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Cult mom Lori's Vallow's son says his biggest fear is that her story will become 'our family's story'

Sep 8, 2022, 20:19 IST
Insider
Lori Vallow and Colby Ryan posed together for a photo.Provided by Netflix
  • Colby Ryan, the only living son of Lori Vallow Daybell, is featured in a Netflix documentary.
  • Ryan said his 'biggest fear' is that his mother's story will be his family's legacy.
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Colby Ryan, the adult son of the doomsday prepper accused of killing her two other children, said he worries his estranged mother will taint the legacy of his entire family.

Vallow Daybell and her husband Chad Daybell — who had formed a spiritual cult — are awaiting trial on charges that they killed their former spouses and young children.

In a Netflix docuseries that centers on the couple's bizarre beliefs and the web of murder investigations they're entangled in, Ryan says he is doing whatever he can to pass memories of his late siblings on to his young daughter.

"My biggest fear is that my mom's story becomes our family's story," Ryan says in final episode of the series. "She's not going to define anything else."

"Sins of Our Mother," a three-part series, will start streaming September 14 on Netflix.

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In it, Vallow Daybell's mother, son, daughter-in-law and several people once tied up in her doomsday beliefs speak out about the case.

Skye Borgman, the director, told Insider that the series is intended to help people understand more about who Vallow was before the alleged killings and "how this snowball started rolling down the hill.

"When this story really first hit, it was a lot of information," she told Insider. "When Arizona [police] released a lot of their information, we were able to connect the dots."

The disappearance of J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan captivated the country in 2020 after Vallow and Daybell, who had been recently married, turned out to be vacationing in Hawaii while law enforcement tried to locate the children.

On November 25, 2020, 7-year-old J.J. Vallow's grandmother called police to report that she hadn't seen him or his 17-year-old sister Tylee in months and was worried.

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To find out where Lori Vallow was living, the woman, Kay Woodcock, accessed an Amazon account that belonged to her son — Lori's late husband — who had been shot and killed a few months earlier.

Police visited the address in Rexburg, Idaho, and found Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow, who told police a series of lies about where the children were, according to Insider's earlier reporting.

When police returned the next day with a search warrant, the couple had fled.

Two months later, the couple was found vacationing in Hawaii without the kids, and police began linking them to a list of other suspicious deaths and missing persons investigations.

Lori Vallow has since been charged in the killing of her former husband, Charles Vallow, on July 11, 2019.

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On that day, Chandler Police in Arizona responded to the shooting of Vallow's estranged husband, Charles, at her home, according to a police report provided to Insider by Sgt. Jason McClimans. Vallow's brother, Alex Cox, told police at the time that he shot Charles Vallow in self-defense.

After investigating the case further, though, police accused Vallow — a self-claimed prophet — with planning the killing with Cox after convincing him Charles Vallow was possessed by a demon.

After the death of Charles, Vallow and Cox moved to Rexburg, Idaho, where Vallow married doomsday novelist Chad Daybell — who she previously met at a "Preparing a People" event.

The wedding took place a month after Daybell's wife — Tammy — was found dead. He has since been charged in her murder.

Colby Ryan — Lori Vallow's son — has been arrested on sex crimes charges days before a Netflix documentary on his mother is due to stream.John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register and East Idaho News/Tony Blakeslee

'Not even human'

The bodies of J.J. and Tylee were found on Daybell's Idaho property in June 2020. The couple has also been charged with their murders.

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Police believe he spent over two hours there on September 9, 2019. About 15 minutes after Cox left the property, Daybell texted his then-wife Tammy that he had shot "a raccoon" in the backyard and buried it in the their "pet cemetery."

"It's not even human to take your own two children that you're supposed to love and care for," Ryan said in the series.

Those who know Vallow told officials she believed her two children were "possessed and had become zombies," according to court documents for an unrelated case involving Vallow's niece.

Colby Ryan has spoken out repeatedly about his mother since the arrest, saying she has been lying to him for a long time — including telling her that his stepfather, Charles Vallow, had died of a heart attack when she knew he had been shot. He also said he believed she would have died for her two younger children and that he was shocked over her apparent involvement in their disappearance.

Ryan was arrested Sept. 3 on charges of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

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Vallow and Daybell's trial for the murders of the children is scheduled for January 2023.

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