Who is Alex Cox?
Apr 3, 2023, 9:00 AM | Updated: Apr 1, 2024, 12:02 pm
Alex Cox is the late brother of Lori Vallow Daybell. She is charged with murder in the deaths of JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
On July 2019, Cox fatally shot Lori Vallow’s fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in what he told authorities was an act of self-defense, but was later ruled a homicide. He also pleaded guilty to an aggravated assault charge against Tylee’s father Joseph Ryan, threatened to kill him and spent 90 days in jail.
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Alex Cox and Lori Cox (Vallow Daybell) were close siblings. A woman “Debbie” who said she was briefly married to Cox, told Chandler, Arizona, police there was an inappropriate relationship between the pair. She divorced Cox soon after they were married.
At the end of August, Cox went to Rexburg, Idaho, with Vallow Daybell, Tylee, JJ, and Vallow Daybell’s niece, Melani Boudreaux.
On Sept. 8, 2019, Cox was with Vallow Daybell, Tylee and JJ for a visit to Yellowstone National Park, the last time and place Tylee was seen alive.
The next day, Cox’s phone records show that he was on Chad Daybell’s property near Rexburg, Idaho, where police would find Tylee’s remains on June 9, 2020. On that day, Chad Daybell texted Tammy Daybell claiming he shot a raccoon and buried it in their pet cemetery.
On Oct. 1, Lori rented a 10×10 storage unit from Self Storage Plus in Rexburg. Security footage from the business, obtained by EastIdahoNews.com, shows Vallow Daybell and a man visiting the unit nine times in October and once in November. It’s believed that the man was Cox, who was also said to visit alone.
A few days later, Tammy Daybell, still married to Chad Daybell, called 911, claiming a masked man shot at her in her driveway with a paintball gun. Court records indicate that it could have been Cox who shot at her.
On Oct. 19, Tammy Daybell died in her sleep at the Daybell’s Salem, Idaho, home. Investigators ruled she died of natural causes and did not perform an autopsy on her. Her body was later exhumed in Springville, Utah, and murder charges were filed against Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell.
Cox married Zulema Pastenes on Nov. 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. During their honeymoon, Zulema told investigators that Alex was not acting like himself and was possibly talking to someone on the phone when he was giving her a massage, but he denied doing so.
On Dec. 12, Cox died of natural causes, according to a medical examiner. The autopsy report suggests he had blood clots wedged into the arteries of his lungs. He was 51.
FULL STATEMENT: Attorneys for immediate family of Alex Cox on the ME report. “Rampant rumors of evil plots and conspiracy robbed the family of their time to grieve the loss of their husband, son, brother, and uncle.” #fox10phoenix pic.twitter.com/Ngz3lW6ee9
— ᴊᴜꜱᴛɪɴ ʟᴜᴍ | 林俊豪 (@jlumfox10) May 8, 2020
A few days before his death, Pastenes said Cox told her if anything was to happen to her, there is a bag of money in their closet and it was for her. In the bag was $5,000 to $7,000, headphones, a phone and a gun in a case. The phone was seized by police.
The day before Cox’s death, Pastenes asked him if he had anything to do with Tammy’s death. He told her no and said he thought he was being set up as the fall guy, but he didn’t explain what he meant.
