Lori Vallow, charged with killing her children, ruled mentally fit to stand trial

Lori Vallow, who is charged with murder in the deaths of her two children, was declared mentally fit to stand trial Monday, nearly a year after she was committed to an Idaho mental health facility.

Vallow is set to be arraigned April 19, Idaho District Judge Steven Boyce wrote in a ruling. He wrote that Vallow is "restored to competency and fit to proceed."

Vallow was declared mentally unfit to stand trial last May on separate charges of concealment of evidence. The murder case was stayed.

Idaho does not allow for an “insanity defense,” but it mandates that defendants must be able to understand the charges they face.

Vallow was committed to the custody of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare “for care and treatment at an appropriate facility," a court order in June said. On Monday, Boyce ordered that she be transferred from the Department of Health and Welfare and be remanded to the custody of the Fremont County sheriff.

Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, were indicted last year on first-degree murder charges and other counts in the deaths of her two children, Tylee and Joshua, who were 16 and 7 when they were last seen in September 2019.

The children’s bodies were found on Daybell's property in June 2020.

Multiple people close to Vallow have raised red flags about her bizarre doomsday beliefs and mental state.

Indictments said the couple “did endorse and espouse religious beliefs for the purpose of encouraging and/or justifying the homicides” of Tylee, Joshua and Daybell’s wife, Tammy Daybell, whom he is accused of murdering.