‘Sins of Our Mother’: Lori Vallow’s Surviving Brother Adam Cox Says ‘Death Isn’t Good Enough’ for Justice for J.J. and Tylee

Let’s face it – everyone has done at least one thing that they later regret, but Lori Vallow did the unthinkable. The nation was in shock just a few years ago when Tylee Ryan and her brother, Joshua Jaxon Vallow, ages 7 and 16, respectively, went missing and later were found buried in shallow graves in their stepfather, Chad Daybell’s backyard.

It was in November 2019 that Vallow, the children’s mother, underwent police questioning, and what she told them just didn’t add up. Vallow was ultimately arrested for the murders of the children, and Daybell, her fifth husband, was taken into custody for his role in the crime as well.

The whole situation is absolutely heartbreaking, and the story is being told on Netflix‘s Sins of Our Mother. Now, Vallow’s surviving brother, Adam Cox, is saying that “Death isn’t good enough justice” for J.J. and Tylee.

Who is Adam Cox?

Cox is the brother of Vallow, and he didn’t immediately speak publicly about the tragedy. According to Distractify, Cox, who works in radio and lives in Wichita, Kansas, broke his silence in an interview and is described as being a  “normal guy living a normal life.”

He answered questions about his two siblings, Vallow and Alex, who died of natural causes in 2019. When his niece and nephew went missing in late 2019, Cox, who had no role in the murders, became uneasy when his sister and brother-in-law headed to Hawaii and initially refused to answer questions.

Oxygen reports that he thought to himself that “‘If she’s not saying where the kids are, the kids are dead.'” Now that his sister is in jail, Cox feels that he has lost nearly all of his siblings.

Cox said that ‘Death isn’t good enough justice’

It is almost impossible to imagine what Cox has been through in the past few years, especially since he has said that the accusations against Vallow have caused a “deep divide among his family.” According to ABC News, Cox has had a difficult time handling everything and revealed that “You don’t know who to trust, who’s saying what, what actually happened.”

He has spent the last few years just trying to wrap his mind around the situation, and also said of his sister and her husband that “Whatever plan they had, I really believe that they thought they were gonna get away with it.” As for justice for the kids? Cox told the interviewer:

“Jail for the rest of their life is not good enough. Death isn’t good enough. If you think about what those kids went through, is there anything that could bring justice to what happened to those kids?”

Vallow, who is receiving treatment at a mental health facility,  and Daybell, who has pleaded not guilty, are currently awaiting trial. 

The shocking murders

Vallow, who has been dubbed the “Doomsday Mom,” made headlines when her children went missing. Everyone who was following the story hoped that they’d be found safe, and no one could have predicted the horror that had happened. According to Distractify, the older child was last seen at Yellowstone National Park with her uncle, Alex Cox, while 7-year-old J.J was last seen at school.

After the two “disappeared,” close friends expressed concern over Vallow’s obsession with the apocalypse, saying that she insisted that the two children were zombies. After police performed a wellness check, Vallow told investigators that her son was visiting a friend in Arizona, which was proven to be untrue. A year later, both bodies were discovered buried on the Daybell property in Salem, Idaho. 

What could have possibly led Vallow to do such a horrible thing? Daybell, a religious writer, married Vallow just two weeks after the death of his first wife, Tammy, and the couple began telling other people that Vallow’s daughter had died years earlier. Vallow’s previous husband was also deceased, having been shot and killed by her brother, Alex.

His family had been concerned with the relationship, just like many others, and Crimeonline reports that they told interviewers that the killing “was an ambush.” Friends were worried about Vallow, and while many details of the case are still unknown, investigators do know that the mother thought her children were “possessed” and “had wicked spirits in their bodies.”