Lori's a curious one for me. I didn't realize she grew up LDS until I read about her childhood in an article. Even though she belonged to a faithful family and attended seminary, her life choices after high school abandon the mainstream mormon path of: mission, temple marriage, babies, raise a family, serve another mission as empty nesters, become mission presidents, die & go to heaven. (Slightly tongue in cheek, but that's the UT/ID/AZ stereotype. It's how my life went for the most part [minus the dying!] And most of my family members' lives as well.)
She's had multiple non-member husbands, never seems to have 'made it' to the temple, children from different fathers, etc. It's definitely not a typical mormon life story. Charles and his family say she seriously changed when she got into the end of times stuff. I'd be really curious to know what her church activity looked like before then. I don't think Charles or his family belonged to the church and I imagine she was inactive when she married him. It was her longest marriage so I'd wager they were fairly happy until she got involved with the extreme stuff.
Anyway, she just doesn't fit any of the profiles I have based on the people I grew up with and know through the LDS AVOW community. I am afraid she has some kind of undiagnosed personality disorder. I don't know what her motivations might be.
Edited to add: Another thing that stands out to me is that most of the people I know personally who get really into the 'chosen one' stuff are from very privileged backgrounds in their mormon communities. They come from 'general authority' stock and believe they have been very blessed because of their righteousness. They are proud of their pioneer heritage and have a certain brand of proud-humility about them... they talk a LOT about being thankful for god's blessings. These are the types of people IME who end up feeling like they're future prophets... not women with a messy marriage/divorce history and kids from different fathers. Not that redemption doesn't play a part in everyone's life story... it's just another difference I've noticed from the (I'm sorry to armchair diagnose) raging narcissists in my life who claim to have been grand beings in their past lives.
Chad is far easier for me to understand. He was raised LDS and walked the walk and talked the talk. I think he truly believes the things he's written and prophesied about, though I agree he doesn't *look* like the sharpest tool in the shed, especially lately in the news. What I don't know is why he abandoned the mainstream LDS path (married in the temple, kids mostly raised) to leap off a cliff with Lori. Was it really a mutual belief in these extreme things? Has she pulled one over on him? Is it a massive midlife crisis combined with some developing diagnosed mental issues? Did the 'specialness' he grew up with in the church give him delusions of grandeur? So many questions.