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00:00:09I'm Lester Holt.
00:00:10Tonight on Dateline, she's the woman at the center
00:00:13of so many suspicious deaths.
00:00:16Now, a whole new twist in the case of Lori Vallow,
00:00:20Mommy Doomsday.
00:00:22I know Lori's your first name, right?
00:00:24L-A-U-R-I.
00:00:25L-O-R-I.
00:00:26I think it's her stage.
00:00:27Those interview rooms are Lori Vallow's stage.
00:00:31Tonight, newly released evidence
00:00:33in this notorious web of murder.
00:00:35Two dead children, two dead spouses.
00:00:38Her husband was shot to death.
00:00:41He goes nuts.
00:00:42Goes nuts like yelling and screaming.
00:00:44Yeah, yelling and screaming.
00:00:45She essentially convinces the detective
00:00:47that she's a victim.
00:00:48That's an incredible thing to see.
00:00:50Tell me about Tylee in that interview room.
00:00:53I heard yelling from, like, right outside my door.
00:00:58It's really tragic because we all know how the story ends.
00:01:03There's brand new stuff here that we had not heard.
00:01:07Videotapes.
00:01:08My kids are, I'm worried they're in danger.
00:01:10Interviews.
00:01:11What happened when you came out with a gun?
00:01:12I said, put that gun down.
00:01:13Audio recordings.
00:01:14They could be up to something.
00:01:16It was all for Lori and Chad to be together.
00:01:19Sex, money, and revenge.
00:01:21It's shocking, isn't it?
00:01:22Yes.
00:01:33Here's Keith Morrison with...
00:01:36The Doomsday Files.
00:01:43July 11th, 2019.
00:01:45Chandler, Arizona Police Department.
00:01:47A 40-something suburban mom sits down to talk with a detective.
00:01:52There's been a shooting.
00:01:54Tell me what happened.
00:01:55Chandler, police department.
00:01:56Anybody inside, make yourself know.
00:01:58The woman's husband of 14 years is dead.
00:02:03Start where you think it makes the most sense.
00:02:05Okay, so, um...
00:02:08The woman describes a marriage in turmoil.
00:02:11It's all these threats on my phone all the time, you know, like whatever, all these things.
00:02:17He has anger issues, she tells them.
00:02:20There are children caught in the middle.
00:02:24In some ways, the story is all too familiar.
00:02:27Besides what there's her brother...
00:02:28What you might also find familiar for an entirely different reason is the name of the woman telling it.
00:02:34I know Lori's your first name, right?
00:02:37L-A-U-R-I.
00:02:38L-O-R-I.
00:02:38Okay.
00:02:40And then, what's your last name?
00:02:42Valo.
00:02:42Yes.
00:02:43It's her.
00:02:44Lori Valo.
00:02:46Welcome back, Lori.
00:02:47Where are your kids?
00:02:48Her name known the world over.
00:02:51Linked forever to the awful things that happened to her children, Tylee and JJ.
00:02:56The police couldn't...
00:02:58We've been reporting on this story for almost two years now.
00:03:01Tonight, there's new evidence.
00:03:03The most complete picture yet.
00:03:05And revelations.
00:03:08Interviews with Lori and her daughter, Tylee.
00:03:11He honestly just looked like kind of a crazy person.
00:03:14And Alex, Lori's brother and alleged hitman.
00:03:19What's up, Alex?
00:03:20Yeah.
00:03:20Just keep your hands out where we can see him, all right?
00:03:22You're good.
00:03:23New text messages, recordings, interviews, crime scene photos.
00:03:29No comment.
00:03:30New details about the adulterous affair that set the whole terrible sequence in motion.
00:03:34A crime wave that moved so quickly.
00:03:37Police in three states could not keep up with it.
00:03:41Stand up.
00:03:42Face away from me.
00:03:42Place your hands behind your back.
00:03:47Much of the story we're going to tell you tonight comes from files that have only recently been made public.
00:03:52New evidence.
00:03:54The puzzle pieces of this strange tale, wild and deadly.
00:03:58Which grew, perversely, from an occasion devoted to piety.
00:04:05It all began here, about a year and a half before Lori's husband was shot.
00:04:10This is St. George, Utah, where Lori Vallow attended a spiritual conference for a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
00:04:17-day Saints group called Preparing a People.
00:04:20And met a man named Chad Daybell.
00:04:23Author Chad Daybell.
00:04:25A speaker and author whose books of fiction were centered on the end times.
00:04:30I had an idea come for an entire trilogy.
00:04:33This was like an instant fatal attraction.
00:04:35Nate Eaton and Eric GrossArthur, reporters for East Idaho News and Dateline Contributors.
00:04:41They've been following the case of Lori and Chad from the beginning.
00:04:45It was an instant lust, an instant attraction, an instant, I want you and I will do anything to have
00:04:53you.
00:04:54Lori Vallow was attractive, no question.
00:04:56A former cheerleader.
00:04:58Contestant number 13 is Lori.
00:05:00Fit and blonde, an ex-Mrs. Texas contestant, even.
00:05:05She's Mrs. Hayes County.
00:05:08When Lori attended that conference in Utah, she was married, apparently happily, to husband number four, Charles Vallow.
00:05:17Charles had converted to the LDS Church when they married.
00:05:21It was Lori that kind of led them into that direction.
00:05:24Charles' brothers, Jerry and Bobby, speaking out here for the first time.
00:05:30Charles, a searching soul as he was, picked it up and thought it was beautiful and ran with it.
00:05:36He would have done anything to make her happy.
00:05:39But Lori's previous marriages had ended badly, bitterly.
00:05:44She'd been subjected to psychiatric assessments more than once, but she'd passed, always.
00:05:51She's very friendly, she's very personable, and it seems as if she used that charm to appear like she may,
00:05:59in some cases, be the victim.
00:06:01So Lori Vallow was beautiful and charming, and increasingly infatuated with small groups of Mormon extremists who predicted the imminent
00:06:11end of the world.
00:06:13Lori's son, Colby.
00:06:15Growing up, she's definitely mentioned the end of the world, like, well, you know what, these things won't matter as
00:06:22much because the world's going to end.
00:06:23And Chad Daybell?
00:06:25Chad Daybell was about the nicest guy you could ever meet in your life.
00:06:30Former NFL quarterback Scott Mitchell grew up with Chad, knew him as the guy who did not light up a
00:06:38room.
00:06:38I think Chad grew up very average, and I think Chad found a way for himself to be something.
00:06:46And I kind of like it to, like, Forrest Gump.
00:06:50Forrest Gump was a fictional character who was built around real events.
00:06:55And you watch the movie and you go, was he really there?
00:06:58For years, Chad Daybell had been writing and self-publishing end-times fiction, fanciful stories about angels and demons.
00:07:07He'd moved his wife, Tammy, and their five children to Rexburg, Idaho, where he believed the saved would gather at
00:07:14the end of days.
00:07:16Chad's day job had long been sexton in a cemetery.
00:07:20It's actually the favorite book of a lot of people that read my books.
00:07:24He even wrote a book about being a grave digger, who came to imagine he could talk to the dead
00:07:30and pass back and forth through some sort of veil between this world and the next.
00:07:35And she was there on the other side of the veil.
00:07:37So very different, these two, like nitro and glycerin.
00:07:42Chad's childhood friend, Paul Giles.
00:07:45I think she was the 55-gallon drum of high-octane aviation gas into Chad's life.
00:07:55It was apparent almost from the moment the St. George Conference began.
00:08:00The saver showed me a window.
00:08:01She was fascinated by Chad's books and his ideas about the second coming.
00:08:06He looked in her eyes and saw a goddess.
00:08:10And by the end of that Genesis weekend, lust was in full flower.
00:08:15A love affair had begun.
00:08:16And like some demonic version of creation, a plan had begun to form.
00:08:24Complete with a helper, some came to call the angel of death, Laurie's faithful brother, Alex Cox.
00:08:34She had some kind of a hold over him.
00:08:36This is Alex's friend, Jill Kimmel.
00:08:39Alex was the one.
00:08:40He's like, I'm in.
00:08:41I'm yours.
00:08:41What do you need?
00:08:42Disciples joined them, among them a seeker named Zulema.
00:08:46I saw Laurie and Chad as law-abiding, God-fearing people.
00:08:53And a niece.
00:08:55I loved Laurie.
00:08:56Laurie used to carry me around as a little baby and pretend that I was hers when she was 16.
00:09:00All joined this crusade for the select to get to a heaven due to arrive very soon.
