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foreign state of Idaho plaintiff versus Lori Noreen vallo AKA Lori Noreen Depot defendant
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[Music] [Applause] welcome to a special episode of 48 hours I'm Jonathan Vigliotti the murder trial
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of Idaho mother Lori valadebell is underway She's accused along with her husband Chad dabel of the unthinkable
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murdering her two youngest children Joshua JJ valo and Tyler Ryan as well as Chad's late Wife Tammy dabell though
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originally scheduled to be tried together the couple had their cases severed and chadstrail will begin at a
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later date both have pleaded not guilty recently a judge removed the death penalty from Lori's case and she could
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face life in prison if convicted suspicion started swirling around Lori and Chad an author of religious doomsday
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novels after her children vanished in the fall of 2019. shortly after her children's disappearances Chad Abel's
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Wife Tammy died under mysterious circumstances within weeks of Tammy's death Lori and Chad were married on a
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beach in Hawaii in June of 2020 the children's bodies were found buried on Chad dabel's Idaho property
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prosecutors say the couple killed all three fueled by their end of times beliefs and to steal Social Security
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funds and insurance money the focus of this trial will be the three killings but Lori dabell also faces murder
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conspiracy charges in Arizona connected to the 2019 shooting death of her previous Husband by her brother Alex Cox
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who died shortly thereafter jury selection began on Monday April 3rd and the opening statements were
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presented a week later on Monday April 10th despite massive interest in the trial the judge has barred cameras from
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the courtroom we've never done this at 48 hours before but our team is taking the audio from the proceedings and
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sharing highlights from those crucial opening arguments in this special episode today I'm joined by 48 Hours
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producer Greg Fisher who's been watching all this unfold from inside the courtroom and Greg you and I have been
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on this really since day one we produced together three 48 Hours episodes we even
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saw the the grave sites where JJ and Tyler were buried so thank you for joining us it's been a long road for you
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yeah it has and I was thinking about that Jonathan you and I first worked together early on this story and it must
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have been three years ago when we were um chasing uh this story around and you were out with a different producer in
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Idaho and we were talking on the phone and uh getting an interview with the sheriff then you and I convinced um
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Chad's five children uh to do that exclusive interview with us for 48 hours yeah and I mean we've seen the story arc
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too because early on the children were believed to be missing and there was hope that perhaps they would be
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recovered found alive of course we were on the story as as a different reality played out you arrived right after jury
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selection I'm hoping you could tell us briefly about that process this was such a publicized case as you know and so
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many listeners know did that play a role in The Selection process yeah apparently
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um both sides uh the prosecution and the defense were very focused on the publicity how much jurors had really
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heard um about the case what they'd read what they knew about the case uh there were a
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couple of uh funny scenarios where uh people talked about well my wife really follows the case and told me all about
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it or I've seen everything about this case and I think uh most often those jurors were dismissed right away but
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both sides came to the realization that they really weren't going to find a complete jury of people who had not
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heard about this case because it got so much publicity and while there are some people who claim not to really know very
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much about it um they settled for jurors who explained that they could keep an open mind
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I was going to say this case made such International headlines it's hard to believe anyone would not have at least
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heard of this case at some point over the past two plus years briefly do you know the the makeup of the jury pool who
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they are yeah so there's uh 10 men and um eight women and the judge barred cameras from the courtroom is this
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typical for a case like this you know we often find that you know the judge is the king and his or her courtroom I
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think this judge had had a lot of experience with cameras in the courtroom for all the hearings uh leading up to
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this trial and so decided uh that that wouldn't be beneficial for the case so uh you know the the judges tend to have
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uh that power what was it like for you all these years later to be in the courtroom and to
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finally see this case go to trial it was fascinating and um it uh it really didn't uh disappoint
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today the opening argument particularly from the prosecution forceful uh brought
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things together um not much that we didn't expect you know there's been so much attention so
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much time spent parsing uh the details on all of this that it's hard uh for there to be unexpected things but it was
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um they delivered in the courtroom today I think let's go ahead and play a clip from Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney
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Lindsey Blake money power and sex that's what this case is about the defendant Lori valo dabel
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used money power and sex or the promise of those things to get what she wanted what she wanted was money
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power and sex it didn't matter what obstacle she had to remove to get what she wanted
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it didn't matter if the obstacle was a thing or a person and if it was a person it didn't matter
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who wow I mean just a few words to sum up strikingly what is a very complicated case
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she went on to explain uh you know make it really simple for the jury that her allegations were that Lori valo
