FILE - Lori Vallow Daybell sits in a police car after a hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, on Aug. 16, 2022. The sister of Tammy Daybell, who was killed in what prosecutors say was a doomsday-focused plot, told jurors Friday, April 28, 2023, that her sister's funeral was held so quickly that some family members couldn't attend. The testimony came in the triple murder trial of Vallow Daybell, who is accused along with Chad Daybell in Tammy's death and the deaths of Vallow Daybell's two youngest children. (Tony Blakeslee/East Idaho News via AP, Pool, File)
BOISE, Idaho – A former friend, in bombshell testimony, said Lori Vallow Daybell threatened to kill, cut up and “bury me where no one would ever find me.”
The testimony of Audrey Barattiero in Vallow Daybell’s murder trial in Boise seemed to shock the defense lawyers, who reminded her in cross-examination that the same testimony had not been given during grand jury, pre-trial testimony, where she swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
“I was scared because she (Vallow Daybell) said, ‘If you ever tell anyone, I’ll come and find you in the dark night,’” Barattiero said.
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The shocking testimony came after the prosecution was asking her a second set of questions in court after the defense team had asked why she remained friends with the defendant after there had been talk of zombies and getting evil spirits out of people.
During this second set of prosecution questions, to counter the defense, Barattiero explained she had been threatened and then specified the threats that led her to dissolving their friendship.
In extensive news print and TV news stories and documentaries about the case, Barattiero’s claims have never been heard before.
The conversation Barattiero testified to Wednesday took place in Idaho shortly after Tammy Daybell, late wife of Vallow Daybell’s current husband Chad Daybell, was killed, but before the couple was married in Hawaii.
Barattiero testified she was staying with Vallow Daybell that night, and as she was heading upstairs to pack her bag, Vallow Daybell laughed at her and told her she was trusting, like a child, and threatened her.
The defense asked her to focus on the threats.
“She threatened to kill me,” Barattiero said, crying during this portion of her testimony.
Prosecution: “Did she say how?”
“Yes. She said that she would cut me up, and something about she wasn’t in the mental place to do that now, but she would get herself in the mental place to do it … and it would be so messy, with so much blood, and she mentioned bleach, trash bags and she would bury me where no one would ever find me.”
The defense had further redirect and seemed to try to question the validity of the previously unspoken revelation that she had her life threatened, prodding her to repeat the shocking information and grouping fantasy elements like unicorns and rainbows with the statement about cutting her up and putting her in a trash bag.
“Yeah, she mentioned the trash bag,” Barattiero said.
“Why?” the defense asked.
Barattiero said Vallow Daybell brought up being at a scene, watching someone take their last breaths.
Murder victim and Vallow Daybell’s son JJ was found wrapped in plastic bags and buried on the Daybell’s property. Tylee Ryan was found buried near his body, cut up and burned beyond recognition as a human body, as shown in autopsy photos and according to previous testimony from law enforcement officers.
Barattiero had already testified Wednesday to having a close relationship with Vallow Daybell, including spending time with her in Utah, Arizona, Missouri and Hawaii.
Vallow Daybell and her fifth and current husband Chad Daybell are accused of multiple murders, but Vallow Daybell is currently on trial for killing her children Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, and for conspiracy to commit murder on Daybell’s late wife Tammy Daybell.
Chad Daybell’s trial will be separate and has been postponed.