow
The last known photograph of Tylee, center, during a family trip to Yellowstone National Park with JJ, left, her uncle Alex Cox, right, and her mom Lori
The last picture of Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow, 7, before he vanished and was found dead in September 2019
Eyebrows were also raised in court as jurors heard a message from Daybell to Vallow on July 26 2019, which referenced the fictional plight of boy wizard Harry Potter.
‘Tonight I figured out who I feel like,’ Daybell wrote. ‘I’m a grown-up version of Harry Potter, who has to live with the Dudleys [sic] in his little space under the stairs. Every few weeks I get to escape and have amazing adventures with my Goddess lover, but then I have to return to my place under the stairs, feeling trapped. But I sense permanent freedom is coming! ????’
The messages were revealed during testimony by Detective Nathan Duncan, who led the investigation into the shooting of Charles Vallow. Duncan said the messages were found as the investigation gained momentum in January 2020 amid concerns for the missing children.
The detective also spoke about the initial investigation at Vallow’s home in Arizona, where her husband was fatally shot twice in the chest. Bodycam footage previously released by cops shows the aftermath of the July 2019 shooting.
He said Vallow was found face up on the wooden floor in the living room. There were mirrors on three sides of the room where Vallow was found, which Duncan said was ‘odd’.
Charles had ‘bleeding on the webbing of his left hand’ and ‘abrasions to his knees’. Detectives were surprised by the lack of blood, jurors heard.
‘Normally in a shooting case you will see much more blood than I have seen in this case,’ said Duncan.
A bullet was found lodged in a board on the wooden floor – suggesting Charles was shot while he was already down.
The messages also revealed Daybell described Charles Vallow’s death as a ‘relief’.
The key individuals in Lori Vallow’s tangled family tree, including her five husbands, two dead children and killer brother
The shooting of Charles Vallow is set for its own trial date in the future, but prosecutors are presenting evidence to the Lori Vallow’s murder trial jury as it was deemed relevant to her children’s deaths in Idaho.
Charles Vallow’s shooting at the hands of Alex Cox, who also flew wholesale into Daybell’s ideological beliefs, has fueled speculation over a plot to target specific individuals under the guise of religious fanaticism.
This was alluded to Thursday during Vallow’s murder trial, when her former best friend Melanie Gibb testified that the couple would dub someone ‘dark’ or a ‘zombie’ if they disapproved of their actions.
‘The pattern was as soon as they started questioning or just thought something suspicious was going on, all of a sudden that person became dark or a zombie,’ she said.
She said that ‘most of’ the people who were deemed zombies ended up ‘gone’.
Earlier this week Detective Ray Hermosillo gave harrowing testimony as he detailed the gruesome discovery of JJ and Tylee’s bodies in Daybell’s backyard in June 2020.
JJ was wrapped in a bag and heavily bound by duct tape – with ‘a thick layer across his mouth from jawline to jawline.’ He was wearing red pajamas, a pull-up night diaper and covered in a blue child’s blanket – and was said to have visible bruises across his body.
Tylee’s body had been so badly damaged that the coroner was unable to perform an autopsy, with Detective Hermosillo giving horrifying testimony stating that all that was left was ‘blobs of flesh that were falling apart’.