Mother of missing Idaho children arrested in Hawaii
The disappearance of an Idaho boy and his teenage sister last year has led to the arrest of their mother in Hawaii, a major development in a bizarre case that spans multiple states, includes three mysterious deaths and touches on the mother’s doomsday beliefs.
Lori Vallow, 46, also known as Lori Daybell, was arrested Thursday on an Idaho warrant and was being held on $5 million bail, according to police on the island of Kauai. Vallow has been charged with two felony counts of child abandonment that can carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
Seven-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan have not been seen since September, and their disappearance has captured attention worldwide after authorities pleaded for help finding them late last year. Police in the city of Rexburg, Idaho, have said they “strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee’s lives are in danger.”
Newly released court documents in eastern Idaho paint a bleak picture, with police saying Vallow lied about her children’s whereabouts and that JJ’s winter clothes and other belongings have been found in an abandoned storage unit. Rexburg police Lt. Ron Ball wrote in a court document filed this week that Vallow’s bank account shows no sign that she is providing money to anyone to care for the kids.
Tylee hasn’t been seen since Sept. 8, Ball wrote, when she went to Yellow stone National Park with JJ, Vallow and Vallow’s brother Alex Cox. Police tracked down a photo of Tylee at the park entrance.
JJ was enrolled at a school for three weeks and was last seen there, shortly before Vallow told employees that she was going to homeschool the boy.
Police also have said Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, have lied about the children’s whereabouts and even their existence.
Vallow must be extradited before she can face charges in Idaho, a process that often takes weeks. Kauai police said in a statement that she was expected to appear in court Friday.
The tangled case includes investigations into three deaths. Vallow’s estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Phoenix last July by Cox, her brother. Cox, who claimed the shooting was in self-defense, died of unknown causes in December.
Lori Vallow moved her family to Idaho in late August. In October, Chad Daybell’s wife, Tammy Daybell, died of what her obituary said was natural causes. When Chad Daybell married Vallow roughly two weeks after the death, authorities became suspicious and had Tammy’s remains exhumed.
Test results on her remains and toxicology results for Cox have not yet been released.