Chad Daybell, an apocalyptic author and publisher, claimed to have visions of the future and to have lived through multiple past lives. He prophesied that the world would end in July 2020. His novels often depicted apocalyptic situations and dystopian futures, and featured characters based on his own family. In a memoir called Living on the Edge of Heaven, he claimed to have had two near-death experiences that allowed him to receive supernatural visions from "beyond the veil." A recurring theme in Chad's writings was a supernatural voice giving instructions and advice to him or to his characters.
His book, Visions of Glory, presents itself as a true account of near-death experiences, detailing miracles of the millennium, the return of the Ten Tribes, the building of the New Jerusalem and temple, and other prophesied events. The book has gained notoriety due to its connection with the Vallow-Daybell doomsday murders, a series of killings committed by Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell.
Chad Daybell's Background and Beliefs
Chad Guy Daybell was born on August 11, 1968, in Provo, Utah, to a Mormon family and grew up in the neighboring city of Springville. He was accepted and enrolled at Brigham Young University (BYU) after high school. One year into college, he applied to be a missionary, for which he spent two years in New Jersey. He then resumed his studies and graduated from BYU with a B.A. By the end of the 2000s, the Daybells were facing financial problems. At that time, Chad's publishing business provided an annual income of approximately $2,000.
Over time, Chad's religious beliefs became increasingly extreme. Jason Gwilliam, the husband of Tammy's sister, later recalled that Chad's views had started changing around 2006 and 2007, as he became "hyper-focused on preparing for end of times." In 2010 or 2011, Chad started claiming he had visions about how the end of the world would occur. During the 2010s, Chad became the publisher of apocalyptic author and self-proclaimed clairvoyant Julie Rowe.
Lori Vallow Daybell and the "Doomsday Cult"
Lori Norene Ryan Daybell, also referred to as Lori Vallow Daybell, was born on June 26, 1973, in Loma Linda, California, and grew up in a Mormon family. In October 2018, Lori attended a "Preparing a People" event where she met Chad for the first time. Gibb and Pastenes both said that Lori had behaved in a very flirtatious manner with Chad at the conference. Chad claimed to Lori that they had been married in multiple previous lifetimes. After their initial meeting, Lori's husband went on a business trip, giving her the opportunity to hold a small overnight gathering at her home. Chad and Gibb were among the attendees, with Chad captivating Lori and the group by sharing his Mormon-influenced, but unique, beliefs. Lori developed a strong attachment to Chad and his teachings.
Read also: Culinary Delights at Shekinah Glory
Reincarnation - a concept which is not accepted by the LDS Church - played a key part in Chad's religious views. He claimed to have lived thirty-one previous lives on different planets and that Lori had lived twenty-one separate lives, five of which coincided with his own experiences on Earth. Chad also claimed to be a reincarnation of James the Less, that Lori had been James' wife under the name "Elena" and that in other past lives Lori had been Mary French, the great-grandmother of Joseph Smith, as well as the wife of the prophet Moroni.
By February 2019, Lori reportedly informed Charles that "she no longer cared about him or J.J.". Charles sought a protective order against Lori at the advice of his attorney. He withdrew the petition one month later, saying he wanted to "try to make the marriage work." Nevertheless, Charles had become so worried by Lori's actions that in February 2019, he changed his $1 million life insurance policy so the beneficiary would be his sister Kay rather than his wife.
The Murders and Investigations
The Vallow-Daybell doomsday murders consist of a series of killings committed by Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell. The murders started when Lori's estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox on July 11, 2019, in Chandler, Arizona. Next, Lori's daughter, Tylee Ryan (16), and adopted son, Joshua Jaxon "J. J." Vallow (7), disappeared from their home in Rexburg, Idaho on September 9 and 23, 2019, respectively. Their remains were found on June 9, 2020. They had been buried on a property owned by Chad, who was Lori's lover at the time of their deaths and had become her husband by the time their bodies were found. On October 2, 2019, Lori's nephew-in-law Brandon Boudreaux survived a murder attempt in Gilbert, Arizona.
Having discovered his wife's affair with Chad Daybell, Charles Vallow confronted Lori about it. On July 11, 2019, Charles went to pick up J.J. at Lori's home in Chandler, Arizona early in the morning. Alex Cox was present. An altercation occurred and Cox shot and killed Charles. Cox claimed self-defense, alleging that he had retrieved his gun after Charles struck him on the head with the bat. Lori did not call 911; it was later determined that Alex Cox had called it about 45 minutes after Charles was killed. Moments after the shooting, Lori took J.J.
By the end of August, Lori relocated to Rexburg, Idaho with her children. While Lori and her children resided in Rexburg, neighbors noticed J.J.'s erratic behavior as Lori often left him outside without adult supervision for long periods of time. J.J. last attended Rexburg's Kennedy Elementary School on September 20. On September 22, Melanie Gibb and her boyfriend, David Warwick, were staying at Lori's home. This was J.J.'s last confirmed sighting. On the next morning, J.J. was absent: Lori told Gibb and Warwick that J.J. was visiting his grandmother in Arizona. On September 23, J.J. was unenrolled from school.
