The Zombie Murders - "PROPHET & GODDESS: How Doomsday Love Created Family Killers"

0:03 Caalaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Read Carter, and welcome to Celebrity Trials. Today we're beginning a five part series on one of the most disturbing cases in modern American history, a case that shows how love, religion, and delusion can transform ordinary people into cold blooded killers. This is the story of Chad day Bell and Laurie Valo, two people who believed they were chosen by God to survive the apocalypse. Instead, they created their own version of hell on Earth. By the time their killing spree ended, five people were dead, Laurie's fourth husband, her two youngest children, Chad's wife, and Laurie's brother. Chad day Bell was sentenced to death last month.

0:49 Laurie Valo day Bell is serving multiple life sentences, and two families were destroyed by a delusion that started with self published books and ended in shallow graves. But before we get to the murders, we need to understand how two people convince themselves that killing their own family members was not just acceptable, it was divine work. The failed prophet. Let me paint you the picture of Chadguy day Bell in twenty eighteen. He's fifty years old, living in Rexburg, Idaho, with his wife, Tammy, and their five children. To his neighbors, he seems like a typical Mormon family man. Tammy works as a librarian and educator. Chad runs a small publishing company called Spring Creek Book Company from their home. But Chad day Bell has bigger dreams, much bigger. Since the early two thousands, Chad has been writing what he calls fiction based on spiritual truth, books with titles like Standing in Holy Places and The Great Gathering. Their apocalyptic novels loosely based on Mormon theology, filled with near death experiences, prophecies, and preparations for the end times. Here's the thing about Chad's books. They weren't sell. His publishing company was struggling despite writing more than twenty five books. Chad day Bell was essentially a failed author with delusions of grandeur. But failure has a way of radicalizing people, and Chad was about to find an audience among a very specific group, Mormon preppers who believed the end of the world was imminent and were preparing for doomsday. Chad began positioning himself

2:23 not just as an author, but as a prophet. He claimed to have visions of the future, he said he could communicate with spirits. He told followers that Utah would be devastated by an earthquake in twenty fifteen, which is why he'd moved his family to Idaho that year. Most importantly, Chad began teaching that certain people were translated beings, essentially immortal souls who had been chosen to do God's work on Earth, and coincidentally, Chad day Bell believed he was one of these special beings. By twenty eighteen, Chad was speaking at preparing a People Conference, gatherings of fringe Mormons who believed in imminent apocalypse and supernatural gifts. Suzanne Freeman, another author who had worked with Chad, later said she stopped collaborating with him in the twenty tens because she was concerned about his radicalization and his dangerous deviation from mainstream Mormon teachings. But Chad's most dangerous teaching was yet to come. The belief that some people's souls could be replaced by dark spirits, turning them into what he called zombies, and that these zombies needed to be eliminated to free the trapped souls. Now let me introduce you to Lori Noreene Cox born in nineteen seventy three in California. By twenty eighteen, she's forty five years old and has been married four times. That's not a typo. Four husbands by age forty five. Her first marriage was to her high school sweetheart, Nelson Yanes when she was just nineteen. That

3:56 ended in divorce with no children. Marriage number two was to William Lagioya in nineteen ninety five. They had a son, Colby Ryan, but divorced in nineteen ninety six. Marriage three was to Joseph Ryan, and they had a daughter, Tyleie in two thousand and one. Joseph died of a heart attack in twenty eighteen, but not before a contentious custody battle over Tyley. In two thousand and six, Laurie married husband number four, Charles Valow. This seemed like it might be her stable marriage. Charles adopted his grand nephew, Joshua JJ Valo, a boy with autism whose birth parents couldn't care for him. Laurie appeared to be a devoted mother to both JJ and Tyley. But here's what's crucial to understand about Lourie Valo. She was always searching for something Her family and friends described her as someone who was constantly evolving, constantly seeking new spiritual experiences. Around twenty fifteen, Laurie discovered Chad day Bell's Standing in Holy Place book series.

