Lori Vallow’s estranged cousin has revealed one of her most haunting fears about the murders for which the so-called “cult mom” is currently on trial.
Megan Eyden, whose father is Ms Vallow’s uncle, spoke out about the bombshell case in an interview with NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield aired Friday night.
It came at the end of the third week of Ms Vallow’s Idaho trial for the murders of her children Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, and her new husband Chad Daybell’s first wife Tammy.
Ms Eyden said she has tried to distance herself from media coverage surrounding the case for the past three years because it was hard to hear all of the horrifying allegations.
“A lot of it has been speculation, of course,” she said. “And so it’s pretty difficult to, you know, to hear everybody trying to talk about what they think happened and not really know.
“So until the trial started, I really stayed for the most part out of it. And I think most of my immediate family has done the same as well.”
Ms Eyden revealed that family tension first arose two months before the children vanished in Idaho, when Ms Vallow’s fourth husband Charles was shot by her brother Alex Cox in Arizona in July 2019.
Police initially ruled that Cox acted in self defence after a fight broke out during a custody dispute over JJ, who was Charles and Ms Vallow’s adoptive son. However, police have since ruled that Charles’ death was a murder conspiracy. Ms Vallow is facing charges for his death separate from the Idaho trial, while Cox died in December 2019.
Some members of the family suspected something was wrong from the start, according to Ms Eyden.
“All I can tell you is that for sure there was a rip in the family when Charles was killed,” she said. “There was part of the family that believed that Alex acted in self-defense and there was a part of the family that believes that he did not. And that definitely was a separation in our family. And I think that sort of continues … somewhat today.”
Ms Eyden said she still struggles with the idea “that if her immediate family had been willing to hold [Vallow] accountable and hold Alex accountable at that time that the kids might still be alive”.
She said Ms Vallow’s other brother Adam Cox fought hard to find the truth about what happened to Charles.
“The family really ripped [Adam] apart for that because they wanted to protect Alex and Lori from consequences,” she said. “And I think that’s the crux of where all of this comes down to - nobody wanted to hold Lori and Alex accountable.”
Ms Eyden, who said she had been estranged from Ms Vallow for years prior to the children’s disappearance, spoke of how little hope she had for them being found alive during the nine-month search, which ended in the discovery of their bodies at Mr Daybell’s property in June 2020.
“For my own mental health, I really had to just come to terms with the fact that I was not optimistic about the children being found alive,” she said.
Ms Eyden also shared her belief that the most powerful influence in Ms Vallow’s life was her father, Barry Cox.
“By all accounts, and from my own experience, I can tell you that, you know, Lori’s dad has been a big factor in her personality and in the way that she has turned out,” she said.
“Anybody who has dug into his history a little bit will tell you that he definitely believed he was above the law.”
Barry Cox, she said, ended up serving prison time for tax evasion after trying to sue the IRS.
“I think the most pervasive thing that ran throughout the family system was this concept that Barry talked about called the lower 95, where he believes that 95 per cent of the population are stupid, sheep, unattractive people,” she said.
“And he and his family are in the upper 5 per cent who are smarter than everybody more intelligent, more exceptional, more beautiful. And certainly that plays into a lot of Lori’s personality.”
