In multiple emails to his sister and the life insurance company, Charles Vallow said he suspected Lori was the one adding a PIN to the account and attempting to access it fraudulently.
The late husband of Lori Vallow Daybell accused her of changing his password and locking him out of his $1 million life insurance policy months before his death, according to multiple emails he sent to his sister and the life insurance company. Charles' sister, Kay Woodcock, told InsideEdition.com she believes that the life insurance policy had "everything to do with Charles' death." Charles switched the beneficiary to Kay months before he was shot and killed by Lori's brother.
"I think if he wouldn't have had that life insurance, he would be alive and they would be divorced, and that would be that," Kay said.
In the February 2019 emails, first published by FOX 10 Phoenix, Charles describes how he believes Lori changed the password on his life insurance account without his permission, locking him out of it as he was trying to change the beneficiary from Lori to Kay, who is the biological grandmother of Charles and Lori's adopted son, Joshua "JJ" Vallow. Kay verified the authenticity of the emails to InsideEdition.com.
"I request an investigation as I believe it's my soon to be ex-wife who fraudulently placed a password on the account. I want to change the beneficiary to my sister, Ethel Kathleen Woodcock," Charles wrote in an email dated Feb. 25, 2019. "I have an order of protection against Lori Vallow as she has physically threatened me in the past 30 days."
The next day, Charles wrote another email to a redacted sender and Kay, confirming what had happened.
"I've been locked out if my own life policy until further notice. If anything should happen to me before I get all this fixed, my beneficiary is Ethel Kathleen Woodcock. My sister. She will use it to take care of JJ. I want nothing to go to LORI or any member of her family," Charles wrote.
The contents of Charles' emails are of interest to Lori's defense team as well. Her attorney, Mark Means, subpoenaed Google last week for "all Google account records associated with, owned, and operated by, and or created by Mr. Charles L. Vallow," including the charles.vallow@gmail.com address he used to send the life insurance emails.
Means filed five subpoenas requesting information from the Idaho Attorney General's office, the Fremont County prosecutor's office, Southwest Airlines/JP Morgan Chase and Co., US Bank and Google last week. The subpoenas were first reported by EastIdahoNews.com.
Means did not respond to InsideEdition.com's request for comment.
Charles did change the beneficiary on the policy to Kay. She said when she spoke with Charles a few days later, she told him the whole incident with the password "just made me scared what Lori was going to do next," Kay said.
Five months later, on July 11, Charles was shot and killed by Lori's brother, Alex Cox, while he was picking up JJ. Cox claimed he fired in self-defense and wasn't charged in the incident. Cox died on Dec. 12, and both deaths are currently under investigation.
They are just two of the suspicious deaths surrounding Lori and her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, who have continued to refuse to tell authorities where Lori's two children, JJ, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, are.
The children were last seen in September and Lori is currently being held on $1 million bond at an Idaho jail, facing two counts of felony desertion of a child, misdemeanor charges of resisting and obstructing an officer, solicitation of a crime and contempt, according to the Madison County, Idaho, prosecutor's office. Lori has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Lori and Chad are currently under investigation by the Idaho Attorney General's office for "conspiracy, attempted murder and/or murder" in the death of Chad's wife, Tammy, who died weeks before the couple married.
Tammy Daybell, 49, was found dead in her home on Oct. 19. While her death was initially ruled to be from natural causes, it is now under investigation. Tammy's body was exhumed and the results of an autopsy are still pending, according to authorities. Chad and Lori wed in Hawaii on Nov. 5, weeks after Tammy's death. Neither Chad nor Lori have been charged with any crime in connection to Tammy's death and both have denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Kay and her husband, Larry Woodcock, are the relatives who first contacted authorities to perform a welfare check on JJ, who has autism, after they hadn't heard from him in months. That call sparked the ongoing investigation into JJ and Tylee's disappearance.
"We were worried about JJ that minute we found out Charles had died," Kay said. "I knew last January, Lori, she didn't want JJ, she was already talking about being done with Charles and being done with JJ. It's like she was done being a mother all together."
"We would have taken JJ, she wouldn't have had to say a word," Kay added.
Tylee was last seen on Sept. 8 at Yellowstone National Park, where she had traveled with JJ, their mother and their uncle, Alex Cox. Investigators have said they are waiting for the snow to melt in Yellowstone to search it.
JJ was last seen at his elementary school in Rexburg, Idaho, on Sept. 23, according to authorities.
Lori was arrested on the island of Kauai on Feb. 20, held on $5 million bond and extradited to Idaho on March 5. A judge in Idaho lowered her bond to $1 million, and Lori is next due in court for another bond reduction hearing on April 24 after an earlier hearing was postponed due to the coronavirus crisis.
Since her arrest, Lori has repeatedly tried to have her bail lowered, but prosecutors in both Hawaii and Idaho have argued that she is a flight risk.
Kay and Larry Woodcock have filed a petition for guardianship and conservatorship of JJ even as he remains missing. Both are continuing to believe that JJ and Tylee could be found alive.
"I can't get up every day and think that he's not alive, I can't function that way, I've got to give the situation every benefit of the doubt," Kay said. "There's no proof of life, but there's no proof of death, either. So I am going to go with the proof of life. That's the only way I can manage it right now."
The latest guardianship hearing has also been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. But Kay said the couple plans to attend every hearing they are allowed to.
"Any time there is a court hearing, we're going to be there," Kay said. "I want to haunt her if I can. I want her to see me in her sleep. She's going to have to talk at some point."
"No doubt she has changed my and my family's lives forever, everyone who loved Charles, she's changed our lives forever," she added. "I'd get her out of jail, give her the money and I don't care what she does after that. We just want our JJ, and Tylee, too."
The Rexburg Police Department asks anyone with information regarding JJ and Tylee's whereabouts or welfare to contact the department at 1-208-359-3000 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) at 1-800-THE-LOST.
JJ has brown hair and brown eyes, is 4 feet tall and weighs 50 pounds. He has autism and may be in need of medical attention, according to authorities. Tylee has blonde hair and blue eyes, is 5 feet tall and weighs 160 pounds.
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