Alex Cox (pictured) allegedly threatened to kill his sister Lori Vallow’s third husband years before he fatally shot her fourth husband
The brother of Lori Vallow, an alleged cult member believed to be involved in the disappearance of her two children, threatened to kill his sister’s third husband years before he fatally shot her fourth husband.
Alex Cox became embroiled in the mystery of his sister’s missing children, seven-year-old Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, after it emerged that he had shot dead her estranged husband and JJ’s adoptive father, Charles Vallow, last July.
Court documents obtained by FOX10 revealed that the July incident was not the first time Alex had gotten in a violent altercation with one of Lori’s husbands.
A warrant for Alex’s arrest in 2007 in Travis County, Texas, alleges that he had threatened to kill Lori’s ex-husband, Joseph Ryan.
The warrant states that Lori and Joseph were exchanging custody of their daughter Tylee when Alex followed the father into the parking lot to talk.
Alex then allegedly shocked Joseph with a taser and threatened to kill him before the father escaped.
The following year, Alex pleaded guilty to a second-degree aggravated assault charge and served three months in jail.
Twelve years after the incident with Joseph – who died of an apparent heart attack aged 59 in 2018 – Alex killed Lori’s next husband, Charles, in a similar custody exchange.
Charles had gone to Lori’s home in Chandler, Arizona, to pick up there adoptive son JJ – who has autism – when the couple got in an argument.
Alex intervened and ultimately shot Charles in the chest. Police initially determined that he acted in self defense – but the case was reopened amid a multi-state search for JJ and Tylee, who have been missing since September.
Cox himself died aged 51 on December 12 in Gilbert, Arizona. His death is now under investigation as police wait for an autopsy to determine the cause, which could take up to three months.
Court documents revealed that Alex had threatened to kill Lori’s previous husband, Joseph Ryan (pictured) in 2007
Alex fatally shot his sister Lori’s estranged husband Charles Vallow (above together) last July
Tylee Ryan, 17, (left) and Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow, seven, (right) have not been seen or heard from since September. Police in Rexburg, Idaho, only realized they were missing two days before Thanksgiving when they were asked to conduct a welfare check by relatives
Tylee is seen in an undated photo with her father Joseph Ryan, who died of an apparent heart attack in 2018
JJ and Tylee were last seen in Rexburg, Idaho, on September 23 but were never reported missing by their mother.
Authorities began searching for the children in late November after performing a welfare check ordered by concerned relatives who said they hadn’t spoken to JJ in months.
Investigators say Lori and the man she married in earlier that month, Chad Daybell, fled their Idaho home the day after the welfare check.
They claim Lori and Chad have repeatedly lied about where JJ and Tylee are and have not cooperated with the investigation.
The couple are considered persons of interest in the children’s disappearance after investigators said they believe Lori knows where her children are or what happened to them.
The search for JJ and Tylee uncovered a web of mysterious deaths surrounding Lori and Chad that has baffled investigators and captivated the country for weeks.
The first death is that of Charles Vallow, Lori’s estranged husband.
The second was Tammy Daybell – Chad’s previous wife. Tammy was found dead at the couple’s home in Salem, Idaho, on October 19.
An obituary stated that Tammy passed away in her sleep. Chad reportedly declined an autopsy and her death was ruled to be from natural causes.
Investigators reopened the case after learning that JJ and Tylee were missing, as their mother had married Chad just two weeks after Tammy died. They believe the two cases could be linked.
Tammy’s body was exhumed on December 11. Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries told DailyMail.com on Monday investigators believe she may have been poisoned.
On December 12, Lori’s brother Alex turned up dead.
Lori Vallow (left) is currently on the run from police with her new husband Chad Daybell (right), both of whom are persons of interest in the disappearance of her children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow. The pair are believed to be members of a dangerous religious cult obsessed with the end of times
Rexburg police say Chad and Lori have repeatedly lied about where their children are and aren’t cooperating with the investigation. Joshua is pictured left and Tylee is pictured right
Chad’s then-wife Tammy Daybell (pictured together) was found dead under mysterious circumstances in October, just two weeks before he married Lori
Chad Daybell’s previous wife, Tammy Daybell, died at their home in Rexburg, Idaho, in October and was buried in Springville, Utah. Chad’s new wife, Lori, was also widowed in 2019 when her husband, Charles Vallow, was shot dead by her brother, Alex Cox, in July in Chandler, Arizona
The string of mysterious deaths have left other relatives in fear for their lives as they suspect Lori and Chad’s alleged links to a doomsday cult may be responsible.
Family members have said that Lori turned into a ‘monster’ after she met Chad, the author of 25 books about the end of the world, and joined a cult called Preparing a People with him around 19 months ago.
Lori was married to Charles at the time that she allegedly joined the cult. The couple separated months later and Charles filed a petition for divorce and for custody of JJ in February 2019.
In court documents, Charles claimed that Lori – referred to as ‘mother’ – had recently become ‘infatuated, at times obsessive, about near death experiences and spiritual visions’.
‘Mother has told Father [Charles] that she is sealed [eternally married] to the ancient Book of Mormon prophet Moroni and that she has lived numerous lives on numerous planets prior to this current life,’ the documents state.
‘Mother also informed Father that she is a translated being who cannot taste death sent by God to lead the 144,000 into the Millennium.
‘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.’
Charles also claimed in the petition that Lori had threatened to kill him.
During a January 29 phone conversation, Lori allegedly told Charles 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 if Father [Charles] got in her way of her mission she would murder him’, the documents state.
Attorneys who represented Charles during the divorce proceedings recently revealed that their client had predicted either Lori or her brother Alex would kill him.
Speaking to FOX10 on Wednesday, lawyer Steven Ellsworth claimed that Charles told him: ‘I’m afraid I’m gonna be killed, and I know who’s gonna do it.
‘I’m telling you, Steve, so that if something happens to me, I wanna make sure you let everyone know that something happens, I’m killed, that it’s my wife Lori and her brother, Alex Cox.’
Five months later, Charles’ prediction came true when Alex killed him.
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Last week DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Lori and Alex had engaged in a knock-down, drag-out fight in the middle of the street about a year ago in the Phoenix suburb of Sun Tan Valley.
Neighbor Donny Self said the fight was so bad he and other neighbors were close to calling the police on the warring siblings.
‘I heard this huge commotion,’ Self told DailyMail.com. ‘People were coming out in the street to watch what was going on.
‘I thought they must be husband and wife because it was the sort of fight you don’t normally have with your sister. She was screaming at him accusing him of bringing disgrace on their family.’
After it was over, Lori left the house she had been sharing with her brother and never came back, Self said.
‘I joked with my wife that I thought he might have killed her after their argument,’ he recalled.
Self said Cox, who had a history of violent assaults, was very unfriendly and tried to avoid contact with his neighbors on the quiet residential street.
‘One day I was doing some yard work in the front and he drove his Ford pickup into the front. I waved and tried to say hello, but he ignored me and just went inside.’
Self said that at one point Cox was away from the four-bedroom single story home for some six weeks — and left the garage door open for the entire time.
‘It’s a good job we are a quiet law-abiding community because he had a lot of stuff in there and none of it got stolen.’
When he returned to the home — which is now empty and up for rent — he moved everything out of the garage so he could fit the truck in.
‘I think he just wanted to get straight into the house without having to see any of his neighbors,’ said Self.
Alex was found dead in his new home in Gilbert on December 12 – 10 days after he ran off to Las Vegas to marry Zulema Pastenes, 55, on December 2.
His widow did not return calls from DailyMail.com and did not come to the door at her home in Gilbert.
However, her son confirmed she and Cox had married shortly before his death.