‘Sins of our Mother’ director opens up about Daybell docuseries set for release on Netflix
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story and interview were completed before Colby Ryan was arrested and charged with sexual assault.
IDAHO FALLS — A three-part series examining the Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell murder case is set to be released on Netflix this month.
“Sins of Our Mother” explores how Lori Daybell “spiraled downward into religious fanaticism and paranoia to find herself and her fifth husband standing trial for murder,” according to Netflix.
The story is told through the eyes of Colby Ryan, Lori’s oldest son, and a trailer for the documentary series begins with a tense phone call between the two. Daybell is in jail and asked Ryan how he’s doing. He replies, “I’m not good, Mom.”
Home videos of the family in happier times are shown, and Ryan opens up about his mother facing murder charges for the death of his siblings, Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow. A grand jury in Arizona also charged her with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection to the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.
“Colby has been dealing with the loss of his mother, the loss of his brother and sister, the loss of Charles, who he considers his father – how do you do that? How do you put one foot in front of the other? How do you reconcile yourself with that?” Skye Borgman, the director of the documentary, tells EastIdahoNews.com.
Borgman has been working on the project for over two years. She’s directed “Abducted in Plain Sight,” “Girl in the Picture” and other true-crime documentaries but says “Sins of Our Mother” is different.
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“There’s a lot of information I feel we don’t have, and that’s not always the case with other stories I’ve done,” Borgman explains. “This is still a story in motion. I don’t even know if once the trial is concluded that this story will be concluded.”
Borgman says one of the goals of the docuseries was to get past the tabloids “blasting cult mom type headlines” and explore how the events have affected Ryan and others, like Barry and Janis Cox – Lori’s parents and Ryan’s grandparents – who also appear in the series.
“Sins of Our Mother” was nearly finished and ready for release last year, but police in Arizona released a large file of text messages, photos, video interviews and other details made public for the first time. Borgman met with Netflix, and the decision was made to re-work the series.
“At that point we said we have to get this in. There was so much more information there that really gave a lot more insight and specifics to, I think, Lori’s decline, the methodology behind it and to the actual messages that were going on back and forth,” Borgman says.
Borgman says she learned a lot about Lori Daybell working on the project but still doesn’t understand her and isn’t sure if anyone ever will.
“I still have a really hard time understanding how she could have gotten so extreme in her beliefs to have killed or at least had a hand in killing her children,” Borgman says.
Watch our entire interview with Borgman in the video player above.
‘Sins of Our Mother’ is set to be released on Sept. 14.