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dabel committed these multiple murders for her own Financial benefit and her personal pleasure you know that was her
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planting that in their minds so that time and again during the trial uh apparently according to the prosecutor
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when you get to why they were dancing around on the beach in Hawaii while the kids were gone you know those kinds of
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issues will come back in their in their mind um she painted a really Stark picture of
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a heartless killer conspiracy to commit murder one of the charges she faces let me ask you is the prosecution going to
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try to prove to the jury that she committed these murders or she played a role she fueled them or inspired them
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yeah uh the prosecutor um explained to the jury that Laurie didn't have to actually commit the
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murder to be guilty but keep in mind that when we talk about the term conspiracy
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it is two or more persons combining or conspiring so essentially a meeting of the minds to
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commit some crime and then one of those actors just one has to do an overt act in furtherance of
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that conspiracy this is so in a way it makes the prosecution's task moving forward a
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little bit easier so to speak we really need to touch on how the prosecution describes Lori's religious beliefs let's
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take a listen to this first during this first meeting the defendant and Chad decide that they share purported
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religious beliefs and that they share beliefs that the two of them have been here
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have been married before in a prior probation you will hear it talked about multi-creations or prior probation or a
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prior life but regardless of the term used what they began to tell others is that they
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were essentially meant to be together they'd been married in Prior lives prior probations
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not only that but they both said that they had been prior figures from or persons from the Bible or other
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religious references Greg I guess if you could kind of summarize this um there were two uh interesting themes
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one theme that the prosecutor brought up was that Chad and Lori use strange religious beliefs to justify their
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actions to commit murder um and we've heard a little bit about this already and they talked about that
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Chad and Lori uh created a system to rape people based on their percentage of darkness and pretty soon this Theory
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evolved and these teachings evolved and they started to say well if somebody's dark
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and evil spirit or an evil entity can come in and they can push the real person out
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and take over the body and once those evil spirits took over they would become a zombie and then there would be
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justification because you'd have to kill that zombie which was no longer the person and then the second theme that
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the prosecutors hit on was that Lori and Chad assigned themselves status um as having this uh religious status
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based on previous lives and connections to these different figures and that that then put them as the
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prosecutor said it Beyond repentance the defendant and Chad use their self-proclaimed religious beliefs and
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teachings to justify their actions to others their actions from an affair to murder this is a heavy opening statement
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from the prosecution how does the defense follow that what was the defense's opening statement their
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opening statement was much more understated Jim Archibald is Lori's defense attorney and he explained he's
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very experienced attorney he's had private cases and um has worked as a public defender as well and that he's
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done 27 murder cases he's really been successful already getting Laurie um out of the death penalty so the defense took
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a very understated approach um first of all they stressed that Laurie's Alibi was very simple and
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direct Laurie valo was in her own apartment in Rexburg Idaho and J.J valo and Tyler Ryan died in the
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apartment of Alex Cox in Rexburg Idaho Lori was with Melanie Gibb David Warwick and or Chad dabil
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and Lori was in Hawaii when Tammy davile died of the home of Chad day Bell in Salem Idaho
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Lori was with Melanie bedro and or Audrey baraterio in Hawaii so they wanted to make that point clear
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to the jurors Jim Archibald he really picked a part um the charges against Laurie at one
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point he asked um almost facetiously he asked the jury and made fun of the vagueness of the
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charges so the St this charge is did she kill or did she assist or did she encourage
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or did she command so in other words this charge is saying they're not sure what happened
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but yet they want you to be sure so he seemed to be you know making that point to the jury and then saying
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remember we chose you because you said you understood what A Reasonable Doubt is you would give this a fair question
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then he clearly said to the jurors if they if the state doesn't know what happened
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yet they're expecting you to decide he was sowing doubt he was trying to create a sense of Doubt on that note we're
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gonna take a quick break when we get back Greg I want to know who else was in the courtroom and what else happened on
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day one we'll be right back [Music] okay Greg so we're back Lori was obviously there in court listening on to
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all of this can you describe her demeanor what she looked like you know Lori uh was well put together and very
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different from the Lori vallo that made all the headlines you know when she kind
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of flounced into court with a big smile on her face for that early hearing and seemed happy
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um there was a very different uh Lori vallo today Lori was um today Sirius she had black framed
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eyeglasses on and she sat between her attorneys uh you know occasionally Consulting with them uh she didn't seem
