True Crime This Week: Doomsday Cults

Summary

Crime House Daily – True Crime This Week: Doomsday Cults
Host: Vanessa Richardson
Release Date: September 21, 2025

Episode Overview

This gripping “True Crime This Week” episode dives into the chilling world of doomsday cults, focusing on two infamous groups whose apocalyptic beliefs led to murder and abuse. Vanessa Richardson tells the stories of Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow, who orchestrated a string of murders under the guise of saving souls from “zombies,” and Deborah Greene, whose “Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps” brought decades of violence and exploitation. Through narrative, quotes, and stark facts, this episode explores how fear of the world’s end became a tool for manipulation, control, and atrocity.

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Main Discussion Points & Structure

1. Introduction to the Theme

• Vanessa Richardson sets the stage with statistics: two major cult crime anniversaries fall in this week of September.
  • [00:00] “The criminals in today's stories convinced their followers that the end of the world was right around the corner and that they were the only path to salvation... Both cases show that people can do unspeakable things when they think the end is near.”
    (Vanessa Richardson, [02:18])
• The format: one recent case, one historical case, united by the “Doomsday Cult” theme.

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2. The Lori Vallow & Chad Daybell Case: Belief Turned Deadly

Background and Setup

• [03:50] Lori Vallow, a former hairdresser and mother in Arizona, became fascinated by end-times prophecies after linking with Melanie Gibb’s prepper circle.
• Lori's obsession with “zombies” and apocalypse beliefs escalated after meeting Chad Daybell at a prepper conference in 2018.

Chad Daybell: Origins of a Cult Prophet

• Grew up “normal” in LDS circles; after a self-proclaimed near-death, Chad claimed “a voice from beyond” revealed his supernatural purpose.
  • [08:00] “Over the years, his wife Tammy got used to hearing about what Chad was learning from what he called the Voice and eventually supported him when his spiritual guides gave him his biggest mission yet.”
• Chad self-publishes doomsday novels, gains a fanatic following among Mormon preppers.

The Cult Sparks: Lori Meets Chad

• [14:12] At a prepper conference in 2018, Chad’s spiritual “voice” tells him he’ll meet “an extraordinary woman” — enter Lori.
  • “Melanie said it was like a bolt of lightning struck when they met.”
    (Vanessa Richardson, [14:39])

Descent into Paranoia & Murder

• Chad convinces Lori and their prepper group of his system: people can be overtaken by dark spirits and become “zombies.” The only way to save them? Kill them.
• Charles Vallow, Lori’s husband, becomes their first “zombie” target after threatening Lori’s new belief system.

The Murders & Cover-Ups

• [24:12] Chad prophesies the end on July 22, 2020, and designates Charles as a “zombie.”

• Lori empties Charles’ bank account and locks him out; when Charles tries to intervene, he’s shot dead by Lori's brother, Alex Cox, in what they claim is self-defense.

  • [26:31] “When Laurie gave her statement to police, she seemed oddly unfazed by her husband's death. Smiling and joking about what her neighbors must think... Despite her strange behavior, and despite the fact that Alex Cox had a criminal record for assaulting Lori's previous husband, the police didn’t press charges.”

• Lori and Chad relocate to Rexburg, Idaho, where Lori’s children, Tylee and JJ, are gradually seen less and less.

  • [28:21] “Alex set up the WI FI network for his and Lori’s apartments, which gave a grim preview of what would happen next. The password he chose for their network was ‘Too Many Kids.’”

• Tylee disappears after a trip to Yellowstone; JJ is soon considered missing as well.

• Friends who question the children’s whereabouts get conflicting stories.

  • [31:11] “When friends asked where Tylee was, Lori explained that she was taking classes at Brigham Young University in Idaho. But even though the campus was located in Rexburg, nobody ever saw her there.”

• Lori and Chad marry in Hawaii a mere two weeks after Chad’s wife Tammy dies under suspicious circumstances.

  • [32:57] “On November 5, 2019, just over two weeks after his wife of 30 years died, 51 year old Chad Daybell and 46 year old Lori Valow got married on a beach in Hawaii. They’d killed a lot of zombies to get to this point, but at long last... they were finally married in this one, too.”

Exposure & Justice

• Relatives and law enforcement grow suspicious; their investigation uncovers the children’s deaths and deep cult ties.
• Lori and Chad are arrested after the children’s remains are found on Chad’s property.
  • [35:40] “Despite all his claims of being able to see the future, apparently Chad hadn’t been able to predict his own arrest.”
• Both are convicted; Lori gets life, Chad awaits execution.

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3. The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps: Militant Faith and Abuse

Deborah Greene’s Rise and Ruthless Reign

• [38:55] Deborah and Jim Greene turn 1960s commune experience into radical cult leadership, establishing a “military” Christian sect.
  • Members are issued uniforms and titles; obedience is enforced through violence and humiliation.
• Abuse is rampant and documented:
  • Starvation, beatings, and sexual abuse, frequently targeting minors.
  • [39:55] “Jurors heard about a 12 year old boy who died at the cult’s compound because Deborah denied him medical care.”

