Woman says Lori Daybell threatened to kill her when she ended friendship

BOISE — When Audrey Barattiero ended her friendship with Lori Vallow Daybell, she said Daybell immediately threatened to cut her up and kill her.

Barattiero testified Wednesday that she had been with Daybell in Hawaii. But she followed Daybell back to Idaho after hearing about Tammy Daybell's death to give condolences to Chad Daybell about his wife's death and condolences to his children. She said she went to Lori Daybell's townhome and saw her friend and Chad Daybell kissing, hugging and being very romantic with each other and said Chad Daybell spent the night at the townhome.

When Barattiero told Lori Daybell she was leaving and did not want to spend any more time with her, Barattiero asked if anything weird was happening that she didn't know about. Lori Daybell denied anything weird, but as Barattiero started going up the stairs, she said Lori Daybell started laughing and told Barattiero she was so naive and trusting and would believe anything.

The woman testified that Lori Daybell told her, "I've got news. Not everyone's a good person and not everyone is so nice and kind."

Barattiero told the jury through tears that Lori Daybell then threatened to kill her.

"She said, that she would cut me up, and something about she wasn't in the mental place to do that now, but she would get herself in the mental place to do it ... and it would be so messy, with so much blood. And she mentioned bleach, trash bags ... and she would bury me where no one would ever find me," Barattiero testified.

Defense attorney James Archibald questioned Barattiero about why she did not say anything about this threat before, not even when she was under oath previously testifying before a grand jury.

Barattiero said, "I was scared because she said, 'If you ever tell anyone, I'll come and find you in the dark night.'"

Lori Daybell is on trial for murder, conspiracy and grand theft in the deaths of her two children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old JJ Vallow. She is also charged with conspiracy in connection with the death of Tammy Daybell, her new husband's previous wife. Chad Daybell is charged with murder for the same three deaths and will face a separate trial at a later date. Lori Daybell is also charged in connection with the death of Charles Vallow, her former husband, in a separate Arizona case.

'Zombies'

Barattiero told jurors Wednesday about her friendship and interactions with Lori Daybell, including times when she met her in Missouri and Hawaii in the fall of 2019, around the time when police believe the children were killed.

The woman first met Lori Daybell at a conference in November 2018. Then, Chad Daybell had asked Barattiero to be Lori Daybell's friend in early 2019, and Barattiero said she would talk to Lori Daybell on the phone every few weeks. Barattiero said she thought Chad Daybell wanted her to talk to Lori Daybell because she needed a friend and he was married and wanted to maintain propriety.

Barattiero said she felt uncomfortable on two different occasions when she was with Lori Daybell and other women, who were speaking about helping get negative spirits out of the woman's then-husband, Charles Vallow, and Chad Daybell's then-wife, Tammy Daybell.

"She all of a sudden, out of the blue, brought up all this stuff about zombies and people being possessed. ... And I hadn't heard of that before and had no basis for that," Barattiero testified.

The woman said during a conversation at a hotel where she was attending a conference with multiple women, Lori Daybell talked about people being possessed with negative spirits and called them "zombies." She said the women began holding hands and she thought they might be preparing for a group prayer.

"And then she started talking, basically to say that she was going to try to get a spirit out of Charles. And each woman would say something," Barattiero said.

When asked what she remembered Lori Daybell saying, Barattiero said, "Things like knives and fire and, like, weapons that you would try to use ... that kind of an idea."

She added: "I didn't know that term of 'castings.' When it got to me, I didn't feel comfortable and I didn't say anything. As soon as that was over, I left, because I didn't want to stay."

Lori Daybell and her niece, Melani Boudreaux, visited Barattiero in October of 2019 in Missouri. Barattiero said she would ask Lori Daybell how her daughter was doing — after the date investigators think Tylee had been killed.

"I would ask; 'How is she doing at BYU?' (Lori Daybell) said, 'She doesn't talk to me much these days,'" Barattiero said.

During that same trip, Barattiero said Lori Daybell told her that a negative spirit needed to be taken out of Tammy Daybell.

"I told her that I did not want to help and that I did not want to participate and ... she highly pressured me saying, 'You're supposed to be my friend. You're supposed to be helping me,'" an emotional Barattiero testified. "I reiterated (that) I didn't want to. And she kept on."

The woman was crying in the courtroom and pausing as she related her memories. Lori Daybell shook her head "no" from the defense table during some of the testimony.

Barattiero also said Chad and Lori Daybell would discuss people having a lightness or a darkness.

"Chad had this idea that, I guess, like he would say if someone was light or dark depending on if they were predominately a good person or if he thought they were predominately a bad person," she said, adding that Lori Daybell told her her then-husband was dark. She said later, Lori Daybell told her that her own children were dark, as was Tammy Daybell.

Closer to the end of the friendship, Barattiero said she heard something from Chad Daybell to the effect of, 'Why is the body still alive?' which she said was referring to a dark spirit leaving a body.

When asked what she believed the comment mean, Barattiero said, "That they didn't intend for the person to be helped, I would think. That they didn't want the person to live."

Previous lives

Barattiero was in Hawaii with Lori Daybell and Boudreaux when she said she learned that Tammy Daybell had died. She said Lori Daybell told Barattiero she had died about a week previously, in her sleep.

