Sins of Our Mother is a true-crime documentary series directed by Skye Borgman and is about the life of Lori Vallow, whose life is a rollercoaster life of questions. The series has 3 episodes, each with a runtime of around 35-50 minutes.
Netflix describes the series as:
WHEN LORI VALLOW’S KIDS VANISHED, THE SEARCH FOR THEM UNEARTHED A TRAIL OF SUSPICIOUS DEATHS, A NEW HUSBAND WHO SHARED HER DOOMSDAY VIEWS — AND MURDER.
Sins of Our Mother: The Story
Lori Vallow, mother of three kids, and married four times, is your typical mom who loves her kids and life – until she isn’t. Sins of Our Mother tracks Lori and Colby, her son’s lives as it starts to break apart at the seams.
After a string of abusive relationships, Lori married Charles and adopted J.J., as well as bringing her own two kids, Colby and Tylee, into the marriage. Things were great until they weren’t and as she got deeper into her faith and started depending more on the LDS Church, she met Chad Daybell, another member of the LDS Church who was also deep into the religion. He was already married with five kids and from there they started an affair.
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Their shared faith and doomsday thoughts pushed them to murder their spouses using her brother Alex Cox, another member of their shared ideals, to (probably) get their hands on the insurance payout as well as to get rid of any setbacks. The two married on November 05, 2019, in Hawaii and almost thought that they got away with it until J.J.’s grandparents asked for a welfare check on him. The police, after repeated attempts to contact J.J., got a warrant to arrest Lori after they couldn’t find a trace of him and his sister Tylee.
From there, investigations unearthed that Alex (or even Lori or Chad) had probably murdered the kids around September 2019 and buried their bodies in Chad’s backyard. As the world scrambles to understand what is going on, Lori and Chad are arrested as an investigation starts into the mysterious deaths of the kids, Charles and Tammy (Chad’s wife).
At the time of the trial, Lori was declared mentally unfit, and as of right now, both the husband and wife will be tried together on joint charges, and the prosecutor is trying to seek the death penalty for Lori as the killings were ‘exceptionally depraved and financially motivated’.
3 Heartbreaking Moments From Sins of Our Mother
1. Colby tells Lori about the abuse that he faced
When young Colby and Lori run away from her third husband’s horrible abuse, the young Colby tells his mother that along with the physical abuse, he was also subjected to sexual abuse at the hands of his stepfather. It’s heartbreaking to hear an adult Colby recounting the traumatic memory as we now know what his mother made him go through later on. You can’t help but feel devastated for this boy who was forced to grow up too early and face something so traumatic.
2. No one believes Charles Vallow
When they say that people don’t believe men who are victims of domestic abuse, this is what they probably meant. I am sure that a woman who can murder her own children for religion or love or whatever can subject her husband to unthinkable agony. Although they don’t specify it, I don’t have any doubts in my mind that Charles was subject to Lori’s craziness early on, and I am sure he was just as confused as all of us to see his wife changing so drastically.
However, the saddest moment is when he asks for help from everyone, including his children, but no one agrees to believe him. Instead, everyone believed Lori’s claim that he was cheating on her, which, shocking, was the other way around – talk about projection! What would have happened had everyone actually decided to help Charles? Would he have survived? Would the kids? I guess we’ll never know.
3. Colby implores his mother to see the truth
After the children’s remains are found in Chad’s backyard, it’s heartbreaking to see a broken Colby imploring his mother to tell him what happened and why she didn’t protect his siblings. Unfortunately, Lori continues to repeat that the kids are safe and that Colby wouldn’t understand the bigger picture. It’s like she’s putting salt on an already horrible wound, and you feel Colby’s desperation as he tries to understand why his mother would do something so extreme. However, we never get an answer to it, really.
Sins of Our Mother is streaming on Netflix.
Also Read: Sins of Our Mother Review: Don’t Follow Cults, Guys