From Commune to Fortress

• The Greens move their operation across multiple states to escape investigations, finally settling in rural New Mexico.
• Followers are isolated, forced into grueling labor, and told the world outside is demonic.
• Greene’s teachings grow increasingly apocalyptic, culminating in paranoia, starvation, and deaths in preparation for “the end.”

Cracks in the Armor: Escape, Investigations, and the Fall

• Two members escape and contact police about a child’s death; a raid reveals 11 children held against their will.
• [43:20] “Detectives opened an investigation... police in New Mexico raided the compound in August of 2017. There they found 11 children being held against their will, starting as young as four years old.”

Courtroom Reckoning & Aftermath

• Deborah convicted on multiple counts of child rape, kidnapping, and abuse.
• Star testimony by a Ugandan girl kidnapped and enslaved by the Greens.
• Greene’s child abuse conviction is ultimately upheld in 2025, ensuring she’ll die in prison.
  • [48:58] “The General had lost her final battle.”

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Memorable Quotes & Notable Moments

• The psychology of doomsday belief:
  [02:13] “People can do unspeakable things when they think the end is near.” – Vanessa Richardson

• Cults manipulate perception of reality:
  [11:17] “Chad claimed to have been reincarnated 31 times, living different lives on different planets. And he told his followers that Cleopatra and Kim Kardashian had been characters in the Book of Mormon in their past lives.” – Vanessa Richardson

• The banality of evil:
  [26:31] “When Laurie gave her statement to police, she seemed oddly unfazed by her husband's death. Smiling and joking about what her neighbors must think...” – Vanessa Richardson

• On destructive certainties:
  [53:36] “Looking back at this week in crime history, we see what can happen when people believe the end is near... the world keeps on turning no matter what you say. And sooner or later, you’ve got to answer for the sins that have been carried out in your name.” – Vanessa Richardson

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Key Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | Summary | |------------|-------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Intro to episode & cases | Introduces theme, purpose, and cases being covered | | 03:50 | Vallow Daybell cult detailing | Lori, Melanie Gibb's friendship, Lori’s “zombie” beliefs | | 14:12 | Chad Daybell’s transformation | Birth of “the Voice,” self-publishing, cult leader evolution | | 24:12 | Murders & escalating crimes | Death of Charles Vallow, moves to Idaho, missing children | | 35:40 | Arrests & aftermath | Discovery of bodies, Chad's attempted escape, convictions | | 38:55 | Deborah Greene’s cult | Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps exposed | | 43:20 | Raid & rescue | 2017 raid, discovery of 11 captive children | | 48:58 | Conviction upheld | Deborah Greene’s sentence and legacy | | 53:36 | Closing reflections | Summing up the cautionary tale of doomsday beliefs |

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Final Thoughts & Tonal Highlights

Throughout, Vanessa Richardson maintains a narrative tone that is empathetic, descriptive, and uncompromising in shining light on the extent of the suffering caused by these cults. The episode weaves background investigation with courtroom drama and personal stories, highlighting how easily “faith” and fear can warp into destruction when wielded by the manipulative.

Takeaway:
The horrors recounted are a reminder:

“The world keeps on turning no matter what you say. And sooner or later, you’ve got to answer for the sins that have been carried out in your name.” – Vanessa Richardson ([53:36])

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This episode is a sobering exploration of how apocalyptic beliefs can drive good people to horrific actions — and how, in the end, justice and truth can still prevail.

Transcript

[Vanessa Richardson]

Foreign this is Crime House. This week in Crime History. We're digging into two cults whose doomsday beliefs had deadly results. On September 22, 2019, seven year old J.J. vallo was last seen being carried to bed by his uncle, while his body was later found on the property of cult leader Chad Daybell. JJ's killer, his own mother. That same week in 2018, cult leader Deborah Greene was convicted on multiple counts of child sexual abuse. For the past 30 years, she'd run a Christian cult in Sacramento, Oregon and the New Mexican desert. During that time, her message of peace and love became warped into something unrecognizable. And Deborah's father followers paid a terrible price. Welcome to True Crime this week, part of Crime House Daily. I'm Vanessa Richardson. Every Sunday we'll be revisiting notorious crimes from the upcoming week in history. From serial killers to mysterious disappearances or murders. Every episode will explore stories that share a common theme. Each week we'll cover two stories, one further in the past and one more rooted in the present here at Crime House. We know none of this would be possible without you, our community. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following Crime House Daily wherever you get your podcasts. And for ad free and early access to Crime House Daily. Plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. This week's theme is Doomsday Cults. First, we'll start on September 22, 2019, when seven year old J.J. vallow was last seen alive. Over the next few months, family members started to ask where JJ was. Eventually, investigators learned that his mother, Lori Vallow, was a member of a murderous cult and she'd killed JJ at the behest of her lover and guru, Cha Chad Daybell. Then we'll jump back a year to September 2018, when Deborah Green finally faced justice after running a militant Christian organization that had engaged in kidnapping and child sex abuse for decades. The criminals in today's stories convinced their followers that the end of the world was right around the corner and that they were the only path to salvation. Both cases show that people can do unspeakable things when they think the end is near. But when the apocalypse doesn't come, the harsh reality of what they've done is laid bare for all to see.

