Lori Vallow Daybell's Stay In Psychiatric Facility Extended By Judge

Accused child murderer Lori Vallow Daybell’s stay in an Idaho psychiatric facility will be extended pending further information, a judge decided this week.

District Court Judge Steven Boyce presided over a status hearing 90 days since accused murderer Daybell was deemed not competent to stand trial in June, KTVB 7 reported. Boyce said he received two letters from a physician at the Department of Health and Welfare that offered little detail.

“Those letters have some detail, but in the court’s estimation, would not rise to the level of being a progress report…” said Boyce. “I would not that the request of that correspondence of for an extension of commitment. So before the court’s comfortable to enter an actual order of extension, I think the parties all agree, we need to see an actual progress report.”

Prosecutors and Daybell’s defense attorneys all agreed.

Boyce ordered that Daybell’s commitment at the mental health facility be temporarily extended until at least Sept. 8, when another status hearing has been scheduled.

Lori Vallow Daybell is accused, along with her husband, Chad Daybell, of killing her children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and JJ Vallow, 7, as previously reported. A months-long search for the children ended when authorities found them buried on Chad Daybell’s rural property on June 9, 2020.

Tylee’s remains were burned while JJ’s bound body was found with a white bag duct-taped over his head.

Daybell allegedly believed that her children were possessed and had turned into zombies shortly before their disappearances, as NBC News reported. Court records obtained by the network described zombies as “human bodies that have had their original spirits forced from them and have been possessed.”

Earlier this month, Chad Daybell waived his rights to a speedy trial, according to court documents. His trial, originally scheduled for Nov. 8, 2021, is now expected to be moved to 2022.

Chad Daybell also stands accused of killing his wife, Tammy Daybell, on Oct. 9, 2019, just weeks before he married Vallow, according to East Idaho News. Initial findings led authorities to believe that she died of natural causes in her sleep. The results of a second autopsy in February after an exhumation were not made public.

Lori Daybell was also charged in Arizona with conspiracy to commit murder for the killing of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, as previously reported. On July 11, 2019, Lori Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed Charles Vallow in the Vallow's home but claimed it was in self-defense.

Alex Cox, 51, died on months later on Dec. 19, 2019. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner released a report that stated he died of natural causes.

In June, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office indicted Lori Daybell on the conspiracy charge. Boyce placed a hold on the legal proceedings when she was found unfit to stand trial.

“The completed assessment determined that at this time, the defendant is not competent to proceed and recommends restorative treatment,” he said.

A status hearing for Daybell is scheduled for Sept. 8, pending the progress report from the Department of Health and Welfare.