00:09:07But as investigators sifted through secret recordings, newly revealed texts, all the other fresh evidence,
00:09:14the crusade these lovers were leading began to seem less like a heavenly mission and more like a bloody crime
00:09:22spree.
00:09:28When we come back, Charles was in her way, and she wanted Charles out of the way.
00:09:33The killing begins.
00:09:35I said, be on the lookout or something.
00:09:37They could be up to something.
00:09:39I think he was afraid.
00:09:40And unfortunately, the police, I don't think they took it that seriously.
00:09:58Chad Daybell was smitten, mesmerized by this goddess who'd come his way.
00:10:05And soon, the man who imagined he could jump back and forth between this world and the next decided Laurie
00:10:10Vallow was a goddess,
00:10:13a woman beyond human, with unearthly spiritual powers.
00:10:18Almost right away, as newly released police evidence reveals,
00:10:22Chad began looking for a way to separate Laurie from her husband, Charles.
00:10:26She didn't need much coaxing.
00:10:28None, in fact.
00:10:30Charles was in her way, and she wanted Charles out of the way because he was blocking these spiritual gifts.
00:10:37She was not able to accomplish the mission that she needed to do.
00:10:40Oh, yes, the mission.
00:10:42Chad told Laurie they'd been married to each other many times over many lives.
00:10:48And in this life, their greatest mission of all was to bring together the 144,000 true believers for the
00:10:55second coming of Jesus.
00:10:58And that they had to fight off evil spirits, inhabiting people in their own families.
00:11:05Charles may have looked human, said Chad, but in fact, was a zombie named Ned Schneider.
00:11:13I think labeling Charles as a zombie was probably the catalyst that set this whole plot in motion.
00:11:21Dr. John Mathias is a clinical psychologist with more than 25 years' experience as a forensic interviewer and expert witness
00:11:29for the courts.
00:11:30He and his journalist's wife, Lauren, host the Hidden True Crime podcast.
00:11:35They've studied the case from the start, developed their own strong sources,
00:11:39and devoted their podcast exclusively to the case of Chad and Laurie.
00:11:44We have some research from the evidence dump that he was Googling Ned Schneider six months before Charles' death.
00:11:52Who he is is still a mystery, but Chad was surely interested in him.
00:11:57Soon after that, a worry Charles told police that Laurie was threatening to murder him and have an angel dispose
00:12:03of his body.
00:12:04He says, I'm Nick Schneider. I've taken over Charles' body. And Charles has been killed.
00:12:13I think he was afraid. And unfortunately, the police, you know, they looked at Charles.
00:12:17He's a pretty big guy. And I don't think they took it that seriously.
00:12:21Charles confided in his brothers.
00:12:24She was saying things like she was supernatural and could fly to different planets.
00:12:32At the same time, Laurie was texting her brother, Alex.
00:12:37Apparently, it is tied to Ned being gone, hopefully today or tomorrow.
00:12:42Alex responds, have fun and get rid of Ned already.
00:12:47Meanwhile, Laurie and Chad were making plans.
00:12:50Laurie went online for wedding rings.
00:12:53Not long after Chad and Laurie met, they went to a Latter-day Saint temple and they felt that they
00:12:58had been sealed.
00:13:00It wasn't something that anybody pronounced upon them that, hey, you guys, Chad and Laurie, are married.
00:13:08It was some sort of feeling that they felt they had.
00:13:11How would the LDS church look on an act like that?
00:13:15For a couple to come out and say, we've self-sealed ourselves, you would look at them like they were
00:13:19crazy.
00:13:19But it wasn't crazy at all to Chad.
00:13:22And Laurie?
00:13:24This is Laurie's other brother.
00:13:27His name is Adam Cox.
00:13:29And later, Adam told the police what she was like after Chad entered her life.
00:13:35She, you know, talks to Jesus in the temple.
00:13:38She has a higher priesthood than the rest of us.
00:13:41And just some things that were alarming to me.
00:13:44And she goes, you think I'm crazy, don't you?
00:13:46And I was like, I don't know if you're crazy, but none of that makes any sense to me.
00:13:50And then, as this new trove of evidence reveals, events moved at a kind of fever pitch.
00:13:56Adam and Charles discussed an intervention for Laurie.
00:13:59Then Charles discovered the affair and confronted Laurie and told Chad's wife Tammy, the mother of his five children.
00:14:07So Tammy confronted Chad, who, meanwhile, was telling Laurie that Charles was conspiring with her brother Adam to kill her
00:14:15for insurance money.
00:14:17Got all that?
00:14:18Like some amusing soap opera with not so deadly.
00:14:24On July 10th, the day before the shooting, Laurie texted Alex,
00:14:29I'm going to need you to stay close to me the next couple of days.
00:14:33Thank you for standing by me.
00:14:36It's all coming to a head this week.
00:14:39Indeed it was.
00:14:41Alex responded to that text from Laurie by spending the night in her house.
00:14:46The time had come.
00:14:48It was the next morning, July 11th, 2019.
00:14:53By then, Charles and Laurie had separated, but that morning, Charles had arranged to pick up their son, J.J.,
00:14:58and take him to school.
00:15:00As he arrived at Laurie's house, he texted Adam to tell him something odd.
00:15:06Alex's truck was at Laurie's house.
00:15:09So when Charles texted me, Alex is here, I said, that sounds weird.
00:15:15Why is he at Laurie's house?
00:15:16I said, be on the lookout or something.
00:15:18They could be up to something.
00:15:19And Charles texted me back, absolutely.
00:15:21The crime spree had begun.
00:15:25911, where is your emergency?
00:15:30Coming up.
00:15:31I was worried he was going to come over and cause trouble with me.
00:15:35Laurie tells her story.
00:15:37He goes nuts.
00:15:38Goes nuts like yelling and screaming.
00:15:40Yeah, yelling and screaming.
00:15:42She essentially convinces the detective that she's a victim.
00:15:45That's an incredible thing to see.
00:15:47When Dateline continues.
00:16:01That's right.
00:16:01Fire is right on the street.
00:16:03The police in Chandler, Arizona, were wearing body cams when they responded to the 911 call from Laurie Vallow's house.
00:16:10What happened today?
00:16:11And here they encountered 51-year-old Alex Cox.
00:16:15He was just yelling at me.
00:16:16Standing in the front yard.
00:16:18Okay.
00:16:19Inside, Alex's brother-in-law, Charles Vallow, age 62, was lying dead on the living room floor.
00:16:26A bit later, Laurie arrived with her daughter Tylee in tow.
00:16:30How long have you lived here?
00:16:31Like three weeks.
00:16:32If you've been following the story, you may remember this.
00:16:36That's why the neighbors took the last room.
00:16:38Gotcha.
00:16:39Like, hi neighbor, sorry.
00:16:42But here's what you may not have seen before.
00:16:45The story Laurie told police just hours after her husband was shot to death.
00:16:51He doesn't want a divorce, but I don't like him and don't want to tell him, so.
00:16:56Charles had come to her house to pick up their adopted son, JJ, for school.
00:17:01And, according to Laurie, he was angry.
00:17:04And he's, like, banging on the door.
00:17:06I'm like, oh, great, here we go, you know.
00:17:08And I was just going to be nice.
00:17:09I'm just going to be nice as possible.
00:17:11Cell phone data put Charles' arrival at 735.
00:17:15You'll want to remember that.
00:17:16He's, like, acting really weird, like he's plotting something.
00:17:20But anyway, he goes nuts.
00:17:24He's going nuts on us a lot of times.
00:17:25Goes nuts, like yelling and screaming.
00:17:27Yeah, yelling and screaming.
00:17:29So that woke up Tylee, she said.
00:17:31Tylee was Laurie's 16-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.
00:17:35So Tylee came out of her room upset, and she had a bat,
00:17:39and she told him to leave her mother alone, like, right?
00:17:43So she was really, whatever, and he's screaming at her.
00:17:46And then my brother heard all the commotion.
00:17:48That's Laurie's brother, Alex.
00:17:50Remember, she'd invited him over.
00:17:52She came after you with the bat.
00:17:54And here he is telling police he felt the need to protect Laurie.
00:17:58All I heard was her say, don't touch me, and then him.
00:18:02Okay.
00:18:02Coming right after her.
00:18:03And I shoved him back.
00:18:05Okay.
00:18:05And I said, what are you doing?
00:18:08Is that going to hurt my sister?
00:18:09Hi.
00:18:09Hi.
00:18:10In another interview room, Tylee was supporting her mother's story.
00:18:15Can you basically tell me what happened today?
00:18:17And he honestly just looked like kind of a crazy person.
