Lori Vallow Pleads Not Guilty To Charges Tied To Kids' Deaths

PHOENIX — Lori Vallow Daybell is one step closer to going to trial.

Vallow Daybell, who previously lived in Chandler before moving to Idaho, entered a plea of not guilty to conspiracy charges Thursday in the deaths of her two children. 7-year-old Joshua "J.J." Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan were found dead on her husband Chad Daybell's Idaho property in June.

Daybell also pleaded not guilty to similar charges in the deaths — two felony counts of conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence. Both remain in jail in Madison County, Idaho.

Her arraignment was previously postponed as her attorney sought more documents and information for her case.

Vallow Daybell will also likely face charges in the death of her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, who was shot by her brother in a dispute at Vallow's Chandler home. Alex Cox, who died of natural causes in December, always maintained that he killed Vallow in self-defense.

But Chandler Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jason McClimans previously told Patch that Vallow has never been ruled out as a person of interest in the case and that the investigation is ongoing.

"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."

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. 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, are also investigating the death of Daybell's wife Tammy, who died two weeks before he and Lori Vallow were married in Hawaii. Both are being held on a $1 million bond as they await trial.