Read also: The Life of Chad Everett Harris
In October 2019, two Venmo payments were made from Tylee's account to her older half-brother, Colby Ryan, with love-expressing messages attached. Brandon Boudreaux and Melanie Gibb later said that Lori and Chad were convinced Tylee and J.J. were "possessed" and had become "zombies". Zulema Pastenes testified that Chad had told his followers that J.J. had been possessed by a demon and that he had to die. The FBI uncovered text messages in which Lori and Chad discussed Tylee and J.J.'s "possession" and mentioned "a perfectly orchestrated plan to take the children".
On October 2, 2019, Brandon Boudreaux, the estranged husband of Lori's niece Melani, was shot at from a Jeep while driving home in Gilbert, Arizona. The bullet missed Boudreaux's head by inches. Boudreaux, who had been close to Charles and Lori Vallow's family, recognized the Jeep as a vehicle used by Tylee Ryan. By tracking Alex Cox's cell phone data, investigators later found that Cox had searched on the Internet for directions to Boudreaux's address and had been present near Boudreaux's home during the hours before the shooting. He had also searched "how to load ammunition", "ballistic trajectory calculators" and, after the shooting, "man shot in Gilbert".
On October 9, 2019, Tammy reported being shot at in her driveway by a masked man with what she thought was a paintball gun. Ten days later, Tammy was found dead in her home, apparently from natural causes. However, after Tammy's body was exhumed and autopsied, it was determined that she had been asphyxiated by someone else. Alex Cox's phone was located near the Daybells' residence on October 9, four hours before Tammy was shot at. It pinged again in the same area ten days later, on the night Tammy died. Police found at Cox's home an AR-15 that resembled the description Tammy had made of the supposed paintball gun.
Chad introduced Lori to his children the day after Tammy's funeral. One week after Tammy's death, he also told Todd and Alice Gilbert that he had found the woman he would marry. Chad and Lori were married in Hawaii on November 5, 2019, two weeks after the death of Tammy, and two months after Tylee and J.J. were murdered. On November 26, police visited Lori's townhouse in Rexburg for a welfare check on J.J. at the request of his grandmother, Kay Woodcock. Police later reached Lori, who claimed that J.J. was in Arizona with her friend Melanie Gibb. However, when contacted by police, Gibb stated that J.J. had not been with her for several months.
On December 6, 2019, Melanie Gibb contacted the police, revealing that both Lori and Chad had called her separately on November 26 and had asked her to tell police that J.J. was with her. Police efforts to locate J.J. led to the discovery that Tylee was also missing. A connection was made between the investigations in Idaho and those in Arizona. Law enforcement agencies intensified their inquiries about the children's whereabouts, as well as Chad and Lori's departure from Idaho.
Read also: "Married to Evil": Chad Graves
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) - Two cases with Utah ties have gained worldwide attention for egregious crimes against children. In both, mothers had a view of their children that was seen as somehow demonic. Lori Vallow Daybell and Ruby Franke are two moms who were both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Public Defender and Content Creator Natalie Wittingham-Burrell has a YouTube channel. She said a major similarity she noticed between both women was their belief that “children have the ability to be overtaken by demons because of activity in past life, or just the behavior in children is somehow seen as demonic.”
While testifying in court, Vallow Daybell’s former friend Melanie Gibb told jurors Vallow Daybell would refer to some people as being “possessed” or as “zombies.” She testified that Vallow Daybell told her people who were light: had signed contracts with “the Savior” - and people who were dark: had signed contracts with “Satan.”
Wittingham-Burrell felt both women talked about the need to “get rid of this evil.”“They each developed this way of removing the demons from the children," Wittingham-Burrell said. "With Daybell, it was these seances, where they would do this type of spirit work to remove the spirits from the children; it was not hands-on. With Franke, it was physical trials to remove the demons from the children, essentially torture of the children to remove these perceived demons from them."
During all this, Wittingham-Burrell felt both women isolated their children from the communities they were in. Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell moved her children to Rexburg, Idaho. When investigators interviewed Ruby Franke’s husband, Kevin Franke, he said he was kicked out. Franke and her youngest children were also staying at Hildebrandt’s house in Ivins, Utah. Investigators asked Kevin Franke, “You haven’t seen any of your kids in over a year, you said?” “That’s correct,” Kevin Franke responded.
Wittingham-Burrell said the argument can be made that a lot of commonalities between Franke and Vallow Daybell seem to be found in a book called, “Visions of Glory.”“They believe they must prepare for the end of the world. That there will only be a limited amount of people who will survive the apocalypse essentially,” Wittingham-Burrell said. “Chad Daybell said Rexburg, Idaho will be the place where people should go to survive the end of the world . . . With Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt, in Ruby Franke’s writing, she talks about the urgency with which Hildebrandt says they need to get away from the rest of the world, with what is to come . . . There’s mention of moving out-of-state. They move away and they isolate, and then the most vulnerable amongst them get harmed.”
Berry also noted the physical characteristics that Vallow Daybell and Ruby Franke might have benefitted from.“In both of their cases, they were also traditionally beautiful,” Berry said. “You can’t judge somebody based on what they look like.
Visions of Glory & Thom Harrison - Jodi Hildebrandt, Tim Ballard, Chad & Lori Daybell | Ep. 1825
Popular articles:
tags: #Chad
