‘Sins of Our Mother’: Lori Vallow’s Surviving Brother Adam Cox Is Connected to a Bizarre Death, Too

While Netflix’s riveting true crime series, Sins of Our Mother, brings Lori Vallow’s disturbing story back into the spotlight, it raises more questions about her family and relationships. 

As the documentary details, Vallow and her brother Alex Cox are linked to a series of murders. As it turns out, their older brother, Adam Cox, is also connected to a bizarre death. 

Adam Cox knew something was wrong before Lori Vallow’s husband and children died

Vallow and her husband, doomsday prepper Chad Daybell, were arrested in connection to the deaths of Vallow’s children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan. The 7-year-old boy and 17-year-old girl were reported missing in November 2019 — right around the time Vallow and Daybell got married in Hawaii.

An investigation revealed a disturbing picture of Vallow’s life. Just months before JJ and Tylee went missing, Alex shot and killed Lori’s fourth husband Charles, claiming self-defense. Just weeks before their Hawaiian nuptials, Daybell’s wife Tammy died in her sleep. 

In December 2019, a day after Tammy’s body was exhumed, Alex died of what appeared to be natural causes. Vallow was arrested and charged with abandoning her children. When a January 2020 search of Daybell’s property unearthed Tylee and JJ’s remains, the police also arrested Daybell.

Throughout all the drama, most of Vallow’s family refused to believe she or Alex could harm her kids. But Adam, who had been talking to Charles about Lori’s mental state until he was killed, knew something was wrong. He told ABC’s 20/20 he tried to convince the family to intervene. 

“I had the same gut feeling in my stomach, the same way I had the same gut feeling when Charles was killed,” Adam said. “And I thought, ‘If she’s not saying where the kids are, the kids are dead.'”

Adam Cox was also connected to a bizarre death 

Adam worked at KDND-FM in 2007. As a host of the station’s “Morning Rave” show, the radio personality and his colleagues facilitated a competition where listeners would drink large amounts of water and try to hold in their urine. The person who held it the longest would ultimately win a Nintendo Wii. 

However, as reported by Inside Edition, one participant, 28-year-old California mother Jennifer Lea Strange, died of acute water intoxication while participating in the stunt. In his book, My Crazy Radio Life, Adam recalled the moment he learned of Strange’s death.

“I couldn’t understand why or how that could’ve happened,” he wrote. “I started crying thinking about her, one of our loyal listeners, a mom just trying to win a Wii for her kids — I believe it was the saddest day that I can remember except for the day that I got a call when I was in Little Rock that my older sister, Stacey, had passed away.”

Adam Cox couldn’t find work for years because of the incident 

Adam and nine other KDND employees were fired shortly after Strange’s death. In My Crazy Radio Life, Adam revealed that authorities considered charging some of them with a crime. 

“All of us were being investigated for possible criminal charges of aiding and participating in a wrongful death episode,” he recalled. 

They were ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing. But Adam noted that because of his connection to the tragic incident, finding work in radio became difficult. 

“Nobody was going to hire a DJ with a reputation as a ‘killer,'” Adam wrote. “I was branded with a cruel and false charge.” 

Adam eventually found work at a morning show for IHeartRadio. Sins of Our Mother is currently streaming on Netflix.