The Mormon city at center of Lori Vallow's 'doomsday cult'

Inside the Mormon city at center of Lori Vallow’s ‘doomsday cult’: Rexburg is where her murdered children’s mutilated bodies were found – yet Chad Daybell’s family STILL live next to graves and some claim he’s INNOCENT

• Rexburg in east Idaho dubs itself ‘America’s family community’, but is now better known as the city where cult mom Lori Vallow allegedly killed two of her children
• JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan were found in shallow graves at the property of Vallow’s husband, Chad Daybell, whose daughter now lives at the home with her family
• City leaders want to ‘move on’ from the heinous crimes, but Rexburg is still gripped by the case – and some there even maintain Daybell’s innocence 

For years, the small Mormon enclave of Rexburg in east Idaho has proudly dubbed itself ‘America’s family community’ – a slogan that’s emblazoned on municipal buildings around the city as a symbol of its fierce embrace of traditional values.

But in 2019, that reputation was upended and the little-known community gained national attention for another reason: the epicenter of a ‘murderous cult’ which shocked America.

Lori Vallow, a blonde beauty pageant-winning mom from California, allegedly murdered her two children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua Jackson ‘JJ’ Vallow, seven. Vallow and her husband, doomsday obsessed author Chad Daybell, were convinced the children were ‘zombies’ possessed by evil spirits.

Their mutilated bodies – Tylee’s burned beyond recognition and JJ’s bound in trash bags and duct tape – were buried in shallow graves at Daybell’s yard on the fringes of Rexburg.

Vallow, whose murder trial began on April 10, and Daybell told followers they were chosen by God to lead 144,000 humans through the second coming of Jesus Christ – and Rexburg was the sanctuary where ‘warriors and soldiers’ should gather.

Daybell’s daughter, Emma, still lives at the property where Vallow’s mutilated children were buried in the yard. She is raising her own children just yards from the burial sites

An aerial photograph shows police and FBI investigators search the Daybell property. One of Daybell’s daughters now lives at the home with her husband and young children

Vallow’s children, JJ and Tylee, were last seen in September 2019. Relatives and authorities spent months pleading with the mother to reveal their whereabouts, but she refused. Their remains were discovered in the yard of Chad Daybell’s Rexburg property in June 2020

Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell claimed the cult mom’s children were possessed by zombies and allegedly murdered the kids before burying their remains in Daybell’s backyard in Rexburg

The fallout in Rexburg is a town desperate to shake off its newfound infamy, but still gripped by the troubling case whose central figures were once friends, neighbors and fellow worshippers.

City leaders talk publicly about the desire to find justice and ‘move on’, while locals watch screenings of Vallow’s trial in the Fremont County Courthouse and gossip over the chilling-but-captivating testimony.

Behind closed doors, there is soul-searching about Vallow and Daybell’s manipulation of the Mormon faith, which an estimated 95% of the town’s 33,500 people subscribe to.

And, what’s perhaps most jarring, it’s said there is still a small ‘underground’ sect who refuse to believe Daybell – once viewed as a nothing more than a weird but ‘faithful’ follower of Christ – is guilty.

Peggy Jeppesen, a local who helps maintain a memorial wall for JJ and Tylee beside the Daybell property, said: ‘I hope there isn’t skepticism anymore. I hope not. But I wonder, because even now, there are people that just don’t want to discuss it, just really choose to believe that he isn’t what he’s accused of being.’

Jeppesen, a grandmother with two adult sons, lives with her husband in a tidy, rural bungalow just a couple of miles from the Daybell property. Like many families in Rexburg, their home is decorated with symbols of their faith.

She recalled the heartbreaking morning of June 9, 2020, when Tylee and JJ’s remains were unearthed in Daybell’s backyard.

A memorial to Tylee and JJ was created near the Daybell property after their bodies were found in June 2020 and remains in place today. Pictured: Jeanine Harrop Hansen, a local who helped build the memorial, replaces some of the tributes on April 22 during Lori Vallow’s murder trial

Jeanine Harrop Hansen has tended to the memorial for Tylee and JJ since it was built in June 2020. ‘As the story unfolded, no one could believe what was happening in this small town of Rexburg,’ she said

Peggy Jeppesen, who also helps keep the memorial, said: ‘I cannot believe that someone in our community that is supposed to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and a faithful believer in God, could possibly be any part of murdering those children’

‘Horrifying, disgusting, disturbing,’ Jeppesen said. ‘I cannot believe that someone in our community that is supposed to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and a faithful believer in God, could possibly be any part of murdering those children.

