A member of Lori Vallow-Daybell’s inner circle tells all
ADA COUNTY, Idaho (KIFI) - Day four of testimony in the Lori Vallow-Daybell trial began with witness testimony from Melanie Gibb. Gibb met Vallow-Daybell in Arizona at a church event in October 2018. She said she had a close friendship with the defendant and a casual friendship with her husband Chad Daybell.
The prosecution asked Gibb about the nature of Lori's relationships with her children "JJ" and Tylee. She said "JJ" and Lori interacted more when she first met them, that she would see Lori sing to him. But as time went on Lori seemed distracted. Gibb said Lori's relationship with Tylee was strained.
When Chad met Lori
State attorney Lindsay Blake asked Gibb what she observed in the first meeting between Lori and Chad Daybell at a conference in St. George. Gibb said, "They were very friendly to each other, very interactive, talking about their ideas and beliefs at the time. There was definitely an attraction in the beginning."
"She seemed flattered by him..." Gibb said.
Lori and Chad were both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time. The couple allegedly exposed extreme apocalyptic beliefs loosely based on the Church's teachings.
Blake asked Gibb about what Chad and Lori talked about during their first meeting. "He expressed to her that he believed that they had been married in multiple probations(lifetimes)," Gibb said.
"He told her they had been married in a different time period," Gibb said.
Blake then asked Gibb if Lori believed him. She said she did.
"She already had the belief in multiple lives as she called it before she met him," Gibb said.
"She felt and she shared with me that she had been married to a prophet from the Book of Mormon called Moroni," Gibb said.
After the conversation Gibb said she continued to keep in contact with both Chad and Lori.
The next meeting
Blake asked Gibb when Lori next saw her co-conspirator Chad Daybell. Gibb said they saw each other again at a conference event in Arizona.
Chad and Lori allegedly interacted at the conference, then Chad stayed at Lori's house while her husband was out of town.
"She told me that they had been married four or five times. And she would go into different details with me about who she was and which character she was..." Gibb said. "That weekend he was in town...they met in the temple together. They were somewhere in there in maybe a waiting area room. She said Moroni was there and Jesus was there and multiple lives, and they got to be sealed there. It wasn't like done by the church or approved by it. It was ,like, multiple lives."
Lori allegedly believed she was part of the one hundred and forty four thousand, which is a biblical reference about the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ. Gibb said Lori and Chad believed they would be the head of the group and they told members of their inner circle.
Blake asked Gibb about how long after meeting Chad, Lori began to tell her friends about her apocalyptic beliefs. Gibb said it took weeks.
Light and Dark, Lori's belief system
Blake then asked Gibb to explain Lori's beliefs about evil spirits. Lori Allegedly believed that some people were possessed by evil spirits. She called those people "Dark."
"First it was that they were working under the contract of satan, then it would change more and more," Gibb said.
"My first experience with her telling that with me, I believe it was in the second house I met her in. It was probably that January time in 2018. She first started telling me all the information she heard from Chad. She told me that Chad told her Charles Vallow was taken over by an evil spirit. and that made him dark according to them."
Gibb said Charles was the first individual she ever heard Lori call "Dark."
Lori's dream
Blake asked Gibb to explain to the court a dream Lori had told her about.
"She shared with me that Charles was getting ready to go to Texas," Gibb said. "That she had seen him in a car accident and that JJ was with him and that he was not going to be back."
JJ was allegedly traveling with Charles at the time.
"She would talk about different experiences with Charles, and her experiences with Chad and how they envisioned getting together and that their spouses would pass away," Gibb said. "That was the plan revealed to them that their spouses would pass away."
Gibb said she participated in attempts to cast out evil spirits with Chad and Lori. She says Lori believed the body of a person was taken over by the evil spirit and that the spirit of the person was gone.
"They thought they were able to cast out the spirit who had taken over Charles' body, whose name was Ned. Then they saw Charles was still alive," Gibb said. "Then they'd come up with another idea, or another spirit, or another name and that was the spirit who had taken over."
