Lori Vallow booked on murder charge in fatal shooting of her 4th husband

(PHOENIX, Ariz.) — Lori Vallow, who was convicted of killing two of her children in a so-called doomsday plot, has been extradited to Arizona to face charges in connection with the death of her fourth husband.

Vallow, 50, was booked Thursday on one count of first-degree murder, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. She was indicted by a grand jury in 2021 in connection with the killing of Charles Vallow, who was fatally shot by her brother in 2019 during a confrontation at her Arizona home.

She was also booked on one count of first-degree premeditated murder, the sheriff said, after being indicted by a grand jury in 2022 for allegedly plotting with her brother to kill Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of her niece.

Lori Vallow was remanded without bond during an initial court appearance early Thursday, according to Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone. She has been deemed “high security” and will be isolated in jail, the sheriff said.

She is next scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 7.

Lori Vallow, also known as Lori Vallow Daybell, is currently serving life in prison without parole at the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center in Pocatello, Idaho, after a jury found her guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the 2019 deaths of her children, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16.

Her attorney filed a notice of appeal in October in the case.

She and her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, the author of religious fiction books, both reportedly adhered to a doomsday ideology. She once claimed she was “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020” and didn’t want anything to do with her family “because she had a more important mission to carry out,” according to court documents obtained by ABC News.

J.J. and Tylee were last seen in September 2019 and, following a monthslong search, their remains were found on an Idaho property belonging to Chad Daybell in June 2020.

Lori Vallow denied murdering her children, saying in court at her sentencing in July: “Jesus Christ knows the truth of what happened here. … No one was murdered in this case. Accidental deaths happen. Suicides happen. Fatal side effects from medications happen.”

Lori Vallow was additionally found guilty of conspiring to kill her children and her husband’s first wife, Tamara Daybell, who died on Oct. 19, 2019, less than a month before Lori and Chad married in Hawaii.

Chad Daybell was also charged with murder in the deaths of J.J., Tylee and his first wife. He has pleaded not guilty, with his trial expected to start in spring 2024.

Friends have said Lori Vallow’s 13-year marriage to Charles Vallow started to deteriorate after she became a fan of Daybell’s books, with the two separating in 2019. Their blended family had included Tylee from Lori Vallow’s third marriage, and Charles Vallow’s nephew J.J., whom they adopted.

While at his estranged wife’s home in Chandler, Arizona, to take J.J. to school in July 2019, Charles Vallow was fatally shot by her brother, Alex Cox. Her brother told police he shot his brother-in-law in self-defense. Police were investigating the claims when Cox himself died from natural causes months later.

Following a yearslong investigation, prosecutors alleged that Lori Vallow conspired with Cox to murder Charles Vallow, calling the case “complex” and “difficult.”

Three months after the shooting of Charles Vallow, Boudreaux called 911 in October 2019 to report that someone driving by in a Jeep shot his vehicle outside his home in Gilbert, Arizona. He told police at the time he thought Cox was behind the wheel.

The indictment against Lori Vallow in the shooting alleges that she and Cox planned to murder Boudreaux. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office released the indictment in May with no further comment due to the pending case.

Boudreaux testified about the shooting during the double-murder trial in Idaho, with prosecutors in that case saying they believed Lori Vallow conspired to “cause the death of multiple people in her world.”

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