Lori Vallow: US doomsday cult mother convicted of triple murder

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Lori Vallow and her son, JJ.Image source, FBI Salt Lake City

Image caption,

Lori Vallow and her son, JJ, were photographed at Yellowstone National Park in September 2019.

An Idaho mother in a doomsday cult has been found guilty of murdering her two children and her husband's former wife, in a case that shocked the US.

Lori Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, were charged with murder, conspiracy and grand theft in the killings.

The 49-year-old beautician now faces up to life in prison.

The bodies of Joshua "JJ" Vallow, seven, and Tylee Ryan, 16, were found buried at Mr Daybell's home in 2020.

Vallow, flanked by her lawyers, sat impassively as the jury rendered its verdict, finding her guilty on all six counts of murder and grand theft.

Throughout the five-week trial, prosecutors produced 60 witnesses and detailed at times gruesome evidence of the children's final days.

Vallow's defence lawyers did not produce witnesses and she did not testify in her own defence.

Chad Daybell's trial is still months away.

Mr Daybell is an author who has written several apocalyptic novels loosely based on Mormon religious teachings.

The couple are thought to have met through their involvement in a movement that promoted preparing for the end of the world.

Vallow's attorney, Jim Archibald, argued that she was a loving mother who had fallen for a "weird" religious cult leader and that there was no evidence tying her to the killings.

But prosecutors said Vallow had joined Mr Daybell to set in motion a chain of disturbing events that led to the deaths of JJ, Tylee and Mr Daybell's late wife, Tammy.

"Remember, the defendant will remove any obstacle in her way to get what she wants, and she wanted Chad Daybell," Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake said during the trial.

"The defendant used money, power and sex to get what she wanted."

Image source, Handout

Image caption,

The case has generated huge interest because of "cult-like" beliefs of couple

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