00:18:22Tylee told police that Charles made a move for the bat.
00:18:26He just grabbed it and tried to take it, so I held on to the end,
00:18:31and then eventually I fell, and he kind of took it into his hands.
00:18:35Technicians would test the bat, of course, for DNA and fingerprints later.
00:18:41But detectives didn't know when they talked to Tylee, they'd turn up nothing conclusive
00:18:46to show that Charles ever laid a hand on that bat.
00:18:49He came at me with the bat again.
00:18:51But Alex claimed there was quite a scrum, then, in the hallway with Charles.
00:18:57He hit me in the back of the head.
00:18:58I don't know if it was with the bat or not.
00:19:01I assumed it was.
00:19:02Sure enough, police found a laceration on the back of Alex's head,
00:19:06although they didn't think it looked like a wound inflicted by a baseball bat
00:19:09in the hands of a big guy like Charles.
00:19:12What did you do? Did you go?
00:19:14I just went straight to the room.
00:19:15Okay.
00:19:15Because I said, hey, this needs to calm down.
00:19:18Okay.
00:19:18But he didn't just sit in the bedroom and wait, he said.
00:19:21He picked up his .45 caliber handgun instead.
00:19:25What happened when you came out with the gun?
00:19:27I said, put that bat down.
00:19:29How many times would you say you told him to, like, put the bat down?
00:19:32Once.
00:19:32Once? Okay.
00:19:33And then he started advancing towards you?
00:19:35Yes.
00:19:36Chandler police detectives Cassandra Inclan and Nathan Moffat
00:19:40conducted the interviews of Lori and Alex.
00:19:44What kind of impression did you get of this guy?
00:19:46He was matter of fact.
00:19:47He was up front.
00:19:48But he also said a very standard line of,
00:19:51I was in fear for my safety, so I shot him.
00:19:54Two shots.
00:19:56Lori said she heard them from the kitchen,
00:19:58then came around the corner to see Charles on the floor.
00:20:02I just went in to Mama and I'm like,
00:20:05I've got to go to get J.J. to school.
00:20:06And Tylee was, like, looking at me with, like, the crazy eyes,
00:20:09like, what just happened?
00:20:11And I told her to get in the car and we're going to take J.J. to school.
00:20:14And they did.
00:20:16Cell phone data shows they left the house at 7.49 a.m.
00:20:20And five minutes later at 7.54,
00:20:23surveillance video shows Lori, J.J. and Tylee
00:20:25at this Burger King drive-thru grabbing breakfast before school.
00:20:30She was like, we're just going to take J.J. to school.
00:20:32And I was like, okay.
00:20:33So I just got in the car.
00:20:34Differences of degree, but all three more or less told the same story.
00:20:39He was just yelling at me.
00:20:41Backing Alex's claim that he shot Charles in self-defense.
00:20:45There were small indiscrepancies,
00:20:46but it wasn't anything that was major,
00:20:48anything that you went, oh, man, this is, you know,
00:20:51this is a big deal or there's a major problem here.
00:20:53So it didn't make it itself obvious in the beginning.
00:20:55It didn't.
00:20:57But in fact, something rather amazing had taken place
00:21:00during Lori's interview.
00:21:01We do have victim services that work within the police department.
00:21:07They're right over here.
00:21:08They're not cops.
00:21:08A victim's advocate?
00:21:10That's what the detective was offering.
00:21:13There was this incredible transformation
00:21:16that occurs in Lori's interview.
00:21:19She essentially convinces the detective that she's a victim, right?
00:21:23And that's an incredible thing to see in 30 minutes.
00:21:28But an investigation began, and things began to emerge,
00:21:33things that didn't add up.
00:21:35Like, for example, Alex claimed he fired his two shots
00:21:39while Charles was standing, confronting him.
00:21:41But the bullet police found in the floor beneath Charles' body
00:21:45suggested Alex took the second shot when Charles was already down.
00:21:49Then there was this.
00:21:51Remember, Lori had texted Alex and asked him
00:21:54to stay close with Charles coming over.
00:21:57So why did Alex respond to police questions this way?
00:22:02Is there a reason you spent the night there last night?
00:22:05No, not really.
00:22:06Okay.
00:22:07Just hang out.
00:22:08We were going to hang out today.
00:22:09Okay.
00:22:10Did your sister ever tell you she was concerned
00:22:12of her safety or well-being for Charles coming there?
00:22:15No.
00:22:16Now, compare that to the way Lori answered the question.
00:22:20Did your brother live there with you?
00:22:22No.
00:22:22Okay.
00:22:22He had stayed with me last night
00:22:24because I was worried he was going to come over
00:22:26and it would cause trouble with me.
00:22:28Okay.
00:22:28And just wanted someone else there,
00:22:31like my brother there, because I trust my brother.
00:22:34Then there was the timing of things.
00:22:37Phone records showed Lori left the house with the kids
00:22:39at 7.49 a.m.
00:22:41Charles had been shot by then.
00:22:43But Alex did not call 911 until 8.36,
00:22:48more than 45 minutes after the shooting
00:22:51and after Lori left the house.
00:22:54And yet on that call, Alex told the operator.
00:22:57How long ago did this happen?
00:22:59A couple of minutes.
00:23:01Now that was a lie.
00:23:03And Alex knew it.
00:23:04In fact, before he called 911,
00:23:07he phoned Lori.
00:23:09They had a chat.
00:23:10He didn't mention that.
00:23:13And neither did she.
00:23:15It would be months before detectives could add up
00:23:18all the bits and pieces.
00:23:20What a pity,
00:23:22given what happens next.
00:23:26Coming up.
00:23:28Are you calling in reference to a death claim?
00:23:31Yes.
00:23:32Charles' life insurance policy.
00:23:34A million-dollar motive for murder?
00:23:36Are you aware of who the primary beneficiary of the policy is?
00:23:40It's me.
00:23:44It's me.
00:23:46It's me.
00:23:47It's me.
00:23:48It's me.
00:23:57After their interviews at the Chandler Police Department,
00:24:00the detectives gave Lori, Alex, and Tylee a ride back home.
00:24:04The van ride was straight-up bizarre for me.
00:24:07It was the weirdest ride I've ever had with, you know, three strangers.
00:24:11Why would you say that?
00:24:12Lori was just, it was kind of like a happy-go-lucky.
00:24:15Um, she was just kind of smiling.
00:24:18It was just a very, very bizarre ride back.
00:24:21Word of Charles' death spread among his family.
00:24:23What was that like?
00:24:25It was...
00:24:25Being thumping and hitting the chest with a cannonball or something.
00:24:30They said it was self-defense.
00:24:31That was not self-defense.
00:24:33That was an ambush.
00:24:35There's a lot of inconsistencies about that story.
00:24:39Then again, they'd been worried for a while,
00:24:41given the things Charles had been telling them about Lori's spiritual 180.
00:24:45He said she had chosen a different path,
00:24:48but maybe he didn't know the extent of the path she chose.
00:24:53Well, as detectives dug into the death of Charles,
00:24:56they began to uncover more about Lori's path
00:24:59and evidence that her spiritual guru and boyfriend Chad Daybell
00:25:03was deeply involved in, well, in whatever was going on.
00:25:09For example, this newly released phone call.
00:25:12How can I help you today?
00:25:14Um, we just had our death in the family.
00:25:16That's Chad calling a funeral home in Arizona,
00:25:20just hours after Charles' death.
00:25:22We really don't want anything but a cremation
00:25:26and then to send the tree names to a family in Louisiana.
00:25:30Is there any way to know a ballpark price on that?
00:25:33Yes.
00:25:34And I'm sorry for the law.
00:25:36Um, thank you.
00:25:38Chad probably wouldn't have made it as a secret agent.
00:25:43What is your name, please?
00:25:45It is Chad Daybell.
00:25:46At the beginning of the call, he actually uses his name,
00:25:49but then when they ask for his name again,
00:25:51he changes it minutes later.
00:25:53Like, on the spot, like,
00:25:55oh, no, I better come up with something.
00:25:57How do you spell the last name, please?
00:25:59D-A-B-A-L, Daybell.
00:26:02How are you related to the person of death?
00:26:04I'm his nephew.
00:26:06I live in Iowa.
00:26:08Of course, death often does lead to questions about money.
00:26:12As detectives learned when they heard this call from Lori.
00:26:17Are you calling in reference to a death claim?
00:26:20Yes.
00:26:21This is Lori, five days after Charles' death,
00:26:24inquiring about his life insurance policy of a million dollars.
00:26:29And your relationship to the insured?
00:26:32Um, he's my husband.