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On September 22, 2019, life coach, author and podcaster Melanie Gibb was in Rexburg, Idaho. She was there to visit her best friend, 46 year old Lori Valow. The two had met over a year ago. Melanie taught a class on preparing for the Apocalypse. As foretold in the Book of Mormon. Lori was one of her best students. The women had bonded over their Judgment Day obsession. Since then, Laurie had become a key figure in their closely knit Doomsday prepper community. On the night of the 22nd, Melanie and her boyfriend went to record a podcast at Lori's house where she lived with her children, 16 year old Tylee and 7 year old JJ. Neither of the kids was there. Lori explained that Tylee was away taking classes at BYU Idaho and JJ was with his uncle Alex Cox, who lived next door. Later that evening, while Lori and Melanie recorded the Alex came into the house carrying jj. The little boy was fast asleep. Melanie watched Alex carry JJ upstairs to bed. He was quiet after that, and when they were finished taping, Laurie invited Melanie and her boyfriend to stay the night. While they slept, Melanie's boyfriend had a nightmare. He was so rattled that Melanie went to wake up Laurie. She figured they could pray about it all together. But Laurie's bedroom door was locked and when Melanie texted her, she didn't respond. In the morning, as Melanie and her boyfriend got ready to leave, she noticed that JJ was nowhere to be found. Laurie explained that after they'd gone to bed, jj, who had severe autism, had started, quote, being a zombie. She said he'd gone into the kitchen, smashed a picture of Jesus name, then tried to climb up on top of the refrigerator. So she'd asked Alex to bring JJ over to his place to calm him down. This all made sense to Melanie. She knew exactly what Laurie was talking about. Thanks to their friend Chad Daybell. He'd taught them and their fellow doomsday preppers that sometimes dark spirits took control of people's souls. He called them zombies, and if JJ was starting to act like one, Melanie knew it was serious. If they didn't keep JJ safe from these dark spirits, his life would be in danger. Because according to Chad, in extreme cases, the only way to save these souls was to kill the zombie. Melanie trusted that Laurie and her brother were making sure it never got to that point. What Melanie didn't know was that Laurie, likely with the help of Alex and had murdered J.J. in the night. In fact, he wasn't the first so called zombie she'd killed and he wouldn't be the last. To understand how Lori Vallow got to that point, we need to go back to Chad Daybell. Like everyone else in this story, Chad grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons. He was born in 1968 and had a fairly normal childhood in the town of Springville, Utah. He was a good student and well liked by his classmates. In high school, Chad worked a summer job as a grave digger at a local cemetery, which may have influenced some of his morbid obsessions later in life. After high school, he studied journalism at Brigham Young University, then went on a mission trip to New Jersey. When that was done, he moved back to Springville in 1989 and got a job at the local newspaper. Newspaper. Shortly after coming home, 21 year old Chad met a woman named Tammy Douglas at a church Mixer. By 1990 they were married and went on to have five children together. On the outside, Chad seemed like just another quiet, ordinary small town dad, but he was secretly having a spiritual awakening. Chad later claimed that during this period he had a number of new near death experiences. He believed these brushes with mortality gave him a supernatural connection to the afterlife. The most powerful one came in 1993 when Chad almost drowned in the ocean while on a family vacation in La Jolla, California. According to him, while he was underwater, he traveled through a tunnel of light. On the other side, he met the spirits of two Mormon ancestors who'd settled the Utah territory in the 1800s. The spirits asked him to carry out sacred missions for them on Earth. Chad accepted their quest. When he returned to his body, he swam back to the shore a changed man. From that moment on, Chad said a voice from beyond guided him through day to day tasks and gave him visions of the future. He he claimed that one of these visions even helped him save his son from getting run over in a supermarket parking lot. Over the years, his wife Tammy got used to hearing about what Chad was learning from what he called the Voice and eventually supported him when his spiritual guides gave him his biggest mission yet. In 1998, 30 year old Chad claimed the Voice showed him a vision of apocalyptic events in the near future and natural disasters, war and the collapse of the United States. The Voice told him to share these visions with the world. So Chad quit his job and started writing books. Over the next 10 years, Chad Self published a series of apocalyptic novels. They were about devout Mormons battling demons and foreign invaders during the end times. In the foreword to his books, Chad explained that these stories were predictions of the future as told to him by his divine voice. He was a prolific writer. Chad eventually wrote over 20 books. But he was also a bad writer. The books didn't sell well. By 2008, Chad and Tammy estimated that he was earning about $2,000 a year in book sales. Eventually, he had to return to grave digging to pay the bills. Over time, though, Chad found a small but devoted audience online, thanks to radical fundamentalist Mormon message boards. Members of these fringe groups shared Chad's obsession with the apocalypse, which they believed was only a few years away. By the early 2010s, Chad had become a celebrity in the Mormon Doomsday Prepper world. His fans on Mormon Doomsday Prepper message podcast boards were eager to know what the voice in his head was telling him. And quite conveniently, that voice started telling him exactly what they wanted to hear. In 2014, Chad claimed the spirit voice told him that the state of Utah would soon be destroyed by a massive earthquake. In the chaos to come, the small town of Rexburg, Idaho, population 35,000, would become become a sacred place. He told Tammy and the kids that they were moving there asap. However, Tammy didn't love the idea of moving her entire life almost 300 miles away. Chad just told her to pray until she saw the wisdom of his plan. And in the end, he got his way. Chad talked about Rexburg's sacred status online and on Doomsday Prepper podcasts. And it didn't take long for him to become popular in his new hometown, where a lot of doomsday preppers already lived. By 2017, Chad was hosting regular gatherings at his house. Up to 50 people would come together to pray and listen to his prophecies from the Voice. And those prophecies were certainly something Chad claimed to have been reincarnated 31 times, living different lives on different planets. And he told his followers that Cleopatra and Kim Kardashian had been characters in the Book of Mormon in their past lives. The things that Chad talked about were far removed from traditional Mormon beliefs, but they were exactly what a certain group of paranoid reactionary people wanted to hear. Chad's prophecies became so popular that In October of 2018, he was invited to speak at a Doomsday prepper conference in St. George, Utah. Before the conference, Chad's voice supposedly told him that he would meet an extraordinary woman there. Sure enough, at a meet and greet, his friend Melanie Gibb introduced him to a charismatic, pretty Arizona housewife named Lori Valow. In the coming year, these two devout Mormons committed a number of sins. Adultery, fraud, and most of all, murder.

