CASE OF 2 MISSING CHILDREN TIED TO DOOMSDAY BELIEFS, 3 DEATHS

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 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.

Seven-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan have not been seen since September. 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 several times 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 last 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. JJ was enrolled at a school for three weeks and was last seen alive there, shortly before Vallow told school workers that she was going to start homeschooling the boy.

“We have not been able to find any witnesses who have seen J.V. since September 24, 2019,” Ball wrote in a probable cause affidavit.

Police also have said Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, have lied about the children’s whereabouts and even their existence. Daybell told someone that Vallow had no kids, and she told another person that her daughter had died more than a year earlier, authorities said.

Vallow must be extradited before she can face charges in Idaho, a process that often takes weeks. She faces a hearing March 2 on extradition to Idaho.

“Vallow abandoned her two minor children, delayed law enforcement’s attempts to locate her children, and encouraged another individual to delay law enforcement’s attempts to locate her children,” referring to a friend of Vallow’s in Arizona, according to a statement from Madison County, Idaho, prosecutor Rob Wood’s office.

Vallow’s attorney, Sean Bartholick of Rexburg, Idaho, did not respond to phone and social media messages seeking comment. An email message to Daybell seeking comment was not immediately answered.

Vallow also is accused of disobeying a court order that required her to bring her children to Idaho authorities last month.

The tangled case includes investigations into three deaths. Vallow’s estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Phoenix last July by her brother, Alex Cox. 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 Tammy’s death, law enforcement became suspicious and had her remains exhumed.

Test results on Tammy Daybell’s remains and toxicology results for Cox have not yet been released.

Vallow reportedly believes she is “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020,” according to divorce documents Charles Vallow filed before his death.

Chad Daybell has written several apocalyptic novels based loosely on theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both were involved in a group that promotes preparing for the biblical end times.