The Doomsday Mother: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and the End of an American Family

by John Glatt

Overview

In The Doomsday Mother, bestselling true crime author John Glatt tells the twisted tale of Lori Vallow, accused of having her two children murdered to start a new life with her new husband, doomsday prepper Chad Daybell.

At first, the residents of Kauai Beach Resort took little notice of their new neighbors. The glamorous blonde and her tall husband fit the image of the ritzy gated community. The couple seemed to keep to themselves—until the police knocked on their door with a search warrant. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell had fled to Hawaii in the midst of being investigated for the disappearance of Lori’s children back in Idaho—Tylee and JJ—who hadn’t been seen alive in five months.

For years, Lori Vallow had been devoted to her children and her Mormon faith. But when her path crossed with Chad Daybell, a religious zealot who taught his followers how to prepare for the end-times, the tumultuous relationship transformed her into someone unrecognizable. As authorities searched for Lori’s children, they uncovered more suspicious deaths with links to both Lori and Chad, including the death of Lori’s third and fourth husbands, her brother, and Chad’s wife. In June 2020, the gruesome remains of JJ and Tylee were discovered on Chad’s property, and the newlyweds were arrested and charged with murder. And in a shocking development, horrifying statements revealed that the couple’s fanatical beliefs had convinced them the children had become zombies—a belief that may have led to their deaths.

Bestselling author and journalist John Glatt takes readers deeper into the devastating story of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell in an attempt to unravel the lethal relationship of this doomsday couple.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250276674
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/18/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	498,703
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

English-born JOHN GLATT is the author of more than twenty-five books including The Lost Girls and My Sweet Angel, and has over thirty years of experience as an investigative journalist in England and America. He has appeared on television and radio programs all over the world, including Dateline NBC, Fox News, ABC’s 20/20, BBC World News, and A&E Biography.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Part 1 Lori

1 The Cheerleader 7

2 "A Psychological Hornet's Nest" 14

3 Joe Ryan 20

4 A Ticking Time Bomb 25

5 Charles Vallow 30

6 "I'm Going to Kill You" 37

7 Settling Down 43

8 J.J. 50

9 Kauai 55

10 "The World's a Better Place Without Joe Ryan" 62

11 "I Was Going to Murder Him" 69

Part 2 Chad Daybell

12 Leaping Into Eternity 75

13 A Cemetery Courtship 82

14 Spring Creek Publishing 87

15 A Fork in the Road 97

16 Rexburg 101

17 The Owl Necklace 107

Part 3 Gasoline and Fire

18 "If Chad Is Satan, He Sure Is a Good One" 113

19 Nick Schneider 122

20 "I Love Her to Death" 126

21 "I Don't See You Being a Danger" 133

22 Hiding Out in Kauai 142

23 A Death Warrant 150

24 Something's Wrong 158

25 "I Have Some Very Sad News" 166

26 Moving to Rexburg 172

27 "Fun Times!" 180

28 J.J. Was Being a Zombie 186

29 "Something Really Weird Just Happened" 190

30 "My Beautiful, Talented Wife Tammy Passed Away" 195

31 A Beach Wedding 203

32 I'm a Good Person" 208

33 No Task Would Be Too Difficult for Alex 215

34 "He Is Safe and Happy" 222

35 Falling Apart 227

36 Going Public 231

37 Where Are the Children? 234

Part 4 End-Times

38 The Arrest 243

39 "Frankly Heartbreaking" 248

40 Human Remains 257

41 The End-Times fail to Materialize 266

42 "Sucked Into the Vortex of This Man" 281

Epilogue 285

Acknowledgments 291

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/01/2021

This chilling narrative from bestseller Glatt (Golden Boy: A Murder Among the Manhattan Elite) does justice to the case of Lori Vallow, who is accused of plotting the 2019 killings of her 16-year-old daughter, Tylee, and her seven-year-old son, J.J. Vallow became obsessed with the doomsday prophecy of her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, and the couple considered themselves “gods, leading an army of chosen ones to survive the end of world... on a divine mission to rid the world of evil zombies.” After Vallow came to believe that her children were zombies who stood in the way of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, she allegedly persuaded her brother Alex Cox that evil spirits had taken over the bodies of Tylee and J.J., leading him to kill them and hide their remains on Daybell’s Idaho property. Eventually, after Cox’s death from natural causes, the authorities gathered enough evidence to charge both Vallow and Daybell with murder; a trial date is pending. Despite readers knowing the grim ending from the start, Glatt’s extensive research, including interviews with family members, makes this a white-knuckle page-turner as he traces Vallow’s descent into madness. This definitive look at a case Glatt considers the most “terrifying” of his decades of experience as a journalist is must reading for true crime fans. Agent: Jane Dystel, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret Literary. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"A white-knuckle page-turner...This definitive look at a case Glatt considers the most 'terrifying' of his decades of experience as a journalist is must reading for true crime fans." —Publishers Weekly (starred)

“In bestselling author John Glatt’s capable hands, this tragic tale avoids hyperbole and emotionally provocative prose … fascinating, gruesome and harrowing.”—Bookreporter.com

Praise for Golden Boy:

“Piercing … add this one to your beach bag.” –People Magazine

"An in-depth look at an act that shocked the city’s elite.” –New York Post, “30 Best Books on Our Summer Reading List in 2021”

“True crime fans will find this a compelling read.” —Booklist

“Glatt is a balanced narrator of this story; though it would be easy to dismiss Gilbert as a privileged man-child protected by wealth and connections, the author also examines how complicated mental illness diagnoses can be, even for people with access to doctors and treatments….A tragic character study at the intersection of wealth, privilege, and mental illness, told with empathy.” — Library Journal

"Glatt shares alarming revelations about the state of the mental health system, where psychiatrists are largely powerless to intervene even when they see serious psychological issues that could result in harm to the patient or others. This is must reading for true crime enthusiasts who prize depth over salaciousness." —Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Perfect Father:

“Glatt’s expert coverage of the investigation is riveting…police procedural fans will enjoy.” —Publishers Weekly

“[A] gripping read.” —Library Journal

Praise for The Family Next Door:

"This chilling portrayal of abuse and secrecy may leave readers looking differently at their neighbors." —Publishers Weekly

“Thoroughly researched and thoroughly disturbing.” —Booklist

From the Publisher

01/07/2022

Glatt (Golden Boy: A Murder Among the Manhattan Elite) pieces together a bizarre account of murder. In 2019, the disappearances of seven-year-old J.J. Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, a brother and sister from Idaho, generated extensive national media attention. When their bodies were found in 2020, the siblings' mother, Lori Vallow, and her husband, Chad Daybell, were charged with their murders, as well as with the murder of Daybell's former wife. Here, through interviews with Vallow and Daybell's friends and family, Glatt reconstructs events leading up to the disappearances of J.J. and Tylee and postulates that the children were murdered because Vallow and Daybell belonged to a doomsday cult called Preparing a People, and Vallow believed her children had been replaced by zombies. Glatt examines Vallow's and Daybell's early lives and shows how they became susceptible to such ideas. Next, he looks at their relationship to see how the couple's obsession led to their cult involvement and, allegedly, to murder. In addition to his interviews, Glatt also relies on court documents and police reports to enhance his analysis. VERDICT True crime fans will likely be interested in Glatt's fascinating account, which comes out before Vallow's and Daybell's upcoming trials, but the book might become outdated as new information surfaces about this ongoing case.—Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Library Journal