BOISE, Idaho — The trial of Lori Vallow, aka Lori Vallow Daybell – from jury selection to guilty verdicts on six counts – lasted six weeks, but for Larry and Kay Woodcock, the verdicts rendered Friday represent the end of one chapter in an ordeal that has lasted more than a thousand days.
As the verdicts were read, the couple embraced. When a reporter asked what they said to each other, Larry Woodcock replied: “I love you… What else can you say?”
It's been 1,263 days since the couple called for a welfare check on their 7-year-old grandson, Joshua "JJ" Vallow, leading to an investigation into his disappearance and the disappearance of his sister, 17-year-old Tylee Ryan. It's been 1,067 days since investigators found the remains of the children on eastern Idaho property belonging to Chad Daybell, husband of their mother, Lori Vallow.
Friday afternoon, minutes after the jury found Lori Vallow guilty of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and grand theft by deception in the deaths of the children, the couple walked down the front steps of the Ada County Courthouse and addressed reporters and a gathering of supporters.
"Our JJ, now, maybe we can get him and put him to rest, as well as Tylee, and do right by them," Kay Woodcock said.
After the couple thanked jurors, law enforcement and attorneys on both sides of the case, Larry Woodcock came back to the microphones.
"“I have one more statement,” he said. "JJ, I love you."
As he spoke through tears, Larry Woodcock held up his right arm to show bracelets bearing the names of JJ and Tylee as well as Charles Vallow, Kay Woodcock's brother, for whose death in Arizona Lori Vallow still faces charges.
“Tylee, Pawpaw loves you,” he continued.
Along with the murders of JJ and Tylee, Lori Vallow was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the murder of Tammy Daybell, the late wife of her current husband, Chad Daybell.
“Tammy, I never met you. Tammy, you are part of our life,” Larry Woodcock said. "Tammy, I am sorry for what happened to you."
“This is what this has been all about from the very get-go,” he added, again emphasizing the names on his bracelets. “It started with two children missing, and I stood up and I said, ‘Where are the children? Where are the children? Where are the children? Give us back our children.’”
Larry Woodcock also had a message for Lori Vallow Daybell, who faces a possible sentence of life in prison without parole.
"Y'all ready?" he said to reporters when asked what that final message was, then he sang a few seconds of the song, "Turn Out The Lights, The Party's Over," ending with the line, "“they say that all good things must end.”
"Lori, it ended," he said.
For the Woodcocks, however, Friday's verdict isn't the end of the ordeal that began in the fall of 2019, more than a thousand days ago.
Chad Daybell, also charged with the murders of JJ Vallow, Tylee Ryan and Tammy Daybell, has yet to stand trial. That's expected to happen in June 2024.
Lori Vallow's sentencing hearing is coming up July 31 in Fremont County, where the case originated. Her trial was held in Ada County under a change of venue order. Because the death penalty is no longer on the table, a jury is not required for sentencing.
“This is not the end of this. Not even close,” Larry Woodcock said. "I'm gonna say right now what I’m gonna say in three months: Why Lori? Why Lori? Why? Power, sex and greed... That's all it was."
The entirety of Kay and Larry Woodcock's news conference is available through this link and in the window below.
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