Lori Vallow, the mother of two Idaho children who have vanished, allegedly threatened to kill her estranged husband five months before he was murdered, according to divorce documents.
Charles Vallow said in the papers that Lori was obsessed with doomsday and near-death scenarios and told him in January that she was a “translated being who cannot taste death sent by god to lead the 144,000 into the Millennium.”
By July, Charles Vallow was dead—allegedly shot by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, who himself died of unknown causes on Dec. 12. A few months later, Lori married Chad Daybell, a doomsday writer whose own wife had died weeks earlier.
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The newlyweds left Idaho, police said, after investigators began inquiring about the whereabouts of Lori’s minor children, 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and adopted 7-year-old Joshua “J.J.” Vallow.
The children have not been seen since October and Rexburg, Idaho, police said last week they are believed to be in serious danger. Daybell and Vallow are not cooperating with police and the FBI.
According to local news outlets that obtained the divorce papers, Charles Vallow filed a divorce petition last February seeking sole custody of J.J. and painting a disturbing portrait of Lori, referred to as “mother” in the documents.
“Mother believes that she is receiving spiritual revelations and visions to help her gather and prepare those chosen to live in the New Jerusalem after the Great War as prophesied in the Book of Revelations,” the petition read.
Lori allegedly told Charles that if he got in the way “of her mission she would murder him” and that she “had an angel there to help her dispose of the body.”
Charles' sister, Kay Woodcock, says she talked to her brother throughout this time and described him as “fearful.”
“He was sleeping with one eye open,” Woodcock told NBC affiliate 12 News. “People I've spoken with said she would just be doing something and say, ‘Well, Charles just has to go.’”
Charles obtained an order of protection and unsuccessfully tried to get authorities to put a 72-hour mental health hold on Lori—who had allegedly cleaned $35,000 out of their bank account.
Charles’ older son helped him move from Chandler, Arizona, to Texas. In July, he went back to Arizona to pick up J.J. and things turned ugly. Cox allegedly shot him dead in what police deemed a case of self-defense.
The older son told Fox 10 that his dad would never have gotten violent.
“I knew my dad was the most passive person. He hated arguing with people. He’d never been in a fight, he was not an aggressive person in any way. I don’t believe it at all,” he told the TV station.
The deaths of both Cox and Charles Vallow are under investigation—along with the death of Chad Daybell’s first wife, Tammy.
After she was found dead at their Idaho home in July, he declined an autopsy and the cause of death was listed as natural. Then he married Lori, whom he apparently met through a doomsday site called Preparing a People.
After J.J. and Tylee were reported missing by extended family, authorities exhumed Tammy’s body. The results of the autopsy have not yet been made public, but police said Friday that they had developed probable cause to search the Daybell home for evidence related to her death and the disappearance of the kids.
“I’m terrified for JJ. I’m terrified for Tylee,” Charles’ older son told Fox 10. “I’m terrified for everyone surrounding them and their safety. I’m terrified for my family’s safety.”