00:26:34And what was the cause of his passing?
00:26:37Well, he was shot.
00:26:39Was it a homicide?
00:26:40No, it was an accident.
00:26:42Are you aware of who the primary beneficiary of the policy is?
00:26:45Um, it's me.
00:26:46Hmm, not exactly.
00:26:49Days later, Lori was informed that the beneficiary was, in fact, not her at all.
00:26:55News that Lori had to break to Chad.
00:26:58She texted him.
00:26:59Quote,
00:27:00So I talked to the insurance company.
00:27:02He changed it in March.
00:27:04So it was probably Ned before we got rid of him.
00:27:08It's a spear through my heart.
00:27:11And there it was.
00:27:13We got rid of him.
00:27:14Meaning Charles.
00:27:16A text found months later that left no doubt.
00:27:19Lori was upset that the shooting of Charles did not produce an insurance payout.
00:27:24She was not happy.
00:27:26They were counting on that money.
00:27:27They were.
00:27:28They were.
00:27:29Later, detectives found that another member of Lori's circle was thinking about life insurance.
00:27:34Lori's niece, Melanie, texted her a week after Charles' death.
00:27:38You should get a life insurance policy on JJ, Tylee, and you.
00:27:43Because after Charles, we see that anything can always happen if it's in the Lord's will.
00:27:48But even if Lori and Chad couldn't cash in on insurance, the detectives would discover they had plenty of motive
00:27:55to want Charles out of the way.
00:27:57And with Alex and his gun, they also had the means.
00:28:02I told Lauren, this is like watching a robot.
00:28:05When somebody ends up dead that happens to be your brother-in-law of 15 years, right?
00:28:11Like, you'd expect some humane response.
00:28:16Right, something.
00:28:18Given the stakes, how peculiar was it that Alex, who had a part-time career as a stand-up comic,
00:28:25started cracking jokes while police were taking his photograph?
00:28:29You know what's sad when you're posing for photographs and you don't have a good side?
00:28:32Thanks.
00:28:34Tylee, on the other hand?
00:28:36A bundle of nerves, said Dr. Mathias.
00:28:39She can't sit still, so the anxiety is the most evident part of that interview.
00:28:43Under her breath, Tylee was humming.
00:28:47A song from the Disney movie Moana.
00:28:51And the lyrics are heartbreaking.
00:28:53I've been standing at the edge of the water, long as I can remember, never really knowing why.
00:29:00I wish I could be the perfect daughter, but I come back to the water, no matter how hard I
00:29:07try.
00:29:07Wow.
00:29:09If you want to know how complicated it is to be Lori Vallow's daughter, I think it says it right
00:29:14there.
00:29:15A daughter unaware, as she defended her mother, that her own fate was waiting, and it wouldn't be long.
00:29:26Coming up, Chad Daybell's secret romance novel.
00:29:30He's had this fantasy for years of kind of the perfect Mormon partner.
00:29:35Fifty shades of Chad and Lori.
00:29:38I wouldn't call him madly in love.
00:29:40I'd call him madly in lust.
00:29:41When Dateline continues.
00:29:57Something was happening to Chad Daybell.
00:29:59Now, the once quiet ex-grave digger had assumed a mantle of godly certainty.
00:30:05And now, for the newly minted widow, Lori Vallow, he became a great lover, as he worked the phone like
00:30:12a teenager with FOMO, fear of missing out.
00:30:15That furtive call to the funeral home.
00:30:17And texts to Lori, quote, I am heading to bed so that I can come snuggle tightly against you.
00:30:25I adore you.
00:30:26You are truly my best friend on earth and throughout eternity.
00:30:31Of course, this was fantasy snuggling.
00:30:34A text directed to Lori in Arizona, but Chad, still in Idaho, still very married to his wife of 29
00:30:41years, Tammy, the mother of his five children.
00:30:45Except, Chad told Lori, their trysts were more than fantasy.
00:30:50That he'd go into his closet at night and cross some otherworldly threshold to be with her.
00:30:57That's Chad Daybell flexing his muscles for Lori.
00:31:01If Chad Daybell is not a prophet, then he's just an average Joe.
00:31:05In fact, more newly released records show that immediately after Charles was killed, Chad poured out a love story.
00:31:13All in texts and emails to Lori.
00:31:17Two chapters, 12 full pages, hundreds of texts.
00:31:21Never before heard.
00:31:23It was written as if fictional.
00:31:25It was the story of their meeting at that religious conference in St. George, Utah.
00:31:31Friday morning, October 26th, driving south on the freeway, a voice said,
00:31:37you will meet an extraordinary woman today who will change your life forever.
00:31:41He doesn't use the name Chad and Lori.
00:31:43He uses the names James and Elena.
00:31:46Before long, the story continued.
00:31:47James and Elena were introduced at a conference in St. George.
00:31:52A conference just like the one they attended, of course.
00:31:57Their feelings were very strong, as if they had known each other oh so long.
00:32:02They lived at a time when Jesus walked the earth together, and now they're back reunited again.
00:32:09He called Elena, or Lori, an exalted goddess, and was obsessed with her physical beauty.
00:32:17He couldn't deny their connection and his absolute attraction to her.
00:32:21She still seemed way out of his league.
00:32:25He's had this fantasy for years of kind of the perfect Mormon partner.
00:32:30And here it is in front of him, and he doesn't want to lose this opportunity.
00:32:35Chad's romance novel often took turns that would make a Harlequin editor blush.
00:32:40Their spirits could not be restrained any longer.
00:32:42And a long-awaited make-out session took place in that lobby.
00:32:45This was manifest in the mortal world to James and Elena through the scientific phenomenon known as loin fire.
00:32:55Loin fire.
00:32:56I'm not sure what science they're referring to there, but maybe like biblical science?
00:33:02Pretty basic, I think.
00:33:05I wouldn't call him madly in love.
00:33:08I'd call him madly in lust.
00:33:10We'll spare you much of the rest of that story, but this is the key point.
00:33:16As James placed his hands on her head, he connected with Elena's true, eternal self.
00:33:22He knew he was in the presence of an exalted goddess who had returned to Earth to perform a special
00:33:27mission.
00:33:28She then gave him a tremendous blessing that helped him realize how much she truly loved him
00:33:33and wanted to be with him forever.
00:33:36The love story shows that Chad's grandiosity is increasing.
00:33:42But a month after Charles' death, Laurie was getting impatient.
00:33:47Chad was still married to Tammy.
00:33:50So Laurie opted to play Hard to Get.
00:33:54This text, I'm just a distraction.
00:33:57Go have fun with your family.
00:33:59I really do want you to.
00:34:01I just can't be in the way anymore.
00:34:05If things change, we can talk.
00:34:07But we have nothing until things change anyway.
00:34:11Must have worked.
00:34:12Because two days later, after talking to God, she texted a friend.
00:34:20I got farther saying, things are moving, that I need to get to Idaho by the end of the month.
00:34:26She would have her Chad, and he her.
00:34:30And there would be a sacrifice.
00:34:35Coming up.
00:34:37They talked in code a lot.
00:34:39Any suggestion as to what was being said?
00:34:42Yes.
00:34:43A street name for Valium or Xanax.
00:34:47New information on the darkest chapter of this story, what happened to the children.
00:34:53My guess is they had already plotted out some of these crimes in advance.
00:35:13It was two months after Charles' death, when Laurie left the jurisdiction of police in Arizona
00:35:19and moved into a rented townhouse in Rexburg, Idaho.
00:35:23And Alex rented his own space in the same complex.
00:35:28But here, too, there were inconvenient people in the way of Laurie and Chad.
00:35:35That list included Chad's wife, Tammy, and Laurie's children, 7-year-old JJ and 16-year-old Tylee.
00:35:45Here's new information.
00:35:47Hadn't Chad been suggesting for quite some time that Tylee had gone dark?
00:35:53Two days after they met in St. George, Utah, it took two days for him to send Laurie Vallow an
00:35:59email
00:35:59saying that her 16-year-old daughter Tylee is dark.
00:36:03But it didn't deter Laurie from moving forward with the relationship.
00:36:07Yeah, and then she was like, take me now. Sold.
00:36:10Ironic, of course.
00:36:12When Tylee was young, Laurie, with Alex's help, waged a ferocious custody battle to keep Tylee away from her biological
00:36:20father,
00:36:21Laurie's third husband, Joe Ryan.
00:36:24Alex even went to prison for attacking Joe.
00:36:27He said he wanted to kill the man to protect Tylee, to make sure she stayed with her mother.
00:36:34Now, a decade later, Chad was in charge.
