'Doomsday cult' mum's 10 chilling words as she faces trial for husband murder plot

Doomsday cult mum and convicted killer is on trial for having already been convicted of murdering two of her children - and when it came to opening statements, she shared a chilling message.

The Idaho mum who gained notoriety for theof her daughter Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua 'JJ' Vallow, seven, and the conspiracy to murder her husband Chad Daybell's first wife Tammy Daybell, 49. Following in 2023, Vallow Daybell was extradited to Arizona where she now faces trial for allegedly conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, 62.

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Vallow Daybell, who is representing herself, addressed the jury yesterday, with a chilling 10 word message, telling jurors: "A family tragedy is not a crime, it's a tragedy." She argued she did not conspire to kill her estranged husband for his $1 million (£781, 860) life insurance, as prosecutors have alleged.

"As the state has mentioned, they are alleging that insurance money was my motive. Spouses having insurance policies is not a crime," she told the court. She went on to say: "Self-defense is not a crime. A family tragedy is not a crime, it's a tragedy."

Vallow Daybell married her fourth husband Charles in 2006, and she converted to his faith becoming a member of the CHurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She and Charles adopted JJ, Vallow Daybells grandnephew in 2013, when he was around a year old, moving to Hawaii and Arizona.

In 2018, Vallow Daybell met Chad Daybell, the leader and frontperson of a doomsday cult, as she quickly became fixated on him and his teachings. In 2019, Charles filed for divorce, citing that his wife had threatened to murder him.

He also shared concerns about her mental state, telling invesitgators she had told him she "was a God assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020 and that if [he] got in the way of her mission she would murder him."

Charles Vallow was shot and killed on July 11, 2019. The fatal shots to the chest came from Vallow Daybell's brother, Alex Cox, at her home in Chandler, Arizona. Cox, who claimed self-defence, saying he went to confront Charles about abusive behaviour toward Vallow Daybell.

He alleged Charles struck him in the head with a bat, before he shot him in return. Police investigated the murder, but the case did not progress far before Cox died of a blood clot in his lung at the age of 51 in December 2019 having never been charged.

Vallow Daybell claims that on the day of the shooting, Charles showed up at her home in a rental car, came inside and began yelling at her. She alleged that her daughter Tylee, who she later murdered, tried to protect her with a baseball bat and that the teen and Charles began to fight over the bat.

She claims her brother intervened and the two men became entangled in a physical struggle for the bat, falling to the ground. Speaking to the court, she claimed: "The evidence will show that after the struggle on the ground between Charles and Alex, that Charles prevailed with the bat and began to come towards me with the bat as aI ran away from him into the kitchen. The evidence will show that at some point while I was running away from Charles who was chasing me with a bat, that Alex apparently retrieved his gun."

However, during their opening statement, prosecutors argued Vallow Daybell wanted Charles dead for his insurance money so she could marry her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, an author of religious doomsday books. Prosecutor Treena Kay told the jury: "She would get a million-dollar life insurance policy from Charles Vallow.

"She would get social security for herself and their son, JJ as the child of a dead spouse. And all of this would be true if Charles Vallow was dead."

Vallow Daybell is currently serving life in prison without parole after she was found guilty of first degree murder in the deaths of JJ and Tylee in 2019. The two children disappeared in September 2019, and after an extensive search and games of cat and mouse with Vallow Daybell instructing friends to lie for her about the kids' whereabouts, the children's bodies were found buried on Chad Daybell's Idaho property in June 2020.

Tylee had been dismembered and burned, and JJ was found wrapped in plastic, bound by duct tape. Vallow Daybell was also convicted of conspiring to kill Chad's first wife, Tammy, who died from asphyxiation at the home she shared with Chad in October 2019. Chad was later convicted of killing his wife, as well as JJ and Tylee.