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[Vanessa Richardson]

For years, Mormon author Chad Daybell claimed that a voice from the afterlife was giving him visions of the end of the world. Eventually, his apocalyptic sci fi novels made him a popular figure among fringe groups. And In October of 2050 year old Chad met 45 year old Laurie Daybell at a doomsday prepper conference. Lori Maiden, named Cox, was born in Loma Linda, California. The fourth of five children. Laurie grew up in a Mormon household. But her family wasn't as devout as Chad's. Her parents loved taking long trips to Las Vegas to gamble, an activity that's officially forbidden by the Mormon Church. Her father, Barry Cox, was also a member of the Sovereign Citizen movement. People who subscribe to this eccentric conspiracy theory believe the US Government is illegitimate, which means that they don't have to pay taxes. As a result, Barry spent decades wrapped up in a legal battle with the IRS over hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes. So Lori was no stranger to radical fringe belief systems. Although as a young woman, she didn't seem all that interested in following in her dad's footsteps. She was more interested in love. After graduating from high school in 1991, Lori found work as a hairdresser. She also found multiple husbands. Between 1992 and 2005, Lori got married and divorced three times. Although her marriages were short and volatile, the longest lasted just four years, she still started a family. She had a son, colby, with her second husband in 1996, and a daughter Tylee with her third in 2002. Finally, in February 2006, at the age of 32, Laurie settled down with her fourth husband, 49 year old financial planner Charles Valo. Lori, Colby and Tylee moved in with Charles. Then in 2013, their family grew again when they adopted Charles one year old grand nephew J.J. whose biological parents had substance abuse issues. By all accounts, Charles and Laurie had a happy marriage, at least for a while. Charles made good money and loved to dote on his wife who stayed home to look after their kids. But not everybody was a fan of the new Mrs. Vallow. Lori was bubbly and charming, but she also loved to stir up drama. In 2007, she began claiming that her third husband, Joe Ryan, had been abusive to her and their son Colby. We don't know if this is true or not. It's important to take claims of domestic abuse seriously. But also, Lori Vallow has a long track record of lying about pretty much everything. And in this case, she wanted her brother, an aspiring stand up comic named Alex Cox, to go rough up her ex as revenge. On August 5, 2007, Alex attacked Joe with a Taser in an Austin, Texas parking lot while she watched from a nearby car. Alex was arrested, but only served 90 days in jail and never told police that his sister put him up to the attack. Along with her thirst for revenge, Lori also wasn't all that interested in raising a blended family. Charles had two sons from a previous marriage. His ex wife started to suspect that Lori would drug the boys with nyquil whenever they visited so she wouldn't have to look after them. And Lori's spiritual beliefs were pretty strange too. Like the rest of her family, she'd never been the most devout Mormon. But as she settled into her life with Charles, she started listening to new age podcasts that got her interested in a more esoteric version of their faith. Eventually, she came to believe that she could communicate with spirits and that her daughter Ty was the reincarnated version of her dead sister. By the mid-2010s, these beliefs led Laurie to the writings of Chad Daybell, which drew her into the world of radical Mormon doomsday preppers. That's how she met her friend Melanie Gibb, who ran a doomsday prepper class near Lori's home in Arizona. And In October of 2018, Melanie took Laurie to a prepper conference so she could meet her favorite author, Chad Daybell. When Lori sat down to talk to Chad at a meet and greet, it was clear they had an instant connection. Melanie said it was like a bolt of lightning struck when they met. Chad's wife Tammy was at home with their kids in Rexburg, and Lori's husband Charles had stayed in Arizona. That meant there was nothing keeping Chad and Lori from spending the whole weekend together. After two days of talking, laughing, and sharing their premonitions about the end of the world, Chad received an important message from his voice. According to his spiritual guides, he and Laurie had been married seven times in their past lives. And Laurie had special powers that only Chad could awaken. So at the end of the conference, they exchanged numbers. Chad and Lori's relationship rapidly intensified over the next few weeks. They both bought burner cell phones so they could talk privately. Chad claimed to have created a portal in Lori's bedroom closet so he could visit her whenever they wanted. And they also took advantage of Charles's frequent business trips to meet up as much as possible. Eventually, Chad told Lori that even though they were both married, it was okay for them to have sex with each other. After all, they'd been together in a previous life. As Chad spent more and more time with Laurie, his premonitions got even stranger. He told his followers, who he dubbed the Church of the Firstborn, that everyone on earth had either light or dark energy, which only he could detect. He ranked people's lightness or darkness on a sliding scale. Naturally, he, he and Laurie were both the lightest you could be. But no matter how light or dark you were, everyone was at risk of having their soul infected by demonic spirits, which Chad called slugs. If you were infected by a slug, you'd eventually turn into a soul eating creature called a zombie. And there was only one way to save a kill them. Lori wasn't sharing any of this just yet, but by the beginning of 2019, Charles Valo was getting seriously concerned about his wife. Lori was spending as many as eight hours a day at the nearby Mormon temple or meeting up with her prepper friends to talk about slugs and the Apocalypse. She'd started recruiting her friends and family members into her belief system, including her niece, her 16 year old daughter Tylee, and her brother Alex Cox. And she claimed to be an immortal being who no longer needed to eat, sleep, or go to the bathroom. And she'd started acting very cold and distant with him, completely freezing him out of her life. Charles and Laurie started to fight more and more often, especially after he found provocative videos she'd recorded of herself to send to Chad in private, Laurie told Melanie that she felt like Chad Charles was holding her back from unlocking her full spiritual potential. It seems like she shared these concerns with Chad as well, because in early January of 2019, Chad told his followers about two new messages from the spiritual voice in his head. First, the apocalypse was coming and it would arrive on July 22, 2020 2nd. Charles Vallow had become a zombie. And once that happened, there was only one way to deal with him.

