Vallow, Daybell Murder Case Brings To Mind Other Notorious Crimes

ACROSS AMERICA —On Tuesday afternoon, prosecutors in Fremont County, Idaho, charged "doomsday couple" Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, grand theft by deception, grand theft and insurance fraud.

The new charges of charges against Vallow and Daybell include conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and first degree murder charges stem from the deaths of Vallow's children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua Vallow, whose bodies were found on Daybell's property last year after they had been reported missing seven months earlier.

Daybell has also been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his late wife, Tammy Daybell. Additionally, police in Chandler, Arizona, are looking into the shooting death of Charles Vallow, who was fatally shot by Vallow's brother in 2019.

The tragic case, with elements of missing persons, children, infidelity, privilege and extreme religious beliefs, currently is gripping the nation. Here are 10 other true-crime stories, featuring some or all of those elements and from which America could not turn away.

1. Albert Snyder murder (1927): In one of the first murder cases to catch the nation's attention, Queens, New York, housewife Ruth Snyder and a corset salesman Henry Judd Gray, with whom she was having an affair, were convicted of killing Snyder's husband. They eventually were put to death in the electric chair. Competing New York tabloid newspapers kept the story in the headlines using " lurid details to draw readers in," according to History.com.

"(The) press attention was far out of proportion to how important the murder was to society as a whole," University of Maryland journalism professor emerita Maurine Beasley told History.com.

2. The Lindbergh Baby (1932): The 20-month-old son of legendary pilot Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped from his New Jersey home, and his body was found two months later.

Bruno Richard Hautpmann, a German immigrant living in New York, was convicted of the murder in what at the time was called "the trial of the century." He was executed in 1936, though he proclaimed his innocence until the end.

3. O.J. Simpson (1994): In what was also called "the trial of the century," a jury in October 1995 acquitted Simpson of murder charges in the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman the previous year. The legendary football star's trial was one of the firsttelevised nationally.

4. JonBenet Ramsey (1996): On Dec. 26, 1996, 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her wealthy parents' home in Boulder, Colorado. A ransom note also was found. However, there remained suspicion Ramsey's parents or her then-9-year-old brother might have been responsible. The crime remains unsolved.

5. Laci Peterson/Scott Peterson (2002): Scott Peterson was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to death for killing his pregnant wife, Laci, and dumping her body in the San Francisco Bay. Though he said their marriage was stable, it emerged that Scott Peterson was having an affair with Amber Frey at the time of Laci's death. His death sentence was overturned in 2020 and Peterson is seeking a new trial.

6. Drew Peterson (2007): Stacy Peterson, the fourth wife of retired suburban-Chicago cop Drew Peterson, disappeared in 2007 and has never been found. Soon after Stacy Peterson was reported missing, it was discovered that Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, had died under somewhat mysterious circumstances three years earlier. Initially ruled an accident, Savio's body was exhumed and re-examined. Her death was changed to a homicide. In 2012, Drew Peterson was convicted of Savio's murder, and he was sentenced to 38 years in prison.

7. Caylee Anthony/Casey Anthony (2008): Florida single mother Casey Anthony's 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, disappeared and was later found dead. While the little girl was missing, photos emerged of the 22-year-old Casey Anthony partying around town. Casey Anthony was tried for murder in 2011. But after almost six weeks of testimony, a jury found her not guilty.

8. Jennifer Dulos (2019): In May of 2019, Jennifer Farber Dulos, a mother of five from New Canaan, Connecticut, was reported missing. Dulos is presumed dead, but her body has not been found. Fotis Dulos, Jennifer's estranged husband, was charged with kidnapping and murder. But he took his own life in January of 2020. Two people are accused of assisting Fotis Dulos in the plot. Their cases are pending.

9. Suzanne Morphew (2020): The 49-year-old Morphew, of Maysville, Colorado, went for a bike ride in 2020, and hasn't been seen since. Barry Morphew, Suzanne's husband, posted a video on social media a week after his wife's disappearance, and announced a $100,000 reward for her safe return with "no questions asked." However, earlier this month, Barry Morphew was arrested in connection with his wife's disappearance, and he faces murder charges

10. Jonestown/Heaven's Gate (1978/1997): The first of two internationally sensational cases in which extreme religious beliefs led to mass deaths, 900 followers of the Rev. Jim Jones drank cyanide-laced punch in a mass suicide in 1978. Their bodies, including many children, were found in the Guyanese jungle.

In 1997, outside of San Diego, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate religious cult were found dead after taking their own lives. All were dressed in dark clothes and Nike sneakers.

According to History.com, leaders of the cult preached that suicide would allow followers to leave their bodily containers and enter an alien spacecraft hidden behind the Hale-Bopp comet.