High Control Religion Enablers: Who Watched the Daybell Tragedy and Stayed Silent
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 908 Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Melanie Gibb was the last person outside the family to see JJ Vallow alive.
She was Lori's best friend. She heard Chad Daybell's zombie talk. She knew the children were missing. And when Lori asked her to lie to police, she finally understood: she'd been used as an alibi for murder.
This is Part 4 of "The Chosen Ones," Hidden Killers' examination of spiritual abuse and religious trauma through the Vallow-Daybell case. Today we focus on the believers — the people around Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow who watched the transformation and didn't intervene.
Alex Cox killed his sister's husband and her children because he believed Chad Daybell's doctrine about zombies. He told his wife to shoot him in the face if he ever became one too.
Zulema Pastenes participated in castings and married Alex two weeks before he died.
Chad Daybell's adult children testified at his trial — for the defense.
Charles Vallow reached out to Lori's family for help and got nothing.
This episode asks the hardest question about high control religion: When someone you love becomes dangerous, what's your responsibility? If you stay silent out of loyalty, are you protecting them — or protecting the story you want to believe about them?
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#ChadDaybell #LoriVallow #MelanieGibb #AlexCox #HiddenKillers #CultComplicity #Enablers #SpiritualAbuse #ReligiousTrauma #HighControlReligion
Transcript
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| 0:30.5 | If you're into true crime, not just the headlines, but the human stories behind them, |
| 0:35.1 | join us at Crimecom Birmingham, an intimate one-day event on April 25th, |
| 0:39.5 | featuring in-depth sessions with investigators, creators and the families impacted by crime. With just |
| 0:45.0 | 200 attendees, you'll also share breakfast and lunch with the speakers, giving you the chance to spend |
| 0:49.9 | time with the people shaping the world of true crime. Crimecom Birmingham is partnered by the |
| 0:54.5 | True Crime Channel. For 10% off, go to crimecon.com.com.com.com and use the code Birmingham at checkout. |
| 1:01.1 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brewski. Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 1:08.6 | Melanie Gibb was sitting on the witness stand describing the last night she saw JJ Valo alive. |
| 1:14.8 | It was September 22nd of 2019. |
| 1:17.8 | She's staying in Lori's apartment in Rexburg, Idaho, visiting her best friend. |
| 1:23.2 | JJ is there, seven years old, autistic, a little hyperactive. |
| 1:26.7 | He's excited to see Auntie Melanie. |
| 1:30.1 | That night, JJ is alive. |
| 1:31.8 | He's present. |
| 1:32.6 | He's a child in his pajamas, getting ready for bed. |
| 1:35.9 | The next morning when Melanie wakes up, JJ was gone. |
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