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[Vanessa Richardson]

In January 2019, apocalyptic Mormon cult leader, 50 year old Chad Daybell and his new paramour, 45 year old Lori Valow, dropped two bombshells on their followers. According to the voices in Chad's head, the world would end on July 22, 2020 and Lori's husband, Charles Valow had been possessed by demons and turned into a zombie. Something had to be done. According to Chad, divorcing Charles wasn't enough. But that wasn't just because he believed zombies were extremely dangerous. Lori was the beneficiary of Charles's million dollar life insurance policy. If she was going to get her hands on that money, they needed to provoke Charles into attacking her. That way they could say they'd killed him in self defense. On January 29, 2019, while Charles was on a business trip Laurie emptied his bank account, cashing out $35,000. Then she stole his truck from the airport parking lot and had all the locks changed on their house in the Phoenix suburbs. After that, she called Charles to tell him exactly what she'd done and that he'd better not try to stop her because she was a God with magic powers. Charles rushed home, desperate to get back to Laurie before she harmed herself or their 6 year old son JJ when he realized she'd locked him out of the house, Charles called the police and tried to explain what was going on. But the story Charles told them sounded ridiculous. Full of zombies, reincarnated spirits and doomsday prophecies. So the officers didn't believe him, especially after they talked to Lori, who came across as reasonable, charming and very afraid of Charles. In the end, the law sided with Laurie and Charles stayed locked out. But things hadn't gone quite according to plan. Through it all, Charles kept his head. Laurie wasn't able to provoke him into the violent outburst she'd been hoping for. For however, she'd get another chance soon. Over the next few months, Charles filed for divorce and took Lori to court to try to get custody of Tylee and JJ. Lori stonewalled as much as she could, but finally agreed to hand JJ over to Charles, at least temporarily. On July 10, 2019, Charles traveled to Lori's new house in Chandler, Arizona. When he arrived, Charles texted her older brother Adam that Laurie's other brother Alex, a fellow member of the Church of the Firstborn, was at the house as well. It was the last text he ever sent over. An hour later, first responders were called to Lori's house. They found 62 year old Charles Vallow dead, shot in the chest. Alex told the police that Charles had burst into the house in a rage and tried to attack him with a baseball bat. The Alex said he'd shot Charles in self defense. When Laurie gave her statement to police, she seemed oddly unfazed by her husband's death. Smiling and joking about what her neighbors must think of all the commotion at her house. But despite her strange behavior, and despite the fact that Alex Cox had a criminal record for assaulting Lori's previous husband, the police didn't press charges. Lori and Chad's plan had worked. The zombie had been dealt with and nobody suspected a thing. But once again, Lori and Chad's plan hadn't been quite as successful as they'd hoped. Four days after Charles died, Lori contacted his life insurance company to see about her million dollar payday. That was when she learned that Sometime before he died, Charles had removed her as his beneficiary. So when she moved to Rexburg to be closer to Chad In August of 2019, her only source of income was roughly $5,000 a month in Social Security benefits for Tylee and JJ. Killing her husband hadn't made Lori rich, but at least now she was free to be with the man of her dreams. Other members of the church, the firstborn, followed Laurie to Rexburg, including her brother Alex, who moved into the apartment next door to hers. Alex set up the WI FI network for his and Lori's apartments, which gave a grim preview of what would happen next. The password he chose for their network was Too Many Kids. Shortly after arriving in Rexburg, Lori texted Chad that she was worried about Tylee. Ever since the move, 16 year old Tylee had been sullen and defiant, and Lori was concerned that she was turning into a zombie. Chad checked with the spirits and confirmed that yes, Tylee was a zombie. Soon after, Chad contacted her with even more bad news. It turned out JJ was a zombie now too. And there was only one way to save their souls. On September 8, 2019, Lori and her brother Alex took Tylee and JJ on a trip to Yellowstone National Park. The last time Tylee was ever seen alive was in a picture of her smiling with her brother and uncle in front of a geyser. The following day, Alex Cox's cell phone data showed that he spent two hours at Chad Dell's property on the outskirts of Rexburg. Later that day, Chad texted his wife that he'd shot and buried a raccoon, which was why there was a patch of fresh dirt in the yard. Two weeks later, on September 22, Melanie Gibb was recording a podcast with Lori at her apartment when Alex came in with JJ asleep in his arms. The following morning, when Melanie noticed that JJ wasn't around, Lori explained that Alex had had taken JJ back to his house in the night because he was acting like a zombie. In reality, Alex went back to Chad Daybell's house and spent nearly 20 minutes on the same part of the property where the raccoon had been buried weeks earlier. JJ was never seen alive again. Over the next few months, Lori gave conflicting explanations for where