A woman from Idaho, a member of the Doomsday cult, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering her two youngest children and complicity in the murder of her husband's ex-wife.
Lori Wellow Debel (50) was found guilty of first-degree child murder and complicity in the murder of a woman in May of this year, and now she has been sentenced.
Wellow was convicted of murdering her seven-year-old son Joshua and 16-year-old daughter Tyla Ryan.
Their bodies were found buried in the home of her husband, Chad Daybell, in 2020.
Daybell is accused of murdering his ex-wife, Tammy Daybell, who died suddenly just weeks before he married Laurie Vellow.
He is awaiting trial.
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Judge Stephen Boyce sentenced Lori Wellow to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
"The most unimaginable type of murder is for a mother to kill her own children, and you have done just that," Judge Boyce said.
Before the verdict was pronounced, the statement of the brother of the murdered children was read at the trial.
"Tyli and JJ brought so much light into this world," Colby Ryan, their older brother, said in a statement read by prosecutors.
"I want them to be remembered for who they were, not to be just a media sensation or part of the front pages of the press."
Chad Deibel will go on trial early next year on charges of concealing the deaths of children, as well as the murder of his ex-wife.
'Doomsday Couple'
Daybel is an author who has written several apocalyptic novels based on Mormon religious teachings.
It is believed that Wellow and Daybell met in a cult that propagated the preparation of people for the end of the world.
Organization Preparing A People (People's Prep) has denied being a "cult" despite claims by the parents of Lori Wellow's late husband.
The media then gave them the nickname "Doomsday Couple".
Friends say Laurie became a big fan of Debel's books and they were guests together on a podcast by the cult-linked organization in December 2018, according to US media reports.
At the end of August 2019, Lori moved with Joshua and Tylee from Arizona to the town in Idaho where the author lived.
It was after her then-husband, Charles Wallow, was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox, who claimed he acted in self-defence.
Cox died in December 2019, at the age of 51, and doctors determined that he died of natural causes.
Before Cox killed Charles Vallow, he filed for divorce and expressed concern about his wife's beliefs, stating that she had "become infatuated, sometimes obsessive, about near-death experiences and spiritual visions."
According to divorce papers filed by her husband before he was killed, Lori Wellow claimed she was "chosen by God to do the work at the second coming of Christ in July 2020."
Lori then married Chad Deibel in October, just two weeks after the death of his wife Tammy.
Tammy Daybell was initially thought to have died of natural causes, but police later ordered her body exhumed and an autopsy performed.
In December 2019, an autopsy determined that Tammy Daybell died of asphyxiation.
Then, in November 2019, the grandparents reported the children missing.
The police then discover that they haven't been seen in weeks and a massive search is launched for Joshua, who was also called JJ, and Tylee.
Prosecutors said the two children were last seen on separate dates in September 2019.
Laurie Wellow, whose last name was Daybell after marriage, was arrested in Hawaii in February 2021 on charges of child abandonment and failure to meet the legal deadline to turn the children over to the authorities by January of that year.
Authorities say Laurie Vellow Debel gave false answers to investigators' questions and outright lied about their whereabouts and even their existence.
Authorities searched a nearby garage and found clothing and toys believed to belong to her children.
Daybel was then arrested in Idaho after the children's bodies were discovered months later on a property he owned.
Court documents reveal that Tylee's body was found dismembered and burned, while Joshua's was wrapped in black plastic and tape.
Tylee was born during Lori Wellow's third marriage to a man named Joseph Ryan.
Lori and her fourth husband, Charles Wallow, adopted Joshua from a family member.
The murder charges were announced on the day Joshua would have celebrated his ninth birthday.
Velou denies killing her children.
She told the court on Monday that she had spoken to Jesus and that her children and Tammy Daybell were "happy and extremely busy" in heaven.
"Jesus Christ knows no one was killed in this case," Wellow said.
She also added that the ghosts of the three victims often visited her and told her that she "didn't do anything wrong".
Bonneville County State's Attorney John Thomas said Vellow was a "very misunderstood person" who was "woven with love."
But Kay Woodcock, Joshua's grandmother, thinks quite the opposite.
"Lori is a monster who has not taken any responsibility or shown an iota of remorse for her vile actions."
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