Lori Vallow Update: Family Of ‘Cult Mom’ Defend Her Innocence In New Interview, Believe Missing Children Are Alive

Family members of Lori Vallow, the mother currently on trial for the mysterious disappearance of her two children, defended her innocence against her current charges in an interview Wednesday with CBS News.

Janis Cox, Vallow’s mother, and Summer Shiflet, Vallow's sister, said they believe the children are still alive and that Vallow never showed any ill-will towards them.

“She’s invested her whole life in those children,” Cox said. “We know there’s another whole side to this – we just don’t know what it is. But we know her.”

Vallow’s daughter, Tylee Ryan, 17, and son, J.J. Vallow, 7, have not been seen by friends, family, or the faculty at their schools since September. Prior to their disappearance, Lori Vallow had shown erratic and unusual behavior as she grew closer to her current husband, Chad Daybell.

Lori Vallow had initially told law enforcement that the children were with a friend in Arizona. This was found to be false and the friend in-question said that she was asked to lie about the children to the police.

Lori Vallow, who was arrested in Hawaii in late February and extradited to Idaho for trial, is being held on a $1 million bond and faces one count each of desertion of a child and non-support of a dependent child. Her family said that they strongly believe that she has not killed the children, but they are uncertain where they might actually be.

“I have to see my family slaughtered on the news every day,” Shiflet said. “This mob mentality calling for Lori be hung in a public square basically is what it feels like.”

Due to her imprisonment and current trial, Cox and Shiflet said that they have been unable to ask Lori Vallow about the children.

Emails recently obtained by reporters at East Idaho News showed Lori Vallow asking Daybell about whether the children possessed “light or dark” spirits. Daybell, a writer of doomsday fiction and holder of supernatural beliefs, responded to her request, saying that Tylee was a “dark spirit” and that J.J. was a “light spirit.”