‘They slaughtered them, allegedly, from what we’re hearing. And it’s right there. There’s proof in the ground.’

The case gained national attention in December 2019, six months before the discovery, when Rexburg Police Department and the FBI issued an appeal to locate Tylee and JJ, who had not been seen since September.

The appeal hinted their disappearance was linked to the death of Daybell’s wife, Tammy, 49, in October. Daybell had married Vallow on a beach in Hawaii just weeks later.

The perplexing case was further compounded by the fact Vallow’s former husband, Charles, was shot dead by her brother in mysterious circumstances months earlier.

Jeppesen would ask people in Rexburg: ‘[Tylee and JJ] are not being found, what’s going on?’

Some ‘would put their hands up, physically put their hands up, and say, ‘don’t even go there with me. Chad would never. Chad is the most amazing, strong individual. He’s so faithful in the Gospel, there is no way he is he would have anything to do with any of this.’

Another local, who has followed the trial in Madison County Courthouse, said those who remain loyal to Daybell have gone ‘underground’.

A towering LDS temple which overlooks Rexburg is a symbol of the town’s strong faith. Daybell and Vallow used teachings from the religion to justify their sick crimes and the people of Rexburg have since gone ‘back to the basics of their faith’ and they process what happened

Rexburg Mayor Jerry Merrill said: ‘We haven’t loved having Rexburg be the in the spotlight for this particular situation and I don’t think anyone would and I think the citizens are ready to kind of have this done… and not be the center of worldwide attention for a situation like this’

The perplexing case began to unravel in 2019 and includes a tangled web of individuals linked to Vallow and Daybell, who were convinced they were chosen by God to prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ 

Jeanine Harrop Hansen, a close friend of JJ’s grandparents who has was born and raised in Rexburg, said: ‘As the story unfolded, no one could believe what was happening in this small town of Rexburg. We were all going “what?”

‘We thought, the national news, in Rexburg, we’ve got children missing, and their bodies were found in Chad’s backyard. This beautiful young lady was mutilated.

‘I mean, nothing happens like this in Rexburg, Idaho. It’s a place where you felt safe and secure.’

Daybell had drawn a handful of followers to Rexburg after he moved there with his family in 2014. He lured them with fantastical tales about his ‘near death experiences’ which brought visits from God. 

The author, who self-published more than 20 books, would ‘test’ people by drip-feeding them his warped views. Those who believed him were sucked in further by increasingly deranged ideas – like that JJ and Tylee were possessed.

‘It has bothered me, how many people have moved here to be near Chad, the rumblings of that is unreal,’ Jeppesen said. ‘He clearly had a hold on people.’

Hansen added: ‘When I’m when I’m in conversation with people that I grew up with, we just go, “how did he take our religion and justify zombies and murdering children?”‘

People who knew Daybell in Rexburg, where he moved in 2014 with his wife of 28 years and their five children, described him was ‘weird and different’. His circle of friends dwindled as he turned ‘crazy’, said one acquaintance.

The acquaintance said he even broke up with his ex-girlfriend because of her obsession with the case.

Chad Daybell’s five children spoke out together in 2021 to protest his innoence and claim he was manipulated by Vallow. The couple also allegedly murdered Daybell’s wife, Tammy

Vallow (pictured in 2004) is a beauty pageant winner from California. She met Daybell at a doomsday ‘prepper’ conference and the pair immediately bonded over their shared religious beliefs

Daybell, 54, maintains his innocence despite a mountain of damning evidence and he will stand trial for the murders of JJ, Tylee and Tammy at a date to be confirmed.

He met Vallow at a Preparing A People conference in Utah in 2018 and they immediately hit it off. They ‘flirted’ at Daybell’s stall at the doomsday ‘prepper’ conference as he told her they’d been married in several previous lives.

Vallow drank the Kool-Aid and over time their beliefs went from deluded to downright evil.

They gathered a small group of followers who Daybell told ‘he had been the heavenly father, Jesus and the Holy Ghost’. Some of their acolytes, who were told they had ‘powers’, moved to Rexburg to be close to him.

