Lori Vallow Daybell will be extradited to Arizona where she faces more conspiracy charges
Lori Vallow Daybell, the mother sentenced to life in prison this summer for the murder of her two children and another woman, may soon be extradited to Arizona, where she faces more conspiracy charges.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed an extradition warrant this week allowing the state of Arizona to take custody of Vallow Daybell. In addition to the six counts she was found guilty of in Idaho, Vallow Daybell faces two conspiracy to commit murder charges in Arizona for the death of her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, and the attempted murder of her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux.
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“It is hereby agreed by the undersigned, the Governor of the State of Idaho and the Governor of the State of Arizona, that Lori Vallow … will be extradited pursuant to this agreement from the State of Idaho to the State of Arizona for trial,” reads the executive agreement, signed Oct. 31. “Said fugitive may be transferred back and forth between the State of Arizona and the State of Idaho.”
According to the agreement, Arizona will pay to transport Vallow Daybell.
Death of Charles Vallow deemed murder, not self-defense
Charles Vallow was killed by Lori Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, in summer of 2019 in a shooting that was initially determined to be self-defense. Cox was never charged, and died of natural causes in December 2019.
During Vallow Daybell’s trial this spring, expert witnesses detailed several abnormalities surrounding Charles Vallow’s death.
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Nathan Duncan with the Chandler Police Department told the court he has never seen a shooting with so little blood, and that it appeared that Cox had not performed CPR on Charles Vallow. And when officers removed the body, there was a bullet hole in the floor, meaning it was likely “Charles would have been laying on the ground when that second shot was fired.”
An investigation was opened, revealing texts and calls suggesting Charles Vallow was killed “because he was a dark spirit, a zombie,” an accusation stemming from Vallow Daybell’s fringe religious beliefs that prosecutors say she used to justify murder.
In 2021, a grand jury in Arizona indicted Vallow Daybell for conspiracy to commit murder in connection to the shooting.
The attempted murder of Brandon Boudreaux
In October 2019, not long after Charles Vallow was killed, Boudreaux was shot at while he was in his driveway, shattering his car window.
Boudreaux told prosecutors he was in the middle of a contentious divorce with Vallow Daybell’s niece, Melani Pawlowski. He had moved to a new house, the location of which was known to only about five people, he said. Besides his neighbor, Pawlowski would be one of the few people who knew of his location the day he was shot at.
In February 2022, a grand jury indicted Vallow Daybell with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection to the shooting.
According to the two-page indictment, Vallow Daybell “agreed with Alexander Cox that at least one of them or another would engage in conduct constituting the offense of First Degree Premeditated Murder.”
In addition to the two Arizona incidents, Cox is believed by prosecutors to be an accomplice in the murders of Vallow Daybell’s two children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan. Both children disappeared in September 2019 — it was later discovered that they had been murdered and buried in a shallow grave behind the Rexburg home of Chad Daybell.
Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell were believed to be having an affair at the time. Prosecutors also say he pushed his own fringe religious beliefs.
In October 2019, Tammy Daybell was killed by what investigators said was asphyxiation in her sleep, though at the time her death was ruled natural. Just two weeks later, while her children were still unaccounted for, Lori Vallow married Chad Daybell on a beach in Hawaii.
That December, Tammy Daybell’s body was exhumed and Tylee and JJ were declared missing. A court ordered Vallow Daybell to produce her children by Jan. 30, 2020. She was arrested in Hawaii about four weeks later after she failed to comply.
On June 9, 2020, police executed a search warrant and found the bodies of Tylee and JJ buried in Daybell’s backyard. Chad Daybell was arrested that day. Nearly three years later, Vallow Daybell was found guilty on six counts.
Vallow Daybell is currently in the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center, after she was given three consecutive life sentences in July in connection to the murder of her two youngest children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old JJ Vallow, and Tammy Daybell, the spouse of Chad Daybell whom she later married.
She also received two life sentences for conspiring to murder her children and 10 years for grand theft, with those prison terms running concurrently to the life sentences for the three murder convictions.
An attorney for Vallow Daybell recently filed an appeal to the multiple life sentences, questioning her mental competency and claiming there were several issues during the trial.