Lori and Charles allegedly began calling people possessed by evil spirits "Zombies" only weeks after their original idea.
Gibb says Lori and Chad believed Brandon Boudreaux was "dark" or possessed. They allegedly believed that he was working for Satan and was a reincarnated member of Hitler's regime.
Gibb said Lori told her Charles Vallow, Kay Woodcock, her daughter Tylee and eventually her son JJ were dark or possessed. She first heard Lori call JJ possessed in 2019.
The death of Lori's husband
Lori allegedly invited Alex Cox to stay with her before the death of her husband in 2018.
"She told me he needed to stay there to protect her, because Charles was going to kill her," Gibb said.
"She told me that when he came in the house he was argumentative with her, that she had JJ in the car, that she had his phone..." Gibb said. "Alex interacted with her and got argumentative with him, then he went and got his gun and he shot him."
Gibb said Chad Daybell came to visit around a week after Charles' death. "There was a highness and excitement," Gibb said.
Gibb had the impression Chad and Lori communicated multiple times a day before the death of Charles Vallow. Allegedly she had two cell phones, one just for Chad then her regular cell phone.
Gibb said Lori indicated she and Chad were intimated while Charles and Tammy were still alive. "She explained that because they were married in multiple lives and because they had a mission it was okay," Gibb said.
"She told me that was not the lord's will to get a divorce, it seemed, especially Chad shouldn't get divorced because he'd be penalized for that," Gibb said. " Something too, he would lose his exaltation or his standing with God."
Blake asked Gibb if Lori had ever talked about life insurance before Charles died. "She said she had something like 3 million dollars of life insurance on her(Lori)," she said.
She said Lori allegedly discovered that Charles had changed his insurance policy so Kay Woodcock was the beneficiary.
Lori allegedly indicated to Gibb a desire to stop caring for JJ or to get rid of him. "She indicated that she was going to ask Kay to take care of him or watch him from now on," Gibb said.
She last saw Tylee in 2019 when the family moved to Idaho.
Gibb visits Idaho
Gibb and her boyfriend David stayed with Lori in Idaho in September 2019. Allegedly, Tylee was absent for the entirety of their visit.
"She told me she was at BYU and that she was staying with some female friends at the dorms on BYU campus," Gibb said.
Gibb said during their visit, Lori told her JJ was possessed by an evil spirit. "She would tell me his behavior was more difficult, that his speech was more intelligent," Gibb said. "She would tell me that he would say 'I love Satan'. That he would climb up on the cabinets."
Gibb saw JJ a handful of times before her visit to Idaho. She said "he seemed to be a typical seven year old autistic kid."
Blake asked Gibb if she had the opportunity to observe Chad and Lori's relationship while on the trip. She says they seemed very affectionate.
Blake then asked about the nature and secrecy of Chad and Lori's relationship.
"Chad had indicated that David that weekend that he'd appreciate it if he didn't share with anybody about their(Chad and Lori's) relationship," Gibb said.
At one point, JJ began to misbehave, and Chad took him upstairs. Gibb said when he came down his neck was red, and he said JJ scratched him.
On the night of Sept. 22, Alex allegedly put JJ to bed. Gibb said that was the last time she saw JJ on her visit.
Lori allegedly told her JJ was staying with Kay around two weeks after she left.
"She told me that she had met Kay in an airport, she told her she(Lori) had cancer and she'd prefer for her to take care of him," Gibb said.
JJ and Tylee missing
Gibb was later contacted by Chad Daybell while the Rexburg Police conducted a wellness check for JJ.
"He told me that Rexburg police would be calling and not to answer the phone," Gibb said. "I asked him, "he's not with Kay?' and he said, 'No he's not.'"
Chad allegedly told her Lori would be calling her and not to talk to the police. Gibb said he seemed nervous.
"She told me the police came by and she told them I had JJ," Gibb said. "She told me to tell them I had JJ and to take random pictures of kids running around at the movie theater."
