Mother Of Missing Idaho Children Apparently Ignores Deadline To Bring Them In To Authorities

An Idaho mother whose two children haven’t been seen for months has missed her deadline to bring them in to the authorities.

Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, from Rexburg, Idaho, haven't been seen since September, police have previously said. Authorities have stated that the children’s mother, Lori Vallow Daybell, 46, and her new husband, 51-year-old Chad Daybell, have refused to cooperate with the authorities’ investigation into the children’s disappearance, which began after concerned relatives reported the children missing in late November, according to NBC News.

In the midst of the investigation, the couple fled the state, but on Saturday, authorities located the pair in Kauai, Hawaii, Fox 10 Phoenix reports. However, the children were still not with them — and there was no sign the children were ever in Hawaii, police said — prompting authorities to serve the mother with a court order instructing her to bring the children to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in Rexburg or to the Rexburg Police Department within five days, Rexburg police said last week.

The deadline came and went on Thursday, and when Lori Vallow Daybell failed to appear with her children, the kids' grandparents held a press conference, according to the Rexburg Standard Journal.

“Lori hasn’t come to Rexburg, the kids haven’t been delivered. It’s 5 o’clock and it’s the deadline for the court order,” their grandmother, Kay Woodcock, said.

Police previously said that failure to produce the children by the established deadline would “subject Lori Vallow to civil or criminal contempt of court.”

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Woodcock said she doesn't know what the next step will be; she also described Lori as a “monster,” according to the outlet.

Police said in a news release issued last month that Lori Vallow Daybell has “completely refused” to aid in the investigation, and they “strongly believe” that Joshua and Tylee “are in danger.”

“We know that the children are not with Lori and Chad Daybell and we also have information indicating that Lori knows either the location of the children or what has happened to them. Despite having this knowledge, she has refused to work with law enforcement to help us resolve this matter,” police said. “It is astonishing that rather than work with law enforcement to help us locate her own children, Lori Vallow has chosen instead to leave the state with her new husband.”

Police also said that the Daybells lied to others about the children in the past, telling one witness that Tylee had died a year ago, and also claiming that Lori had no children. The couple also allegedly stated that Joshua was staying with a friend in Arizona, but that was proven to be false, according to police.

The couple’s history has come under intense scrutiny. Chad Daybell was previously married to 49-year-old Tammy Daybell; she died of apparent natural causes in October, and Chad and Lori wed within weeks, NBC News reports. However, authorities have since exhumed Tammy Daybell’s remains for a second look, according to the outlet.

Lori Vallow Daybell’s previous husband, Charles Vallow, also died, having been fatally shot by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, during an altercation in July, NBC News reports. No charges were filed in the case, and Cox died months later, in December.

Before Charles Vallows’ death, he filed court documents over the summer suggesting that he feared for the children’s safety due to their mother’s religious beliefs, according to Salt Lake City’s Fox 13.

Lori Vallow Daybell had “become infatuated at times obsessive about near death experiences and spiritual visions,” read court documents obtained by the outlet. The filing goes on to claim that she believes that she was “a God assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020” and that she threatened during a phone conversation with Charles Vallow to kill him if he “got in the way of her mission.”