00:36:38Chad so versed in the Bible that it's stories of sacrifice.
00:36:44It's important to keep in mind, I think, with Chad and Laurie that there's always a religious component.
00:36:47You know, the story of Abraham and Isaac, where God wanted to see if Abraham was willing to sacrifice his
00:36:53son.
00:36:54And I think you see some of that here with Chad.
00:36:57I think Chad is testing Laurie to some degree.
00:37:00This seems like the ultimate test to ask to sacrifice your kids.
00:37:06A few days after Laurie and her kids moved to Idaho,
00:37:09they went to Yellowstone Park, where they posed for these pictures with Uncle Alex.
00:37:14By that evening, September 8th, they were back in their new townhouses in Rexburg.
00:37:20Laurie and the kids in hers, Alex in his.
00:37:23And then, middle of that night, as GPS records show,
00:37:28Alex went to Laurie's place, spent two hours there.
00:37:32Was it common for Alex to spend the night at Laurie's place?
00:37:38No, he was not over at Laurie's house ever at night,
00:37:42except one particular night.
00:37:44When they tracked him in the early morning hours,
00:37:48I believe somewhere around 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.
00:37:52Tylee was never seen alive again.
00:37:56As for J.J., less than a week later, on September 14th,
00:38:01Laurie and J.J. went on an outing to a wildlife park.
00:38:06Laurie, we are at Bear World.
00:38:08It's such a beautiful day.
00:38:10But that very week, as friends later told us,
00:38:14Laurie said J.J. had become a zombie.
00:38:18And now the new evidence spells out events and pictures and texts at Digital Trail.
00:38:25September 22nd, a last photo of J.J. ready for bed in his red pajamas.
00:38:31That very day, Laurie sent this text to Alex.
00:38:36Laurie, do you have eggs?
00:38:38Alex, do you want me to get eggs and bring them to you?
00:38:43They talked in code a lot.
00:38:45Any suggestion as to what was being said when they talked about eggs?
00:38:50Yes, a street name for Valium or Xanax is eggs.
00:38:57And I've definitely wondered if that's what Laurie was referring to.
00:39:02With that, they could make the children go to sleep and do whatever with them they wanted to.
00:39:07Right.
00:39:08That evening, after the egg conversation, according to investigators, J.J. was acting up.
00:39:15A friend who was visiting saw Alex take J.J. outside.
00:39:19And then, a couple hours later, Alex brings back J.J.
00:39:24And he walked in.
00:39:25He had J.J. on.
00:39:26He was asleep on him.
00:39:28And he carried him up to bed.
00:39:30By morning, J.J. was gone.
00:39:33And he was never seen again.
00:39:37And Laurie sent a message to the babysitter she'd hired just days earlier.
00:39:41Here is her newly revealed text.
00:39:43Text, Laurie.
00:39:45J.J.'s grandparents came this weekend, and they took him for a few weeks to give me a break.
00:39:49So he won't be back until probably the end of October.
00:39:53What do you make of the timeline, the death of Tylee, and then just a couple of weeks later, the
00:40:01death of J.J.?
00:40:02I think it suggests premeditation.
00:40:04My guess is before Laurie moved to Rexburg, they had already plotted out some of these crimes in advance.
00:40:13And there would be more deaths soon, yes.
00:40:17But first, another shooting.
00:40:22Coming up.
00:40:24Um, someone just shot my window.
00:40:26A gun, a bullet, a brazen new attack.
00:40:30So why is someone laughing on secret recordings?
00:40:34This is like a crime novel.
00:40:36Yeah.
00:40:38Somebody's recording this.
00:40:40When Dateline continues.
00:40:54What's that saying?
00:40:56Life comes at you fast sometimes?
00:40:58Just a week after J.J. was last seen, and three weeks after Tylee disappeared,
00:41:05Lori was caught here on surveillance video at a storage unit she'd rented in Rexburg, Idaho.
00:41:12The next day, Lori was joined by the still very married Chad Daybell.
00:41:18They moved items into the unit, a tire, and what looked like a folded back seat from some vehicle,
00:41:25before Chad, on the way out, gave Lori a hand, in a very intimate way.
00:41:32That same day, in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, Arizona, a frightened man called 911.
00:41:39Um, someone just shot my window when I was pouring in my house.
00:41:43I drove away, but I can see them driving off as I was trying to pull into my driveway.
00:41:47Sorry, I'm a little lost in breath.
00:41:49The voice on the line belonged to this man, Brandon Boudreau.
00:41:53At the time, he was going through a nasty custody fight with his wife, Melanie.
00:41:59Melanie, the niece of Lori Vallow and Alex Cox.
00:42:03The one who'd earlier suggested life insurance for J.J. entirely?
00:42:09Brandon told the police that he was arriving home from the gym around 9 a.m.
00:42:14He saw a Jeep parked nearby, and then a gun equipped with a silencer appeared in the Jeep's rear window.
00:42:20And suddenly, he said a bullet whizzed by his ear and shattered the window of his car.
00:42:25And then the shooter and the Jeep took off.
00:42:28In court papers, Brandon described the vehicle as a gray Jeep with Texas plates.
00:42:33Police confirmed it was a Jeep Charles had bought for Tiley.
00:42:38One with a removable rear seat.
00:42:41And the guy driving the Jeep?
00:42:43Later, Brandon told a private eye it looked like Lori's brother, Alex.
00:42:48Remember, Alex had already killed his sister Lori's husband.
00:42:52So was he trying to shoot his niece Melanie's husband, too?
00:42:56Brandon certainly thought so.
00:42:58In an interview with Melanie and her new husband in March 2020, we asked Melanie about that.
00:43:05Did you ask Alex if he tried to shoot Brandon?
00:43:09I did.
00:43:11And he made some jokes about it.
00:43:13And then we both talked about how insane that would be for him across the street with a rifle in
00:43:19broad daylight in a recognizable car.
00:43:21Did he ever actually deny it?
00:43:22Yeah, he denied it many times.
00:43:26Melanie herself has denied wanting Brandon dead.
00:43:30After all, she said, he was the father of her children.
00:43:34But newly released texts show that Brandon was indeed out of favor with Chad and Lori.
00:43:39Chad had labeled Brandon a Gadiuntan, which the Book of Mormon calls a secret criminal organization of robbers in ancient
00:43:48America.
00:43:49It's the ancient mafia in the Book of Mormon.
00:43:54Friends said Chad had also labeled Brandon dark.
00:43:58And dark, we know by this time, often meant marked for death.
00:44:05And then there was this.
00:44:07The day after the shooting in Arizona, mid-afternoon, Alex appeared at that storage unit in Idaho.
00:44:14As you can see, he carried out the tire Chad put in the day before and then also carried out
00:44:21the folded back seat.
00:44:22It is 922 miles and takes just over 14 hours to drive from where Brandon Boudreau lived back to that
00:44:32storage unit in Rexburg.
00:44:34It was definitely possible to go both places in that jeep.
00:44:40Soon after that, Alex returned to Arizona to help niece Melanie pack up her belongings and move to Idaho.
00:44:48Where she would live in an apartment right next door to her Aunt Lori and near her Uncle Alex.
00:44:55Later, in secretly recorded phone calls obtained by Dateline, Melanie offered a friend her thoughts on the attempted murder of
00:45:03Brandon.
00:45:04And I don't know if somebody, somebody did shoot out of his car window or if he did it himself.
00:45:11After the attempt on his life, Brandon went into hiding with their four children.
00:45:16Quite convinced, he told us later that Alex and Melanie were trying to hunt them down.
00:45:21But Melanie, on this call with her friend, said Brandon made it all up.
00:45:27I believe it was totally fabricated.
00:45:29The shooting?
00:45:31Yes, like he's trying to plot it on me.
00:45:35I obviously wasn't even, like, in that area.
00:45:37Well, I know the shooting did happen because he saw the car.
00:45:41No, I saw Brandon's car.
00:45:44Oh, okay.
00:45:44I think he sent it.
00:45:45That car window was shot at.
00:45:47But I don't, I think him shooting at his own car is what happened or somebody, somebody he's doing business
00:45:55with.
00:45:56But Brandon totally just spun that to say, well, now I'm hiding with all the kids to protect them.
00:46:02When we spoke with her, Melanie offered us a similar explanation of the shooting.
00:46:07And she denied being part of Lori and Chad's group.
00:46:12Denied there even was a group.
00:46:14Or, as some labeled it, a cult.
00:46:17I'm not and never have been a member of any cult.
00:46:22But on that recorded call, she certainly seemed to talk like a member of what Chad had come to call
00:46:27the Church of the Firstborn.
