LĪHU‘E, KAUA‘I — Lori Vallow, the mother of two missing Idaho children with ties to Arizona, has been arrested in Hawaii on a $5 million warrant.
The warrant was issued by Madison County, Idaho after the 47-year-old "failed to comply with a court order to produce her children before authorities on Jan. 30 in Madison County," the Kaua'i Police Department said in a Thursday Facebook post.
Vallow's two children -- 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, who have been missing since September 2019 -- had lived in Gilbert with their mother before moving to Idaho one month before they went missing.
–Kaua‘i police arrest Lori Vallow on $5 million warrant from Idaho– pic.twitter.com/n2ghadtfal
— Kaua'i Police Department (@kauaipd) February 21, 2020
Investigators have said they believe that Vallow either knows the location of the children or what happened to them.
Vallow has been booked into jail on two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime, and contempt of court. She is being held on a $5 million bond within the Kaua'i Police Department Detention Facility. The charges are filed by the Madison County Prosecutor's Office in Rexsburg, Idaho.
According to Madison County Prosecuting Attorney, Rob H. Wood, Vallow faces the maximum sentence on each count of desertion of a child is 14 years in prison per child.
"Vallow will now attend a hearing on Kaua‘i – date is yet to be determined – where she will have an opportunity to waive or fight her extradition to Idaho," KPD wrote. "Once in Idaho, she will face her criminal charges."
Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, are suspected of being behind the disappearance of the two children, who were reported missing by extended family members in November 2019.
Her husband, Daybell, has not been taken into custody.
Officials in Rexburg, Idaho have said they think the children's "lives are in danger" and have also lambasted Vallow, the adopted mother of Joshua and biological mother of Tylee, for running off with her new husband in the wake of the disappearances.
Lori and Chad were married four months after Lori's former husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed by her brother Alex Cox in Chandler. In December, Cox was found unresponsive in Gilbert. Police are awaiting autopsy results on the Cox case, and both deaths remain under investigation.
The Fremont County Sheriff's Department in Idaho is also investigating the death of Chad's former wife Tammy Daybell, who died in October. Her death was initially thought to be natural, but a subsequent investigation determined it may have been suspicious and her remains were exhumed in late December.
