Pod Insights Crime Weekly S3 Ep284: Crime Weekly News: Lori Vallow's Bizarre Prison Interview About this episode In her first televised interview since being convicted for the murders of her two children, Lori Vallow Daybell speaks from prison with Dateline's Keith Morrison. Despite her life sentence, Vallow maintains her innocence, claiming that she and her husband, Chad Daybell, will be exonerated based on divine visions she says were shown to her by Jesus. We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets!https://www.crimecon.com/CC25Try our coffee!! - www. CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > ｿ https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> ｿ https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:14 Derrick Levasseur? Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derrick Levasseur.
0:17 Stephanie Harlowe? I'm Stephanie Harlow.
0:19 Derrick Levasseur? And last week, we were talking about Casey Anthony, Adnan Syed, two of our favorite people. Interesting to see the comments on that one. People were on both sides of the aisle, but that's how it's expected to be when you're having a constructive conversation. Well, listen, Lori Vallow didn't want to be showed up by Casey and Adnan. So she's back in the news as well after an interview with the esteemed Keith Morrison. What a great voice, by the way. What a great voice.
0:46 Stephanie Harlowe? Keith Morrison's great.
0:47 Derrick Levasseur? I was saying to Stephanie before we started recording, why do you think she's doing this now? And she hit the nail right on the head. What'd you say, Stephanie?
0:55 Stephanie Harlowe? As you know, Lori has already been found guilty of murdering her two children.
1:00 Derrick Levasseur? That's right.
1:01 Stephanie Harlowe? JJ and Tylee. And she's about to go on trial for the murder of, I believe it's her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. And so I think she's, I think she's a bananas person. She's absolutely has no touch with reality. But I think that she thinks still that she's so much smarter than everybody and she's so charismatic and pretty that she's just gonna sit in front of a camera that's gonna go out to, you know, hundreds and thousands of people and she will convince them somehow that this is all just a misunderstanding. This is all just a misunderstanding.
1:39 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, to me, I saw, I didn't watch the whole thing, unfortunately, but I was seeing a lot of the clips, especially with Instagram and TikTok. And she just came off very condescending to me. She was using, "Oh, you think so, Keith? Oh, you're doing this, Keith?" And he kept it, obviously he's a professional, but I thought it was very off-putting. And if she went on to try to help her case, I think she did the exact opposite.
2:00 Stephanie Harlowe? I don't even believe that her lawyer's allowed her to do this. It's... It seems like the most dumb move because she never looks good. She never ends up looking less insane. And the more she talks, the more you kind of get it, I guess, a perspective into her crazy brain. And you think to yourself like, oh, this person belongs behind bars for the rest of her life. Right? She's actually telling Keith Morrison, though, that she believes she's going to be exonerated in the deaths of JJ entirely. Right? She has been sentenced to multiple life sentences for their murders. She's obviously appealing.
2:43 Stephanie Harlowe? But she told Keith Morrison, she feels no remorse for what happened to her children. She feels great. And she's acting as her own attorney in the upcoming trial over the fatal shooting of her estranged husband, Charles Vallow. She is acting as her own attorney. And please, can we please televise this trial? Can we please? Because this is something I have to see.
3:06 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, I think, I think at this point, she's delusional. She clearly is delusional. We covered her for many hours, unfortunately, on Crime Weekly. You gotta go check out that series if you haven't seen it. And she does believe in a lot of what she's saying. I truly, I truly believe that in my heart, that she has bought into this, this whole notion that she's above us, that she's working for a higher purpose.
3:32 Stephanie Harlowe? And that she knows things that we don't, right? Because that's what she told Keith Morrison. She's like, listen.
3:36 Derrick Levasseur? That's how I felt what she was doing with him.
3:37 Stephanie Harlowe? She's like, I've seen the future, Keith. Okay? Me and Chad, we're not behind bars. Okay? We're, we're, we're out of prison. I've seen the future. Jesus showed me. And maybe after I get exonerated, I'm gonna go on Dancing with the Stars. And then she told Keith, you can come. You know, she's, she's bananas. She's a banana nut sundae with extra nuts.
3:55 Derrick Levasseur? Do you think? I'm not trying to give her a defense, but do you think she's even mentally capable or competent enough to stand trial? I mean, she, I, I, I was really questioning that element of this case after watching the parts of the interview that I saw. I just felt like she was not there completely.
4:14 Stephanie Harlowe? Well, didn't a judge say she was?
4:16 Derrick Levasseur? I guess so, and I guess a mental health professional also said she was. Do you think it's an act?
