The damning evidence that led to Lori Vallow's murder conviction trends now

Doomsday cult mom Lori Vallow was brought down by a litany of damning evidence that included a strand of her own hair found on duct tape wrapped around her son's battered body and chilling text messages plotting to cause her children pain. 

Over six weeks prosecutors in Vallow's triple murder trial called more than 60 witnesses, who gave explosive and harrowing testimony that sent shivers through the courtroom. The defense did not summon a single witness to refute their claims.

On Friday May 12 a jury of seven men and five women found Vallow, 49, guilty of killing her two children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow, seven, as part of a sick religious plot.

Vallow was also found guilty of plotting to kill her husband Chad Daybell’s ex-wife, Tammy Daybell, 49. Daybell, who denies murder charges, will be tried separately.  

Here Dailymail.com reveals ten of the biggest blows landed by the prosecution in Vallow's blockbuster trial...

Lori Vallow’s hair found on duct tape around JJ’s body

Perhaps the most significant piece of evidence was a strand of Lori Vallow's hair  found on duct tape that was wrapped around her son JJ after he was suffocated inside a plastic bag and buried in a shallow grave on Daybell's property.

Keeley Coleman, a senior DNA analyst at Bode Technology in Virginia, told jurors she was sent genetic profiles for Vallow along with hair that was attached to the piece of tape. 

Coleman said she received three DNA profiles from Vallow, Tylee and Melanie Gibb - Vallow's former best friend, as well as several items of evidence.

'The partial DNA profile matched the DNA profile provided for Lori Vallow,' Coleman told jurors. 'The probability of randomly selecting a random individual in relation to that profile is 1 in 71 billion.'

Jurors heard that the boy had tape around his mouth and neck, and binding his arms and ankles. There was also tape around the plastic bags in which he was buried. 

JJ's cause of death was 'asphyxia by plastic bag over the head and duct tape over the mouth,' Dr Garth Warren, of the Ada County Coroner's Office, revealed for the first time in court. 

The coroner suggested the boy had scratched his own neck as he struggled to break free. 

Horrifying text messages plotting to cause children pain

Prosecutors recovered realms of disturbing text message exchanges between Vallow and Daybell during their year-long murder investigation.

In one exchange, Daybell asked Vallow if she wanted him to 'cause pain' to her niece's children while on a trip with JJ. The pair referred to the kids as '3s' - which was the couple's twisted rating system for 'dark people' they believed were possessed.  

Vallow told him to hold off but added if they started acting up again 'we can zap them.' Daybell responded: 'If they are going to act up, we'll at least give them a reason to scream.'

In another exchange between the pair Vallow complained about her teenager daughter Tylee acting weird. Daybell responded by claiming he had 'turned up the pain' on her daughter and 'placed a spiritual virus in her. 

The twister couple also had a twisted percentage scale to show how close her kids were to death. 

FBI Agent Doug Hart testified that the closer the number was to 100 or zero, the closer they are to death.  

When Vallow found out her son JJ was a two, she pressed Daybell: 'Not zero?' 

Vallow and Daybell's twisted relationship 

The State claimed Vallow and Daybell's relationship was a driving force behind the murders and the jury heard endless evidence regarding their sick religious cult.

The pair married on a beach in Hawaii just two weeks after his ex-wife Tammy was suffocated to death at their home in Rexburg in October 2019.  Vallow's husband Charles Vallow had been previously shot dead by her brother Alex Cox in July 2019. 

During the trial, the jury heard how the couple had previously discussed removing the 'obstacles' of her children and their respective spouses while engaged in an affair. 

FBI agent Hart said: 'There were several communications regarding JJ and Tylee that were relevant to their deaths. They discussed their deaths. After the affair began, there began to be communication regarding the deaths of Charles Vallow, Tammy Daybell, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.'

Their messages were often highly sexualized - Daybell even writing Vallow an erotic novel in the form of chapterized texts.

Jurors also heard from friends and relatives of Vallow that she and Daybell regularly referred to her children as 'dark' and 'zombies' before they disappeared. 

'The common theme was the body has to be destroyed,' the State said.

Through the texts, agent Hart established that Daybell was the 'quasi-religious leader' of their cult and that Vallow acted as his conduit through which other members, like her brother Alex Cox, would seek advice. 

Chilling account of last time JJ was seen alive 

During the trial Vallow's friend gave a chilling account of the last time her seven-year-old son JJ was seen alive on September 23, 2019.

David Warwick, who recorded a religious podcast with Vallow, spent the weekend at Vallow's home in Rexburg, Idaho, along with Daybell and Vallow's brother, Cox. 

JJ had been there for much of the weekend - but the little boy was gone when Warwick left on the Sunday morning, he said.

'We went downstairs to say goodbye and Lori was there and she just said that JJ had an episode,' he said. 'She said he was out of control and she could not control him and so she had Alex come get him… She said that he climbed the cabinets and the fridge and the upper cabinets and pushed over her picture of Christ.'

He added he did not see any of the damage that Vallow claimed her son caused, when he was 'out of control.'

The night before, JJ had spent part of the evening with Vallow's brother Alex Cox, who brought the boy home later that night. Warwick recalled the moment he carried him into the house - one of the last ever sightings of JJ. 

A photo of JJ in his red pajamas was shown in court - the last picture of the boy before he was found dead. He had been buried in those same red pajamas, wrapped in duct tape and placed inside a black plastic bag.

Vallow's hysterical jailhouse call with surviving son 

Jurors were played a disturbing phone call between Vallow and her son Colby Ryan, 27, while she was held in prison following the discovery of her dead children. 

Lori Vallow laughed hysterically as her only surviving son confronted her about the murder of two of her children - and insisted Jesus Christ was 'on her side.'

A distressed Ryan told his mother 'you murdered my siblings' and demanded an explanation after their bodies were found in shallow graves at Daybell's property. 

Vallow then utters a high-pitched laugh as Ryan accuses her of 'blasphemy'. He says to his mother: 'Tell me that, that Jesus Christ is on your side right now.' She responds: 'I can tell you that.'

Ryan also tells Vallow during the call: 'I have prayed for you in my worst moments. I have prayed for my siblings who you swore to me were okay. I thought I could trust you. I thought that you were a completely different person.'

He adds: 'You lied to me, specifically to me, more times than I can count. To know that they are gone and you knew, and my phone's been texted by my little sister who's not even alive, my little brother, who's the sweetest little kid ever. For what purpose?'

But Vallow repeatedly says 'you weren't there, you don't know what happened'. 

Ryan previously said he'd received messages that purported to be from Tylee but were actually sent after she was murdered.

'The texts I received back were different to the way Tylee would type,' he said.

Friend testified Vallow threatened to cut her up

Lori Vallow smirked in court during her trial as her distraught former friend testified that she had threatened to cut her up and bury her in trash bags.

'She said she would cut me up ... it would be so messy and there would be so much blood and something about bleach and trash bags. She would bury me in a place nobody would ever find me.' 

Audrey Barattiero, who was staying at Vallow's apartment in Rexburg, Idaho, in October 2019, wept on the stand as she recounted how she confronted her about whether there was 'anything weird going on'. Vallow told her, 'No.'

Barattiero told Vallow she was going to pack. 'As soon as I turned to go upstairs, she started laughing – as if at something hilarious,' Barattiero recalled. Vallow told her: 'You're so naïve and too trusting. You're

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