Lori Vallow trial: Triple murder suspect’s sister takes the stand
The trial of “doomsday cult mom” Lori Vallow is underway in Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, where the mother-of-three is accused of killing her two youngest children and her new husband Chad Daybell’s first wife.
The 49-year-old is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, and grand theft over the deaths of her daughter Tylee Ryan, 16, son Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Mr Daybell’s first wife Tammy, 49.
Tylee and JJ were last seen alive in September 2019. In June 2020, their remains were found buried on the Daybell property. Tammy died one month after their disappearance in October 2019.
There is huge interest in the case’s string of mysterious deaths and murders, and the related bizarre cult beliefs of those involved. Ms Vallow allegedly also conspired to murder her fourth husband Charles Vallow and is charged separately in a case in Arizona.
On Wednesday, jurors heard details of JJ and Tylee’s autopsies and their causes of death — he had been suffocated with a plastic bag, and she had been murdered by “unspecified means”.
GHB, known as a date rape drug, was also found in JJ’s system.
GHB found in JJ’s system
JJ Vallow had alcohol and the “date rape drug” GHB in his system when he was suffocated to death with a plastic bag over his head, jurors heard in court on Wednesday.
Forensic pathologist Garth Warren, who carried out the autopsies on JJ and Tylee, revealed the children’s cause of death for the first time.
He said liver samples showed that JJ had ethanol alcohol, caffeine, theobromine and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB).
GHB is a sedative that can be used to treat epilepsy but is commonly referred to as the “date rape drug”.
Despite its presence in the seven-year-old’s body, Mr Warren said he could not say for sure if the boy had been drugged prior to his death.
He told the court that GHB can also appear naturally in the body and so “there was no way for me to tell for sure whether this is naturally occurring product or if JJ had been given GHB”.
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