The grandmother of Lori Vallow's murdered child testified about her disturbing transition from 'doting mom' to not wanting her son anymore

• Kay Woodcock, the grandmother to Lori Vallow's late children, took the stand Monday.
• She described Vallow as a once "doting mom."

BOISE, Idaho — Kay Woodcock, the first witness to take the stand in the trial of Lori Vallow, shed tears when she was handed a photo she once took of J.J. Vallow.

Woodcock's voice cracked Monday as she described the grinning boy in a bright green shirt as her "beautiful grandson." Prosecutors have accused the boy's mother, Lori Vallow, of killing him and his sister Tylee Ryan in 2019, along with her husband's late wife.

On Monday, the family's complicated history began to unfold for jurors during the murder trial's opening statements at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho.

The boy, whose biological father is Woodcock's son, was adopted at 2 years old by Lori Vallow and her then-husband Charles Vallow. Woodcock remained in her grandson's life. In frequent FaceTime chats, J.J. called Woodcock "maw-maw," meaning grandmother.

"She was a doting mom, she was very engaged," Woodcock said Monday of Vallow's parenting prior to 2019.

However, that year, Woodcock testified that Vallow's attitude toward her adopted son changed dramatically.

"Lori didn't want him anymore," she said, though she didn't elaborate on the changes going on in Lori Vallow's life at the time.

Woodcock and her husband became so worried about their grandson that they hired a private investigator in the fall of 2019 to surveil Vallow at her new home in Rexburg, Idaho. When the investor failed to see J.J. or his older sister Tylee Ryan, the Woodcocks went to the police.

"We are so worried about J.J.," Woodcock testified she had told a detective.

Woodcock said the last time she saw her grandson J.J. was a brief FaceTime in August 2019. That call took place only a few weeks after Lori Vallow's brother Alex Cox shot her fourth husband dead. Woodcock testified that during the call JJ seemed distraught and distracted.

The last words she heard him say were, "Gotta go maw-maw."

Cox, at the time, claimed self-defense, but Lori Vallow is now charged with plotting Charles' killing.

Woodcock testified that she took possession of Charles' printer after his killing.

Because of what Woodcock called "divine intervention," when she connected it to her computer she saw items that Vallow shopped for on Amazon. Items included a swimsuit, a beach wedding dress, and a pair of rings.

"She was looking at wedding rings," Woodcock said on the stand.

Vallow and Chad Daybell wed on a Hawaiian beach in late 2019, shortly after the deaths of her two youngest children, and each of their respective spouses.

Outside the courthouse on Monday, Kay's husband, Larry Woodcock, said he was relieved the trial was underway. Larry Woodcock was known to J.J. as "paw-paw."

"Before it was always about, 'Where are the kids?'" he said, a wrist wrapped in multicolored bracelets bearing Tylee and JJ's names. "Now it's about justice."