Lori Vallow Likely To Be Charged In Husband's Death In AZ: Police

PHOENIX — Lori Vallow, who has been charged in the mysterious deaths of her children in rural Idaho and is being held in jail there, is likely to be charged in connection with the shooting death of her ex-husband in his Valley home, police said. Charles Vallow was killed by Lori's brother, Alex Cox, in July 2019.

Chandler Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jason McClimans told Patch Vallow has never been ruled out as a person of interest in the case and that the investigation is ongoing. Detectives are still piecing together digital data and have active subpoenas out.

"An estimate of sending the case over to the prosecution is four to six months, but that could come and go," McClimans said, indicating the wait could be longer "We are in no rush to send it over there."

In Idaho, Vallow and her new husband Chad Daybell are awaiting trial after investigators found human remains on Daybell's property that were later identified as belonging to 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, who had been missing since September 2019. Police in Rexburg, Idaho, are investigating the death of Daybell's wife Tammy, who died two weeks before he and Lori Vallow were married in Hawaii.

While Vallow did not shoot her estranged husband, if Chandler police determine she had a connection to his death, state law dictates that the correct charge would be conspiracy to commit murder, McClimans said. But the Maricopa County prosecutor will get the final say in what charges are ultimately filed, he said.

Cox, who claimed he killed his brother-in-law in self-defense, died of natural causes in December.

Worried his wife would kill him after he filed for divorce, Charles Vallow had filed for an order of protection, according to court documents that paint a picture of a woman who believed she was a "translated being" and "a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020."

By Aug. 31, just weeks after her estranged husband died, the newly widowed Vallow had moved to eastern Idaho with her children. Investigators putting together a timeline of her movements said they learned that by November, she had married doomsday prepper Daybell. He has written several apocalyptic novels loosely based on Mormon religious theology, and both had been involved in a group that promotes preparedness for biblical Armageddon.

Police in Rexburg, Idaho, began investigating the whereabouts of the children after relatives expressed alarm they hadn't heard from them. Vallow never reported them missing and traveled to Hawaii with Daybell amid the investigation.

Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell have since been charged with conspiracy to destroy, alter or conceal evidence in connection with the children's deaths.

On Thursday, Vallow waived her preliminary hearing, which had been scheduled next week, the East Idaho News reported. Her case will now go directly to trial in district court. Daybell's preliminary hearing was held this week.