Human Monsters · Morgan Rector & Glassbox Media

Serial Killers Chad and Lori Daybell Part X

April 7, 2026·1 hr 9 min·5 clips

Recorded jailhouse calls played to the jury reveal Chad and Lori Daybell using construction metaphors to discuss the murders of her children the day before police found their remains.

1. Human Monsters Part 10 covers live trial testimony from May 15-16, 2024 in the Chad and Lori Daybell murder case. 2. The narrator presents the proceedings as they unfolded in court, covering witnesses Detective Blake, Lieutenant Ray Hermosillo, investigator Nicholas Edwards, and retired FBI agent Doug Hart. 3. The episode's central thread is the prosecution's evidence that Chad and Lori orchestrated the murders of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow through a framework of coded spiritual language and phone coordination with Alex Cox. 4. Phone data placed Alex Cox's device near the Daybell property between 4:50 p.m. and 5:03 p.m. on October 9, 2019 — the night Tammy was shot at — and later at a Hilton Garden Inn in Idaho Falls where he checked in just after midnight. 5. Between October 7-9, Cox visited gun ranges four more times, bought camo pants, rain pants, gloves, a beanie, a ski mask, and a burner phone with a 35-minute phone card from Walmart in Rexburg. 6. Ten texts were sent between Alex and Chad on October 8th and 9th, including four messages between 10:28 p.m. and 10:29 p.m. on the night Tammy was shot at. 7. A jailhouse phone call from June 8, 2020 — the day before the search warrant was issued and the children's remains discovered — was played for the jury, in which Chad and Lori used construction and contractor metaphors to discuss murder plans while laughing. 8. In the call, Lori complained that the original plan had only a '3% chance of trouble' but ended up being '100% trouble,' while Chad quipped about 'finding unexpected things when we dug in your backyard.' 9. Investigator Edwards presented a 21-month prosecution timeline from Chad and Lori's first meeting on October 26, 2018, to the June 2020 discovery of the children's remains, including that Tammy held $430,000 in life insurance with Chad as the named beneficiary. 10. Alex Cox was murdered by Chad and Lori's co-conspirator network; on November 24th Chad gave him a patriarchal blessing that included the line 'You have already assisted us in many ways that can never be repaid.' 11. FBI agent Hart read text messages from July 18, 2019 in which Chad told Lori he had 'placed a spiritual virus' in Tylee and that JJ was 'at 99.99' with 'Raphael visiting him and telling him to follow Amy into the light,' and Lori responded 'that is sweet.' 12. Chad used a coded numerical 'dark percentage' system to track the spiritual status of Tammy, Tylee, JJ, and others, with texts on July 30th stating Tammy was at three percent and JJ at two percent. 13. On October 5th, four days before Tammy's attempted murder, Chad texted Lori that Tammy had been 'switched' by a level-3 demonic entity named Viola placed by Tammy's sister Sam, and that he was working to get Tammy 'out of the house ASAP.' 14. Lori texted JJ's babysitter Sydney Woodbury on September 24th claiming JJ's grandparents had taken him 'for a few weeks,' after he had already been murdered and his remains buried on Chad's property under wooden planks and four rocks. 15. On October 20th — two days after Tammy's death — Chad texted Lori percentage updates on multiple individuals and told her to look for a condo in Hawaii while discussing a 'Lilly workout plan' to tighten her abs and get a full body tan. 16. Hart assessed that both Chad and Lori manipulated each other, but identified Chad as the ringleader who consistently declared others 'dark' or 'zombies' and whose property contained all the victims' remains. 17. The prosecution rested its case after Hart's testimony; defense attorney Prior filed a directed verdict motion arguing Chad was not physically present during the children's murders and that no evidence met the state's burden. 18. The prosecution countered that the bodies were found on Chad's property, he predicted Tammy's death before it occurred, and he told several people she would soon die while he and Lori shopped for wedding bands. 19. True crime listeners following the Daybell case or interested in how coded communication and apocalyptic belief systems are decoded by investigators will find this episode most useful. 20. Listeners who have not followed earlier episodes in this series will lack the background to fully follow the cast of characters and their relationships.

As heard by us

A procedural crawl through phone data, purchases, and a chronology that keeps tightening.

Human Monsters keeps its focus on the Daybell case, and Part 10 leans on Alex Cox's gun-range visits, the clothing buys, the burner phone, and the location data that places his device near the range and the Daybell property on October 9.

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Why you'd press play

You want the Daybell paper trail laid out with no relief valve, no guesswork, and no gloss.

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