‘He would have been spiritually the highest of anybody… [Vallow] was his companion and therefore put her in the same spiritual standing,’ former friend Zulema Pastenes told Vallow’s trial.

Melanie Gibb, a former member of Vallow and Daybell’s inner circle, said: ‘[Vallow] felt she was part of the 144,000. She felt they were the head, leaders of it.’

Throughout the saga, Daybell’s most loyal backers have been his five adult children, who spoke out together in 2021 to protest his innocence and claim he was manipulated by Vallow.

Their strongest show of support has undoubtedly been the macabre choice to remain at his property after the bodies were found. Daybell’s lawyer reportedly has a lien on the home and it’s been rented back to the family.

Vallow (left) pictured with her former close friend Melanie Gibb, who was part of Vallow and Daybell’s inner circle. Gibb told Vallow’s trial: ‘She felt she was part of the 144,000. She felt they were the head, leaders of it’

Daybell at a doomsday prepper conference. He met Vallow at one of the events and wooed her with tales of his near death experiences and claims they were married in a previous life

Daybell’s daughter, Emma Murray, her husband and their young children currently occupy the property where Tylee and JJ were buried in the yard.

Today, just yards from the murdered children’s shallow graves, toys and strollers are strewn across the land. A tree swing is fastened close to where the family keep chickens and grows vegetables. On the porch, a large sign warns off the media. 

Across the street, a neighbor’s fence has been transformed into a small memorial for the murdered children. Banners with pictures of the children include the words ‘Justice for Tylee and JJ’.

Hansen sees the family from time to time when she goes to maintain the tributes.

‘I’ve tried to talk to them. And, you know, they don’t want to talk to people. I don’t blame them,’ she said. The Daybell family have ‘made it quite clear’ they don’t intend to attend any of Vallow’s trial, which is expected to conclude in mid to late May.

Jeppesen said she has ‘interpreted them to be standoffish, not wanting much to do with the community’. ‘And maybe rightfully so, you know, perhaps they feel villainized for something that their father did.’

Daybell’s son Garth, who bears an uncanny resemblance to his father, teaches at a school in the area. One parent said their child has found him to be a ‘good teacher’ with ‘fun classes’.

Unsurprisingly, the case involving his father has never been mentioned. 

Meanwhile, the Daybell name itself has become a ‘red flag’ in Rexburg and his children have faced abuse and even death threats.

Rexburg Mayor Jerry Merrill said: ‘I think overall we’re trying to be understanding of the family and understanding of what they are going through, and trying to just do what we can to be helpful to them so that they can kind of put their lives back together a little bit too. And not be too judgmental of them.’

An apartment in Rexburg where Vallow lived when he children were murdered has become a magnet for true crime fans. The woman who lives there with her young family only learned about its grim past when a person showed up asking to take pictures inside

Jeanine Harrop Hansen, who grew up in Rexburg, said: ‘We will be Rexburg where this tragedy has happened. But we will be Rexburg that has continued to survive and thrive.’

The memorial and the Daybell house are among a handful of locations in Rexburg which have become a magnet for true crime fans. The Daybell address is listed on a website called ‘Morbid Tourism’. 

A suburban apartment in Rexburg where Vallow lived when her children were murdered also attracts thrill-seekers. Cops searching for JJ and Tylee raided the address in November 2019 and found a jarring combination of guns, knives and children’s toys scattered about the place. 

A woman who now lives at the rented home with her young family said she only learned about its history when someone showed up several weeks after they moved in and ‘asked if they could come inside and take pictures’.

‘I am trying to make it a nice place for my family to live. I don’t really want to be associated with her or that… I don’t like it at all,’ said the woman, who initially considered moving out.

‘It’s been a really, really sweet neighborhood to be in. I did not love finding out about that. I was actually just blindsided… I felt so sick about it just being in Rexburg.’

The woman’s sentiment is one shared by many in Rexburg – a city sickened by the murders of Tammy, JJ and Tylee, but determined to move on.

Mayor Merrill said: ‘We haven’t loved having Rexburg be the in the spotlight for this… I think the citizens are ready to have this done, have the trial over and move on and not be the center of worldwide attention.’

Hansen, whose grandfather homesteaded the land around Rexburg in the 1800s, added: ‘We will be Rexburg where this tragedy has happened. But we will be Rexburg that has continued to survive and thrive.’

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