She testified that Lori Daybell's emotions varied during that trip, saying sometimes she was agitated but she would be happy when she was thinking about Chad Daybell or had talked with him on the phone. Barattiero said when Lori Daybell left Hawaii to return to Idaho, it was sudden and seemed like she bought the ticket that day.

During cross examination, Barattiero confirmed that she had purchased Chad Daybell's books about the end of the world and preparing for the millennium and "thought that he had information and was doing good things … at that time."

She said she believed Chad Daybell when he told her that he had been an apostle of Jesus Christ in a previous life and that Lori Daybell had been married to that same apostle in a prior life. She said Chad Daybell also told her she had been married to Jesus in a previous life, and she thought it could be true because she trusted him.

"That's pretty cool, being married to Jesus," Archibald said. "So in your thought process, are you thinking this Chad Daybell guy is correct? He's really predicting the past. He can predict the future, too?"

"Yeah," Barattiero replied.

"Because he was writing books about the end of the world. He was telling people who they were in prior lives, great people, not losers, and that gave you a feeling of, 'I'm somebody,' right?"

"Yes."

'Something needs to happen'

Ian Pawlowski married Lori Daybell's niece, Melani Pawlowski, on Nov. 30, 2019, and he said he met Lori Daybell five days earlier, about the time police began searching for JJ. He said his wife had a close relationship with Chad and Lori Daybell, and he asked Chad Daybell before proposing to Melani Pawlowski.

He said he remembers hearing Lori Daybell discuss beliefs about people being possessed and "locking Satan away." He said Chad Daybell was there for these conversations.

"I don't recall if he ever stated anything. Lori typically did most of the talking. Chad was typically there and acted as a support to what Lori was saying," he told the jury Wednesday.

He said he was open to their religious ideas for a few days, and said his new wife explained to him people's light and dark rankings and it was alarming to him.

"That sounded to me like something that could not change; it was a predetermined thing. Light and dark contracts that were signed before this life," he said.

Tuesday testimony:

Neighbors describe Chad Daybell's unusual reactions after wife's death

Former neighbors of Chad and Tammy Daybell testified Tuesday in the Lori Vallow Daybell murder trial about unusual ways they say Chad Daybell reacted after his wife's death.

The turning point, he said, was the morning after he got married when his new wife expressed some fears — some related to Tylee and JJ, and others related to the attempted shooting of her previous husband, Brandon Boudreaux.

"Everything was a whirlwind, there was a mess going on," he said.

At the time they were staying in Las Vegas and his children were with him. The next morning he couldn't find his daughter for a minute and after what he had heard from his wife the night before, he said he was terrified.

"I decided I'm not giving this a chance, something needs to happen," Ian Pawlowski testified.

He met with law enforcement a few days later and agreed to make recordings of family conversations with Lori and Chad Daybell and his new wife.

Ian Pawlowski said he never met JJ or Tylee but knew who they were and saw backpacks and luggage that looked like it belonged to children, although he didn't see other signs of kids. He said he doesn't recall Lori Daybell ever talking about her children.

Before Tammy Daybell's death

On Oct. 13, 2019, Tammy Daybell sent a letter to her son, Mark, who was serving a Latter-day Saint mission in Africa. In the letter, Fremont County sheriff's detective Vincent Kaaiakamanu said she talked about an incident that week where she was shot at as she came home from clogging.

Tammy Daybell told her son she was getting items from the back of her car when a man dressed in black with a ski mask pointed a rifle at her which she said she believed was a paintball gun. In the email, she said she was "more annoyed than scared" as the man stood between her and the door and didn't say anything. She told her son she later became more scared.

The detective said that incident became part of the investigation by several police agencies into Lori and Chad Daybell. He said they found searches made by Alex Cox, Lori Daybell's brother, connecting him to that attempted shooting and the attempted shooting of Brandon Boudreaux in Arizona.

Cox searched for:

• Directions to where Brandon Boudreaux was living the day before he was shot at and the morning he was shot at, on Oct. 2, 2019.
• A "6.5 grendel drop from 100 yds to 200 yds" on Oct. 8, 2019, which Kaaiakamanu said could mean Cox was trying to figure out where to stand to have an accurate shot when shooting at Tammy Daybell. He also drove toward the Daybell residence and away from it twice that day and may have been scoping out the area.
• "Muzzle energy of 6.5 grendel" and "Frog togg sizing for pants" on Oct. 9, 2019, the day receipts show Cox purchased frogg togg pants, a ski mask and gloves at Sportsman's Warehouse.
• Searches regarding preparing to use an AR-15 in cold weather on Oct. 10, 2019.
• Searches about shooting through a windshield on Oct. 12, 2019.

Kaaiakamanu said when they searched Cox's townhome, police found a black rifle with a large scope that he said could be mistaken for a hopper, which is a gun that can hold paintballs. This gun was admitted as evidence and shown to the jury.

He also said Cox's Google identifier number located him at the church near the Daybell home on Oct. 18, 2019, from 10:07 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. and was also seen nearby at 11:53 p.m. Tammy Daybell's death was reported to police in the morning the next day.

Chad Daybell said he was home that night, but Kaaiakamanu said there were no devices of his in the area they searched, which was near the Daybell home and near their church.

Tweets by NateNewsNow

Contributing: Lauren Steinbrecher

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