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'Let's Just All Die Together,' Lori Vallow Allegedly Once Told Daughter's Friend While Discussing The End Of The World
Alexcia Law, who once considered Lori Vallow to be like a "second mom," said she remembers Vallow talking about the end of the world "all the time" but dismissed her comments as a joke.
Before Lori Vallow was behind bars and her two children were found dead—she had talked about the end of the world “all of the time,” according to a friend of Vallow’s daughter.
Alexcia Law had once been best friends with Tylee Ryan, when Lori and her family were living previously in Hawaii. Law told local Utah station KUTV she remembers Lori often joking about her doomsday predictions.
“Lori would talk about the end of the world and the second coming all the time. And she would joke about it; she’d be like, ‘Let’s go off a cliff.’ She’s like, ‘The world is going to end, let’s just die all together.’ And talk about running all of us off a cliff together,” Law said.
Law said she believed the comments were simply a joke and became like a “second daughter” to Lori, who often made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and served as the children’s leader at their church.
Law lost touch with her childhood friend after Tylee moved back to Arizona with her family, but she said she was heartbroken to learn that the 17-year-old Tylee’s body was discovered last week on Chad Daybell’s property—alongside Ryan’s younger brother, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow.
“She was always so happy, and she loved JJ, and she did everything with him,” Law said of her friend.
Daybell—a religious author who often wrote about preparing for the end of the world—married Lori this past fall after both of their previous spouses died under mysterious circumstances.
Law told the local station the last time she had spoken with Tylee was after her stepfather, Charles Vallow, was shot to death in July by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox. Cox, who died himself in December, had claimed he shot Charles in self-defense during an argument.
“I texted her, I was like, ‘I’m thinking about you and hope you’re OK.’ She was like, ‘I’m OK,’ and I never heard from her again,” Law said. “It was really sad.”
Tylee and JJ both disappeared a few months later in September.
Tylee was last seen during a family outing to Yellowstone National Park on Sept. 8, 2019, according to an affidavit of probable cause released by the Madison County Prosecuting Attorney.
JJ was last seen a few weeks later on Sept. 23 at his elementary school. The following day Lori called the school to say she planned to homeschool the 7-year-old.
Rexburg Police confirmed on Saturday that the two bodies found on Daybell’s property belonged to the missing children.
“It is with heavy hearts that we know confirm that those remains have been officially identified as those of JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan,” Rexburg Police said.
Lori has been behind bars since February, and is being held on a $1 million bond on charges of felony desertion after she failed to produce the children by a deadline given by authorities.
Daybell was taken into custody last week on charges of destruction or concealment of evidence in the case. In court documents filed Monday, Daybell’s attorney John Prior entered a not guilty plea on behalf of his client and asked for a jury trial, according to the East Idaho News.
Law told KUTV she was shocked to learn that Lori had been arrested in connection the children’s disappearance.
“It is hard because I saw Lori as, like, my second mom,” she said.
Lori’s oldest and only surviving child, Colby Ryan, addressed his sibling’s deaths in a statement on Instagram Saturday saying he was “broken” over the discovery of the bodies, according to the Idaho State Journal.
“I don’t even know how to start this. But to my beautiful, Amazing, sweet angels. The only peace I have is knowing you are in paradise,” he wrote.
Colby went on to say that the impact his siblings made on the world will “never go away” and will stay with him forever.
“I will never let anyone forget you. I have prayed that I could be with you again, and one day that will be true,” he wrote. “I have more love for both of you than you could ever know. I miss you both. I love you both. This seems like a nightmare.”
In the months before the bodies were discovered, Colby had urged his mom to “do the right thing” in a video he posted to YouTube and tell authorities where the children were. He had been hopeful that they were still alive.
“I feel like my mom would die for the kids, so to see this and hear it, and also to be questioning why they’re not being found, that’s where this all comes into a battle into what you think and what you feel,” he told local station KSAZ-TV in February.
Police have said the investigation into the children’s deaths remains “ongoing.”
