Lori Vallow Went To Burger King After Her Brother Shot Her Former Husband, Court Docs Allege

Newly released court documents allege that Lori Vallow went to Burger King after her brother shot her former husband to death and that her sibling waited 43 minutes to call 911.

Vallow’s brother Alex Cox fatally shot her fourth husband Charles Vallow in 2019 at an Arizona home where Lori and her now-dead children were living following the former married couple's split. The Maricopa County Attorney announced on Tuesday that a grand jury has indicted her on one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for Charles’ death.

Cox had claimed the killing was in self-defense. He was never charged and in fact died that same year; an autopsy blamed his death on natural causes tied to a pulmonary embolism.

A newly released 13-page set of court documents based on the Chandler Police Department's investigation now reveal more details about the shooting, including that Cox waited 43 minutes to call 911 after shooting Charles. In addition, immediately following the shooting Lori allegedly took a trip to Burger King, all while Charles lay dying.

“The GPS data associated with the phone indicated that the phone left the residence at 0749 hours,” police stated. “Lori then went to Burger King to get food for JJ, Walgreens to get flip flops for her” and one of her children.

While Cox initially told police that he shot his brother-in-law twice in the chest after he was "coming at him," the documents reveal that police feel he and his sister had more nefarious intentions.

"The shot into Charles' body as he laid on the floor and the delay in calling 911 would also validate their desire for him to die," the documents state.

The documents also state that by the time of Charles’ death, Lori was already in some sort of relationship with doomsday author Chad Daybell, the man who would become her fifth husband. Charles confronted Lori about her relationship with Chad weeks before his death, threatening to tell Chad’s wife, Tammy. 

Chad is accused of killing Tammy Daybell, who was found dead in the former couple’s home in October of 2019. Police also recently investigated the 2018 death of Lori’s third husband Joseph Ryan but determined that he died of natural causes.

Both Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell are currently facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder in Idaho in connection with the death of Lori’s children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow. Their bodies were discovered buried on Chad’s property in June of 2020.

Chad Daybell has pleaded not guilty to all charges while Lori has been temporarily sent to a mental health facility after she was declared mentally unfit to stand trial back in May.

Lori believed that she was "an exalted goddess" and that she and Chad were "directed to lead 144,000 people in preparing for the end of the world," according to the court documents.

Chad had written about apocalyptic visions in his 2007 doomsday book, “The Great Gathering.” Both he and Lori are accused of adopting an unorthodox set of religious beliefs. Vallow’s friend, Melanie Gibb, told investigators that Vallow had become convinced that many of her family members — including JJ and Tylee — had become “zombies,” according to a probable cause statement previously obtained by Oxygen.com.

The newly released court documents state that "Lori and Chad believed that they had extraordinary abilities."

"Some of these abilities included the power to teleport and cause harm to others, the ability to call up natural disasters, the ability to pray away demonic spirits attached to others and also visionary capabilities," the documents state. "Because of these abilities provided to them, they felt that they were qualified to tell whether someone had a “light” or “dark” scale associated with them. This scale would indicate whether or not they had demonic spirits attached to them.”