Lori Vallow claimed her murdered son JJ had ‘an episode and knocked over a picture of Christ’ on the day he was last seen alive, her trial heard.
David Warwick, who recorded a religious podcast with Vallow, said he was told about the incident while staying at the cult mom’s Idaho home on September 23, the date JJ was last seen.
Giving evidence to Vallow’s trial on Thursday, Warwick also revealed Chad Daybell claimed he dreamed his wife, Tammy, would die ‘before she turned 50’ and that him and Vallow would then go on to lead 144,000 people into the end times. Tammy, 49, was allegedly murdered by Vallow and Daybell weeks later.
The testimony provided further insight into the couple’s bizarre belief that they were chosen by God to lead humans through the return of Jesus Christ.
Warwick was in a relationship with Vallow’s close friend, Melanie Gibb, in September 2019 when JJ and his sister, Tylee Ryan, 16, were last seen alive. Warwick and Gibb are now married.
Lori Vallow Daybell sits between her attorneys for a hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, Tuesday, Aug. 16
Vallow is accused of killing her kids, seven-year-old Joshua (JJ), left, and 16-year-old Tylee, right
Larry and Kay Woodcock stop for a photo at the Ada County Courthouse after they attended proceedings of the Lori Vallow Daybell trial in Boise, Idaho April 14
He spent the weekend of September 20 at Vallow’s home in Rexburg, Idaho, along with Gibb, Daybell and Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox. Warwick recorded a podcast that weekend about some of the religious ideas they shared.
JJ had been there for much of the weekend – but the little boy was gone when Warwick and Gibb 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.’
Warwick said he didn’t see any of the damage that Vallow claimed her son caused.
The night before, JJ had spent part of the evening with Alex Cox, who brought the boy home later that night.
Warwick recollected the moment Cox carried him into the house – one of the last ever sightings of JJ.
‘JJ was asleep and his head was on [Cox’s] shoulder. Alex carried him in the house. He took him upstairs and put him in bed.’
Warwick also recalled conversations with Daybell during the weekend in which the doomsday author, who is also accused of murdering the children, said he dreamt about his wife Tammy’s death.
‘I asked him how his marriage was with Tammy and if she was a good wife and he said he had no complaints and she was a good wife. He said her time was coming up and him and Lori were going to do things they committed to do for god.’
Daybell said he dreamed several years earlier ‘Tammy was going to pass away by the time she was 50’.
Tammy died on October 19 2019, about six months before her 50th birthday. Daybell claimed she’d gone to bed with a cough and didn’t wake up.
He didn’t request an autopsy but her body was exhumed as suspicions grew over the missing children. A post mortem revealed she died of asphyxiation.
Vallow told the babysitter JJ (pictured) ‘could get emotional easily, distracted, frustrated’
The last picture of Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow, 7, before he vanished and was found dead in September 2019
Kay, left, and Larry Woodcock, right, cared for JJ, center, for the first 10 months of his life before he was adopted by Lori Vallow and her fourth husband Charles
Daybell also talked at length to Warwick about his warped ideas.
Warwick said: ‘He was trying to teach me about some of their beliefs about the 144,000 and Satan having powers to push people out of their bodies and then their spirits being stuck.’
Daybell ‘seemed to lead the way’ on the views, which Warwick claimed he pushed back on.
‘I just said if the Lord is gathering his 144,000, I believe that would happen through his prophet and as far as Satan having power to push people out of their bodies, I said we’re taught differently on that. He doesn’t have that sort of power.’
Daybell claimed him and Vallow ‘were going to gather the 144,000’, said Warwick, adding: ‘He was kind of saying I was one of them and that’s why he wanted me up there and I said that would be a call from God and through his prophet.’
Warwick said he wasn’t troubled by the couple’s beliefs because ‘what they are teaching doesn’t match what I see in their character… I was confused and puzzled’.
He ‘didn’t see any reason to suspect’ the couple and said Vallow was ‘one of the most sweetest, kindest, fun-loving’ people.
Warwick also said Chad had a scratch on his neck that Vallow claimed was inflicted by JJ after a ‘scuffle’.
The children were missing for months, triggering nationwide concern, before their bodies were found on June 2020.
Vallow hired Sidney Woodbury Schenk, 26, as a babysitter for JJ in September 2019 following an ‘interview’ at Vallow’s home in Rexburg, Idaho. But Schenk, who gave evidence on Thursday, only cared for JJ once.
‘She greeted me warmly, gave me a hug and introduced me to JJ and told me about their life and that they had recently moved to Rexburg from Arizona,’ said Schenk.
During the interview on September 18, Vallow explained JJ ‘could get emotional easily, distracted, frustrated’.
Lori Vallow, left, hosted religious podcast with friend Melanie Gibb, right, called ‘Feel the Fire’
Lori Vallow, 49, had been due to stand trial alongside her husband Chad Daybell, 54, but their cases were separated earlier this month
The key individuals in Lori Vallow’s tangled family tree, including her five husbands, two dead children and killer brother
‘She had mentioned that Charles had just recently died of a heart attack and that JJ was kind of having a hard time understanding what happened,’ Schenk said.
Charles was in fact shot dead by Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, after she claimed he was possessed by demons named Ned and Garrett.
The interview with Schenk was also around 10 days after Tylee was last seen alive.
Schenk didn’t see Tylee but Vallow told her that her daughter ‘lived in Rexburg and was attending college and sometimes she would come and visit them for dinner or laundry, but that her daughter didn’t like to babysit without being paid’.
She babysat the following day, on September 19, and expected to return again soon after.
‘A few days after that and I had text her wondering when I could work again and she responded that JJ had gone to his grandparents for a month and she was in Hawaii for a month,’ she said.
Schenk reached out a month later but didn’t get a reply.
Dr David Joshua Wilson, the principal at Kennedy Elementary in Rexburg told the case that Vallow took JJ out of the school just days after the little boy was enrolled on September 3.