'Disgusting and disturbed': Relative, expert condemn Lori Daybell's claims in 'Dateline' special

SALT LAKE CITY — Lori Vallow Daybell's interview with "Dateline" last week, her first public interview, drew strong reactions from JJ Vallow's grandfather, Larry Woodcock, among others.

During the interview, a combative and "chaotic" Daybell sat down with host Keith Morrison.

In 2023, Daybell was convicted for the 2019 murders of her children, JJ Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for the murder of the wife of her fifth husband, Tammy Daybell. Last year, husband Chad Daybell was also convicted for the murders in a separate trial.

During the March 7 two-hour special, Morrison said Lori Daybell claimed she was innocent and she and Chad Daybell, who has also been convicted of the crimes, will be exonerated.

The exclusive built up to Daybell's recent claims that it was her daughter, Tylee, who killed JJ and then killed herself in a murder-suicide.

"The story that she told her son Colby and which I knew she was getting prepared … to tell me was the idea that her daughter Tylee accidentally killed JJ and in a fit of remorse killed herself and then Lori walked in on the scene maybe four, four and half hours later and she doesn't know what happened to the bodies, somebody else took care of that," Morrison told KSL-TV.

Daybell's claims are highly disputed by evidence presented during the trial.

"Disgusting. She is so disgusting," Larry Woodcock, JJ's grandpa, said. "I can't fathom how disturbed you have to be to murder children."

Woodcock said he was disappointed with the interview.

"I would've said no. She absolutely doesn't deserve a national prime time," Woodcock said. "She will never tell the truth."

"There is no way Tylee Ryan killed her brother, she was already dead at the time he died," said Rachel Smith, a veteran homicide prosecutor who was on the prosecution team in Lori Daybell's first trial. Smith said the forensic evidence proves that Tylee was killed about two weeks before JJ.

"Any narrative that tries to put forward and blame that child for her brother's death is fiction and a huge gamble," Smith said.

Smith said the interview will likely have an impact on Daybell's second trial, slated to begin at the end of the month, for the 2019 killing of Charles Vallow, Lori Daybell's fourth husband.

"I would be shocked if there isn't some fallout. The prosecutors and the judges in Maricopa are extremely experienced, I suspect they are pulling in more jurors now," Smith continued.

Daybell will represent herself in her second trial for the July 2019 killing of Charles Vallow. He was shot and killed by Daybell's brother Alex Cox. Cox died in December 2019 but Daybell is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

Smith said the allegations could come back to haunt Daybell's defense.

"The explanation she is coming up with is so repugnant that unless she convinces some very naïve juror who is not paying attention, she could very well suffer for this strategy," Smith said.

While Daybell may be trying to sway public opinion in her favor, one thing, Smith said, is certain:

"Lori Vallow has answered in any way she could to manipulate people to make herself look better. That's evil, that's wrong, that's narcissistic, that's not insane."

The trial for Charles Vallow's death is scheduled to start on March 31. A third trial for the attempted murder of Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Lori Daybell's niece, Melanie Palowski, is also pending. The third trial is expected to start shortly after the conclusion of the second trial.

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