Vallow Daybell is charged with first-degree premeditated murder in connection with the killing of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. She also is facing one count of first-degree premeditated murder for allegedly plotting with her brother to kill Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of her niece, Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone said at a press conference on Nov. 30.
"Make no mistake about it, she is as much if not more of a threat to the harm of others as any other dangerous criminal we've had in our custody,” Penzone said. “She'll be housed here until the conclusion of her case.”
The case is now in the hands of Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, who has been vocal about her desire to prosecute Vallow Daybell.
“Victims deserve justice, and one victim’s justice is not recognizing that another victim suffered — died,” Mitchell said at a July 26 press conference.
After her Arizona court case concludes, Vallow Daybell will return to the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center, where she is serving a life sentence for the September 2019 murder of her son and daughter, as well as conspiring to kill her married boyfriend's wife in October 2019.
On July 31, Lori Vallow Daybill was convicted in Idaho of murdering her two children and sentenced to life without parole.
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
A murderous spree
Vallow Daybell’s murderous spree began in July 2019 when her estranged ex-husband Charles Vallow reportedly visited her Chandler home to pick up their son and take him to school. An altercation between Vallow and Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, broke out.When police arrived at the scene, Vallow had been shot by Cox, who claimed that he acted in self-defense. Vallow died at the scene. Cox, who was not charged in the incident, died of natural causes just three months later, in December 2019.
Before his death, Cox allegedly acted on another of Vallow Daybell’s plots to cause harm.
In October 2019, Cox allegedly fired gunshots at Brandon Boudreaux’s home in Gilbert. Boudreaux, who survived the attack, is the ex-husband of Vallow Daybell’s niece.
Cox died before charges were formally issued for his involvement in the attack.
Following a two-year investigation into Vallow’s death and the Boudreaux shooting, Vallow Daybell was indicted in February 2022 when the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office charged her with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
Vallow Daybell also was a suspect in the October 2019 death of Tammy Daybell.
At the time of her death, Tammy Daybell was married to Chad Daybell, Vallow Daybell’s lover. The two were married just two weeks after Tammy Daybell’s passing. Their shotgun marriage raised suspicions about Tammy’s cause of death. Investigators later ruled that Tammy Daybell's cause of death was asphyxiation.
Vallow Daybell was extradited from Hawaii where she was honeymooning with Chad. She was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in Idaho, where she was tried for Tammy’s death.
Prior to Tammy Daybell’s death, both of Vallow Daybell’s children, Joshua "JJ" Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, were reported missing. Their bodies were found in shallow graves on Chad Daybell's Idaho property in June 2020.
On July 31, 2023, Vallow Daybill was convicted of the double homicide and sentenced to life without parole. The murders earned Vallow Daybell the moniker of Doomsday Mom after she claimed killing her children was part of a doomsday plot.
"Jesus Christ knows that no one was murdered in this case," Vallow Daybell told an Idaho courtroom in July. She added that she had spoken to Jesus and that her children and Tammy Daybell were "happy and extremely busy" in heaven.
Vallow Daybell’s attorney in the Idaho cases, Bonneville County Public Defender John Thomas, told the court that Vallow Daybell is a "very misunderstood person" who is "about love.”
In Phoenix, prosecutors have sought Vallow Daybell for years.
“We’ve had an attorney assigned to that case for … about two years who’s been working on it and very familiar with all of the evidence,” Mitchell said at a July press conference.
For now, Vallow Daybell is being held without bail.
Additional reporting by O'Hara Shipe.
