Lori Vallow’s friend says she threatened to kill her, ‘cut her up’ and bury her

Lori Vallow threatened to kill her friend, “cut her to pieces” and then bury her remains “in a place no one would ever find” a month after her two children disappeared, according to explosive testimony in the mother’s murder trial of the cult of the end of the world.

Ms Vallow’s friend, Audrey Barattiero, took the stand at Ms Vallow’s trial at the Ada County Courthouse on Wednesday, revealing disturbing details about her former friend’s alleged threat once made to her life. .

Ms. Barattiero testified that, one day in October 2019, she had asked Ms. Vallow if anything strange was going on.

Ms Vallow’s son JJ and daughter Tylee had disappeared a month earlier, while her husband, Charles Vallow, had been shot dead by his brother Alex Cox in July.

“Is there something weird that I don’t know about?” Ms. Barattiero said she asked her friend.

Ms Vallow allegedly insisted there wasn’t, but then, after the confrontation, she laughed and told Ms Barattiero she was “naive”, before threatening to kill her.

“As soon as I turned to go upstairs, she started laughing, like you were laughing at someone,” he testified.

“She said: ‘You are so naive and overconfident. You are like a little child. You think the world is all unicorns and rainbows. You go around helping people and serving them. Well, I have news for you. Not everyone is a good person and not everyone can be that nice.’”

“Then he threatened to kill me. She said that she would cut me to pieces and that she was not in the mental place to do it, but that she would put herself in a place to do it”.

Then, supposedly, Ms. Vallow went into detail about how she would kill Ms. Barattiero.

There would be blood and bleach and something about garbage bags. I would bury myself in a place where no one would ever find me,” Ms. Barattiero said.

The stunning moment shocked many in court, and Ms Vallow herself reportedly looked shocked. Her defense attorney, Jim Archibald, challenged Ms. Barattiero, first reminding her that she was under oath and stating that none of this testimony had appeared in the pretrial grand jury proceedings.

When asked why she had not disclosed this exchange with the defendant until now, she said that she had been scared.

“There was no talk of any of that. Do you want the jury to believe that you didn’t make this latest shit up? he said.

An adamant Ms. Barattiero stood by her assertions, responding: “I didn’t make it up.”

The testimony about the chilling alleged encounter comes after the jury heard more than four weeks of testimony about the gruesome murders of their children JJ and Tylee and Mr. Daybell’s first wife, Tammy, including the attempted dismemberment of Tylee. and the burial of both children on the Daybell property. .

JJ and Tylee were last seen alive in September 2019, and for months Vallow refused to reveal their whereabouts.

A month later, Tammy died suddenly at age 49 and Mrs. Vallow and Mr. Daybell flew to Hawaii and got married on a beach.

In June 2020, the remains of JJ and Tylee were discovered buried in Mr. Daybell’s backyard.

JJ died of suffocation with multiple layers of plastic bags wrapped around the boy’s head and duct tape over his mouth, the jury heard at the trial.

Tylee’s cause of death was impossible to determine because her remains were badly burned and mutilated.

Now, Ms. Vallow is now on trial charged with conspiracy to commit first degree murder in Tammy’s death and first degree murder, conspiracy and grand larceny in connection with the deaths of JJ and Tylee. She is also charged with related financial crimes.

In court on Wednesday, Ms Barattiero testified how she met Ms Vallow in November 2018 when they both attended a religious conference along with Mr Daybell, Ms Vallow’s friend Melanie Gibb, and future Cox’s wife, Zulema Pastenes.

She said she and Ms Vallow became good friends, but in early 2019 she started talking about “zombies” and “possession”.

Prosecutors allege that Ms. Vallow and Mr. Daybell conspired with Cox to murder Tammy, JJ and Tylee as part of their doomsday cult beliefs, but also for financial gain so they could collect life insurance money. Tammy’s and children’s social security and survivor benefits.

As part of their cult beliefs, the couple believed in a “light and dark classification system” to classify the spirits of the people around them.

Over time, this developed into the belief that some people, including children, were “zombies” and that the only way to get rid of zombies was to destroy the human body.

Mr. Daybell is also charged with the murders, but is to be tried separately at a later date.

Meanwhile, Cox died before he could face charges.

On December 11, 2019, Cox died suddenly at the age of 51. His death was also ruled natural causes, with indications of a blood clot embedded in the arteries of his lungs. However, the overdose drug Narcan was also found in his system.

Ms. Vallow also faces charges in Arizona for conspiring with Cox to murder her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.