00:46:31And, yes, she told her friend she was on the hunt for Brandon and the kids.
00:46:36There's, like, a whole bunch of warrior angels that are, like, trying to help find the kids right now.
00:46:41This is unreal.
00:46:42Like, this is, this is, like, this is, like, this is like a crime novel.
00:46:50Yeah, somebody's recording this.
00:46:53Some of what was then very real would be hard to make up.
00:46:58Like a certain text message sent around the same time, recovered later by police.
00:47:04And now, finally, revealed.
00:47:07Chad texting Lori.
00:47:10Big news.
00:47:12His wife Tammy had become a demon named Viola.
00:47:18Something would have to be done.
00:47:22Coming up.
00:47:23Did he ever express frustration to you that Tammy was still alive?
00:47:27Yes.
00:47:28The sudden death of spouse number two.
00:47:31Insiders speak out.
00:47:33I said, oh, wow.
00:47:34What did the coroner say with the autopsy show?
00:47:37And that was it.
00:47:39He knew I knew.
00:47:42He knew I knew.
00:47:53During that first week of October 2019, as investigators in Gilbert, Arizona, looked for whoever fired a shot at Brandon
00:48:01Boudreau,
00:48:04the leaves changed and fall came to eastern idaho and julie roe who writes and speaks about
00:48:12the end times and related matters picked up the phone to call her publisher chad daybell for
00:48:19months chad had been telling julie he'd been having visions about his wife tammy visions of
00:48:25tammy dying it was unsettling said julie i asked him do you still see tammy dying because he had
00:48:33told me he saw her dying in a car accident and he said yes i wouldn't be surprised if she
00:48:37dies in
00:48:37her sleep though even though julie herself routinely discussed prophetic visions and
00:48:44visiting heaven on the other side of the veil she was rattled by the things chad was telling her
00:48:49did he ever express frustration to you that tammy was still alive because he couldn't move on
00:48:55while she was alive yes at least four times that i know of he said to me i don't feel
00:49:00like my plan
00:49:01can move on until tammy dies or until tammy's dead i got this feeling but i could never imagine somebody
00:49:08i knew would kill somebody right oh how many times have we heard that anyway just after that phone
00:49:15call the newly released records revealed chad texted laurie with a real headline chad to laurie
00:49:23hello sweet angel big news about tammy please let me know if you're awake and can talk i love you
00:49:30the short version is that she has been switched tammy is in limbo and a level three demonic entity
00:49:37is in her body sound familiar says i'm nick schneider remember they said the very same thing about charles
00:49:47shortly before alex shot him to death but chad seemed to want to press the accelerator regarding
00:49:53tammy in this text chad wrote not fully sure of the timing for removal but i don't want to wait
00:50:01four days after that text tammy posted on facebook that someone wearing a mask had approached her as
00:50:07she arrived home from a church event and fired several rounds at her with what she thought was a paintball
00:50:13gun this is tommy's sister samantha i think she thought it was a kid was she sure it was a
00:50:20paintball
00:50:20gun i mean i think in her mind what else could it be that it must have been a prank
00:50:25of some kind yeah
00:50:26but who pulls that kind of a prank a prank police don't think so in fact newly released phone records
00:50:33show that earlier that evening laurie's brother alex texted laurie from a burner phone he was on the move
00:50:41i'm showing drive time from apartment to chad's has about 10 minutes meaning police think that alex
00:50:49was the one who fired those rounds at tammy i think that investigators will say this was not a paintball
00:50:56gun this was a real gun that either misfired or the shooter did not aim correctly
00:51:03it was just 10 days after that paintball incident the chad daybell called 9-1-1 to report that tammy
00:51:12had
00:51:13died in her sleep phone records show alex was parked near chad and tammy's that very night and police
00:51:22discovered a text sent to laurie's phone the next morning by a friend i'm not sure if you heard but
00:51:29chad's
00:51:29wife died last night laurie responded oh my gosh i did not hear that i'm in hawaii and at 6
00:51:36a.m do you
00:51:37know what happened the response yes she awoke in the night coughing threw up collapsed and passed away
00:51:46tammy was buried days later in her hometown in utah there was no autopsy chad's choice the sheriff said
00:51:54and law enforcement without knowing any more of the story from arizona had no reason to be suspicious
00:52:02and two weeks later november 5th chad and laurie's romance novel reached what fantasy fiction might call
00:52:10happily ever after they were married on the beach in kawai much to the surprise of tammy's family
00:52:18obviously i was really upset you feel almost betrayed yeah yeah because i because i felt like
00:52:28that was too soon for anybody to get over my sister
00:52:34after a short honeymoon at the kawaii beach resort chad and laurie approached this woman jeannie martin
00:52:40who was advertising an apartment for rent they came in and they said they needed room right away chad
00:52:47filled out this rental application claiming an income of thirty thousand dollars a month claiming
00:52:54he was an author looking for a peaceful place to write jeannie said it was obvious chad and laurie
00:53:00they were very much in love then as they were getting ready to go she stopped and she goes now
00:53:06chad
00:53:07you know is a is a a prophetic guy he's a healer he is the person you want to come
00:53:14to if you need
00:53:14anything i need prayer and i thought well if you say so
00:53:22as a landlord some developed background checking skills that would make a private eye proud
00:53:27but jeannie all she had to do was google chad daybell's name and then she texted chad
00:53:36i came across an obituary for your real wife tammy i said i see that's only been a couple weeks
00:53:43ago
00:53:43i said that must have been a horrible shock you know and i kind of i asked him like what
00:53:47would
00:53:48happen to her and whatever you know hmm and so he came back with this text yes jeannie it was
00:53:55such a
00:53:56shock when i woke up that morning i could clearly see that she had been dead for a couple hours
00:54:03and at the grave she talked to me and she told me she's happy on the other side of the
00:54:07veil
00:54:08helping people like she always does and for me to go on with my life i'm thinking this hasn't been
00:54:14been two weeks and i'm like are you disconnected and i texted back and i said oh wow what did
00:54:22the
00:54:23coroner say we're at the autopsy show and so you you already knew laurie already he never texted me
00:54:30again that was it he knew i knew two dead spouses two missing children laurie's brother alex linked to
00:54:39all of them and now the evidence newly revealed that alex might not have been finished yet
00:54:48coming up what's up alex do you have your id on your man yeah just keep your hands out where
00:54:53we
00:54:53can see him all right alex and his niece melanie was there a new plot afoot out there in the
00:54:59dark
00:54:59we're actually going to be taking you into custody tonight okay when dateline continues
00:55:17as chad and laurie were honeymooning in hawaii back on the mainland some of those in their inner
00:55:24circle were up to something this is police video in american fork utah and this is laurie's niece
00:55:34melanie what was she doing here you'll remember melanie's husband brandon said someone he thought
00:55:41laurie's brother alex had taken a shot at him in arizona after which brandon took the kids and
00:55:47went into hiding eventually ending up here at his parents place just south of salt lake city
00:55:53and now here was melanie right outside demanding to see her children
00:55:58officers i have a legal mediation agreement my kids have been held out of state
00:56:04this was the second time melanie showed up at the house
00:56:07so brandon's dad called the police i asked an officer to come here last night to do a check-in
00:56:13because i'm worried they're in danger but you came over here after being told that you were
00:56:18permanently trespassed but i have an agreement saying from this residence correct this was not long
00:56:23after melanie was seen entering the family's garage my kids are i'm worried they're in danger because
00:56:29i my husband's been doing a lot of things that caused me to worry um he says he was shot
00:56:37at a month
00:56:38ago and then he went into hiding and no one in arizona has seen him for weeks for my children
00:56:43melanie
00:56:44continued to argue with the officers asking them to let her go inside and check on the kids or
00:56:50remove them and put them in her car so police went inside and checked and but they are safe
00:56:58and they're taken care of so we're not just going to go in there and remove them from the house
00:57:01melanie
00:57:02also asked the officer something that well it may sound familiar do you have a victim's advocate i can
00:57:09speak to in the police department please she keeps saying get me a victim's advocate get me a victim's
00:57:14advocate and i can picture laurie saying this to her because that's what happened to laurie
00:57:20when charles was killed she's trying to override the process she won't let go of it then the
00:57:25officers noticed somebody sitting in a car on the street nearby who's in the car with you it's my
00:57:32uncle alex cox uncle alex the very person who brandon believed had tried to kill him who already
00:57:40had killed laurie's husband possibly others as well
00:57:46alex cox you know his date apart
00:57:47i don't you don't i'm sure he'd be happy to give it to you what's up alex yeah do you
00:57:53have your id on
00:57:53your head yeah let me get that for me real quick can i open the door i just gotta yeah
00:57:59yeah if you need
00:58:00to just keep your hands out where we can see him all right you're good minutes later another officer
