The mother of two missing children has been arrested by police officers in Hawaii on a warrant issued by Madison County, Idaho, according to a statement from law enforcement.
Lori Vallow, 46, was arrested on multiple charges, including on suspicion of two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, Kauai police said.
She is being held by police on a $5 million bail, according to the statement.
Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and his sister, Tylee Ryan, 17, were last heard from in September. About two months later, Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, fled their Rexburg, Idaho, home when authorities began looking for the children, police previously said.
CNN has previously reached out to Vallow and Daybell’s attorney, Sean Bartholick, but has not heard back. Another attempt to reach Bartholick on Thursday was not immediately successful.
JJ’s grandmother, Kay Vallow Woodcock, reacted to the news of Lori Vallow’s arrest with joy.
“We are ELATED!! 10000000 lbs has been lifted. NOW, Lori, WHERE ARE THE KIDS????” she told CNN in a text message.
Daybell was not arrested, police said.
No evidence children in Hawaii, police say
The couple were found in Hawaii in January and served with a search warrant. Vallow was given a deadline to turn the children over to authorities, a court order served by police said. She failed to meet it, according to a grandmother of one of the children.
No date has been set for Vallow’s extradition hearing, police said.
There is no indication the children are on the island, the statement reads.
Vallow moved to Idaho with the children and married Daybell shortly after her estranged husband was killed in July in their former home state, Arizona, authorities have said.
On November 26, after relatives raised concern about not hearing from JJ since September, police conducted a welfare check at the couple’s Rexburg home and were told by Vallow and Daybell that the boy had been staying with a family friend back in Arizona.
Police investigated family’s past
The disappearances followed other investigations authorities had conducted around the family – one of them was into the death of Vallow’s estranged husband, who was shot and killed during a fight with her brother in Arizona.
Vallow’s brother was not charged in the case and died in December, CNN affiliate KIFI/KIDK reported. His cause of death has not been released, and an investigation is pending the results of an autopsy, CNN affiliate KNXV reported in January.
Vallow moved to Idaho shortly after and married Daybell, who had links to a religious content website.
Vallow’s former husband had said she had “recently become infatuated and at times obsessive about near death experiences and spiritual visions,” according to a petition for dissolution of marriage filed last February.
Authorities are also investigating the death of Daybell’s previous wife, Tammy Daybell. Her death was initially believed to be of natural causes, but Rexburg police later said it was suspicious and her remains were exhumed.
Vallow and Daybell were married a few weeks after her death, police said.
CNN’s Amanda Watts, Leslie Perrot, Amir Vera, Harmeet Kaur and Alta Spells contributed to this report.
