Mom of Missing Idaho Children Arrested in Hawaii; Kauai Police Don't Believe Kids Are On island

Ryan W. Miller and Jordan Culver of USA TODAY wrote:Police in Hawaii on Thursday announced the arrest of Lori Vallow, the mother of two missing Idaho children who haven't been seen since September.

The Kauai Police Department released a statement on Twitter saying Vallow, 46, was arrested on a warrant issued by Madison County, Idaho. She's charged with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, KPD said.

She was also charged with resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime and contempt of court. She's being held on $5 million bail, according to KPD. Police said Vallow was arrested in Princeville, and her new husband, Chad Daybell, was not arrested.

"First of all, we wish to thank the public for the massive outpouring of concern regarding this case," Kauai Chief of Police Todd Raybuck said in a statement.

"We also want to thank everyone for their patience while investigators worked diligently to comprehensively gather everything they needed in order to obtain this arrest warrant."

KPD said there is "no indication" Vallow's children are on Kauai and there are no criminal charges against Vallow on Kauai. Vallow will next have a court date where she can "waive or fight her extradition to Idaho," where she'll face criminal charges, according to KPD.

The arrest comes after KPD obtained a search warrant in January for Vallow's rented vehicle, as well as the condo she was sharing with Chad Daybell.

Joshua "JJ" Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, have not been seen since Sept. 23, 2019 in Rexburg, but the bizarre case spans multiple states and suspicious death investigations along with allegations of a "doomsday cult."

The Rexburg Police Department first announced Joshua and Tylee were missing on Dec. 20, 2019. The department said they were working with the Freemont County Sheriff's Office and FBI to locate the two minors who had not been seen since Sept. 23, 2019. KPD said Rexburg police asked for its help in December 2019.

At the same time, authorities said they were opening an investigation into Tammy Daybell's Oct. 19 death, initially said to be due to natural causes. Tammy's remains were exhumed from her grave in Utah on Dec. 11 for an autopsy as police said her death "may be suspicious."

Tammy and Chad Daybell had been married for roughly 30 years with five children. Within weeks, he married Lori Vallow.

Vallow had a number of deaths connected to her as well. In 2018, ex-husband, Joseph Ryan, died of an apparent heart attack. In July, another ex-husband, Charles Vallow, was fatally shot by her brother Alex Cox at her home in Arizona.

Cox told police the estranged spouses were fighting, and he intervened. He shot Charles twice in the chest and claimed self defense, but police later said they had an open homicide investigation into the incident.

Months later, Cox was dead, too. He was found unresponsive, and autopsy results are pending.At the same time, authorities said they were opening an investigation into Tammy Daybell's Oct. 19 death, initially said to be due to natural causes. Tammy's remains were exhumed from her grave in Utah on Dec. 11 for an autopsy as police said her death "may be suspicious."

Rexburg police tried to perform a welfare check on Joshua on Nov. 26 after his biological grandparents, Kay and Larry Woodcock, contacted the department because they said they had not heard from the boy in months. Lori Vallow moved the kids to Idaho in August, but did not tell the Woodcocks or other family members where they were.

The department said Lori and Chad Daybell lied to police, saying Joshua was with a family friend in Arizona. The next day, they performed a search warrant at their home and found the newlyweds had fled Rexburg.

Vallow and Daybell did not have the children when they left Rexburg, and police said later in December they had evidence to suggest Vallow knew where her children were or what happened to them. The couple was uncooperative in the investigation and the children's lives were in danger, police said.

Both Vallow and Daybell lied about the children, police said. The couple allegedly told a witness that Tylee had died a year before her father's death, and Chad allegedly told someone Lori had no minor children.

An attorney for the couple denied any wrongdoing, calling them "loving" and "devoted."

In the following weeks, the details about Lori's life, religious beliefs and past marriages trickled out but the children were nowhere to be seen. The Woodcocks offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the children.

On Jan. 25, the couple reappeared, this time on the Hawaiian island of Kauai though the children were not with him, and a development in the case: Prosecutors in Idaho gave Lori five days to bring the children to authorities in Rexburg. Failure to do so risked her facing a civil or criminal contempt of court charge.

When Jan. 30 came, the children were still nowhere to be found. "I'm not at all surprised of that," Woodcock told reporters then. "Lori's not going to make this easy."

Underpinning the mystery were the apocalyptic religious beliefs Lori and Chad Daybell allegedly held.

According to divorce records, Charles Vallow alleged Lori didn't want anything to do with him or Joshua "because she had a more important mission to carry out" and claimed she was "a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020."

She also told Charles that she would kill him if he got in her way and that she had "an angel there to help her dispose of the body," court documents said.

Chad Daybell wrote dozens of books on apocalyptic events and near-death experiences. In his 2017 autobiography, he many experiences in the presence of spirits, both of his relatives and of others, and said of his near-death experiences, "I could see on the other side of the veil."

He also published novels based on visions of "the decline and downfall of the United States" and an "upcoming foreign invasion of America."

Kay Woodcock, Joshua's biological grandmother and Charles Vallow's sister, said Lori was a "wonderful, loving, attentive mother" until things started changing in the past 18 months because of her involvement with a new religious group, which Woodcock called a "cult."

Tylee Ryan's aunt, Annie Cushing, told KSL-TV Lori Vallow had always been religious but became obsessed with the end times in recent years.

Contributing: Jessica Boehm and Chelsea Curtis, Arizona Republic