(NewsNation) — Lori Vallow was found guilty on all charges Friday related to the murder of her two children, Tylee and JJ and Chad Daybell’s previous wife Tammy.
Family members, including Vallow’s uncle Rex Conner and Annie Cushing, the aunt of Tylee Ryan, joined NewsNation’s “CUOMO” on Friday to discuss what the guilty verdict meant to the family.
“My initial feeling is one of elation,” Cushing said. “You know, it’s been a long road to get to this place. It’s been, you know, three and a half years. So I’m definitely relieved that the jury came back with guilty verdicts on, as you said, on all six charges, I mean, that’s the predominant emotion.”
Vallow’s family members heard weeks of disturbing and often heartbreaking testimony.
“We’re still sorting through it, and we’ll be probably (doing so) for the rest of our lives,” Conner said. “But when someone you know and love is killed by someone you know and love, we don’t have an experience for that. We don’t … know how to go through it. So we’re going through it like everyone else, we’re trying to figure it out.”
Conner said the family is processing by talking with each other.
“We process a lot,” he said. “We in our family, we process a lot by talking with each other.”
Vallow’s late third husband, Joseph Ryan, was Cushing’s brother.
Cushing believes Vallow was additionally involved in Ryan’s death.
“I do. I do,” she said. “And I’m not just saying that because I have a vested interest. Someone passed on the 122 photos from the day of his welfare check and there are signs of suspicious activity.”
Cushing said it looked like he was packing for a trip.
“He had a girl’s duffel bag and a girl’s iPad cover,” she said. “There were women’s sunglasses on his bathroom calendar, there was hair dye that had been activated but never used.”
Cushing hopes that authorities open “a real investigation into his death.”
The trial of Vallow’s alleged co-conspirator, Chad Daybell, is scheduled for next year.
“I’m not too concerned about how he chooses to defend himself,” Conner said. “I think the prosecution will do an equally excellent job as they did (at) Lori’s trial and have everything laid out for the jury the way they did here, I’m sure there’s other information we haven’t seen yet.”
The family members also talked about their ongoing struggle to cope with the loss of their loved ones.
Conner is Janis Cox’s brother. Cox is Daybell’s mom.
Conner said, “This is difficult” for his sister.
“I applaud her ability to function as well as she does,” he said. “I don’t know how I’d be in that situation. I think I’d be curled up in the fetal position, just crying, crying every day.”
Conner said if given the chance, he would talk to Vallow “if it served a purpose.”
“Our wish is that everyone that had a part in this horrific slaughter of these four people get the full extent that justice can serve in this life,” he said.