5:01 She became increasingly interested in near death experiences, listening to podcasts by excommunicated Mormons, reading books about spiritual gifts and prophecies. Those closest to Laurie say that before twenty eighteen, she was a loving, devoted mother and a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, but something was changing. Larry Woodcock, who would become JJ's grandfather through Charles, later said he noticed a shift in Laurie in twenty eighteen. It was just crazy, he said, of her new beliefs. I couldn't believe that she was falling for it. October twenty eighteen, a preparing a People conference in Utah. This is where Chad day Bell and Laurie Valo first meet in person, though Laurie had been reading his books for years. Picture this Chad, the failed author, desperate for validation and followers, meets Laurie, the spiritual seeker looking for meaning and purpose. It's a match made in hell.

6:05 According to witnesses, the attraction was immediate and intense. But this wasn't just physical attraction. This was two people who believed they'd found their spiritual soulmate. Chad began telling Laurie that she was also a translated being, one of the one hundred forty four thousand chosen to survive the apocalypse and help Jesus Christ during his second coming. More specifically, Chad told Laurie that she was a goddess named Elena and he was James, and they had been married in previous spiritual lives. Laurie ate it up for someone who had been searching for spiritual significance her entire life. Being told she was literally a goddess chosen by God was intoxicating, But Chad and Laurie's spiritual beliefs quickly took a dark turn.

6:55 They developed what prosecutors would later call a rating system, a way to determine whether people were light or dark, good or evil. Chad claimed he could sense people's spiritual energy and rate them on a scale. More dangerously, they began teaching that some people had become zombies, that their original souls had been replaced by dark spirits, and according to Chad and Laurie's twisted theology, these zombies needed to be eliminated to free the trapped souls and allow them to move on to the spirit world. In the months following their meeting, Laurie Valo underwent what her family described as a complete personality change. Her sister in law, Annie Cushing said there was a tectonic shift in her and she went over the edge. Laurie began distancing herself from family members who questioned her new beliefs. She started calling people who disagreed with her dark or possessed by evil spirits.

7:54 Most chillingly, she began applying Chad's zombie theory to people in her own life. Her friend Melanie Gibb would later testify that she heard Chad and Laurie talking about zombies people whose souls had been replaced by dark spirits. According to Gibb, Laurie started referring to her husband Charles, as a demon. But the most horrifying development was when Laurie began applying the zombie label to her own children. GiB testified that she heard Laurie call her daughter Tylee a zombie. After Tylie refused to babysit JJ when TYLEI responded, not me, mom. Laurie later concluded that JJ had also become a zombie.

8:34 Think about that, for a moment, a mother was being convinced by her lover that her own children were no longer her children, that they were evil spirits inhabiting their bodies. By early twenty nineteen, Charles Vallow was terrified his wife had transformed into someone he didn't recognize. She believed she was a goddess. She thought the world was ending. In July twenty twenty, she had threatened to murder him. On January thirty first, twenty nineteen, Charles went to the Gilbert, Arizona Police with his concerns. Police bodycam footage shows a desperate man trying to save his family. Charles told officers that Laurie believed she was a god assigned to carry out the work of the one hundred forty four thousand at Christ's second Coming. But here's what makes this footage so heartbreaking to watch. Charles is trying to explain beliefs that sounds so crazy, so unhinged, that even he seems to struggle with how to articulate them. When the officer asks how Laurie poses a threat to the children, Charles says, I don't know what she's going to do with them.

