The discovery of the bodies of Lori Vallow’s children may provide ‘proof’ that she murdered her ex-husband Charles, his previous wife has claimed.
Charles Vallow was killed in July 2019 in a shooting in Arizona which Lori’s brother Alex Cox admitted to carrying out but claimed was in self-defense.
Before his death, Charles was estranged from Lori and described her as a cult believer who claimed to be a god with 144,000 followers.
Lori’s two children JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan were last seen in September and their bodies were found in rural Idaho this week, in a tangled case which involves investigations into five deaths.
Charles’s previous wife Kimberly Friedmutter told The Sun that the grim discovery ‘confirms a hundred per cent’ that Charles Vallow was murdered.
Kimberly Friedmutter (pictured), the ex-wife of Charles Vallow who died last year, claims that the discovery of Lori Vallow’s children’s bodies is a clue to the circumstances of his death
Charles Vallow (pictured left) was killed in July 2019 after becoming estranged from Lori Vallow (right) and describing her as having cult-like beliefs
‘I was absolutely devastated when I saw the news that they had found remains of the children,’ Friedmutter said.
‘It kills the hope that there was any chance of all of this being a terrible mistake. It has really now become very scary and very evil and very wrong.’
Friedmutter, who married Charles Vallow in 1985, said she felt some regrets about divorcing him because he might still be alive if she had not.
The couple separated after Friedmutter found that Charles had cheated on her. He later married Lori.
Friedmutter, who works as a hypnotherapist for a string of celebrities and billionaires, said: ‘There wouldn’t have been other wives and there wouldn’t have been Lori if I had stayed with him, this wouldn’t even ever have occurred.’
However, she added that ‘there was no question for me that I needed to move on at that point’ after she discovered his infidelity.
Friedmutter’s comments are the latest twist in the case after the bodies of seven-year-old JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan were found in a field in Idaho this week.
Officials have yet to confirm their identities, but relatives have released a statement saying the bodies were those of JJ and Tylee.
Lori Vallow’s latest husband, Chad Daybell, has since been charged with concealing or destroying human remains.
A neighbor’s tip about large bonfires on Chad Daybell’s property may have led police to discover the bodies in the backyard, it emerged yesterday.
Lori is already facing charges of child abandonment, obstructing an investigation, contempt of court and soliciting a crime. She denies these.
Lori’s two children JJ Vallow (pictured left) and Tylee Ryan (right) were last seen in September and their bodies were found in rural Idaho this week
A neighbor’s tip about large bonfires on Chad Daybell’s property may have led police to discover the bodies of ‘cult’ mom Lori Vallow’s children in an Idaho backyard (pictured)
Both Lori and Chad Daybell are currently in jail on a $1million bond.
Tylee was last seen in early September headed into Yellowstone National Park with her mom and other family for a day trip, and JJ was last seen by school officials later that month.
JJ’s grandparents had raised the alarm when their once-regular phone calls dried up and Lori refused to tell them why the boy was always unavailable.
When officers stopped by to question Lori, they said she and Chad had lied about the children’s whereabouts.
When investigators returned the next day to follow up, the Daybells were gone.
Police tracked Lori and Chad down in Princeville, Hawaii, in late January and served the mother with a court order requiring her to physically produce the children to authorities in Idaho by January 30.
Lori failed to meet the deadline, prompting her arrest and extradition to Idaho, where she is currently being held at Madison County Jail.
Lori and the children had moved to Idaho last year after the death of her ex-husband Charles Vallow.
Charles had filed for divorce from Lori before his death, saying in court documents that he feared being killed by her.
He said Lori had developed cult-like beliefs and claimed to be ‘a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020.’
Chad’s wife Tammy Daybell (pictured together left) was found dead at their home in Idaho last October. Chad married Lori less than two months after her children vanished. The couple are seen right during their wedding on the beach in Kauai
The family was living in a Phoenix suburb in July 2019 when Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed Vallow.
Cox asserted that the shooting was in self-defense after Vallow came at him with a baseball bat.
Police investigated but the case had not gone far before Cox himself died of a blood clot in his lung in December 2019.
Lori took her children with her and moved to Idaho, where Chad Daybell lived. The pair had previously taken part in podcasts about the Biblical end times.
Chad ran a small publishing company, putting out books about apocalyptic scenarios loosely based on the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
At the time, Chad was married to Tammy Daybell, a 49-year-old school librarian who helped him run the publishing company.
Tammy Daybell died in October, her obituary saying she passed away in her sleep of natural causes. The family declined an autopsy before she was buried in Utah.
About two weeks later, Chad Daybell married Lori Vallow.
The quick marriage drew the suspicion of authorities, who had Tammy Daybell’s body exhumed for an investigation. The results of that autopsy have not yet been released.