00:58:05approached alex who is here calm cooperative unruffled pretty good dude not bad you guys
00:58:15come all the way from arizona no oh where are you coming from idaho oh idaho that's right do you
00:58:22live
00:58:22in idaho yeah i just moved up there from where from arizona oh what the heck apparently that was too
00:58:32warm here's your id back man thanks thanks i appreciate it no problem given alex's history
00:58:37it's reasonable to wonder what he and melanie were up to after investigators heard from a friend of
00:58:43laurie's that chad had labeled two of brandon's kids zombies all right melanie today you're gonna be
00:58:51receiving citation for criminal trespass initially police decided to give melanie a ticket
00:58:57because you're not allowed on that property over the phone right but if my kids were in there it
00:59:03doesn't matter we can argue about it all day the conversation continued at the american fork police
00:59:08department and before long officers changed their minds and upgraded the charges okay so things have
00:59:16changed a little bit okay okay um your criminal trespass is enhanced to domestic violence how does that
00:59:25work uh because you were in a domestic relationship uh you had you know in-laws there you trespassed you
00:59:33entered the garage unlawfully so we're actually going to be taking you into custody tonight okay so i'm
00:59:41just going to need you to go ahead and stand up face away from me place your hands behind your
00:59:44back
00:59:48you can just set that right there we'll take everything with you
00:59:57are these cuffs too tight okay i'm going to go ahead and double lock them so they don't cinch
01:00:01up on the right over to the jail okay
01:00:06here just stand right here all right let's go ahead and have a seat in there
01:00:15never been in a cop car and still nearby was melanie's uncle alex
01:00:25mr cox yeah i'm going to leave this with you melanie's going to be going to the utah county jail
01:00:30tonight okay so where would i bail her out or yeah i you're going to be able to bail her
01:00:36out uh
01:00:37uh and it doesn't take very long to process her all right thanks guys within hours alex cox posted
01:00:45nearly two thousand dollars bail and melanie was freed she eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor
01:00:52criminal trespass and received a six-month suspended sentence and a year of probation
01:00:57if those utah police officers unwittingly foiled a murder plot we may never know
01:01:03i see a lot of projection the kids are in danger really you're going to have their uncle alex take
01:01:10them you think that's better i'm it's just that'll make them safer melanie had told a friend that
01:01:16warrior angels were looking for her kids maybe alex was one of them in any case his loyalty to laurie
01:01:26was about to be rewarded coming up someone new sits down to chat with police alex's wife do you think
01:01:38alex truly loved you or was just doing it because chat maurie told him to i have asked that myself
01:01:44many times
01:02:10alex who was about to be rewarded for his efforts on behalf of america and melanie had returned home
01:02:16after her arrest for trespassing in utah she was accompanied by alex who was about to be rewarded
01:02:24for his efforts on behalf of their new church and his sister laurie a ceremony borrowed from mormonism
01:02:32a patriarchal blessing so a patriarchal blessing is a blessing that baptized members of the church
01:02:40go and get from a patriarch or an official who has been called to give these blessings you get them
01:02:47once
01:02:47in your lifetime so how would the lds church view chad giving alex a patriarchal blessing for chad to
01:02:57consider himself a patriarch and then to give a blessing to alex could be blasphemous
01:03:07but newly released records show chad's blessings started like this
01:03:13alexander lamar cox on this special day i lay my hands upon your head to give you a patriarchal
01:03:18blessing as a member of the church of the firstborn of which you have earned the privilege to be a
01:03:24member the blessing was full of flattery and references to alex's service to laurie who remember
01:03:30chad had repeatedly called a goddess powerful goddesses needed to be protected and you were selected to help
01:03:38protect your sister oh yes alex had helped his sister charles was dead tammy was dead laurie's
01:03:46children were missing and now alex was to be rewarded with a wife i bless you with the knowledge that
01:03:54through marriage you will be united with a partner who will match your powers and complement your strengths
01:04:01one of the things that they they started saying to me from the beginning was that um putting me in
01:04:11a position of um
01:04:14being so special this is ulema pastinas another charter member of chad's church of the firstborn
01:04:22her special gift she believed she could conjure up storms and fires call up earthquakes at will and
01:04:31here she is in newly released video talking to the police about another sudden death connected to the
01:04:39group here's how zulema described alex he was the kind of person that i could go deep deep conversations
01:04:49and deep discussions about the scriptures and i'm like i've never been able to do anything like that
01:04:54with anybody much much less you know someone who was interested in you know what i mean zulema had
01:05:03already been married at least three times maybe more but chad and laurie told her she needed to marry
01:05:10alex to complete her mission whatever that was they started um saying you know alex will be part of
01:05:18that for you he will be the supporter that you will need do you think alex truly loved you or
01:05:24was
01:05:24just doing it because chad and laurie told him to i have asked that myself many times i just got
01:05:30this
01:05:30feeling that like okay i think that it's time for me to marry him but before alex and zulema could
01:05:40plan
01:05:40a wedding there was trouble you may have heard this part of the story how in late november 2019 days
01:05:47after that blessing ceremony the grandparents of laurie's son jj alarmed they hadn't heard from
01:05:54him called police who went to laurie's townhouse in rexburg hi you laurie laurie i'm lieutenant
01:06:01ball police department how are you you got a minute police body cams recorded the conversation
01:06:07so jj will be where he's in arizona who's he with in arizona he's with one of my friends in
01:06:14arizona
01:06:15but of course as we now know jj was not in arizona and neither was tyree and the next day
01:06:22when police
01:06:23returned to conduct a more thorough search laurie was nowhere to be found and we now know exactly what
01:06:30laurie and chad did they hopped a plane to orange county california and then flew on to la hui airport
01:06:37on the island of kauai two tickets no kids seven-year-old joshua jj valo and 17-year-old tylee
01:06:47ryan have been missing since september a national search for the children was soon underway
01:06:53and with chad and laurie on the lam some members of the group panicked i remember that we put um
01:07:03meli on the phone and i remember her she just started crying and crying because
01:07:10they weren't answering calls all of a sudden you feel like oh my goodness i have no guidance now
01:07:17except perhaps the guidance offered by chad and laurie's quickie wedding zulema and alex went to
01:07:23las vegas and got married that very week and melanie did too same place same weekend she'd met a man
01:07:32named ian she told us they'd known each other a couple of weeks if you know and feel right about
01:07:38it there's no sense in dating around with tons of people but the honeymoon was over for these
01:07:44members of the church of the firstborn almost before it began coming up did you feel drunk
01:07:55a jaw-dropping a jaw-dropping question was alex's new wife also his new target in my back of my
01:08:04mind
01:08:05i keep thinking that that was supposed to be my last thing and it very well could have been when
01:08:13dateline
01:08:27continues
01:08:28early december 2019 the disappearance of jj entirely was becoming an international news story
01:08:36laurie and chad were losing control
01:08:39and in a story full of chilling disappearances and odd inexplicable moments thanks to the newly
01:08:45released chandler police department records you can now add another las vegas the day after alex and
01:08:53zulema's wedding at their hotel alex who'd been trained as a massage therapist but lost his license
01:09:00in texas for sexual misconduct two decades ago made zulema an offer my back was bugging me and after
01:09:09you know the trip there in the car and he said oh he's like i'll just give you a massage
01:09:14and you know
01:09:14just fix your back i'm like okay so but for some strange reason this is really weird he said that
01:09:23he we needed to find a walmart because he wanted to buy this big huge piece of
01:09:31plastic to put on the bed so the oil didn't get on the bed
01:09:37a moment reminiscent of that tv show dexter and after the massage
01:09:44well zilema said things got even stranger did you feel drunk drowsy like i was kind of like really
01:09:52like drowsy drowsy and then um i remember waking up i was in and out in and out like hear
01:09:58him talking
01:09:59and i'm like alex i'm like who are you talking to he's like nobody i'm talking to myself but he
01:10:09said
01:10:09nothing for the rest of the evening nothing a police detective said that zulema was lucky to be alive
01:10:17and she seemed to know it in my back of my mind i keep thinking that who was on the
01:10:24phone
01:10:26with chad and laurie and that was supposed to be my last thing and he was about to and it
01:10:32very well
01:10:33could have been it's certainly a bizarre moment but the question is if he does intend to kill her
01:10:40what's the motivation sure is it that she knows too much it's time for her to pass on to the
01:10:47next
01:10:47world it's maybe to speed things up since she controls the elements go to the other side and
01:10:52cause an earthquake already i would have to believe that chad daybell would have approved of it
