Lori Vallow’s former sister-in-law gave chilling testimony on Friday as she gave insight into the warped psyche of the doomsday cult mother.
Zulema Pastenes, who married Vallow’s brother Alex Cox the month before his death in December 2019 and was a close confidante of Vallow, said the murder suspect claimed his son JJ and daughter Tylee had been ” possessed” and “attacked” by demons before she claimed it. killed them.
She also explained how after Cox shot and killed Lori’s husband Charles Vallow in July 2019, an issue addressed earlier in the trial, he had a bizarre reaction when she confronted him about the incident.
“I asked him if he was okay after he had just shot someone,” she said. “I thought he would be in shock or struggling with what had happened and he said, ‘Zulema, he was a zombie’.”
Pastenes, who also claimed Lori Vallow would tell friends she was visited by Jesus Christ before she allegedly murdered her children, admitted she now believes Vallow and Chad Daybell ‘made it all up’ when questioned about their extravagant religious fanaticism.
Zulema Pastenes, pictured, gave explosive testimony on day five of Lori Vallow’s murder trial in Boise, Idaho
Pastenes married Alex Cox, pictured, in Las Vegas in November 2019, a month before he died of pulmonary thromboembolism
Pastenes offered a disturbing insight into the world of religious worship she was involved in, as she told Cox “Believed Everything” Vallow and Daybell told him about possessed people, including a “light and dark” soul rating scale and evil spirits.
The damning testimony also saw jurors confronted with pages from Pastenes’ diary, where she detailed how Vallow claimed a ‘possessed’ person could be treated.
Pastenes wrote ‘dispel’, ‘burn’, ‘chase’ and ‘get rid of them’ – with ‘bind’ another technique.
A hand-drawn diagram was also shown in court which purported to illustrate how a possessed person’s mind would remain in “limbo”.
Pastenes added: “Chad claimed he had been [the] Heavenly Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
‘He would have been spiritually the highest of all… He had chosen [Lori] to be his wife and they had already been seven times before on this earth… It was his companion and therefore put her in the same spiritual position”.
Zulema Pastenes, right, gave explosive testimony on day five of Lori Vallow’s murder trial
Vallow, pictured in a court artist’s sketch on April 13, 2023, is said to have killed her children after believing they had become ‘possessed’ by demons
The key people in Lori Vallow’s tangled family tree, including her five husbands, two dead children and killer brother Alex Cox
The doomsday cult mother, 49, convinced friends she had a ‘very high spiritual’ status and would hold ‘castings’ to rid evil spirits from people close to her. But when the ceremonies failed, she continued to kill them, prosecutors say.
Pastenes, said he first met Vallow in 2018 at the home of Melanie Gibb, another close friend of Vallow who testified at his trial on Thursday.
Vallow “gave testimony that she had angel visitations and that she had visitations from the angel Moroni, that she gave him instructions, and that she was a personal witness of Jesus Christ.”
Pastenes, a mother of three, believed Vallow – who was described as ‘compelling’ and ‘vivacious’ – had a ‘very high spiritual status’.
“If someone is telling the truth about it, I wouldn’t question them. I would believe they were telling the truth, because I would never think anyone would lie about something so sacred,” she said.
However, when asked during her testimony if she still believed in the legitimacy of castings, she replied “not anymore”.
“There are two children who died, a mother of five who died – I would consider that wrong now.”
Pastenes, who said she worked as a job coach, added: ‘I don’t believe anything they said… They made it all up.
‘I just don’t believe Chad, Lori would have the power to do that [castings]nor good intentions.’
She said she initially believed they were ‘kind, loving, fair and law-abiding’
Daybell, pictured during a court hearing in August 2020, built a following as a religious fantasy that warned of an impending apocalypse
Pastenes added that she would accompany Vallow to “Preparing the People” lectures, which teach people how to prepare for the apocalypse.
Pastenes recalled the first meeting between Daybell and Vallow at one of the 2018 events. Vallow and Daybell chatted at a bookstand where he sold his apocalyptic novels.
“At first it was just regular conversations, then it was obvious that Lori was very flirtatious with him, very giggling and making moves on him,” the court heard.
Pastenes recalled feeling like a “third wheel” when present during other interactions between Daybell and Vallow because the pair were so flirtatious.
Pastenes, who at times wiped away tears as he gave his testimony, said Daybell would claim to have information about his past lives. In a past life, Daybell said that Pastenes was Vallow’s daughter, and that she died aged 14 after being raped.
Vallow talked about “how light or dark people are” and drew diagrams to illustrate the concept. She began claiming around February 2019 that Charles Vallow “had been possessed by a dark spirit or Garrett demon”.
“She expressed how different he was, he acted different… He was a completely different person, he even looked like he was smaller,” Pastenes said.
Vallow claimed that the “evil spirit had been following him for a few years, so he could learn all about him, and he possessed him now.”
Pastenes said the first “casting” to remove the demon from Charles took place around the end of March 2019. Vallow led the casting with a group of girlfriends and it was claimed he was successful.
“She said we had to hold hands and form a circle and each of the participants would have a different part to say or do to complete it,” Pastenes said.
But after that, Vallow began telling his friends that “another more powerful and skilled demon” had taken control of Charles, named Ned.
Pastenes said: “After Ned was removed, an even more powerful demon possessed Charles’ body… [The demon] had been doing the same thing for hundreds of years.
Lori Vallow, right, is said to have organized a ‘casting’ to rid her husband Charles, left, of a ‘dark spirit’
Vallow’s children Tylee and JJ went missing in September 2019, but their remains weren’t discovered for 10 months. Alex Cox, who died in December 2019, was implicated in their murders
The ‘charred remains’ of Tylee Ryan, 16, and JJ Vallow, seven, were found at the couple’s home in Salem, Idaho. Pictured: Investigators searching the property on June 9, 2020
Vallow also made similar claims about Chad Daybell’s wife, Tammy, who she claimed was possessed by a demon named Viola.
She reportedly said “that’s the reason Tammy died, because they finally got to do a demon casting.”
Vallow had also spoken of “things she needed to do to usher in the second coming” and “clean up the earth.” She said that “Charles’ death was part of the steps towards the second coming”.
Vallow told Pastenes that “Rexburg was going to be a place where there would be soldiers and warriors defending that area and that area had been prepared by the church.”
Vallow at times seemed frustrated with Pastenes’ testimony. At one point, Pastenes told the court that the couple briefly lost contact after being “ghosted”.
Vallow told his attorneys “I wasn’t ghosting.”