A former friend of Lori Vallow broke down on the stand Wednesday as she recounted how the Doomsday mom terrifyingly threatened to “cut” and kill her—and then bury her body in a “place nobody would ever find” her.
“She said she would cut me up and wasn’t in the mental place to do it but would get herself in a place to do it,” Audrey Barattiero, 34, tearfully told Ada County jurors, according to East Idaho News. “There would be blood and bleach and something about trash bags. She would bury me in a place nobody would ever find me.”
The harrowing October 2019 conversation came just one month after prosecutors say that Vallow and Chad Daybell killed her two children and buried their bodies in the apocalyptic author’s backyard. Then, around the time that Vallow threatened her friend who she met through the Mormon church, prosecutors say the religious fanatic couple conspired to kill Daybell’s first wife, Tammy, for an insurance payout.
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Barattiero, who had also been friends with Daybell, said on the stand that she did not yet know about the grisly string of murders when she was chatting with Vallow at her house in 2019. She said that she asked Vallow if something “weird” was going on with her that she didn’t know about.
Dodging the question, Barattiero said, Vallow “started laughing—like if you were laughing at someone” before berating her friend.
“You’re so naive and too trusting. You’re like a little child. You think the world is all unicorns and rainbows. You go around helping people and serving them,” Vallow allegedly told her friend, according to Barattiero. “Well, I’ve got news for you. Not everyone is a good person and not everyone can be so kind.”
The chilling threat was revealed to jurors after weeks of testimony in Vallow’s murder trial, where she faces several charges and a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors allege that Vallow and Daybell’s crimes were fueled by their devotion to a renegade branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Barattiero said she first met Vallow in November 2018 at a religious conference, where Daybell was also present. She said that Vallow and Daybell had a “vibe” despite being married to other people at the time. Months later, Barattiero said, Daybell called to ask her to be Vallow’s friend.
“He asked me to be her friend and that she needed a friend. He said that he couldn’t talk to her all the time and that maybe I could be someone to uplift or be a friend,” Barattiero said about the February 2019 conversation. “I said OK.”
The friendship, which she said consisted of talking to each other on the phone every few weeks about “spiritual things,” took a turn after Vallow started to preach about more eccentric topics—like zombies.
Barattiero said that while Vallow’s outlandish beliefs made her uncomfortable, she did not voice her concerns and continued their friendship. Eventually, she said, she ended the friendship in October 2019 after Vallow’s outburst.
