'Cult mom' Lori Vallow told her sister in jail call that she didn't deserve to be a lonely widow after her kids' deaths
East Idaho News/Tony Blakeslee
- The Idaho jury in the murder trial of Lori Vallow heard a jail call between her and her sister.
- In the call, Vallow said she deserved to be happy after the kids' deaths.
- Her sister called her selfish and demanded to know what happened to the children.
BOISE, Idaho — Lori Vallow, the doomsday prepper accused of conspiring to murder two of her children, her husband, and her lover's wife, could be heard telling her sister in a jailhouse phone call that she did not deserve to be a lonely widow.
Vallow's younger sister, Summer Shiflet, took the stand in her murder trial Tuesday. The sisters' call that prosecutors played was recorded in the summer of 2020 while Vallow was in an Idaho jail after police found the remains of her adopted son, JJ Vallow, 7, and his teenage sister, Tylee Ryan.
"I had to go on with my life," Vallow told Shiflet in the call, which was played for an Ada County, Idaho, jury Tuesday. "Trying to find happiness."
Vallow's children were unearthed on the Idaho property of Chad Daybell, a doomsday prepper and preacher whom Vallow had married in November 2019, about two months after investigators believe her children were killed.
In the emotional call, Shiflet expressed anger toward her sister, called her selfish, and urged her to tell her what transpired before the kids' deaths.
Also on the call, Shiflet begged her big sister to reconsider her feelings for Daybell, a former gravedigger and apocalyptic novelist.
"Please consider that Chad has lied and been deceived and you have been deceived," Shiflet told Vallow in the call. "There is nothing OK about killing children!"
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Vallow told her sister about her struggles with the children
According to witness testimony, Vallow believed Daybell's teachings about chosen souls living "multiple lives" and being spiritually inseparable despite death.
On the jailhouse call, Vallow became self-pitying, indignant, and possessive when Shiflet turned accusatory about her parenting.
"Nobody sees me on the floor crying," Vallow told her sister about what it was like to parent the kids. "Nobody knows what I've been through with my children who I love more than anything. Mine."
"I've taken care of them their whole life. Me. Me," Vallow said.
Vallow snapped at her sister's suggestion that anyone else could have provided enough care for Tylee, who had pancreatitis, and JJ, who was diagnosed autistic.
"We would have taken care of them," Shiflet said through tears.
"That's what you think!" Vallow snapped back.
"I would have taken them in a heartbeat," Shiflet said.
"You have no idea," Vallow replied.
Vallow, who wore a cream shawl to court Tuesday, listened to the call with her head cocked to the side while she sat still between her lawyers. Shiflet wept on the stand.
Throughout the brief call, Shiflet accused Vallow of doing "the most incredibly selfish thing I can think of." She told her sister she was sick to her stomach and that she was the only one "stupid enough" to be her friend.
"If you would tell me the truth I would stand up for you to the end of time," Shiflet said.
Each time Shiflet asked Vallow to tell her what happened, Vallow said she could not.
"I can't talk about it," Vallow said. "I would love to."
Shiflet expressed the hurt she felt that Vallow did not tell her that their older brother, Alex Cox, had died. Before Cox's December 2019 death, which was ruled natural by the medical examiner, he conspired with Vallow in four murders, prosecutors say.
"I'm glad he's gone if he was a part of this," Shiflet told Vallow before she added that withholding the news "caused pain throughout our entire family."
"That was never my intention," Vallow said.
Earlier in the day, an FBI agent testified to tracking Cox's cell phone to the locations of JJ and Tylee's graves on the September 2019 nights authorities believe they were killed.
On cross-examination, Vallow's defense attorney Jim Archibald questioned Shiflet about the childhood she shared with Vallow, growing up in sunny Southern California in a churchgoing family of five siblings.
Shiflet told the jury she and Vallow were very close, but that after 2018 her sister's new religious beliefs troubled her.
"We had a good family," Shiflet said. "We had problems, but we had a lot of fun."
On the jailhouse call, Vallow protested to her sister that she had been miscast as a monster by the press.
"Everyone sees what's on TV, that's it," Vallow said.
Sounding angry, Shiflet reminded Vallow that she and Daybell were filmed in Hawaii "dancing on a beach" in November 2019 after her kids were "thrown away like garbage."
"Nobody knows," Vallow said. "I'm sorry honey."