4:22 Stephanie Harlowe? So let me go back to your first question. Do I think she's mentally sound? Uh, no. I definitely, I definitely don't think this woman should be acting as her own attorney. But at this point, it's like, yes, please do. Please do act as your own attorney. Please continue behaving in the way that you behave so that there's not a shot, any jury in this United States of America could look at you, hear what you're saying and think, hmm, there's reasonable doubt here. Okay, continue. I would say she's crazy, but apparently, as we've said, the judges and the mental health professionals, she has been talked to, she's been evaluated, and they say she's fine. So could it be an act?
5:05 Stephanie Harlowe? Yes, it could. But I, I don't think at this point it really matters if she's fallen into a deep, deep, deep pool of delusion. Because she did what she did. We know what she did. She's already been found guilty of murdering JJ and Tylee. I'm, I'm assuming she'll be found guilty of her part in Charles Vallow's murder. And I believe she also had a part in the murder of Chad Daybell's wife. So Tammy, so I don't, I, I think this woman belongs behind bars for the rest of her life, and I don't believe that any jury or any judge in the world would look at her and say, uh, we could see how she, she didn't do this.
5:44 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, I mean, I think she's cooked. And even if she's not cooked on this one, she's cooked on the other one. So where's she going? I guess I want to change direction on this. And what do you feel about the, the decision to interview her, to give her a platform where she's just basically spouting nonsense the whole time? I know it's entertaining for people to watch, but what, what's your thoughts on it? Especially from someone Who covers true crime every week and I guess we could be accused of the same thing.
6:12 Stephanie Harlowe? So do I think that giving her a platform, so in, in most cases, I would say giving this person a platform is wrong because we don't need to hear from them. We don't need to muddy the waters. We don't need to have people think, oh, maybe, you know, maybe there's something going on here that, that makes her not guilty. I, once again, I don't think that anybody who listens to her talk would find her to be legitimate or to find anything that she's saying to be valid. There is a huge amount of evidence in the, in this case against Lori and against Chad that show pretty much exactly what happened, right? We've got timelines, we've got cell phone records, all sorts of things, text messages, the most cringey text messages that I've ever read.
6:54 Stephanie Harlowe? We, we know what happened here. So at this point, I think giving her a platform is just continuing to show the world this person's not right and they are a danger to everyone and anyone because of the fact that they have no clear connection to reality.
7:10 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, no, I'm with you. I think, I think people want to hear it and I think Keith did a great job from what I had seen of him keeping it professional, trying to keep it as authentic as it should be as far as him being a serious journalist interviewing this person full well knowing that they're just talking out of their ass and that they're responsible for the death of at least two children and maybe more people. So I think he did his part and I do think there's stuff that can be taken from this interview. As a consumer of true crime, we're looking at it going, yeah, we're spot on about her. She's exactly who we think she is. She is a monster and she doesn't even realize who she is. In her mind, she thinks she's doing God's work.
7:54 Derrick Levasseur? She thinks she's a higher being that has transcended all human conscience and she's just above us laughing at us internally. Because we don't understand what's really going on around us.
8:06 Stephanie Harlowe? I either that or she realizes that she will soon go the way of Chris Watts, where she's behind bars and nobody's interested in her anymore. And so she's milking it for everything she can right now. She needs attention, we know. This woman's been on Wheel of Fortune. She was in beauty pageants. She loves attention more than anything else. And so either she's legitimately thinks that she's a warrior of Jesus and she's having visions and she thinks everything's gonna be okay. Or she's just like, hey, you know, let me make the most of these last months I have before I'm behind bars, the doors are closed and, and everyone's on to the next. And she actually tried to blame Tylee for, for JJ's death, right?
8:50 Stephanie Harlowe? She claims she wasn't there when her kids were killed. When Keith Morrison asked Lori about whether she and her brother Alex Cox were, were at the location, she said, quote, "What place was that? Do you have any idea? Well, I'm the only one that knows that. Do you know? You're pretending like you know." End quote. And then Keith is like, hey, I'm, I'm asking you a question. Like, did you watch your children die? And then she responded back, quote, "That's a really sad question. I was not there." End quote. So she's saying to him, you don't even know what happened. You don't even know where they died. You're just assuming you know. You're pretending you know. I know, I know where they died. And then she's like, I wasn't there. So she's absolutely lost. I don't know. She, she's, there's no credit.
9:34 Stephanie Harlowe? She's never had any credibility. But if she had hopes that she would somehow garner some support here or somehow, you know, twist the narrative before she goes on trial for Charles Vallow's murder, she failed. She failed miserably.
