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In the first trailer for the forthcoming three-part docuseries Sins of Our Mother, archival footage depicts Lori Vallow engaged in some uncomfortably eerie foreshadowing. “Being a good mom is very important to me, and a good wife,” she says, adding with a light laugh: “Being all those things together is not easy, so I’m basically a ticking time bomb.”
In 2021, Vallow and her husband Chad Daybell were both indicted for conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of her two youngest children, 17-year-old Tylee and 7-year-old JJ, as well as her fourth husband and her fifth husband’s wife.
Sins of Our Mother spotlights her surviving son Colby, who steps forward for the first time to reveal the family history that preceded her infamous crimes. In one scene from the trailer, he asks his mother over the phone: “Are you sorry for me? Or are you sorry for my siblings?” Her answer is neither, really. “Well,” she begins. “I’m sorry that you don’t really fully understand the situation.”
Director Skye Borgman cracks open Vallow’s possible motivations by examining Daybell, described in the trailer as believing “he can distinguish evil spirits from good spirits.” An expert breaks down the ideology in the trailer, explaining: “If you are very dark, your spirit has left your body. You’re a zombie now. And the only way to free your spirit, is to kill the body.” In an email sent before his murder, her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, wrote: “She calls her own daughter a DARK spirit. Please help her.”
Sins of Our Mother premieres on Netflix on Sept. 14. Vallow and Daybell are currently awaiting trial, scheduled for January 2023. They have each pleaded not guilty, but Idaho prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty for both.