her kids were in she told JJ's Elementary School that he'd gone to live with his grandparents in Louisiana and told JJ's nanny that he was visiting family in Hawaii. When friends asked where Tylee was, Lori explained that she was taking classes at Brigham Young University in Idaho. But even though the campus was located in Rexburg Nobody ever saw her there. And when Tylee's older half brother Colby texted her for her birthday day, he thought Tyler's responses sounded strange. And for good reason. It turned out they were written by Lori, trying to mimic her daughter's style. Even though Lori's kids were mia, she kept on cashing their Social Security checks every month like nothing was wrong. And on October 2, 2019, she used some of that money to order a wedding ring. Ring. Three days later, Chad texted Lori that his wife Tammy was a zombie now, too. Four days after that, Tammy Daybell was unloading groceries from her car when a masked man, later determined to be Alex Cox, drove up and began shooting at her with a silenced rifle. Tammy managed to escape and reported the attack to police, but based on her description of the rifle, police assumed that the weapon was a paintball gun and the whole thing was just a prank. As a result, there was no investigation. Tammy never realized that her husband was trying to kill her until it was too late to stop him. On October 19, Chad Daybell called 911 to report that he'd found his wife dead in their bed. He claimed that she'd gone to sleep with a bad cough, and when he woke up in the morning, she wasn't breathing. Incredibly, the county coroner agreed with Chad and ruled that Tammy had died of natural causes. Thanks to this ruling, there was no autopsy. On November 5, 2019, just over two weeks after his wife of 30 years died, 51 year old Chad Daybell and 46 year old Lori Valow got married on a beach in Hawaii. They'd killed a lot of zombies to get to this point, but at long last, after being married in seven previous lives, they were finally married in this one, too. Chad and Lori's newlywed wed. Bliss didn't last very long though. On November 26, JJ's grandparents called the police to report that they hadn't seen their grandson in three months. The next day, detectives showed up at Lori's apartment in Rexburg to look for Tylee and jj. Instead, they found Alex Cox and Chad Daybell, who didn't provide convincing answers to their questions. Alex said that Tyler was was at college and that JJ was with his grandparents, even though they were the ones who'd reported him missing. Chad also said he didn't know Lori Valow very well, but the detectives knew that he'd been married to her for three weeks. The next day, police returned to the apartment complex with search warrants. By that point, Chad and Lori were gone. They'd used the $430,000 pay payout from Tammy's life insurance policy to buy a house in Hawaii. They tried to lay low there in hopes that the investigation into Lori's missing children would just blow over. Instead, it intensified. By December, Lori's friend Melanie Gibb began cooperating with investigators. Days later, on December 11, police exhumed Tammy Daybell's body for an autopsy. Autopsy which found that she had been forcibly suffocated. As evidence mounted and members of their cult turned on them, Chad took steps to protect himself and his new wife. Text records show that he contacted Alex Cox, who'd been instrumental in all of the Church of the Firstborn's murders. Chad blessed him as a prophet and a hero who would serve them in the afterlife. Not long after, on December 12, 51 year old Alex was found dead at his home. Although his death was ruled to be from natural causes, investigators suspect he purposefully overdosed on drugs so he wouldn't have to testify against his sister. It took a few months to get everything in order, but In February of 2020, police in Hawaii Hawaii finally arrested 46 year old Lori Vallow. Officially it was for defying repeated court orders to produce her missing children. Four months after that, in June, police served a search warrant at 51 year old Chad Daybell's house in Rexburg. As they searched the former gravedigger's property, they discovered Tylee and JJ's bodies bearing buried in the yard. Chad was present for the search. As soon as police began digging up the bodies, he jumped into his SUV and tried to flee the scene, but surrendered to police after a short chase. Despite all his claims of being able to see the future, apparently Chad hadn't been able to predict his own arrest. After multiple delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, Chad and Lori separately went on trial in 2023 for the murders of Tylee, JJ and Tammy Daybell. Thanks to a treasure trove of incriminating text messages and testimony from former members of the Church of the Firstborn, they were both found guilty. Lori Valo received three life sentences. Earlier this year, she was also convicted of conspiring to murder her ex husband Charles and her niece's husband, Brandon Boudreau. Chad Daybell received the death penalty for ordering the murders and is currently awaiting execution on Idaho's death row. In the 13 months after Chad and Laurie's first meeting, their flirtatious doomsday predictions escalated until four people were dead. But for all their talk about the apocalypse, the world is still here. But because of them, the people they were supposed to protect aren't able to enjoy it. Up next, the story of another cult whose apocalyptic prophecies led to hell on earth for its members.