9:52 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, I, I also don't think we needed a 90 minute interview. I guess, I, I would love to know what the ratings were behind it. I'm sure they were good. I'm sure they were good. But to have her have this opportunity, 90 minutes from an Arizona prison. I, I just don't think, and it was just multiple parts that I saw where she's laughing and giggling.
10:10 Stephanie Harlowe? Winking, she's winking at the camera, you know?
10:13 Derrick Levasseur? I never would have thought. If I didn't know the context of why she was being interviewed, that's what she was being interviewed for, like being responsible.
10:21 Stephanie Harlowe? She shows no remorse, she shows no sadness, she shows no like, nothing, there's no regret there. And Keith Morrison said, "It was unlike any interview he had ever done." He said, "Trying to get her to make sense was a chore." And that's intentionally done, right? That's what she's intentionally doing that. Keith Morrison said that Lori went into their interview with a strategy. She said she wanted to set the record straight, because everything people have heard about her is a lie. That should have been your first indication that this interview is going to be a difficult one, because obviously not everything that we've heard about her is a lie. And like I said, Charles Vallow's, um, his trial is set to
11:02 Stephanie Harlowe? start later this month in March. And to your earlier question, when you said, you know, "Do you think it's even right to give her a platform?" Well, Keith Morrison said that he considered that. And he said, quote, "I felt a little twinge of, call it guilt, if you will."
11:16 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, I can see it.
11:18 Stephanie Harlowe? Talking to somebody who was convicted of killing her own children, giving her airtime when airtime was precisely what she wanted.
11:26 Derrick Levasseur? Boom. And he, by the way, Keith doesn't need airtime. He's very respected in the community. What's that saying? He could read a phone book and people would listen? Keith doesn't need Lori Vallow. So I'm not suggesting that. And I'm glad that he felt that, because that was a question I had, where he doesn't need the views, he can get them. So I'm sure there's part of him-
11:46 Stephanie Harlowe? But he also knows his audience, and this is what his audience wanted. And if anyone was going to do it, I think Keith Morrison was the best person-
11:53 Derrick Levasseur? He was great.
11:54 Stephanie Harlowe? -to do it, yeah.
11:54 Derrick Levasseur? From what I saw, he was, like I said earlier, he handled it very professionally, as professionally as he could handle it, knowing what he knew, knowing exactly what she was trying to accomplish.
12:04 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, and obviously, at this point, I don't think that she will, she will be back, but I think it is going to be very interesting to see Lori represent herself in court against a murder charge. And she claims that she's looking forward to it. And Keith says, quote, "She clearly has been doing some practicing with the- sorts of questions you ask as a defense attorney and quote and this is probably where it comes in with these mental health professionals talk to her and yeah what she's saying is insane but she's calculated as well like she's getting ready to sit down in front of a defense attorney and and answer questions in her own defense she's capable
12:47 Stephanie Harlowe? of assisting in her own defense is she capable of being the only one in charge of her own defense? I don't know but at this point I I want her to to go away forever so I'm glad that she is because I think it's a bad decision. I don't think it's ever really worked for anybody to defend themselves didn't Ted Bundy do that too?
13:05 Derrick Levasseur? I don't remember did he?
13:06 Stephanie Harlowe? I believe he did. Yes, yes. Morrison said the doomsday mom's convictions remain strong. Lori claims Chad and their victims Tammy, JJ and Tylee visit her cell along with Jesus. And Lori told Keith that they all have a lovely time together. Jesus is a funny guy and a wonderful person that loves everybody and especially loves her. According to Lori, she's Jesus's favorite. She's his favorite. Not you know, Tylee and JJ, the innocent victims, but Lori, she's she's his favorite. I can't take it.
13:38 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, no, she Keith said something in an NBC interview that I saw where basically he knew that the interview was gonna go off the rails because as she was being escorted from her cell to the cameras, she was in handcuffs and she winked.
13:51 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, she was winking at the camera.
13:52 Derrick Levasseur? Even before they can you know, like before it was like going and he's like, I should have known at that point. And then she did exactly what he assumed she would do, which is try and shift blame off of her basically saying that people do not know her. She she gave this quote, she said, I heard that and we all know what the media does and they exaggerate everything and they make stuff up and they twist things around. So you know, she's basically saying, hey,
14:16 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, like they do for sure.
14:18 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, they definitely do. That is true.
14:20 Stephanie Harlowe? But you and I, Derek, we didn't listen to the media. We went to the police reports. We went to the body cam footage. We looked at the transcripts of their text messages. We looked at the timeline. We're not listening to the media and we are not the media. We're looking at the evidence presented in this case and we still know you are a shitty person, Lori. It's not the media making us think that it's the facts.
