The doomsday-obsessed mother charged in connection with the disappearance of her two kids is just trying to keep them safe from “people that are trying to harm them,” her niece claimed in a new interview.
Melani Boudreaux told KPHO-TV in Phoenix that she doesn’t know the whereabouts of Lori Vallow’s missing children — 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow — but expects to see them again.
“I know Lori wouldn’t ever do anything to hurt her kids,” Boudreaux told the station last week.
“I love all of them, and I know she’s doing whatever she can to keep her kids safe.”
Vallow, 46, remains jailed in Idaho on a $1 million bond on two felony counts of child abandonment. She was arrested in January in Hawaii, where she had fled with her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, the author of several religious-themed doomsday novels.
Both he and Vallow have reportedly been involved in Preparing a People, a group that promotes preparing for the biblical end times.
Daybell, 51, who has not been charged in the case, insisted to ABC in March that the kids are safe — despite the fact that they haven’t been seen since September.
Police in Rexburg, Idaho, have said they fear the children’s lives are in danger.
Boudreaux was dragged into the case in February when ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux, accused her in divorce papers of being “involved in a cult where numerous members, adults and children alike have been being killed off like flies.”
He claimed she knew where her missing cousins were. She has denied any involvement in the case and hasn’t been charged.
Vallow’s own ex-husband, Charles Vallow, accused her in divorce papers of believing she is a “god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020.”
He was shot dead by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, during an altercation at Lori’s home in Arizona in July. Cox claimed self-defense and was never charged before being found dead in his home in November, of a blood clot.
Following Charles’ death, Vallow moved to Iowa for the “safety” of her children and because of “those threatening her,” said Boudreaux, without elaborating.
Boudreaux also moved to Idaho in November and said she didn’t see her cousins, but saw some of their belongings.
“Lori says they’re safe and they’re doing everything they can to keep them from the people that are trying to harm them,” Boudreaux said.
“I believe them.”
Boudreaux said her aunt has gone through “abuse and betrayal” and been “let down” by the court system.
Vallow could face up to 14 years in prison for each count of desertion of a child, according to CBS News.