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Just a few weeks before Chad Dabell and Lori Vallow first met, another doomsday cult leader finally faced justice. On September 27, 2018, 71 year old Deborah Greene was sentenced to 72 years in prison for abuses committed by her cult, the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps. Although nothing practiced by this group resembled Christianity, at least one black part of their name was accurate. They were very aggressive. For the past 30 years, Deborah Greene had run the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps like a military organization. Members wore combat fatigues and referred to her and her husband, Jim Green, as general. On the day of her arrest in August 2017, Greene was wearing a white officer's uniform during complete with unit patches and a matching beret. But as she sat in court, Deborah was thin, weak and emaciated. For weeks she'd been engaging in a hunger strike behind bars. She claimed she was facing false charges intended to persecute her and her ministry. But the authorities had plenty of evidence and witness testimony to prove her wrong. From what they could tell, Jim Deborah and Jim Green were responsible for decades of violent abuse, much of it targeted at their followers, children. Jurors heard about a 12 year old boy who died at the cult's compound because Deborah denied him medical care. They learned about Deborah and Jim's son in law, Peter, who was charged with repeatedly sexually abusing a young girl beginning at the age of seven. And they heard directly from a young woman who the Greens kidnapped from uganda in the 1990s, who they starved, beat and Treated as a slave. When Deborah's trial concluded, she was convicted of three counts of child rape, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of child abuse. The 72 year sentence she received ensured that she would spend the rest of her days behind bars and but the life she lived before that sentence was a wild and terrifying ride for two people who later named themselves generals of a military cult. Deborah and Jim Green ironically met through the anti war movement. In the 1960s, the two joined the Bear Tribe Collective, a hippie commune in the wilderness of Northern California, where members wore loincloths and howled at the moon. But after a few years of peace and love, Deborah and Jim experienced a religious awakening and converted to Christianity. They spent a few years in Kentucky, where Jim studied to be a pastor, then moved to Miami to work with the Salvation army in the late 1970s. In 1981, the Greens returned to California where they established a new religious movement that blended their hippie roots with their Christian beliefs. Calling themselves Free Love Ministries, Deborah and Jim operated out of a house in Sacramento where they prayed, taught and distributed gospel leaflets. New age Christian communes like this were popular in the early 1980s, and the Greens soon collected more followers than they had rumored for in their house. They didn't have the funds to buy a new place, but one member owned three print and frame shops in the Sacramento area. The Greens took charge of them and used the money to rent multiple bunk houses in the Sacramento area for their growing flock to sleep in. The Greens dubbed their compound Fort Freedom. By 1984, Free Love Ministries had around 5050 followers, and the Greens were already going crazy with power. Deborah and Jim preached that demons walked the earth and were responsible for everything wrong in society right on down to the common cold. They forbade employees at the cult's print shops from printing any images of frogs, owls or unicorns, which they considered satanic. Soon the group's teachings grew, grew so bizarre that the local radio station canceled the radio show the Greens had been running. As the Greens beliefs grew more militant, so did their organization. Followers of Free Love Ministries were encouraged to cut ties with their families and friends. Deborah and Jim began issuing military style uniforms to their followers, who were instructed to refer to the group's leaders as General Deborah and General Jim. In 1985, people living near Fort Freedom told police that members of the cult were engaging in combat drills in the wilderness, complete with rifles and live ammunition. Though these charges were never proven. For the next few years, Free Love Ministries was considered a local oddity in Sacramento. But in in 1988, they made the news for much darker reasons. A former member, Maura Schmirer, reported that the Greens ordered members to beat their children. When Maura refused, the Greens declared her a witch. For the next six months, Maura said the Greens held her against her will part of the time in a 5x12 foot wooden shack at their compound, feeding her nothing but stale peanut butter sandwiches. While she was locked up, they forced her to divorce her husband, sign over the deed to her house, and relinquish custody of her three children. After she was released and kicked out of the cult, Maura sued for $20 million in damages. The Greens refused to acknowledge the court case and didn't attend any of the hearings. Unsurprisingly, they lost, and the court seized the cult's Sacramento properties to pay for Mora's damages. In Defiance, the Greens and the roughly 25 remaining members of Free Love Ministries destroyed all the buildings in the compound with sledgehammers. Then they fled the state. Hoping to leave the bad press in Sacramento behind, the Greens relocated the cult to Oregon and changed its name to something that better reflected their true teachings. From now