In the months before Chad Daybell allegedly conspired with Lori Vallow to murder her two children and his first wife—before jetting off to Hawaii to get married—the doomsday author kept the romance alive in a series of steamy text messages.
“The intensity of each encounter on my mind. Each one greater than the last,” Daybell wrote to Vallow in an Aug. 9, 2019, text, followed by three flame emojis. “We were definitely in new territory in your bedroom.”
The texts were shown at Daybell’s murder trial in Idaho on Monday as context for how the couple’s relationship developed after they met at an October 2018 religious conference.
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At the meeting, Daybell and Vallow determined that they had been married in five different past lives and were meant to be together. They also described themselves as “James and Elena,” names that Daybell used in a steamy text exchange during their secret affair.
“Elena’s magic hand has gripped the storm and they stare into each other’s eyes as intense waves wash over them,” Daybell texted Vallow, according to FBI Tactical Specialist Nicole Heideman.
Heideman told jurors that “storm” appeared to be the couple’s name for “Chad’s penis”—an explanation that prompted Daybell to smile from his seat at the defense table.
Prosecutors allege that in September 2019 the couple became convinced by their apocalyptic religious beliefs to murder Vallow’s two children, 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, and bury them in Daybell’s Idaho backyard. About a month later, they allegedly conspired to kill Daybell’s wife, Tammy, before fleeing to Hawaii to tie the knot.
Daybell, 55, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges and faces the death penalty. His lawyers insist there is no evidence directly tying Daybell to the murders. Vallow was sentenced to life in prison in July in connection with the case.
On her second day on the stand, Heideman walked jurors through the couple’s text messages while Daybell lived in Idaho and Vallow in Utah. After Vallow’s fourth husband, Charles, died in July 2019, the messages that sometimes included long passages about “James and Elena” got more graphic.
“He kissed her deeply as their breathing slow. He held her tightly before they began another round of pleasurable bonding,” Daybell wrote in one text message shown in court.
“That is pretty incredible,” she responded, followed by multiple fire emojis.
After receiving another snippet of Daybell’s “James and Elena” narrative, Vallow told the Daybell she loved him and praised him. (Heideman told jurors it is not immediately clear if Daybell, a former gravedigger turned popular Mormon author of apocalyptic novels, had any plans to publish the chapters.)
“That’s so hot. I just need you more than ever,” she wrote in an August 2019 message, according to Heideman.
Sometime later, Daybell texted Vallow: “You are amazing. Please save that segment. I want to read it with you naked and then relive it all.”