14:42 Derrick Levasseur? There was one good thing that Morrison said during the interview to see the part where he goes, you know, you are the most hated mom in America. It's like, All right, Lisi's throwing a little bit out there. He knows what he's doing. He's throwing a couple of little jabs in there. And that's kind of when she followed up with like, oh, they don't know who I am and you know, I don't know how this came to be today, but it's amazing to me that they don't really know me, but they're assuming all this stuff about me. No Lori, we're assuming it based on the
15:09 Derrick Levasseur? piles and piles of evidence that incriminated you and Chad Daybell and your brother and basically proved that you did exactly what we think you did. And you tried to cover it up and to this day, you still take no accountability. So.
15:22 Stephanie Harlowe? So like, yes, the media does twist things and yes, the media does rely on sensationalism and they kind of, you know, like mess with the narrative a little bit, but you Lori, you have twisted things far beyond what the media is capable of. Okay. The media is looking at you and they're like, damn, we need to take some notes from Lori Vallow because this woman is able to, to twist things right into a pretzel and still continue and somehow keep track of her own lies and the twists and turns as she threw in there. So no, if anybody's twisting anything here, it's, it's you Lori and I think we're all set.
15:55 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah. I don't need to hear from her again.
15:57 Stephanie Harlowe? No.
15:57 Derrick Levasseur? Add her to the, to the list of Casey, Adnan and, and now Lori Vallow. And I want to hear your guys thoughts on this. Not only what did you think of the interview? Did you take anything from it? I'm assuming you didn't, but I want to pose the same question to you that I posed to Stephanie. We, we basically know who Lori is at this point. We know what she's going to do. We know she's not going to take accountability. We know that she's going to use this interview for her benefit. She's not doing it because she wants to tell the truth or she wants to clear her conscience. There's an agenda. There's a motive. She's representing herself. She's going to basically say she had nothing to do with it and that it was all her brother and Chad. So she's using Dateline as much as Dateline's using her.
16:39 Stephanie Harlowe? But it didn't end up in to be in her benefit.
16:42 Derrick Levasseur? It did. Of course it didn't. We just, it just confirmed everything we thought, but as you sit here after having an opportunity to watch the interview or watch the clips, do you feel big?
16:54 Derrick Levasseur? Shows like Dateline and big personalities like Keith Morrison should be platforming her, should give her an opportunity to have the privilege to sit there with Keith and spew her bullshit. Is there anything informative that we take from it where you say, okay, I get it. This is why we're doing it. And I think we should continue to do it. Or do you think it incentivizes people like this to maybe go out there and commit a crime like this in the future by knowing they may get the opportunity to sit down with Keith Morrison and tell their sob story and see who believes them? I want to hear your thoughts on it. We want to hear what you guys think. Every opinion is welcomed. Any final words from you, Stephanie Harlow?
17:33 Stephanie Harlowe? No, basically, I really don't think this is like one of those cases like with the Nansayad that we talked about last week on Crime Weekly News. It is really split. And there is a lot of people who have given him the benefit of the doubt. But in this case, I don't know of anyone, not even Casey Anthony has a handful of weirdo supporters out there. But in this case, I don't hope anyone who's like Lori Vallow legit could possibly be innocent. There is not one single person. Remember, we were at Crime Con last year when they announced that Chad was getting the death penalty and everyone cheered. It was like this collective uprising of voices for Tylee and JJ where it was like, yes,
18:11 Stephanie Harlowe? this man is getting some punishment for what he did to these kids. Okay. And even Chad has the presence of mind to shut up and go away now, which even further makes me believe that Lori was always the driving force and she was always the one wearing the pants and she was always the one in control here. At the end of the day, I'm glad that we get to see more of her craziness. I hope that the trial is publicized. And I would love to see her stumble around in her own defense and try winking at the judge.
18:43 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah. And you know that Dateline came to her. So that's my question. Like,
18:47 Stephanie Harlowe? Well, I guess Keith said she's been wanting to go on Dateline forever.
18:50 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, of course she did. She wants all of it. Yeah. So way down in the comments below, let us know what you think about this case. We're going to be back later this week with part two, the final part of our J.C. McGee case. This case is fascinating. We had the opportunity to talk to Madison after part one. We're going to give you all that. We'll see you for audio on Friday and YouTube on Sunday. Everyone stay safe out there. We'll talk to you soon.
Previous S3 Ep283: J.C. McGhee: Home Invasion or Contract Hit? (Part 1) Next S3 Ep285: J.C. McGhee: Family Betrayal? (Part 2) Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated