(NewsNation) — The survivor of a sex cult who was once branded by its leader hopes the trial of Lori Vallow can prevent future tragedy by bringing to light the ways cults use undue influence, manipulation and emotional abuse.
Vallow, an Idaho woman on trial for killing her two youngest children, held cult-like beliefs and was part of a doomsday preparation group. She and her husband Chad Daybell are charged in the death of Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, whose bodies were unearthed from Daybell’s backyard.
“I’m shocked that it got to this point where children died and nobody did anything about this clearly very dangerous group that was using a lot of indoctrination,” actress Sarah Edmondson said Thursday on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” “This is obviously a really tragic case.”
Edmondson survived the sex cult NXIVM run by Keith Raniere. Purported as a self-help, multilevel marketing company, the group had hundreds of members at its height, including celebrities and the wealthy.
Raniere was charged with sex trafficking in 2018 and convicted a year later. Among the allegations was that women were branded with Raniere’s initials.
Edmondson had her brand removed.
“Looking back at it, I realized that it was a physical manifestation of emotional abuse that had been going on for years, and I think that’s how these things go unchecked,” Edmondson said. “There are these groups that nobody can really pinpoint exactly what’s wrong until there’s physical abuse, and in this case actual death, many deaths.”
During the trial Thursday, Vallow’s friend took the stand and testified Vallow told her that her children, her fourth husband Charles, and her current husband’s previous wife were all “dark spirits” or “zombies” before they suddenly died or went missing.
“It’s amazing to really get the scope of what your entire belief system can accept when you’re in a cult,” Edmondson said. “In this case, Lori Vallow accepted some pretty extreme assumptions, including that her husband had a direct line to God or was a prophet himself.”
Although the cults and beliefs in the two cases are different, Edmondson said the template for manipulation and abuse is the same.
“Being isolated, feeling special, having a righteous connection to the mission of the group, having an us-versus-them mentality … and believing insane, I mean out-of-this-world, beliefs,” she said. “It’s the same steps of indoctrination. In any cult, (it) starts out as something that’s really good, and it ends up something tragic, and in our case, we were able to see it before it got to that level.”
Moving forward, Edmondson hopes at least some good can come from the tragedy.
“I think that it’s just a case for understanding undue influence, and that’s something that I I really hope this trial brings to light,” Edmondson said. “I hope that it’s an opportunity to understand how these things get to such a level so we can catch it sooner.”