The Zombie Murders - "MARKED FOR DEATH: The Divine Hit List That Doomed a Family"

Reid Carter exposes how Chad and Lori's twisted theology became a systematic murder plan. Using a "spiritual rating system," the doomsday couple identified family members as "zombies" needing elimination - conveniently targeting those blocking their path to love and money. Text messages reveal chilling discussions of "death percentages" for husband Charles and son JJ, while Chad claims divine revelations about orchestrated deaths. As Lori tells brother Alex they should "be like Nephi" - referencing biblical murder - the couple methodically prepares to eliminate a $1 million insurance policy holder, two children with Social Security benefits, and Chad's inconvenient wife. Divine delusion meets calculated greed in this terrifying planning phase.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Calarogu Shark Media. Good morning, I'm read Carter, and welcome
back to Celebrity Trials. Yesterday we explored how Chad Dabell
and Laurie Valo transformed from ordinary Mormons into self proclaimed
gods with a twisted theology that justified murder. Today, we're

(00:25):
diving into the dark mechanics of how that delusion became
a death list. By spring twenty nineteen, Chad and Laurie
had convinced themselves they could identify zombies, people whose souls
had been replaced by dark spirits. But their rating system
wasn't random spiritual assessment. It was a methodical process of

(00:45):
marking family members for elimination, and the people who scored
darkest on their scale the ones standing between Chad and
Laurie and their new life together. What we're about to
uncover isn't just religious extremism run away. It's the calculated
planning phase of a family annihilation scheme disguised as divine revelation.

(01:07):
Chad and Laurie weren't just playing god, they were playing executioner.
Let me paint you the picture of how Chad Dabell's
spiritual gift actually worked. According to witnesses who heard Chad
and Laurie discuss their beliefs. Chad claimed he could sense
people's spiritual energy and rate them on a scale that
determined their fate. The system was supposedly based on spiritual

(01:30):
light and darkness. People with highlight ratings were spiritually advanced souls.
People with dark ratings were either possessed by evil spirits
or had become zombies, empty vessels controlled by demonic forces.
But here's what makes this system so insidious. The ratings
perfectly aligned with Chad and Laurie's personal convenience. The people

(01:53):
who scored darkest just happened to be the ones standing
in the way of their relationship, their money, or their plans.
Charles Valow dark. He was trying to divorce Laurie and
expose her beliefs. Tylee Ryan dark. The sixteen year old
was becoming increasingly resistant to her mother's control and Chad's influence.

(02:13):
Seven year old jj Vallo also dark. According to their
twisted assessment. Tammy Dabell the darkest of all. She was
Chad's wife and the biggest obstacle to his new life
with Laurie. Melanie Gibb Laurie's former friend would later testify
about overhearing these conversations. She described how casually Chad and

(02:35):
Laurie would discuss people's ratings as if they were talking
about the weather. Oh, so and so is very dark.
They'd say their percentage keeps dropping. But the most chilling
evidence of their planning came from their own phones. Prosecutors
recovered text messages between Chad and Laurie that read like

(02:55):
a supernatural hit list. In one exchange, Chad and law
Or discussed death percentages for Tammy and JJ. Think about
that phrase for a moment, death percentages. They were literally
calculating the likelihood of killing family members and discussing it
over text like they were planning a grocery run. In

(03:16):
another message, Chad told Laurie there was a plan being
orchestrated for the children. When Laurie asked about this plan,
Chad replied, I was shown last night how it fit together. Again,
these weren't abstract spiritual discussions. These were specific, tactical conversations
about eliminating human obstacles. Chad claimed he was receiving divine

(03:39):
revelations about who needed to die and when it should happen.
But here's what prosecutors would later prove. The timing of
these revelations always coincided perfectly with Chad and Laurie's practical needs.
Got a financial problem, Suddenly God reveals that an insurance
beneficiary needs to be eliminated. Facing a custody battle, divine

