‘Cult’ mom Lori Vallow was filmed stepping off the plane in Idaho after being extradited from Hawaii to face charges over her missing children.
Lori arrived at the Boise Airport just before 2.30pm local time Thursday and was escorted to a waiting SUV on the tarmac by two plain-clothes law enforcement officers, as seen in video from KTVB.
The mother was then transported to Madison County Jail in Rexburg.
She is scheduled to appear in court on Friday to face charges of desertion and child abandonment, resisting and/or obstructing an officer, solicitation and contempt of court.
The charges stem from the disappearance of her children, seven-year-old Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, who were last seen in Idaho in September.
Authorities say there is reason to believe the children are in danger, but Lori and her new husband Chad Daybell have refused to tell investigators where they are.
On Thursday, the FBI in Salt Lake City made a public plea for information about a trip Lori took with the kids to Yellowstone before they vanished.
They are asking that anyone who was in the park on September 8 last year and has photos of the children or family to submit them to the authorities.
Lori Vallow is seen stepping off a plane in Idaho on Thursday after being extradited from Hawaii to face charges over her missing children
Lori arrived at the Boise Airport just before 2.30pm local time Thursday and was escorted to a waiting SUV on the tarmac by two plain-clothes law enforcement officers
Lori began her journey back to Idaho on Wednesday night. She is seen being escorted through Lihue Airport in handcuffs before the flight on an Idaho State Police-owned plane
Seven-year-old Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow (left) and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan (right) have not been seen since September. Police in the city of Rexburg, Idaho, have said they ‘strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee’s lives are in danger’
Lori briefly appeared before a Kauai judge on Wednesday night but pleaded the fifth, refusing to speak for fear of incriminating herself.
She was later photographed arriving back at the jail where she’d been held for two weeks since her February 20 arrest.
At 10pm that night she was photographed again at Lihue Airport to begin her journey to Idaho.
She was wearing a souvenir hoodie from the island, leggings and sneakers.
Chad packed up the couple’s Hawaii apartment last week and returned to Idaho, where he is expected to attend Lori’s hearing Friday.
The prolific doomsday author opened up last Thursday, when he was approached by ABC News reporters at Lihue Airport.
‘The kids are safe,’ Chad said minutes before he boarded a flight back to Rexburg. He declined to go into any further detail about where the children are.
Lori briefly appeared before a Kauai judge on Wednesday night (pictured) but pleaded the fifth, refusing to speak for fear of incriminating herself. The mother’s toenails were painted blue and her ankles were shackled
She was later seen arriving back at the jail where she’d been held since her February 20 arrest
At 10pm Wednesday Lori was photographed at Lihue Airport as she began her journey to Idaho
Lori was escorted through the airport by two law enforcement officers who traveled with her to Idaho. She was wearing handcuffs and a chain around her waist
JJ and Tylee were last seen in Idaho over five months ago but were never reported missing by their mother.
Lori and Chad, whom she married in early November, fled their home in Rexburg later that month when police began asking questions about her children’s whereabouts.
Authorities tracked the couple down in Princeville, Hawaii, and served Lori with a court order on January 25 requiring her to physically produce the children to authorities in Idaho within five days.
Lori failed to meet the deadline, prompting her arrest on February 20.
Rexburg police have accused Lori of repeatedly lying about where JJ and Tylee are and refusing to cooperate with investigators conducting a multi-state search.
They’ve said they ‘strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee’s lives are in danger’ and that Lori knows what happened to the kids.
On Thursday, the FBI in Salt Lake City made a public plea for information about a trip Lori took with the kids to Yellowstone on September 8, just before they vanished. They released two photos taken that day – one of Tylee holding JJ and another of Lori and JJ
The FBI also released this image of the car the family used for their trip to Yellowstone. They are asking that anyone who was in the park on September 8 last year and has photos of the children or family to submit them to the authorities
JJ was last seen at his elementary school in Rexburg on September 23, a day before his mother withdrew him and told administrators she would be homeschooling him.
Doorbell camera footage recorded at a neighbor’s house appeared to show JJ playing in his front yard on September 17.
Tylee was last seen on September 8 at Yellowstone National Park on a day trip with her mother, uncle and JJ.
Police recovered a photo of Tylee in the park from Lori’s iCloud account and said there’s been no sign of the 17-year-old since.
Detectives are reportedly preparing to search Yellowstone as soon as the snow melts, which could not happen until May or June.
The case captured nationwide attention with the revelations that police are also investigating three mysterious deaths linked to Lori and Chad, as well as family members’ claims that the couple are members of a dangerous doomsday cult.
The first death is that of Lori’s estranged husband Charles Vallow, who was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox in Arizona on July 10.
Charles and Lori had gotten into an argument when the father came to pick up JJ at the mother’s home in Chandler.
Lori’s brother intervened and fatally shot Charles.
Police initially determined that he acted in self defense – but the case was reopened amid the multi-state search for JJ and Tylee, who had moved to Idaho, where Chad lived, with their mother in August.
The second mysterious death was Tammy Daybell – Chad’s previous wife – who was found dead at the couple’s home in Salem, Idaho, on October 19.
An obituary stated that Tammy passed away in her sleep and her cause of death was ruled as natural after Chad reportedly declined an autopsy.
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 and the autopsy results have not yet been released.
On December 12, Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, was found dead in Gilbert, Arizona.
The 51-year-old’s death is now under investigation as police wait for an autopsy to determine the cause.
Lori’s estranged husband Charles Vallow (pictured together) was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox in Arizona on July 11
Chad’s wife Tammy Daybell (pictured together) was found dead under mysterious circumstances in October, just two weeks before he married Lori
Lori’s brother Alex Cox (pictured) died under mysterious circumstances on December 12
A troubling portrait of Lori and Chad has emerged from accounts from family members who claim the couple are members of a dangerous cult obsessed with the end of the world.
Kay Woodcock – the sister of Charles Vallow who is also JJ’s grandmother – issued a statement in December in which she described how Lori turned into a ‘monster’ after she met Chad in 2017.
Chad, 51, is a prolific author of 25 books focusing on doomsday scenarios and near-death experiences. He is what’s known as a ‘prepper’ – someone who is getting ready for the End of Times – and was a member of a group called Preparing a People.
Late last year DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Chad had been kicked out of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints months earlier after he declared himself a prophet.
Chad packed up the couple’s Hawaii apartment last week and returned to Idaho, where he is expected to attend Lori’s hearing Friday. He is seen outside the Kauai Community Correctional Center after visitng Lori there on February 25
Lori reportedly began reading Chad’s writing while she was living in Hawaii with Charles, JJ and Tylee between 2014 and 2017.
It’s unclear how or when exactly Lori and Chad met, but family members say it was sometime around June 2017.
The pair made their first appearance together in December 2018 on a podcast for Preparing a People.
Lori and Charles’ marriage deteriorated rapidly as she became more and more involved with Preparing a People, and he filed for divorce and for custody of JJ in February 2019.
In court documents, Charles claimed that Lori had recently become ‘infatuated, at times obsessive, about near death experiences and spiritual visions’.
‘Mother [Lori] 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 if he got in the way of her mission.