Lori allegedly told Gibb she believed the police were dark. Gibb said she also believed Kay and the police were after her.
"She told me that JJ's life was in danger. And that Kay was trying to kidnap him," Gibb said.
Blake asks Gibb why she didn't immediately contact law enforcement. She says she was in shock.
Gibb says she was still friends with Lori at the time and didn't know what to believe. When contacted by law enforcement in Gilbert, she told them she had JJ but she didn't anymore.
Eventually, Gibb contacted law enforcement and admitted she never had JJ.
The phone call
Blake then presented a 20 minute recording made by Gibb of a call between herself, Chad and Lori.
In the recording, Gibb asks Lori why JJ wasn't with Kay.
She then told police JJ was with her. Lori said, "my whole family is working against me with her(Kay)."
Lori then claimed that JJ was safe.
Gibb asked why police said JJ couldn't be found. Lori and Chad fell silent.
"The police are working with her[Kay] in some dark capacity," said Loir on the recording. "There's no reason for them to be after me."
Gibb continued to ask about JJ's location.
"I know exactly where he is, he's perfectly fine," Lori said.
Then Gibb tried to share a scripture with the couple. Lori interrupts and compares her situation to the scriptural figures from the Book of Mormon who fled from evil and corrupt kings and governments.
Gibb told the couple, "the Lord doesn't work in darkness."
Lori continued to defend herself and talk about the darkness of the police and Kay.
In the recording, Gibb drops any pretense and asks about Tammy, JJ's location and how the situation seems suspicious. She told Lori, "I believe you've been deceived."
Lori responds, "this doesn't sound like you, this seems dark."
As the recording continued, the couple continued to defend their position, talk about defending themselves from conspiracy theories and compare themselves to scriptural figures.
Lori and Chad argued with Gibb about the will of the Lord, false prophets and casting off natural desires.
"Well honey, we know you have a lot of natural desires. We all know about that," Gibb said.
Gibb and the couple began to argue more aggressively as the recording continued. Lori eventually hung up.
Th
ADA COUNTY, Idaho (KIFI) - Day four of testimony in the Lori Vallow-Daybell trial began with witness testimony from Melanie Gibb. Gibb met Vallow-Daybell in Arizona at a church event in October 2018. She said she had a close friendship with the defendant and a casual friendship with her husband Chad Daybell.
The prosecution asked Gibb about the nature of Lori's relationships with her children "JJ" and Tylee. She said "JJ" and Lori interacted more when she first met them, that she would see Lori sing to him. But as time went on Lori seemed distracted. Gibb said Lori's relationship with Tylee was strained.
When Chad met Lori
State attorney Lindsay Blake asked Gibb what she observed in the first meeting between Lori and Chad Daybell at a conference in St. George. Gibb said, "They were very friendly to each other, very interactive, talking about their ideas and beliefs at the time. There was definitely an attraction in the beginning."
"She seemed flattered by him..." Gibb said.
Lori and Chad were both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time. The couple allegedly exposed extreme apocalyptic beliefs loosely based on the Church's teachings.
Blake asked Gibb about what Chad and Lori talked about during their first meeting. "He expressed to her that he believed that they had been married in multiple probations(lifetimes)," Gibb said.
"He told her they had been married in a different time period," Gibb said.
Blake then asked Gibb if Lori believed him. She said she did.
"She already had the belief in multiple lives as she called it before she met him," Gibb said.
"She felt and she shared with me that she had been married to a prophet from the Book of Mormon called Moroni," Gibb said.
After the conversation Gibb said she continued to keep in contact with both Chad and Lori.
The next meeting
Blake asked Gibb when Lori next saw her co-conspirator Chad Daybell. Gibb said they saw each other again at a conference event in Arizona.
Chad and Lori allegedly interacted at the conference, then Chad stayed at Lori's house while her husband was out of town.
