Lori Vallow, mother of missing Idaho kids, faces multiple charges including desertion
Joshua Vallow and Tylee Ryan have not been seen since last September; Jonathan Hunt reports from Los Angeles.
Lori Vallow, the Idaho mother who fled to Hawaii amid questions about the disappearance of her two children, was ordered held on $5 million bail on Friday.
Vallow, 46, appeared in court a day after being arrested in Kauai on a warrant issued by Idaho prosecutors. She faces two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children. Court papers accuse her of being a flight risk, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
She also faces multiple charges linked to the disappearance of her 7-year-old autistic son Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 17-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan. She refused to waive her extradition hearing, which is set for March 2.
The warrant for Vallow's arrest stemmed from her missing a January deadline to produce her children in front of authorities to prove they are alive. They have not been seen since September 2019.
In a 14-page court affidavit unsealed Thursday after her arrest, Rexburg Police Det. Ron Ball said Vallow was a flight risk because she and her husband Chad Daybell, 51, have significant financial resources.
“I am aware that Chad Daybell received at least $430,000 in life insurance proceeds upon the death of his wife Tammy,” Ball wrote. “As such, Lori and Chad have resources sufficient to help them travel and hide from law enforcement and the Court.”
Vallow and Daybell left Idaho amid questions from police about the children's whereabouts.
“Chad acted as if he didn’t know Lori very well and stated he didn’t know her phone number," Ball wrote in the affidavit.
Authorities have not been able to confirm whether the children are alive. They said there is nothing to indicate they are in Hawaii and that Vallow and Daybell have lied about where they could be.
Authorities began investigating the disappearance after JJ's grandparents made a missing child report. Larry and Kay Woodcock of Louisiana, have said that once-regular phone calls with JJ grew infrequent, then stopped in August.
Vallow's brother, Alex Cox, told the detectives that "JJ was with his grandma, Kay Woodcock, in Louisiana, which was not likely to be true due to the fact that Kay was the individual who first called in a missing child report,” Ball wrote in the affidavit.
He accused Vallow of lying to Rexburg police when she said in November that her son was in Arizona with a friend. Her arrest came days after Vallow and Daybell were seen on the Hawaiian island of Maui, East Idaho News reported.
Joshua Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, are being sought by police in Rexberg, Idaho. Investigators are saying their mother, Lori Daybell, knows what happened to them but refuses to cooperate. (Rexberg Police Department)
The couple married in November after the suspicious death of Daybell's first wife Tammy.
Vallow's fourth husband, Charles Vallow, died in July after being shot by Cox, who claimed he acted in self-defense. Cox died in December. The death of Tammy Daybell is under investigation.
Her body was exhumed and the results of toxicology and other tests have not yet been released.
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Vallow's family members have raised concerns that she may have joined a cult with Chad Daybell, who has written several books loosely based on the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and largely focused on doomsday scenarios. He also posted podcasts for an online organization aimed at church members, with an interest in preparing for biblical end times.
Lori Vallow participated in some of the podcasts, and the two had grown close.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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