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to be making eye contact with anyone but she uh paid attention to the judge and what he had to say you know it was a
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much different presentation than we've seen uh earlier in the process until tell me who are the key players that
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were in the courtroom today really the two key players who've been there all along who even really sparked this whole
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investigation it was uh Kay and Larry Woodcock of course K is um JJ's grandmother and uh Larry
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Woodcock is uh her husband how did the family behave when they were there what how did they appear
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um you know uh they were somber and serious as they always have been at these hearings you know they've been
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there since day one every single court hearing they would fly in uh to make it there I I wonder if this was almost a
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moment too that they were celebrating is the wrong word but something they fought
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for so hard and here we are it's happening as you say they've been fixtures uh the whole time demanding
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Justice for um JJ and Tyler and because they're testifying and because Chad's trial will
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come up there's a gag order on the case was there anyone that wasn't there that you were surprised about
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uh well there was a lot of talk um that Kobe Ryan Laurie's first and oldest son uh would be there he wasn't
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there today the prosecution's first witness was K Woodcock as you mentioned JJ's grandmother can you tell us what
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did she have to say about Lori as a mother and then the circumstances regarding JJ's disappearance Kay was
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consistent uh with what she told you and I uh early on during some of our early interviews that you know
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she really liked Lori she loved Laurie she talked about how Lori was a great mom to JJ that she was engaged she
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um went the extra mile she even explained to the jury today that Laurie was graceful to her and Larry that she
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remembers one time Lori pulling out a photo album and that she'd been showing JJ you know these are this is your
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grandma these are your grandparents um so it was quite remarkable to hear the beginning of her testimony talk
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about that then of course she explained how things changed you know all of a sudden Laurie was gone at first for 58
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days in a row never tried to contact UM JJ one time when a mother leaves their child
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she left her husband and she left her child for 58 days and she never reached out to JJ
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and were you were you with him the entire 58 days I was with him a lot of the 58 days out of 58
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days I probably was with him well over a month so more than 30 days yes and during those 30 days you didn't
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hear from Laurie no for you Greg in that courtroom what was the most compelling moment today
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well certainly Hayes testimony it was you know very compelling they showed k photos of JJ
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and she had taken the photos and she kind of broke down and you know that was pretty intense when she broke down uh
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looking at that Mrs Woodcock do you recognize that document I do what does it purport to be
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our beautiful grandson JJ did you take that picture I did is that a true and accurate
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representation of JJ valo well that the prosecution did was show the two grave sites uh those shallow
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grave sites where the bodies were found just simple pictures um of the grave sites and then there was
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a picture also of Tammy uh lying uh in a coffin when Tyler was found as we talked about
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all that was found was charred remains Tyler's hands are gone when JJ was found his hands were bound and duct taped in
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front of his body when Tammy was found those hands she was described as a computer whiz
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it's never going to do anything on a computer again and the defendant and Chad dabell
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getting married on a beach in Hawaii starting their life together all obstacles gone I went to that
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property and saw those two grave sites children as you recall you were there too
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um showed us where they were found very very haunting images very haunting images for anyone
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and I imagine as the jury pieces is all together all the more so for them based on day one how do you believe the next
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several weeks unfold for this trial it was very clear from the prosecution that there was going to be uh a lot of
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evidence a lot of witnesses a lot to go through a lot of forensics you know you really got that sense that there was
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going to be a lot of testimony from the police a lot of uh testimony about forensics about where and how they found
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the bodies and what evidence was or was not found uh on the bodies there's clearly from the prosecution there's
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going to be a lot of text messages a lot of emails a lot of overheard discussions
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um testimony from Lori's friends another interesting thing the prosecutor said was
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what you're not gonna hear to say that you know when the kids were supposedly missing
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uh you're not going to hear stories about Lori being worried or Lori looking for the children or Lori going out of
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her way the prosecutor is going to have a wide-ranging and detailed um analysis of what went on but
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according to the prosecutor it's all going to come back to money power and sex [Music]
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[Applause] our team at 48 hours will be on the ground reporting on the Lori Valor debal
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trial we plan to bring you continued coverage and Analysis throughout the trial exclusively on the 48 Hours
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podcast in the meantime be sure to follow and listen to 48 Hours wherever you get your podcasts you can also
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listen ad free on the Amazon music or wundery app Greg thanks so much for debriefing us on the first day of the
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trial we're going to be checking back with you soon my pleasure looking forward to seeing you soon
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foreign [Music]