According to authorities’ timeline of events, police showed up at the couple’s address on Nov. 26 to conduct a welfare check on JJ at the behest of his grandparents, who hadn’t heard from him for months. Chad and Lori said he was staying with friends in Arizona.
By the next day, Chad and Lori had left their townhouse in Rexburg.
Authorities later discovered that they flew to Hawaii on Dec. 1, airline records indicating it was just the two of them.
On Dec. 12, 2019, Lori’s brother Alex died in Gilbert, Ariz., at the age of 51. Autopsy results released in May 2020 stated he suffered from blood clots in his lungs, brought on by other health problems, and died of natural causes.
His family, including his widow, mother, sister and Melani, said in a statement to East Idaho News: “Rampant rumors of evil plots and conspiracy robbed the family of their time to grieve the loss of their husband, son, brother, and uncle. Even so, the family finds comfort in the medical examiner’s finding that Alex Cox died of natural causes.”