Breaking Down The Beliefs of Chad & Lori Vallow Daybell Part 1 How It Started
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 908 Ratings
🗓️ 4 March 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
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Summary
ORIGINS & BELIEF DEVELOPMENT
The story of Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow didn’t start with murder—it started with faith twisted into fanaticism. In this episode, we explore the LDS Church’s core beliefs, how mainstream Mormonism views prophecy and the Second Coming, and how Chad and Lori veered from religious devotion into dangerous extremism. Chad’s near-death experiences convinced him he had access to divine knowledge, while Lori’s obsession with end-times prophecy led her to believe she was a goddess chosen to gather the righteous. How did a simple belief in personal revelation and spiritual preparedness turn into an apocalyptic worldview that justified murder?
We break down Chad’s early writings, his rise in LDS prepping circles, and how fiction became fact in his mind. We also examine Lori’s transformation from a devoted Mormon mother to a self-proclaimed leader of the 144,000. By tracking their path from faith to fanaticism, we expose the psychological and religious factors that led them to classify people as “light” or “dark,” ultimately determining who lived and who died.
Through expert analysis and firsthand accounts, this episode lays the groundwork for understanding how a dangerous cult ideology took root within the framework of a mainstream religion. How did their beliefs develop? What warning signs were ignored? And could this have been stopped before it spiraled into murder?
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The latest on The Downfall of Diddy, The Trial of Karen Read, The Murder Of Maddie Soto, Catching the Long Island Serial Killer, Awaiting Admission: BTK’s Unconfessed Crimes, Delphi Murders: Inside the Crime, Chad & Lori Daybell, The Murder of Ana Walshe, Alex Murdaugh, Bryan Kohberger, Lucy Letby, Kouri Richins, Malevolent Mormon Mommys, The Menendez Brothers: Quest For Justice, The Murder of Stephen Smith, The Murder of Madeline Kingsbury, The Murder Of Sandra Birchmore, and much more! Listen at https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:06.7 | What exactly was going on with these two ex-Mormons, these two individuals who thought, |
| 0:15.5 | you know what? We found a better way. We know what we're doing. We know the end of the world is coming and only |
| 0:23.0 | we can save you. But first we got to kill our kids because there's zombies and there's those |
| 0:27.7 | exes that are kind of in the way. There's a lot of them that we got to do first. But obviously, |
| 0:32.3 | we know how this worked out. Chad and Lori Daybell, both convicted of murder, both spending the |
| 0:37.1 | rest of their lives in |
| 0:37.9 | prison. But what the hell was going on? How did they get there? What is their belief system |
| 0:46.3 | that allowed them to think it right to take the lives of their own kids and their exes and pretty much anybody that got in |
| 0:56.3 | their way. That's what we are going to break down here for you today. It's easy to get little |
| 1:02.1 | pieces here and there and, well, they were kind of crazy, but we are going to dive deep into |
| 1:06.9 | their belief system. We're going to break this down into multiple parts. |
| 1:11.7 | A four-part series here is what we're going to be doing. |
| 1:14.3 | Breaking down step by step, what the hell went on in this situation, |
| 1:18.3 | and try to help you wrap your mind around as best as you can, |
| 1:22.3 | because it's hard. |
| 1:24.2 | What was going through their minds? |
| 1:26.0 | It's a trippy journey that we are about to go on. So |
| 1:29.3 | buckle up, get a beverage, and open your mind. Just don't become a cult member after hearing |
| 1:38.4 | all this. Don't walk away from this going, oh, these seem like good thoughts. These are, |
| 1:41.8 | these are legit. This is all great. No. So imagine this. Someone |
| 1:47.3 | who walks into your life and tells you that they have spoken to God, like directly. |
... |
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