As is often the case with true crime documentaries, much of the fascination around them comes from having subjects who appear to have ‘picture perfect’ lives but are, in fact, leading anything but. That’s why Netflix’s Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist has taken the platform by storm this week, as have recent hits like Girl In The Picture and I Just Killed My Dad.

Those latter two documentaries are the work of Skye Borgman, who has established herself as one hell of a true crime documentary maker. As well as bringing us Abducted In Plain Sight – the case of which is at the centre of a new Peacock drama series that she’s also a consulting producer for – Borgman is now bringing us Sins Of Our Mother, an entirely new docuseries to get stuck into.

The twist with this one being that the case is still very much ongoing. Unlike her other work, where the case has long been closed or has come to a recent conclusion, the story of Lori Vallow and her family is still very much the talk of US headlines. In this new series, though, the backstory of the family is being explored with the help of Lori’s surviving son, Colby.

With a brand new trailer giving a whole new meaning to the term ‘chilling’, this intriguing new series has made its way firmly to the top of our watchlist. Here’s everything you need to know about Sins Of Our Mother. 

The new true crime documentary is based on very real and harrowing events. According to the synopsis: “Lori Vallow was known to friends and family as a devoted mother of three, a loving wife and a woman of God. But over the past three years, something went very wrong. Now Lori is in jail, waiting to stand trial for conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of her fourth husband, her fifth husband’s wife and her two youngest children.

“For the first time, Lori’s surviving son, Colby, steps forward to provide exclusive insight into his family’s backstory as well as their present-tense narrative as Lori faces justice. At the heart of this three-part series is a single burning question: how did a seemingly normal woman become the most notorious mother in America?”

If it wasn’t a factual documentary, we’d be inclined to believe it was the stuff of nightmares or an equally grotesque fictional series. But the incomprehensible case is explored in further detail in this series. In an interview with E! News, Borgman said: “Lori Vallow has many faces. That of a mother, sister, wife… and liar.

“I don’t know if we will ever know exactly what motivated Lori to commit such unspeakable crimes. But to formulate any answer we must look at Lori through the eyes of the people who knew her best.” 

It is, and that’s what makes this new Netflix documentary all the more chilling. Lori has been labelled the “cult mum” by US media outlets, but most recently, her in-court behaviour (smiling and grinning) has been widely condemned.

Lori – who is accused of conspiring to murder her children Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, to collect their social security benefits – appeared in Idaho’s Fremont County Court on Tuesday 16 August. It was the first time she had appeared in court since a judge ruled that she is mentally fit to stand trial.

Lori has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to commit grand theft charges. The latter charges are over an alleged plot to kill her children in order to claim social security benefits (paid to them) following the death of her fourth husband Charles Vallow, Tylee’s biological father and JJ’s adoptive father.

The two children were last seen in September 2019, just weeks after the Vallow family moved to Rexburg, Idaho, following Charles Vallow’s death. It’s believed that Lori moved to be closer to Chad Daybell, an alleged doomsday cult leader, who she married in November 2019.

JJ and Tylee were found buried on Daybell’s property in Salem, Idaho, in June 2020. They are believed to have been killed in the days after they went missing.

Daybell has also been charged with murder and conspiracy in the children’s deaths and has pleaded not guilty. Daybell’s former wife, Tammy, was found dead in October 2019, weeks before he married Lori. While Tammy’s death was initially ruled as being the result of natural causes (after Chad declined an autopsy), Tammy’s case was reopened following JJ and Tylee’s disappearance. Lori and Chad now face conspiracy charges related to Tammy also.

After many delays, the pair are due to face trial together in January 2023. 

There is, and what’s most intriguing about it is that it’s a deep-dive into the case from the viewpoint of the surviving son, Colby. It starts with a phone call where he admits to his mother that he’s “not good”, which she apologises for. He then asks: “Are you sorry for me or are you sorry for my siblings?

“I would have never thought you would have ever done something like this,” he tells her. As images and video clips of a once-happy family flash up, you get the sense that the Vallows really were the “wonderful family” many thought them to be. “Honestly, Lori and Charles looked like they had the ideal marriage. But her beliefs had become a lot more extreme,” someone shares in the trailer.

“After she met Chad Daybell, she changed,” another woman says plainly. We learn that Chad believed that there will one day be an apocalypse and that he can distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ spirits. It’s this thinking that, as people in the trailer describe, Lori becomes involved in. In a chilling past clip of Lori, she can be seen telling a room of people: “Being all those things together is not easy, so I’m basically a ticking time bomb.”

And the trailer ends with Colby’s startling revelation: “My mum was just playing every card on everybody. Belief really will take you to a different place.”

Watch the trailer for yourself here: 

The three-part docuseries will be available to stream on Netflix on 23 September. 

Images: Netflix