‘Doomsday’ mum to face charges of missing children following arrest in Hawaii

An Idaho woman who is allegedly part of a "doomsday cult" will face charges for the disappearance of her children after being extradited back to her home state in Idaho.

Lori Vallow faces several charges surrounding the disappearance of her two children, 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow.

Charges include two counts of felony abandonment in the disappearance of the children, who went missing in September 2019.

“This is the first step in the courthouse in Idaho which would trigger a cascading series of events in the legal process,” said CBS News Legal Analyst Rikki Klieman.

Ms Vallow is being held on $5m (£3.8m) bail according to Kauai police, after being arrested on a warrant issued in Idaho, according to CBS.

Divorce documents filed by Ms Vallow's late estranged husband before his death allegedly said that Ms Vallow was part of a cult that promotes preparedness for a biblical apocalypse.

Ms Vallow reportedly believes she is “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020”.

Former Idaho attorney general David Leroy spoke to CBS about how highly unusual the case is.

“This is a very atypical defendant and a very unusual case,” he said.

“The implication of a parent who will not cooperate in disclosing their location ... is that something very untoward has happened to these children.”

An investigation into the missing children started after a welfare check by police in November.

JJ's grandmother, Kay Woodcock, told CBS News that she believes Ms Vallow will “be held accountable”.

In ​February, Ms Vallows husband Chad Daybell, who was found in Hawaii with the mother, refused to answer questions from a reporter on the whereabouts of his step-children.

The 47-year-old and Mr Daybell left Idaho for Hawaii where she was arrested last month. However, police have said that the children’s whereabouts will not be determined in light of the absconsion.

“The children were last seen in Idaho and there is no indication that they are on Kauai,” police said in a statement, according to CBS.

There has been no sign of life of the children since September. A photo on Ms Vallow’s iCloud account showed Tylee Ryan visiting Yellowstone National Park. Investigators are focusing on the nature reserve where they say the children visited on 8 September last year.

The FBI asked other people who had visited Yellowstone to submit photos or videos that might help. Ms Vallow, the children and their uncle Alex Cox were travelling in a silver ford F-150 pick-up truck, the agency said.

Ms Vallow's former husband died under suspicious circumstances and it is thought the deaths could be linked to a wider narrative.

CBS reported that Mr Vallow was shot by his brother in law, Alex Cox, who then died of unknown causes in December.

“The government may want to use this case in order to get them to fess up some information about all of those other suspicious deaths,” Ms Klieman said.

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