on, Free Love Ministries would be known as the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps. After a few years In Klamath Falls, Oregon, the Greens relocated their group to Fence Lake, New Mexico in 1992. Locals got used to to seeing black clad members of the ACMTC preaching on the streets and trying to convert new recruits. At their desert compound, followers made incense, soap, and baked goods that they sold at farmers markets and roadside stalls in nearby cities. The Greens used this money to pay for missionary trips to countries like India, Nigeria, and Malawi. It's not clear if these missionary efforts ever convinced converted anybody to the Greens cause, but they did increase the membership by at least one. In 1997, Deborah returned from a trip to Uganda with a baby who she claimed to have adopted in the country. But she certainly didn't have any motherly love. The Ugandan girl grew up in their compound, where she received nearly constant abuse from the Greens from an early age. She was was underfed and forced to perform hard labor. Deborah beat her frequently, sometimes even whipping her. The first time the girl ever saw a doctor was in 2006 when she broke her femur in what the Greens called a swing set accident during a beating, and they were forced to take her to a hospital. Suspicious doctors notified child Services and the girl was evidently eventually taken from the Greens and spent the rest of her adolescence in foster care. A state investigation into the Greens compound fizzled out with no charges, and the Cult's teachings grew even Darker. In the mid 2000s, the ACMTC started preaching a more apocalyptic message. Members began appearing in nearby towns carrying signs claiming that the end of the world world was coming. Reportedly, Deborah and Jim had been preaching that the rest of the world would soon declare war on them and that they had to be ready to defend themselves and their compound from the forces of evil. In preparation for the end times, the group became reclusive. Deborah forbade her followers from leaving the compound even for medical treatment. This resulted in the death of of a 12 year old boy in 2014. After suffering from the flu for three weeks, the boy became partially paralyzed and lost the ability to speak. Even then, Deborah refused to call an ambulance, insisting that, quote, the sick are in sin and must repent to be healed. When the boy died, Deborah had his body buried on the cult's property. The death wasn't reported to the authorities, at least not right away. In 2016, two female members of the ACMTC managed to escape the compound and told the local police about the boy's death. Detectives opened an investigation into the Greens and began reaching out to former cult members who'd seen or experienced Deborah's abuse. After months months of gathering evidence, police in New Mexico raided the ACMTC's compound in August of 2017. There they found 11 children being held against their will, starting as young as four years old. Deborah Green was arrested midway through the Sunday morning service. Her husband was later taken into custody and eventually faced criminal charges as well as. Just as Deborah predicted, the outside world had declared war on the aggressive Christianity Missionary Training Corps. And in the end, her cult went down without a fight. Ultimately, Jim Green pleaded no contest to his charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Meanwhile, Deborah refused to admit any guilt at trial. She remained defiant, even when she was confronted with all of the hurt and suffering she'd caused. The prosecution's star witness was the Ugandan girl Deborah had kidnapped, now 20 years old, who testified powerfully about the abuse she'd suffered from the Greens. And the jury made sure Debra faced justice. After her conviction, Deborah still showed no remorse. She and her lawyers maintained that she had no role in any child abuse. And in 2020, her conviction was overturned on a technicality. However, Deborah remained in jail as the state prepared for a retrial. In April 2025, the New Mexico Supreme Court upheld her original child abuse conviction, likely ensuring that she'll spend the rest of her life in a cell. The General had lost her final battle. Looking back at this week in crime history, we see what can happen when people believe the end is near. Chad Dabel and Lori Vallow convinced their followers to kill for them because they believed it would help them survive the apocalypse. Members of Deborah and Jim Green's cult cut themselves off from friends, family, and modern medicine to keep themselves safe from the end of days. But as these two cultish couples found out, the world keeps on turning no matter what you say. And sooner or later, you've got to answer for the sins that have been carried out in your name. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is True Crime this Week part of Crime House Daily. Crime House Daily is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. At Crime House we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following Crime House Daily. Wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback truly matters. And for ad free and early access to Crime House Daily plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. We'll be back tomorrow. True Crime this week is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson, and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the True Crime this Week team Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Truman Capps, Joanna Powell and Michael Langsner. Thank you you for listening and Doug.

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