‘Doomsday Mom’ Lori Vallow Daybell booked into Phoenix jail after extradition from Idaho
Nov 30, 2023, 8:26 AM | Updated: 1:10 pm

The mugshot taken of Lori Vallow Daybell when she was booked into a Phoenix jail on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, and a screenshot from video provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office of her arrival. (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Photo and Screenshot)
(Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Photo and Screenshot)
PHOENIX – Lori Vallow Daybell, the infamous “Doomsday Mom,” was booked into a Phoenix jail early Thursday after being extradited from Idaho.
Vallow Daybell, 50, was transferred to Arizona to face charges in two Maricopa County murder cases after being found guilty earlier this year in Idaho of killing two of her children and a romantic rival.
She was officially arrested in Maricopa County late Wednesday night and was booked after midnight, according to court documents.
During Vallow Daybell’s initial court appearance, a judge said she would be assigned an attorney before her arraignment, which was scheduled for next Thursday in Phoenix.
She is being held at the Estrella Jail while she awaits trial, according to Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office online records. She is not eligible for bail.
What are the charges against Lori Vallow Daybell in Arizona?
Arizona officials started the extradition process in August, soon after Vallow Daybell was sentenced to life in prison in Idaho.
A Maricopa County grand jury indicted Vallow Daybell in 2021 on a charge of conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. Police said Vallow Daybell’s brother Alex Cox shot and killed Vallow on July 11, 2019, in Chandler.
A second Valley indictment unsealed in May of this year charged Vallow Daybell with conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux, her niece’s ex-husband. Police say Cox shot at Boudreaux in Gilbert on Oct. 2, 2019, but missed.
Cox was never charged and died later that year of what authorities determined were natural causes.
What happened in Lori Vallow Daybell’s Idaho case?
In May, Vallow Daybell was found guilty in Idaho of killing her two youngest children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, as well as conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell, her fifth husband’s previous wife. She was sentenced to life in prison in late July.
The case drew national and international attention due to Vallow Daybell’s bizarre claims that her son and daughter were zombies and that she was a goddess sent to usher in the Biblical apocalypse. As a result, the media started calling her the “Doomsday Mom.”
Echoes of Jodi Arias case for Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has previous experience keeping a high-profile female inmate in custody during her trial.
In 2013, Jodi Arias was found guilty of murdering her ex-boyfriend in Mesa five years earlier. She was sentenced to life in prison in 2015, ending a case that drew years of national and global attention.
In August, Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News that holding Arias brought “energy into the space that normally doesn’t exist,” but it didn’t change how jail staffers performed their work.
“They understand the focus is just on doing the job the right way and handling people no different one from the other, treating them with respect, handling the business but not tolerating any bad behavior and circumstances that undermine our ability to run a safe and sound jail system,” he said.
Penzone said he always expects his staff to maintain constant professionalism, though he acknowledged an inmate like the “Doomsday Mom” would be a different beast.
“Obviously, due to the fact that this is extremely high profile, it’s going to garner a lot of attention. … It will create a little bit of a — I don’t want to say unrest, but there will be an energy to it that’s not always positive. So, we’ll be overly conscientious about the circumstances,” he said.