Lori Vallow Daybell says nobody was murdered and she is fulfilling divine mission in new interview with son

IDAHO FALLS — Lori Vallow Daybell says her children were not murdered, she is on a mission from Jesus and her case has been blown “way out of proportion.”

The convicted killer made the statements to her oldest son, Colby Ryan, in a phone conversation from the Maricopa County Jail in Arizona. She is awaiting trial on conspiracy to commit murder charges in relation to Charles Vallow, her fourth husband, and Brandon Boudreaux, her former nephew-in-law.

Ryan posted the 64-minute conversation Sunday on his YouTube program, “The Scar Wars podcast.” It’s the first time he has spoken with his mom in four years, and the first time the public has heard from Daybell since she read a statement at her sentencing in Fremont County in July 2023. Judge Steven Boyce ordered her to serve life in prison for the murders of Tylee Ryan and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, her children, and Tammy Daybell, the former wife of her current husband, Chad Daybell.

At times, the call between Ryan and Daybell is interrupted and hard to hear due to background noise at the jail. But for the majority of the conversation, Daybell maintains she is “following Jesus” and “doing her job.”

“There is higher knowledge for people who need to know it. People who don’t need to know it, don’t need to know it. It comes directly from Jesus to me. It doesn’t come from any other source. It comes from Jesus Christ directly to me,” Daybell says.

Daybell stood by statements she made during her sentencing that nobody was murdered; rather, accidents, suicides and “fatal side effects of medications happened.”

She blamed Tylee for the deaths, saying shortly after the family moved to Rexburg, her daughter was mad at her. Daybell insinuated that while Tylee was babysitting JJ at their apartment, she accidentally killed him and then took her own life.

“What if Tylee was holding JJ down and trying to get him not to scream and be loud in an apartment? What if she held him down too long and realized afterward what she had done?” Daybell said to Ryan. “When I came in on that scene and they were gone, I thought Tylee did it to get back at me. I thought it was all my fault. I thought she was mad at me, and that’s what happened.”

Daybell told Ryan that once she found her dead children, she “ran out,” and someone else did something with their bodies.

“I wasn’t aware what happened to them after I left that scene,” she said. “Their spirits were gone from their bodies. They were already in heaven.”

Daybell’s explanation does not match the timeline investigators laid out during her trial – that Tylee died first, on Sept. 9, 2019, two weeks before JJ was killed on Sept. 23, 2019. Their bodies were found buried on Chad Daybell’s property in June 2020.

JJ was found wrapped in plastic and duct tape with a plastic bag taped over his head. Tylee’s body had been cut up and burned before she was buried. Parts of her are still missing.

“She was brutally mistreated after her death. It wasn’t even human. It’s the most brutal thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” Ryan told his mom.

She responded, “When I found my little precious babies, there was no bag. There was no duct tape. There was nothing like that. They were just gone. Anything that was done was after the fact – long after the fact.”

After the children died, Daybell said JJ and Tylee visited her, presumably in spirit form, and Tylee “told me, ‘I’m sorry, Mom, for being such a brat.'”

“The reason Tylee and JJ visited me right after that is to tell me it wasn’t my fault. I was blaming myself 100%,” Daybell said. “I didn’t want anyone to know what Tylee had done to JJ. I wanted to continue to protect Tylee as her mother who has been trying to protect her for her whole life.”

Ryan told his mom he does not believe her claims, and she is “beyond deceived.” Daybell responded that her case has been blown out of proportion and the “media flood” against her is from Lucifer.

“There are eight women in my pod right now facing the death penalty. I help them every day. I help them do their workouts, I help them with their cases. (Satan) does not want this job done. He does not want me to uplift these women and strengthen them,” Daybell said. “Whether Jesus needs me to help him and serve him in Primary (the Latter-day Saint organization for children) or in prison, he asks me to do this.”

Daybell tells Ryan she misses him, loves him and their relationship is eternal. She asks to be a part of his life and the lives of his young children, a request Ryan denies.

“I have no malice toward you. I do 100% forgive you. I forgive you. I’m not going to hold you in a jail cell in my heart, but you can not be a part of my children’s lives. You and I can’t even be a part of each other’s lives. I don’t feel like I know you anymore,” Ryan says.

Daybell replies that her mission will eventually be revealed to everyone and begins to cry while telling her son nothing could have been done differently.

“When we get to heaven, we’ll know. I can’t tell you anything different, and I don’t care what anybody thinks. They weren’t there. They don’t know,” Daybell says.

After the call disconnects, Ryan explains that he made the decision before interviewing Daybell that he would not try and rebut her statements “because there’s no point.”

“There would have been no conversation, and it would have been chaos. She’s so convicted of her truth and her reality. She truly believes what she believes,” Ryan says.

Before ending the video, Ryan firmly states that Tylee had nothing to do with the deaths before he breaks down sobbing.

“My sister did not kill my brother. She didn’t and to put it on her is so unfair. It’s so unfair to Tylee. She would never do that,” Ryan says.

Watch Colby Ryan’s entire interview with Lori Vallow Daybell in the video player below: