After being handed down a life sentence without parole for murdering her children, “cult mom” Lori Vallow appeared to be completely unfazed about spending the rest of her life behind bars.
A new mugshot has been released to the public and it shows Vallow smirking as she held up the Corrections sign – with her prisoner identification number on it.
As we previously, during Monday’s sentencing hearing, Vallow’s attorneys asked for a 20-year minimum sentence, begging the judge to give her “hope.” However, after listening to heartbreaking impact statements and listening to Vallow’s weird and disturbing speech, the judge completely dismissed the 20-year request and instead gave her life.
Her lengthy prison sentence was handed down more than three years after the bodies of her son, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and daughter Tylee Ryan, 16, were discovered by authorities in her husband’s backyard in rural eastern Idaho.
In 2019 Vallow made tons of headlines when two of her children went missing for months and she refused to cooperate with Idaho police. While a multi-state search happened, she took a trip to Hawaii to marry her fifth husband Chad Daybell.
One month after the children disappeared, Mr. Daybell’s wife Tammy was also murdered in her home. At the time, her death at 49 was ruled natural causes. However, an exhumation and autopsy revealed she actually died by asphyxiation.
The kids’ remains were found nine months after their disappearance. They were buried deep on Chad’s Idaho property. In April 2021, Lori and Mr. Daybell were charged with their murders, with prosecutors alleging that the couple conspired with Lori’s brother Alex Cox to kill the victims. Ironically, Cox mysteriously died three months after the children’s disappearance.
Vallow was convicted in May of first-degree murder charges, as well as on two separate charges of conspiracy to commit murder of her two children, conspiracy to commit murder of her husband’s former wife as well as a grand theft charge for allegedly continuing to draw Social Security benefits for her children even after their tragic deaths.
During Monday’s sentencing hearing, she spoke out in her defense and claimed “no one was murdered.” Speaking in Fremont County Court, she said: “Jesus knows me and Jesus understands me. I mourn with all of you who mourn my children and Tammy. Jesus Christ knows what happened here. No one was murdered. Accidental deaths happen. Suicides happen.” During her 10-minute shocking rant, she went on to say…
“I have access to heaven and the spirit world. I have had many communications from people now living in heaven, including my children, my sisters, my aunts and my uncle, and my grandparents. I’ve had many communications with Jesus Christ and our heavenly parents, and many angelic visitors.
‘Because of these communications, I know for a fact that my children are happy and busy in the spirit world. I know my friend Tammy Daybell is also very happy and extremely busy.”
Her husband, Chad Daybell, is awaiting trial on the same murder charges.