Lori Vallow’s neighbors share footage showing child behaving erratically before disappearance

REXBURG, Idaho – Two new videos and an image from Lori Vallow’s Idaho neighbors are providing a glimpse into the days surrounding the disappearance of 7-year-old JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan.

KSL TV spoke with multiple neighbors around the Rexburg, Idaho, townhome where Lori Vallow lived with JJ Vallow and Ryan. The townhome is located near 565 Pioneer Road.

Neighbors and detectives said Lori arrived in early September, on the first or the second.

The neighbors declined an on-camera interview and asked to remain anonymous, citing safety concerns for their families, but agreed to share the picture and videos. They allowed KSL TV to share the following information.

The picture and two videos show the children shortly before their disappearances and their mother a month after JJ Vallow was last seen.

Neighbors said he was often outside playing but they said they only saw Ryan on a few occasions. Neighbors said they also had few interactions with Lori Vallow, who they said kept to herself a lot. On one occasion neighbors said that Vallow told them her husband had recently died and she moved to Rexburg so her daughter could go to school.

Vallow’s charging documents also indicated she made a similar statement about Ryan to a friend.

“We have been informed that Lori told Melanie Gibb that T.R. was attending classes at BYU-Idaho,” detectives said. “However, a records check at BYU-I indicates that T.R. was never enrolled at BYU-Idaho or any other school affiliated with BYU.”

A picture, which a neighbor said was taken on Sept. 6, allegedly shows Ryan and JJ Vallow, who’s sitting on the ground wearing a blue shirt, and another child in front of the Rexburg townhouse where they lived. The neighbor said they took the picture because they thought it was uncommon that the children “dumped” a basket full of toys, consisting of mostly “stuffed plush types,” in a large puddle of water on the grass.

The neighbor provided the picture and a screenshot of the picture shared in a Sept. 6 text message.

Just two days later, Lori Vallow’s charging documents indicate Ryan was last seen in two images taken at Yellowstone National Park. Detectives said Ryan was on a day trip with her mother, JJ Vallow and Lori Vallow’s oldest brother, Alex Cox. Cox shot and killed Vallow’s late husband, Charles Vallow, in July 2019 during an altercation at the Chandler, Arizona, home where Lori Vallow and the children were living.

Another neighbor shared two videos. The first one is time-stamped Sept. 17 and shows JJ Vallow and another child running in the grassy area in front of the townhomes. The video is also referenced in Lori Vallow’s charging documents, and it may be one of the last recorded sightings before JJ Vallow’s disappearance.

Neighbors said the 7-year-old boy spent long periods of time outside without supervision. They also said they kept the video recording because they were concerned about his behavior, saying he seemed irritable and angered easily.

Neighbors said Vallow didn’t inform them about JJ Vallow being autistic and she told at least two neighbors he was her “niece’s drug baby,” after they confronted her about his behavior and lack of adult supervision when he played outside with other children.

Kay Vallow Woodcock, JJ Vallow’s biological grandmother, told KSL TV he was addicted to drugs when he was born. Woodcock said Vallow’s biological mother, who dated her son, used drugs during her pregnancy. Before his first birthday, Vallow was adopted by Woodcock’s brother, Charles Vallow, and his wife Lori Vallow.

“That is just chilling to me,” Woodcock said. “That is her adoptive son and for her not to even acknowledge him in that way, I can’t wrap my mind around it and it just scares the hell out of me.”

The Woodcocks spoke with KSL TV Sunday from their Louisiana home and said JJ Vallow’s irritable behavior was a troubling sign. They fear he was acting up because he wasn’t getting his medication.

“I have never seen him out of control that way, ever, and there was no doubt she was withholding his medication for him to act that way,” Larry Woodcock said.

“She had a bottle of his medicine,” Kay Vallow Woodcock said. “Yeah, she has a bottle of his risperidone, (it) is what they found there.”

Neighbors said in the October video, JJ Vallow yells, “Get the hell out of here!” before running into his townhome with the little boy.

The video faintly captured the other boy’s reply, “don’t say that word, that’s a bad word.”

Once inside the townhouse, what appears to be a woman’s voice was heard saying, “don’t say that word. I mean it, don’t say that word.”

JJ Vallow was last seen in school six days later, on Sept. 23.

Court documents also indicated detectives found a bottle of Risperidone with Vallow’s name on the label during a search warrant executed at her townhouse on Nov. 27.

JJ Vallow had been diagnosed as autistic. Risperidone, according to court documents, “is a tranquilizer prescribed to treat irritability caused by autism.”

According to detectives, the bottle still had 17 pills left. They said it was filled in Arizona in Jan. 2019 but has not been filled since.

“We have verified through the Idaho State Pharmacy Board that said prescription has not been filled in Idaho,” they said.

JJ Vallow’s grandparents had previously expressed to KSL TV concerns over his well-being and specifically fears that he was not being given his medication as prescribed.

“It scares me that she wasn’t tending to him,” Woodcock told KSL TV in January. “All this change for this little boy with autism, consistency is key for him.”

Just over a month after JJ Vallow was last seen, a second Ring camera video captured an interaction between Lori Vallow and an unidentified woman on Oct. 29. The two women were heard laughing as the unidentified woman runs toward Vallow’s front door where she was standing. Neighbors said there was an igloo-type snow fort in the yard and the unidentified woman was looking inside it.

Lori's neighbors say this video allegedly shows #LoriVallow & an unidentified woman on Oct. 29. You can hear both women laughing as neighbors say the woman peaks into an igloo then runs to the doorstep where Lori is standing. Kids had been missing for a month. More at 10 @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/OLCCsv10Ad

— Garna Mejia (@GarnaMejiaKSL) February 23, 2020

The neighbor who shared that video with KSL TV said detectives visited her sometime after a welfare check on the children on Nov. 27. She said detectives asked if her Ring camera had captured any images of Lori Vallow and the children. The neighbor scrolled through her log but said it auto-deletes every 60 days. She said she was only able to recover the video from Oct. 29.

Vallow was arrested in Princeville, Hawaii, on Thursday, where she has been living with her new husband 51-year-old Chad Daybell since Dec. 1.

Madison County, Idaho, prosecutors have charged Vallow with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of a child. Each charge carries a possible sentence of up to 14 years. Vallow’s attorney in Hawaii said she plans to fight extradition back to Idaho.

Vallow is currently awaiting her next extradition hearing, which will take place on March 2.