Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for “Doomsday” mom Lori Vallow, the Idaho cultist charged with killing her two children.
Vallow, 48, and her husband, Chad Daybell, 52, both face murder raps in connection with the 2019 deaths of her kids Tyree Ryan, 17, and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow.
If Vallow and Daybell are convicted of any of the first-degree counts against them, prosecutors will ask for capital punishment as a sentencing option, they said in court papers Monday.
The couple embraced an apocalyptic cult named Preparing a People in 2018 while they were each still married to other people.
The two fell under suspicion after Vallow’s kids disappeared in 2019 and they refused to cooperate with investigators.
The burnt bodies of both kids were eventually discovered in a makeshift cemetery near Daybell’s home several months after they vanished.
Lawyers for Vallow, who has pleaded not guilty, had argued that she was mentally unfit for trial.
But Vallow was deemed able to understand the charges against her after spending 11 months in a mental hospital and will now stand trial.
Daybell’s first wife disappeared mysteriously just days before he and Vallow tied the knot.
That led investigators to probe Vallow’s circumstances and the status of her children. The couple never reported them missing and declined to aid detectives in attempting to locate them.
With cops closing in, Vallow and Daybell eventually fled Idaho and traveled to Hawaii where they were arrested.
A friend of Vallow told authorities that she believed her children were possessed by evil spirits and could eventually turn into zombies.
Vallow is also facing separate charges of conspiring with her brother, Alex Cox, in the 2019 killing of her ex-husband.
Daybell, who will stand trial alongside his wife, is also facing charges in connection with the death of his ex-spouse.
Investigators have not disclosed how the two children were killed.