"She told me that they had been married four or five times. And she would go into different details with me about who she was and which character she was..." Gibb said. "That weekend he was in town...they met in the temple together. They were somewhere in there in maybe a waiting area room. She said Moroni was there and Jesus was there and multiple lives, and they got to be sealed there. It wasn't like done by the church or approved by it. It was ,like, multiple lives."
Lori allegedly believed she was part of the one hundred and forty four thousand, which is a biblical reference about the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ. Gibb said Lori and Chad believed they would be the head of the group and they told members of their inner circle.
Blake asked Gibb about how long after meeting Chad, Lori began to tell her friends about her apocalyptic beliefs. Gibb said it took weeks.
Light and Dark, Lori's belief system
Blake then asked Gibb to explain Lori's beliefs about evil spirits. Lori Allegedly believed that some people were possessed by evil spirits. She called those people "Dark."
"First it was that they were working under the contract of satan, then it would change more and more," Gibb said.
"My first experience with her telling that with me, I believe it was in the second house I met her in. It was probably that January time in 2018. She first started telling me all the information she heard from Chad. She told me that Chad told her Charles Vallow was taken over by an evil spirit. and that made him dark according to them."
Gibb said Charles was the first individual she ever heard Lori call "Dark."
Lori's dream
Blake asked Gibb to explain to the court a dream Lori had told her about.
"She shared with me that Charles was getting ready to go to Texas," Gibb said. "That she had seen him in a car accident and that JJ was with him and that he was not going to be back."
JJ was allegedly traveling with Charles at the time.
"She would talk about different experiences with Charles, and her experiences with Chad and how they envisioned getting together and that their spouses would pass away," Gibb said. "That was the plan revealed to them that their spouses would pass away."
Gibb said she participated in attempts to cast out evil spirits with Chad and Lori. She says Lori believed the body of a person was taken over by the evil spirit and that the spirit of the person was gone.
"They thought they were able to cast out the spirit who had taken over Charles' body, whose name was Ned. Then they saw Charles was still alive," Gibb said. "Then they'd come up with another idea, or another spirit, or another name and that was the spirit who had taken over."
Lori and Charles allegedly began calling people possessed by evil spirits "Zombies" only weeks after their original idea.
Gibb says Lori and Chad believed Brandon Boudreaux was "dark" or possessed. They allegedly believed that he was working for Satan and was a reincarnated member of Hitler's regime.
Gibb said Lori told her Charles Vallow, Kay Woodcock, her daughter Tylee and eventually her son JJ were dark or possessed. She first heard Lori call JJ possessed in 2019.
The death of Lori's husband
Lori allegedly invited Alex Cox to stay with her before the death of her husband in 2018.
"She told me he needed to stay there to protect her, because Charles was going to kill her," Gibb said.
"She told me that when he came in the house he was argumentative with her, that she had JJ in the car, that she had his phone..." Gibb said. "Alex interacted with her and got argumentative with him, then he went and got his gun and he shot him."
Gibb said Chad Daybell came to visit around a week after Charles' death. "There was a highness and excitement," Gibb said.
Gibb had the impression Chad and Lori communicated multiple times a day before the death of Charles Vallow. Allegedly she had two cell phones, one just for Chad then her regular cell phone.
Gibb said Lori indicated she and Chad were intimated while Charles and Tammy were still alive. "She explained that because they were married in multiple lives and because they had a mission it was okay," Gibb said.
"She told me that was not the lord's will to get a divorce, it seemed, especially Chad shouldn't get divorced because he'd be penalized for that," Gibb said. " Something too, he would lose his exaltation or his standing with God."
Blake asked Gibb if Lori had ever talked about life insurance before Charles died. "She said she had something like 3 million dollars of life insurance on her(Lori)," she said.
She said Lori allegedly discovered that Charles had changed his insurance policy so Kay Woodcock was the beneficiary.
Lori allegedly indicated to Gibb a desire to stop caring for JJ or to get rid of him. "She indicated that she was going to ask Kay to take care of him or watch him from now on," Gibb said.
She last saw Tylee in 2019 when the family moved to Idaho.
