Cops: We Know for Certain How Lori Vallow's Husband Died

Lori Vallow did not kill her third husband. That was the word Tuesday from authorities in Arizona, who'd reopened an investigation into Joseph Ryan's 2018 death of an apparent heart attack. Ryan's sister had turned over a recording, made six months after Ryan's death, in which Vallow said she had planned to murder Ryan before changing her mind. "If he comes against you three times then you can kill him, it says it in the scriptures," Vallow allegedly said while discussing their custody battle, per Fox News. The investigation found Ryan had indeed died of natural causes, a Phoenix Police Department spokesperson tells East Idaho News. Investigations into the deaths of Vallow's fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and the first wife of current husband Chad Daybell, remain open.

Vallow's brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed Charles Vallow in July 2019, claiming self-defense. Cox died months later in what a medical examiner said was a natural death. Around the same time, Chad Daybell’s wife, Tammy, was found dead in her bed. Daybell married Vallow just a few weeks later. The pair are now preparing for trial, having each pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of destruction, alteration, or concealment of evidence after police found the remains of Vallow's two children on Daybell's Idaho property in June. Joshua "JJ" Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, had last been seen in September 2019. No one has been charged in the deaths. Vallow has pleaded not guilty to additional misdemeanor charges of desertion, resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime, and contempt of court, per People. (More Lori Vallow stories.)