Civil Filing Alleges Lori Vallow’s Niece Knows Where Missing Children Are

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – As the investigation into two missing Idaho children continued Monday, a newly-obtained civil court filing suggested that somebody else beyond Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell knows where the kids are.

According to a document filed in another custodial matter based in Arizona, an ex-husband of Vallow’s niece, Melani Boudreaux, claimed Boudreaux has knowledge of the case involving 7-year-old JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan.

“(Boudreaux’s) knowledge of the whereabouts of her aunt’s two missing children and her unwillingness to cooperate with law enforcement in finding those children, is daunting,” an attorney for the ex-husband, Brandon Boudreau, wrote. “(Boudreaux’s) current husband has told law enforcement something to the effect that (Boudreaux) says sometimes children are full of light and then just like that they go dark.”

The ex-husband, referred to as “father” in the court papers, claimed Melani Boudreaux, or “mother,” is part of a “doomsday cult.”

“Mother is involved in a cult where numerous members, adults and children alike, have been…killed off like flies,” the document stated.

According to a probable cause statement that was part of charges filed against Lori Vallow last week, someone armed with a rifle and a silencer traveling in a Jeep Wrangler shot at Brandon Boudreaux in Arizona last October.

The man recognized the vehicle as one previously driven by Ryan, the Vallow document stated.

It was seized as officers executed a search warrant in Rexburg, Idaho, in November, investigators noted.

Boudreaux had been living next door to Vallow in Rexburg before Vallow traveled to Hawaii with Daybell.

“(Boudreaux’s) new husband has even provided statements to law enforcement that (Boudreaux) told him shortly after their marriage that she conspired with her uncle to kill (Brandon Boudreaux),” the civil filing stated.

What bearing the claims in the civil filing have on the ongoing criminal investigation into the Vallow children’s disappearance remained unclear.

Kent Morgan, a former longtime prosecutor in Salt Lake County turned defense attorney and legal analyst, said the details were less likely to impact the investigation than Lori Vallow’s extradition.

“The civil cases are certainly going to have some effect in getting the story behind what happened here,” Morgan said. “The resolution of this case is going to follow the extradition and return of the defendant to the state of Idaho.”

Vallow is scheduled to appear at an extradition hearing on Mar. 2.