01:11:00if that was the case what would chad want from having zulema murdered that's where it's a little
01:11:07nebulous and there were cracks forming between the other couple married in vegas that weekend as well
01:11:13melanie's new husband ian had an ex-wife who'd heard about the attempted murder of brandon
01:11:19in arizona and was quite concerned about what kind of family ian was joining so she called ian and then
01:11:27she called brandon to warn him this is from a recording of that call the ex relaying to brandon
01:11:34what she had heard from ian about melanie hey brandon it's natalie she admitted to ian
01:11:43that her and her uncle plotted your murder i'm so sorry brandon like i'm sorry i don't know if there
01:11:50was like any question in your mind whether she did it or somebody else but now you know we should
01:11:56note
01:11:56melanie has never been charged with any crime related to the shooting and when we spoke with
01:12:02her denied being involved but the investigation remains open and ian and his ex-wife did go to
01:12:10the police about it as he told us last year he was wondering who the heck have you hooked up
01:12:15with
01:12:16she explained you know her fears and what she'd heard and she said that she was going to be going
01:12:20in and talk to the police tomorrow at that point i didn't know the fbi were going to be there
01:12:24or
01:12:24involved but i said okay yeah i'll go with you and i'll share what i know the fbi was at
01:12:29the meeting
01:12:29because of the search for laurie's missing kids jj and tiley ian agreed to help the fbi by wearing a
01:12:36wire what did they want you to record they wanted the whereabouts of tiley and jj if there was anything
01:12:42i could get on that i did my best for a little bit and you know there was nothing there
01:12:46wasn't being
01:12:47discussed then ian came clean to his new wife that he'd been secretly recording her you know you're
01:12:54shocked like why didn't he come to me you know i'm you know i want to help the whole point
01:12:59was not
01:12:59to come to you sure sure they wanted to know your unguarded thoughts yeah and i didn't have anything
01:13:06to hide and so okay you record my conversations i'm okay with that melanie and ian are still married
01:13:11by the way we asked them to comment for this report they did not respond
01:13:19but things did not go so well for the other newlyweds alex and zulema zulema would later
01:13:26tell police that alex said he was okay with killing charles because he quote killed a zombie
01:13:34but after alex found out that the authorities were going to exhume the body of chad's wife tammy
01:13:39whose death would later be ruled a homicide alex seemed to develop doubts about chad
01:13:45and laurie and the mission and that's when he said i think i am being their fall guy and i'm
01:13:55like
01:13:55the fall guy for what what is it tell me what is it that they're going they're trying to pin
01:14:01on you
01:14:01what what did they do and he just wouldn't say anything else did you think that chad and laurie
01:14:09had done something standard was that your impression based on that statement i didn't know what to
01:14:17think at the time i still saw laurie and chad as a very spiritual kind loving charming
01:14:28law-abiding god-fearing people so why would alex tell zulema about the money
01:14:37he said to me if anything happens to me i want you to know that there is money in a
01:14:44bag
01:14:45in the closet he said it's not much but it's for you and how much is in there between five
01:14:53and seven
01:14:54thousand dollars or something like that did you ask him like what why would anything ever happen to you
01:15:00i did i said what i said don't say things like that alex i said why would you say something
01:15:05like
01:15:05that and then he said um just in case just in case maybe chad wasn't the only one with the
01:15:14visions
01:15:15because what alex told zulema could be called prophetic coming up i remember somebody came
01:15:25saying that she was considered a crime scene and that i needed to leave the man linked to so many
01:15:31deaths now new details about his it's awfully convenient isn't it but is it a little too convenient
01:15:58it's a little more than a year after chad daybell met laurie vallow their spouses charles and tammy
01:16:05were dead laurie's children jj and tiley were missing and presumed dead laurie's niece's husband
01:16:14brandon and survived an attempt on his life it was a tally worthy of la cosa nostra or some sort
01:16:20of
01:16:21crime family all of that in less than six months and there was one more untimely death to come
01:16:30okay what is the emergency a few days after alex told zulema about the bag of money
01:16:37if anything happens to me he was in their bathroom in gilbert arizona and he collapsed
01:16:45and i remember them taking us to the hospital they started working with him and i don't remember
01:16:52much of what happened between that and until the time that they brought me back to the room
01:17:00for me to turn off the machines for him and i remember somebody came saying that i couldn't touch
01:17:10him anymore that he was considered a crime scene and that i needed to leave
01:17:16it will surprise no one that there was considerable suspicion early on of foul play
01:17:22until the autopsy came back and concluded that the death of alex cox was
01:17:29not a crime at all it was blood clots in his lungs that killed him said the me
01:17:36zulema said he'd been complaining about chest pains for about a week killings a priestly blessing
01:17:42and then an untimely death connected somehow who knows alex was 51 he and zulema had been married
01:17:54for less than two weeks it's awfully convenient isn't it yeah that might be the most convenient
01:18:00thing out of this entire story but if zulema mourned the family of charles vallow shot dead by alex six
01:18:08months prior did not well alex probably lucky he died because i'm not an angry or violent person but
01:18:16i tell you what it probably would have taken me a lot to stop from going to arizona paying him
01:18:21a little
01:18:21visit alex was dead the police were investigating the deaths of charles and tammy the fbi was trying to
01:18:29find the missing kids it was all coming down on chad and laurie a month later hey chad and laurie
01:18:38state line how are you on the island of kauai we sat now today no comment where are your kids
01:18:47laurie refused to produce the children and within weeks she was arrested and flown back to idaho
01:18:53in march and three months later on june 9th 2020 investigators found the bodies of jj and tiley
01:19:01buried in the backyard of chad daybell's home this is the last picture ever taken of jj
01:19:09in his red pajamas he was still wearing them when they found his body in the ground
01:19:16chad was arrested while driving away he's been charged with three counts of first-degree murder
01:19:27and conspiracy in connection with the deaths of jj and tiley and his wife tammy not guilty he has
01:19:34pleaded not guilty his trial is scheduled for the summer of 2022 prosecutors are seeking the death
01:19:40penalty from what i understand there will be no plea agreement chad daybell does not want a plea
01:19:46agreement unless all the charges were to be dropped which we know that's not going to happen so chad
01:19:52daybell will take this all the way to the death chamber if that's what it takes in his eyes is
01:19:58there
01:19:58anything to indicate what his defense will be i think they're going to point the fingers at alex
01:20:04and laurie mainly at alex and a lot of this new evidence that's come out from the chandler police
01:20:10department shows that alex did play a fairly significant role in the happenings as for laurie
01:20:17valadavel she has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the deaths of
01:20:23jj and tiley she's also facing conspiracy to commit murder charges in arizona where police believe she
01:20:33planned charles's shooting with alex but laurie's trial is on hold she's being held in a mental health
01:20:42facility after a judge found her not competent to stand trial i'm sure you've heard lots of people
01:20:50suggest that she oh she's just faking it it's a reasonable assumption i think if you look at laurie's
01:20:56history of manipulation and deceitfulness you certainly have to wonder if she is faking it
01:21:03wouldn't surprise you to see this go on and on for quite some time it could you know some of
01:21:07this would
01:21:08depend on how well she does in treatment it's hard not to wonder what might have happened or not happened
01:21:15if laurie's psychiatric issues had been addressed sooner like when her husband charles told the police
01:21:21in gilbert that she believed he was a demon named ned schneider she needs help yeah she needs some
01:21:28serious help when he begged the police to get laurie some help the gilbert police department declined our
01:21:35interview request but issued a statement saying its officers appropriately followed our policies and
01:21:41procedures involving the service of the mental health detainer the end of the awful affair driven by
01:21:48lust and apparently money and maybe even their idea of god and now as they sit alone in their
01:21:57respective confinement laurie vallow and chad daybell think and believe we know not what they might
01:22:05still think that none of this really matters in their mind okay give me the death penalty give me life
01:22:12in prison jesus is coming he's going to save us that may be their train of thought that no
01:22:18matter what happens it's all going to be okay because we're going to be reunited and jesus will
01:22:24return or they could be in for a very big reality check when everything comes crashing down
01:22:32that's all for this edition of dateline we'll see you again next friday at 9 8 central and of course
01:22:39i'll see you each weeknight for nbc nightly news i'm lester holt for all of us at nbc news good
01:22:46night
01:22:49we'll see you again next time
01:22:51we'll see you next time
01:22:52we'll see you next time
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