(04:02):
inspiration suggests the child should be liberated from their earthly body.
By early twenty nineteen, Charles Valo was fighting for his
life and his family, even though he didn't fully understand
the danger he was in. After going to police in
January and filing for divorce in February, Charles was trying
to regain custody of JJ and protect Hily from Laurie's

(04:25):
increasingly erratic behavior. But Chad and Laurie were watching his
every move, discussing his activities in their text messages, and
planning how to neutralize what they saw as his interference
with their divine mission. In March twenty nineteen, Chad purchased
the exact type of knife that would later be found

(04:45):
buried with JJ's remains. This wasn't a spontaneous purchase. This
was premeditation disguised as spiritual preparation. Around the same time,
Laurie began making concerning statements to family and friends about Charles.
She told her friend April Raymond that Charles had become
possessed by a demon named Ned. She started referring to

(05:07):
her husband of thirteen years not by his name, but
by the name of the evil spirit she claimed was
controlling him. Most disturbingly, Laurie began discussing with her brother
Alex Cox what she called their mission. Alex, who had
a history of devotion to Laurie and previous legal troubles,
was ready to do whatever his sister asked, and Laurie

(05:28):
was asking him to prepare for violence. Charles Valow was
marked for death by spring twenty nineteen, though he didn't
know it. Every conversation with Laurie became a potential trap,
Every interaction with the children became surveillance for evidence of
his darkness. In text messages recovered from Laurie's phone, she

(05:48):
sent her brother Alex a message that would later chill prosecutors.
We could be like Nephi. For those unfamiliar with Mormon theology,
Nephi is a prophet in the Book of Mormon who
who God commanded to kill Laban. Laurie was essentially telling
her brother that God wanted them to commit murder, just
like in their religious texts. But Laurie wasn't just spiritually

(06:10):
preparing Alex for murder. She was practically preparing him too.
She arranged for Alex to be at her house when
Charles came to pick up JJ. She made sure Tyley
would be there as a witness who could corroborate whatever
story they decided to tell. She even planned the timing
so that the shooting would look like self defense. The

(06:31):
level of planning was sophisticated. Laurie knew that Alex had
previously been involved in violent incidents but had never been charged.
She understood that claiming self defense could work if the
scene was staged properly, and she made sure that the
only witnesses would be family members loyal to her. Perhaps
the most horrifying aspect of Chad and Laurie's rating system

(06:53):
was how they began categorizing Laurie's own children. These weren't
step children or distant relatives. These were kids Laurie had raised, loved,
and supposedly devoted her life to protecting. Tylee. Ryan was
sixteen years old and becoming increasingly resistant to her mother's
new beliefs and boyfriend. She didn't like, Chad Dabell. She

(07:14):
questioned Laurie's behavior. She was starting to assert her independence
in ways that threatened Laurie's control. According to Melanie Gibbs' testimony,
Laurie called Tyleie a zombie after Tylie refused to babysit
JJ one day. When Tylie responded, not me, mom, Laurie
took this as confirmation that her daughter's soul had been
replaced by a dark spirit. JJ Valo was seven years

(07:38):
old and autistic. He required special care and attention that
would complicate Chad and Laurie's plans for their new life together.
He also represented an ongoing connection to Charles Valo's family,
who were becoming increasingly suspicious of Laurie's behavior. But here's
what makes their targeting of the children even more calculating.

