Date of Chad Daybell’s predicted end of the world comes and goes - East Idaho News
Daybell Case

Date of Chad Daybell’s predicted end of the world comes and goes

  Published at

REXBURG (KSL) – As prosecutors in Idaho build their case against Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow, the couple’s apocalyptic beliefs may provide some clues as to what happened to JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, who were found buried in Daybell’s backyard.

Among those beliefs, Daybell and Lori Vallow predicted Wednesday would bring the end of the world. Yet the world still turns as the Daybells sit in a jail cell.

Daybell not only predicted it ends, but he also claimed to have visions of earthquakes hitting the Wasatch Front as a sign.

RELATED | A look at the religious circle surrounding Chad and Lori Daybell

His interest in the end of times started long before JJ Vallow and Ryan’s disappearance. Daybell referenced the apocalyptic movie “2012,” describing it as “so bad it’s good movie” in a September 2015 blog post.

Daybell praised Woody Harrelson’s performance as a “crazy doomsday prophet.”

Daybell drew a parallel saying “Sheesh, I’m starting to sound like Woody Harrelson …” as he describes two earthquakes hitting the Wasatch Front.

“The first one is moderate and it disrupts life for a few weeks. Many older brick buildings crumble and roads suffer damage, but repairs are made quickly,” Daybell wrote in his blog.

In the beginning pages of his “end of times” book, “The Great Gathering,” Daybell described the earthquake as a 5.7 magnitude.

Eerily enough, the March earthquake epicentered near Magna was a 5.7 magnitude quake.

RELATED | Preparedness stores are slammed as eastern Idahoans stock up

Divorce court documents further stated that Ian Pawlowski, the husband of Vallow’s niece, Melanie Pawlowski, met with detectives and the FBI in December and shared similar accounts about Vallow and Daybell’s beliefs in earthquakes.

According to court documents, Ian Pawlowski stated, “I shared ideas about earthquakes being prepared in SLC… Al [Alex Cox] and Zulema had stayed in Las Vegas and were ‘preparing earthquakes’ at the time I spoke with the police.”

Vallow also shared a keen interest in the end of times, as can be heard in a November 2018 podcast she recorded with her friend Melanie Gibb and Jason Mow, as part of the “Preparing a People” Platform.

“We are gathering together as saints, as brothers and sisters and preparing for the second coming,” Vallow said during the podcast.

Kay Woodcock, JJ Vallow’s grandmother, said Lori Vallow also expressed her radical beliefs to Charles Vallow, who in turn told Kay and her husband, Larry Woodcock.

“To tell she [Lori] is a chosen one, that she is now a God and it is now up to her to help vet 144,000 so that they will be there for the second coming in July of 2020. I think it’s July 22. I don’t know what is going to happen on July 23,” Kay told KSL in January.

Charles Vallow expressed his concerns about Lori’s mental state and fears that she was taking things to an extreme in divorce documents he filed in February 2019. The documents state, “Mother [Lori] informed Father [Charles] that she was a God assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020 and that if Father got in her way of her mission she would murder him.”

Detectives with the Chandler Police Department in Arizona also tracked emails Daybell sent Lori Vallow in January 2019. The emails included a list of “Seven missions to accomplish together.”

The seven items listed are:

  • Translate ancient records
  • Write the book about the translation process
  • Identify locations in northeast Arizona for white camps
  • Presidency of the Church of Firstborn
  • Help establish the food distribution as the tribulations start and the delegate
  • Ordain individuals to translation as the camps begin
  • Provide supplies to righteous members of families

The documents obtained from the Chandler Police Department show detectives were looking into the couple’s religious beliefs during their investigation. Police listened to their podcasts looking for clues during the search for Ryan and JJ Vallow.

SUBMIT A CORRECTION