Gibb visits Idaho
Gibb and her boyfriend David stayed with Lori in Idaho in September 2019. Allegedly, Tylee was absent for the entirety of their visit.
"She told me she was at BYU and that she was staying with some female friends at the dorms on BYU campus," Gibb said.
Gibb said during their visit, Lori told her JJ was possessed by an evil spirit. "She would tell me his behavior was more difficult, that his speech was more intelligent," Gibb said. "She would tell me that he would say 'I love Satan'. That he would climb up on the cabinets."
Gibb saw JJ a handful of times before her visit to Idaho. She said "he seemed to be a typical seven year old autistic kid."
Blake asked Gibb if she had the opportunity to observe Chad and Lori's relationship while on the trip. She says they seemed very affectionate.
Blake then asked about the nature and secrecy of Chad and Lori's relationship.
"Chad had indicated that David that weekend that he'd appreciate it if he didn't share with anybody about their(Chad and Lori's) relationship," Gibb said.
At one point, JJ began to misbehave, and Chad took him upstairs. Gibb said when he came down his neck was red, and he said JJ scratched him.
On the night of Sept. 22, Alex allegedly put JJ to bed. Gibb said that was the last time she saw JJ on her visit.
Lori allegedly told her JJ was staying with Kay around two weeks after she left.
"She told me that she had met Kay in an airport, she told her she(Lori) had cancer and she'd prefer for her to take care of him," Gibb said.
JJ and Tylee missing
Gibb was later contacted by Chad Daybell while the Rexburg Police conducted a wellness check for JJ.
"He told me that Rexburg police would be calling and not to answer the phone," Gibb said. "I asked him, "he's not with Kay?' and he said, 'No he's not.'"
Chad allegedly told her Lori would be calling her and not to talk to the police. Gibb said he seemed nervous.
"She told me the police came by and she told them I had JJ," Gibb said. "She told me to tell them I had JJ and to take random pictures of kids running around at the movie theater."
Lori allegedly told Gibb she believed the police were dark. Gibb said she also believed Kay and the police were after her.
"She told me that JJ's life was in danger. And that Kay was trying to kidnap him," Gibb said.
Blake asks Gibb why she didn't immediately contact law enforcement. She says she was in shock.
Gibb says she was still friends with Lori at the time and didn't know what to believe. When contacted by law enforcement in Gilbert, she told them she had JJ but she didn't anymore.
Eventually, Gibb contacted law enforcement and admitted she never had JJ.
The phone call
Blake then presented a 20 minute recording made by Gibb of a call between herself, Chad and Lori.
In the recording, Gibb asks Lori why JJ wasn't with Kay.
She then told police JJ was with her. Lori said, "my whole family is working against me with her(Kay)."
Lori then claimed that JJ was safe.
Gibb asked why police said JJ couldn't be found. Lori and Chad fell silent.
"The police are working with her[Kay] in some dark capacity," said Loir on the recording. "There's no reason for them to be after me."
Gibb continued to ask about JJ's location.
"I know exactly where he is, he's perfectly fine," Lori said.
Then Gibb tried to share a scripture with the couple. Lori interrupts and compares her situation to the scriptural figures from the Book of Mormon who fled from evil and corrupt kings and governments.
Gibb told the couple, "the Lord doesn't work in darkness."
Lori continued to defend herself and talk about the darkness of the police and Kay.
In the recording, Gibb drops any pretense and asks about Tammy, JJ's location and how the situation seems suspicious. She told Lori, "I believe you've been deceived."
Lori responds, "this doesn't sound like you, this seems dark."
As the recording continued, the couple continued to defend their position, talk about defending themselves from conspiracy theories and compare themselves to scriptural figures.
Lori and Chad argued with Gibb about the will of the Lord, false prophets and casting off natural desires.
"Well honey, we know you have a lot of natural desires. We all know about that," Gibb said.
Gibb and the couple began to argue more aggressively as the recording continued. Lori eventually hung up.
The court then took a mid-morning break.
