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‘Cult mom’ Lori Vallow Daybell was ruled fit to stand trial by an Idaho judge on Wednesday after her initial January trial date was postponed pending an evaluation – despite already being assessed for 10 months in a psychiatric facility.
Judge Steven Boyce, district judge for Fremont County in Idaho, previously wrote on October 6 that the case was ‘suspended until a determination of Mrs Daybell’s competency to stand trial.’
She was previously ruled unfit to stand trial in June 2021 and spent 10 months in the care of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
Vallow, 48, was arrested in February 2020 for the September 2019 murder of her children Tylee, 16, and seven-year-old J.J.
She was arrested along with her husband, Chad Daybell, who is also set to stand trial over the children’s murders.
In June of 2020, the remains of Tylee and J.J. were found at the Idaho farm owned by Chad Daybell, Vallow’s fifth husband.
Vallow had become obsessed with the idea that her children were possessed and had become zombies, and needed killing in order to ‘free’ them.
Vallow and Daybell are accused of murdering both children and Chad Daybell’s former wife, and both pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry a potential death penalty.
Lori Vallow pleaded not guilty to murdering her children during a court appearance in April
Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow, left, and Tylee Ryan, right, were last seen in September 2019. Their bodies were eventually discovered buried on Chad Daybell’s property after a nine-month search
Lori Vallow (left) and Chad Daybell (right) were said to have extreme religious beliefs. Detectives believe the couple’s ‘belief system, lust and greed’ also led to the deaths of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow
The case has attracted attention from around the world, and looked to be progressing towards a January trial as scheduled.
In September, Judge Boyce banned cameras from the courtroom, saying he feared the images could prevent a fair trial.
Idaho law enforcement officers started investigating Vallow and Daybell in November 2019 after extended family members reported her two youngest children, Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, were missing.
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At the time, JJ Vallow was 7 years old and Tylee Ryan was nearing her 17th birthday.
The couple had married just two weeks after his previous wife Tammy died unexpectedly.
The children’s bodies were later found buried on Chad Daybell’s property in rural eastern Idaho.
Tylee vanished on September 8, 2019, just days before her 17th birthday. Investigators said her body was burned and dismembered before being buried sometime the following day.
JJ was last seen two weeks later on September 23. His body was wrapped in duct tape and plastic and buried the same day, investigators said.
Chad Daybell, Lori’s fifth husband, is set to stand trial over the children’s killings and is charged with the murder of his former wife, Tammy
Lori Vallow sits between her attorneys for a hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, on August 16
JJ and Tylee are seen smiling and hugging while standing on a boardwalk in front of a thermal feature at Yellowstone National Park in Idaho on September 8, 2019, with their uncle Alex Cox. It would be the last time that Tylee was seen alive
Lori Vallow Daybell sits in a police car after a hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022
Prosecutors say the couple promoted unusual religious beliefs to further the alleged murder conspiracies.
Vallow’s former husband, who died while the two were estranged, said in divorce documents that she believed she was a god-like figure responsible for ushering in the apocalyptical end times.
Daybell wrote doomsday-focused fiction books and recorded podcasts about preparing for the apocalypse.
Friends of the couple told law enforcement investigators the pair believed people could be taken over by dark spirits, and that Vallow referred to her children as ‘zombies,’ which was a term they used to describe those who were possessed.
