Nashville, Tennessee Summer Shiflett, the sister of “Doomsday Mama” Lori Vallow, spoke out publicly Saturday for the first time since an Idaho jury on Friday convicted Chad Daybell of the triple murder.
Shiflett’s comments were made Saturday afternoon at CrimeCon 2024, a true-crime convention in Nashville that brings together victims, law enforcement and other criminal justice professionals to share their stories. The comments came just hours after an Idaho judge sentenced Vallow’s husband, Chad Daybell, to death on nine counts of conviction.
“I wasn’t expecting anything, but when I heard those words, it was everything I wanted to hear,” ShiftLeft told East Idaho News Director Nate Eaton during a panel discussion at CrimeCon about Daybell’s death sentence, thanking law enforcement and prosecutors who helped convict the couple.
Vallow, 50, and Daybell, 55, were convicted of three charges. Murder, conspiracy to murder, The couple, who shared apocalyptic and cult-like religious views, murdered Vallow’s two children, 7-year-old JJ Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell, in 2019. Vallow was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Daybell faces execution by firing squad under Idaho law.
Chad Daybell sentenced to death in Idaho for murder of two children of first wife Lori Vallow
A photo of Summer Shiflett and her sister, Lori Vallow, who is now convicted of murder. (CrimeCon 2024)
“What happened to them was unjust,” Shiftlett said of her niece and nephew.
“Whatever happens to Chad Daybell, it’s more merciful than what he did to them.”
But in both the Vallow and Daybell cases, prosecutors allege the pair murdered Vallow’s two children and Daybell’s first wife out of a desire for “money, power and sex.” Vallow and Daybell stole JJ and Tylee’s Social Security benefits between Oct. 1, 2019, when they disappeared, and Jan. 22, 2020, when they were murdered.
Chad Daybell verdict: Jury finds Doomsday author guilty of murdering Lori Vallow’s children and first wife
Summer Shiflett spoke about her sister, Lori Vallow, on Saturday at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, along with East Idaho News Director Nate Eaton. (CrimeCon 2024)
The two children were found dead in a shallow grave. Chad Daybell’s Rexburg, Idaho estate In June 2020, several months after they disappeared from their home in September 2019, the body of the 16-year-old girl was incinerated and the 7-year-old girl was bound with duct tape.
The Ada County coroner testified that JJ died of asphyxiation with a plastic bag, and that Tyree died of undetermined homicide because his body had been dismembered and severely burned before burial.
Lori Vallow Trial: ‘Cult Mom’ Convicted of Murdering Husband’s First Wife and Two Children
Lori Daybell and Chad Daybell are accused of murdering 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old JJ Vallow in 2019. (Rexburg Police Department)
After the children went missing, Vallow and Daybell fled to Hawaii to get married. Authorities arrested Vallow in February 2020 and Daybell in June 2020.
Listen to Lori Vallow and her sister’s prison phone call:
Sentencing Vallow, Judge Stephen Boyce told the so-called “cult mom” she had “mental health issues” including diagnoses of “delusional disorder” with “excessive religiosity” and a “persistent and unspecified personality disorder” with narcissistic traits.
Lori Vallow trial: Idaho coroner reveals cause of death of JJ Vallow and Tyree Ryan
Lori Vallow Daybell stands listening as the jury verdict is read at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, on Friday, May 12, 2023. An Idaho jury found Daybell guilty of murder in the deaths of her two youngest children and a romantic rival. The verdict marks the end of a three-year investigation that included bizarre claims of zombie children, doomsday predictions and infidelity. (Kyle Green)
Shifflett said Saturday that she thinks her sister may still be harboring delusions that the children are not missing and are in a better place.
“She thinks she’s 100% sane.”
“For me, personally, the big question in understanding why this happened is, how did your sister and this mother get to this point, in the space of a year from meeting Chad Daybell, to having their children killed,” Shiflett said during a CrimeCon panel. “How does that happen? How do you get to that point? So, for me, it’s been helpful to understand her diagnosis and understand that her reality is as real to her as it is to us. And she believes she is 100 percent sane. She believes there’s nothing wrong with her.”
Chad Daybell sits at the defense table after the jury verdict in his murder trial is read at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, Thursday, May 30, 2024. Daybell was sentenced to death on Saturday, June 1, for killing his wife and her lover’s two youngest children. (Kyle Green, Poole)
She added that Vallow would rather be in jail than be hospitalized for his mental illness.
“She doesn’t think she’s done anything wrong,” Shifflett said.
Hawaii Police Issue Summons to Lori Vallow as She Relaxes Poolside in Bikini: Video
Summer Shiflett said she believes she did nothing wrong, even after her sister, Lori Vallow, was convicted of murdering her children. (CrimeCon 2024)
Shiflett also addressed comments she made when she appeared on national television with her mother to defend Vallow after her sister’s arrest in 2020. She acknowledged she was wrong at the time because she simply did not believe her sister was capable of killing her own child.
Shiflett described her sister as a loving mother and sister before her relationship with Daybell and her delusions began, and said she and Vallow had experienced multiple deaths in the family that had caused something to snap inside Vallow, leading her to believe the deaths were happening for a specific reason.
At his sentencing in August 2023, Vallow told the court that the children who died were “happy” and “busy”.
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“I have had many communications with our earthly Savior, Jesus Christ, and with our Heavenly Parents. Because of these communications, many angels have come and communicated with me and even appeared to me,” Vallow said at the time. “It is true that my children are happy and busy in the spirit world. And because of my communication with my friend Tammy Daybell, I find that she is also very happy and very busy.”
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She also said she has “always mourned the deaths” of “loved ones” and that although she has “lost many people in this life,” she believes she is still in contact with them in the spirit world.
Summer Shiflett said her sister, Lori Vallow, would rather be in jail than in a hospital for her mental illness. (CrimeCon 2024)
Daybell has written several end-time novels loosely based on Mormon theology, and he and Vallow belonged to a group that promoted preparation for the biblical end times.
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Authorities extradited Vallow to Arizona. She is scheduled to be charged with first-degree murder and premeditated first-degree murder in Maricopa County in a separate case in November 2023.