(07:58):
Both Tylie and JJ had financial benefits attached to them.
Tyley received Social Security survivor benefits from her biological father's death.
JJ received benefits as an adopted child. If the children died,
those benefits could potentially continue flowing to Laurie as their
surviving parent. Meanwhile, Chad was working on his own target,

(08:21):
his wife, Tammy. But Chad's approach was more subtle than
Laurie's direct confrontation with Charles. Chad began telling Tammy that
he was having dreams about her death. He claimed these
were prophetic visions, spiritual warnings about what God had planned
for her. But Chad presented these visions as unavoidable fate,

(08:41):
not as threats. Tammy, who had been married to Chad
for nearly thirty years, was troubled by these dreams. She
confided in friends and family members that Chad was having
disturbing visions about her dying young, but she interpreted these
as spiritual gifts, not as her husband planning her murder.
Chad also began making practical preparations for Tammy's death. He

(09:04):
increased her life insurance. He started talking about what he
would do when she died, not if she died. He
began positioning himself as the grieving widower who would need
comfort and support from his spiritual community. What makes the
Valo de Bel case particularly disturbing is how Chad and
Laurie managed to recruit others into their delusion. This wasn't

(09:26):
just two people planning murders. This was a small network
of believers who provided validation, support, and practical assistance. Melanie Paulowski,
Lourie's niece, became deeply involved in the couple's beliefs. She
left her husband Ian to be with Chad's friend, Ian Pawlowski,
creating a second couple who believed in the same apocalyptic theology.

(09:49):
Zulima Pastaines, another friend from the Preparing a People community,
provided spiritual validation for Chad and Laurie's beliefs. She claimed
to have her own sp spiritual gifts and confirmed that
Chad and Laurie were indeed chosen beings. Most importantly, Alex
Cox served as their enforcer. Laurie's brother was completely devoted

(10:11):
to her and willing to do whatever she asked. He
had a history of violence and legal troubles, but also
a history of avoiding serious consequences. He was the perfect
person to carry out their plans while maintaining plausible deniability.
More in a moment, while Chad and Laurie rapped their

(10:41):
planning in spiritual language, prosecutors would later prove that money
was a constant consideration in their target selection. Charles Valow's
one million dollar life insurance policy made him worth more
dead than alive, at least until he changed the beneficiary
to his sister Kay Woodcock in early two thousand nineteen.

(11:01):
When Laurie discovered this change, her text messages showed fury
about losing access to her money. The children's social Security
benefits provided ongoing income that Laurie could access as their guardian.
If the children died, there might be ways to continue
collecting those benefits without the burden of actually caring for them.
Tammy day Bell's life insurance policies would provide Chad with

(11:23):
immediate cash to start his new life with Laurie. More importantly,
Tammy's death would free Chad from his marriage without the
financial complications of divorce. But perhaps most calculating of all,
Chad and Laurie realized that if they eliminated their current
family obligations, they could access all these financial benefits while
starting fresh together. They could use the insurance money and

(11:47):
benefit payments to fund their new life as self proclaimed
profits and spiritual leaders. By summer twenty nineteen, Chad and
Laurie had completed their spiritual and practical preparations for murder.
They had identified their targets, justified their deaths through religious delusion,
and arranged for the means to carry out their plans.

(12:10):
Charles Valow was scheduled to die first. He was the
most immediate threat to their relationship and the most vocal
opponent of their beliefs. Alex Cox was prepared to kill
him and claim self defense. The children would follow. Their
resistance to Chad and Lourie's authority, combined with their financial value,

(12:30):
made them obvious targets for elimination. Finally, Tammy day Bell
would be removed so Chad could marry Laurie and access
his wife's life insurance money. What Chad and Laurie had
created wasn't just a murder plan. It was a systematic
family annihilation scheme that would clear the path for their
new life together while providing the financial resources to fund it. Tomorrow,

(12:53):
we'll explore how this planning became reality in the summer
of twenty nineteen, when the killing began with a single
gun shop in a suburban Arizona home. Because what happens
next shows how quickly spiritual delusion can turn into very
real violence and how a family gathering can become a
crime scene in a matter of minutes. This is read

(13:14):
Carter with celebrity trials. The most dangerous people aren't always
the ones who look evil. Sometimes they're the ones who
think they're doing God's work. And sometimes the most terrifying
weapon isn't a gun or a knife. It's the absolute
certainty that you're righteous.