Provided by Netflix
When Colby Ryan — Lori Vallow's only living child — entered the Boise, Idaho, courtroom where she is on trial, Vallow mouthed, "Oh my baby."
Vallow's firstborn took the stand on Tuesday, giving emotional, tear-filled testimony.
He told the jury about conversations he had with his mother about the life insurance policies of her two dead husbands. He also testified that at some point — after his little sister Tylee Ryan had stopped responding to his calls and FaceTimes — he began receiving messages from her that didn't sound like she had written them.
Vallow and her husband Chad Daybell, have both been charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, murder, and grand theft in connection with the deaths of Vallow's two youngest children: 7-year-old Joshua "J.J." Vallow and his teenage sister, Tylee Ryan, last seen in 2019. They are also charged in connection to the death of Daybell's then-wife, Tammy Daybell.
On Tuesday, gasps broke out in the courtroom when Ryan took the stand. Ryan wept on the witness stand, and Vallow dabbed her eyes.
Ryan 27, identified photos of his two late siblings, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, whom he last spoke to shortly before her 17th birthday in the fall of 2019.
"She's my mother," Ryan answered when asked about his relationship with Vallow.
Ryan told the jury that on July 11, 2019, Vallow told him that her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, had died of a heart attack. It wasn't until he went to his mother's Phoenix-area home that evening that his uncle Alex Cox told him a different story, Ryan testified.
Ryan testified that Cox, who wore a white bandage, told him "he had got hit in the head with a baseball bat and had shot Charles Vallow."
Ryan testified further about discussions he had with his mother about the life insurance policies for her two dead husbands, Joe Ryan, who died in 2018, and Charles Vallow.
"They were, quote-unquote, out of money," Ryan told the jury his mother told him around 2019.
Ryan testified that Tylee had been the recipient of the life insurance for Joe Ryan — who was her father and Ryan's stepfather. Ryan testified that occasionally Tylee sent him money via Venmo.
The last time they spoke by phone, September 8, 2019 — which prosecutors say is the last day there is proof Tylee was alive — Tylee told her big brother that their mother was now overseer of that life insurance payout, Ryan testified.
"She said she was no longer in control of her money and my mom was handling it," he told the jury.
Ryan testified that he attempted to call and FaceTime his sister throughout the fall of 2019, but she never answered. Instead, he received text messages from her number, written in a voice that did not sound like her, he testified.
"Texts I was receiving back were in a different language than she had used," he said.
Meanwhile, he testified that his mother told him she intended to remarry, but would not say to whom. She said she had moved from her Phoenix-area home to a new location that she would not specify, Ryan testified.
"She told me she was moving somewhere cold and it was dangerous for her to tell anybody where she was," he told the jury.
In truth, Vallow had moved to Rexburg, Idaho, to be with her fifth husband, Chad Daybell.
Ryan — who was featured in the Netflix true-crime series about the case — has spoken out repeatedly about his mother since her arrest. He has accused her of lying to him for a long time — including telling her that his stepfather Charles Vallow had died of a heart attack when she knew he had been shot.
He has also said he believed she would have died for her two younger children and that he was shocked to find out she was a suspect in their disappearance.