9:41 I don't know if she's going to flee with them, if she's going to hurt them. Charles explained that Laurie had threatened to kill him, and he feared for his safety and the safety of the children. He told police that Laurie claimed she could receive revelations and had been having visions. She believed Charles had become possessed by an evil spirit and was no longer her husband. Charles filed for divorce in February twenty nineteen, writing in court documents that he feared for his and the children's safety. In those divorce papers, he described how Laurie had become obsessed with near death experiences and apocalyptic beliefs. He said she had withdrawn thirty five thousand dollars from their joint accounts and disappeared to Hawaii for weeks without telling him where she was going. But Charles Valow had no idea that by trying to protect his family from Laurie's delusions, he had just signed his own death warrant. In Chad and Laurie's twisted worldview, anyone who opposed their mission was an obstacle that needed to be removed. What makes this case even more disturbing is how Chad and Laurie found others willing to participate in their delusions. Laurie's brother, Alex Cox, became their enforcer. A man with a history of legal troubles and complete devotion to his sister, Alex was ready to do whatever Laurie asked of him. Melanie Pawlowski, Laurie's niece, became another true believer. She left her husband Ian to be with Chad's friend Ian Pawlowski, and both couples began

11:14 preparing for the end times. Together. They talked about gathering intense cities to await the apocalypse. They discussed which family members were light and which were dark. Chad also surrounded himself with other fringe believers through his conferences and book sales. These weren't random people. They were often educated, successful individuals who had become convinced that mainstream Mormonism wasn't enough. They wanted special knowledge, insider information about God's plans for the end times. What Chad and Laurie created wasn't just a relationship. It was a cult of personality, with themselves at the center. They convinced their followers that they had special spiritual gifts, that they could see things others couldn't, that they were chosen for us divine mission. More in a moment, but let's talk about something prosecutors would later prove was just as important as the religious delusion. Money. Charles Valo had a one million dollar life insurance policy with Laurie as the beneficiary. JJ received Social Security benefits as an adopted child.

12:32 Tylee had Social Security survivor benefits from her biological father's death. Tammy Daybell had life insurance policies that would pay Chad if she died. Chad's publishing business was failing, Laurie had expensive tastes and had been spending their money freely. The couple was looking at financial ruin if they stayed with their current spouses and kept supporting their children. But if Charles, Tammy, and the children were going on suddenly, Chad and Laurie would have access to hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance payouts and benefit payments. They could start their new life together without financial worries. Prosecutors would later argue that while Chad and Laurie used religious delusion to justify their murders, the underlying motive was as old as time greed. By summer twenty nineteen, Chad Dabell and Laurie Valo had convinced themselves they were divine beings chosen by God to survive the apocalypse. They had developed a system for identifying enemies and obstacles. They believed that eliminating zombies was not murder, it was spiritual warfare. But they had also identified very specific financial benefits to removing the obstacles in their path.

13:50 Charles Valow threatened to expose them, divorce Lauri and cut off her access to his money. Tylee and JJ were not just spiritual burdens. They were financial ones, requiring care and support that would complicate Chad in Laurie's new life. Tammy Dabll wasn't just standing between Chad and his goddess. She was standing between Chad and life insurance money. What they had created was the perfect storm religious delusion that justified murder, combined with financial incentives that made murder profitable. In their minds, these weren't family members. They were spiritual and financial obstacles that God wanted them to remove, and by July twenty nineteen, they were ready to start removing them.

14:37 Here's what I find most chilling about Chad and Laurie's transformation. They didn't need a compound robes or dozens of followers to create a murderous cult. They just needed each other. Two people convinced of their own divine nature created a belief system that justified murdering anyone who inconvenienced them. They gave each other permission to do the thing thinkable by wrapping it in religious language and spiritual justification. This is what makes the Valo de Bell case so terrifying. It shows how quickly ordinary people can rationalize extraordinary evil when they believe they're chosen by God. It reveals how religious language can be twisted to justify the most unholy acts, and it demonstrates that you don't need to be obviously crazy to become a killer. You just need to be convinced that your victims aren't really human. Tomorrow, we'll explore how this delusional theology became a murder plan. How Chad and Laurie began developing their hit list and preparing to eliminate the people they claimed to love. Because what happens next isn't just murder. It's the systematic destruction of two families by two people who believed they were doing God's work.

15:48 This is read Carter with celebrity trials. Truth isn't just stranger than fiction. Sometimes it's more horrifying than anything the human mind can imagine. And sometimes the most dangerous criminals are the ones who think they're saints.