Court docs, body camera detail aftermath of shooting that killed Charles Vallow
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EDITORS NOTE: This story contains graphic details and video contains explicit language.
CHANDLER, Arizona — More details have been released regarding a deadly shooting in Arizona that is possibly tied into the disappearance of two missing Rexburg kids.
Fox10 Phoenix obtained body camera video, a 911 call and dozens of pages of police reports, which detail an argument between Lori (Vallow) Daybell, her then-estranged husband Charles Vallow, and Lori’s brother Alex Cox. The argument ended with Charles Vallow being fatally shot.
Lori Daybell is now at the center of a multi-state investigation regarding the disappearance of 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow. Lori, and her new husband, Chad Daybell, fled Rexburg in November after police attempted to perform a welfare check on the children. The children have not been seen since September, and the parents are refusing to cooperate with police in locating them. They have also actively lied about their whereabouts, say police.
READ MORE ABOUT THE DAYBELL CASE HERE
The missing children case is being investigated alongside the deaths of Chad and Lori’s former spouses, Tammy Daybell and Charles Vallow. Fremont County has denied EastIdahoNews.com records requests for information about the death of Tammy Daybell. However, Fox10 Phoenix got partially redacted documents about the death of Charles Vallow.
According to Fox10 Phoenix, authorities learned about the death of Charles Vallow from a 911 call by Cox on July 11.
“I got in a fight with my brother-in-law. and I shot him in self-defense,” Cox said in the 911 call.
The call was made from a home in Chandler, Arizona right after Cox had fired two rounds into Charles Vallow’s chest, which killed him.
When police arrived, Cox told police that just prior to the shooting an argument between Charles Vallow and Lori Daybell had occurred. He said that during the argument, Tylee then stepped in to defend her mom with a baseball bat. Charles Vallow then reportedly grabbed the bat from Tylee and began swinging, according to a police report.
Cox, who was at the home, then intervened in the struggle. Police reports show he grabbed Charles from behind and they fell to the floor. Cox stood back up and as he turned around he said Charles Vallow hit him in the back of the head with the bat.
“So I went to my room and got my gun, ’cause I always carry it,” Cox said in body camera video obtained by Fox10 Phoenix. Before shooting, Cox told police he warned Vallow to drop the bat.
There is some contradiction between the statement given by Cox and the statement later given by Lori Daybell to the police.
Cox said that Joshua, Tylee, and Lori Daybell all left the home before the gunshots, but Lori’s statement said when she heard a gunshot she walked from the kitchen to the living room, finding her husband dead, according to Fox10 Phoenix. She then went outside to check on the kids and drove away with them in Charles Vallow’s rental car.
At some point in the investigation, Lori Daybell returned to the home, but Fox10 reports the Chandler Police Department redacted the audio from that portion of the video. Tylee is also shown at the scene.
Cox and Lori Daybell were detained by police, but were released later that day when the shooting was determined to be self-defense.
Following the shooting, neighbors reported a pool party with loud music taking place at the home, according to a public Facebook post by Joe Pongratz, the landlord of the home. Pongratz also wrote in the post that while speaking with Lori Daybell during the days after the shooting, “she never sounded shocked, sad or heartbroken.”
Kay Woodcock, the sister of Charles Vallow, said in a news conference last week that the death investigation was a “setup,” and Charles Vallow’s death was “murder,” rather than self-defense.
The Chandler Police Department told EastIdahoNews.com the investigation in Charles Vallow case remains open. It has been hampered though, because on Dec. 12, Cox died in Gilbert, Arizona.
His cause of death has not been released, pending the results of an autopsy. There are no suspects in his death.
