The saga of the Vallow-Daybell case is a labyrinth. It’s messy. It’s tragic. And right at the center of the storm—often acting as the literal muscle for the "doomsday" prophecies—was Alex Cox. If you've followed the trial of Lori Vallow or read the endless deep dives into the deaths in Rexburg and beyond, you know his name. But when the dust settled on his own life in a bathroom in Gilbert, Arizona, people were left asking the same basic question: how old was Alex Cox when he died?
He was 51.
That number feels weirdly middle-of-the-road for someone involved in such an extreme, fringe series of events. He wasn't a reckless kid. He wasn't an elderly man losing his grip. He was a 51-year-old man who had spent the better part of a year crisscrossing the country, moving bodies, and allegedly pulling triggers.
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The day the music stopped in Gilbert
It happened on December 12, 2019.
Think about that date for a second. It was just one day after the body of Tammy Daybell—the wife of "doomsday" author Chad Daybell—had been exhumed in Utah. The walls were closing in. The pressure was astronomical. Alex was staying with his new wife, Zulema Pastenes, whom he had married only weeks prior in a whirlwind Las Vegas wedding.
The scene was gruesome in a quiet, suburban way. His stepson found him slumped in the bathroom, gasping for air and covered in his own vomit. By the time the paramedics got him to the Banner Gateway Medical Center, it was over. At 51, Alex Cox was dead, taking a massive vault of secrets to the grave with him.
Why the autopsy caused such a stir
When someone involved in a high-profile murder investigation suddenly drops dead, people get suspicious. Naturally. For months, the internet was convinced he’d been taken out by the "cult." Maybe it was a "spiritual hit." Maybe it was poison.
However, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office eventually released a report that was, frankly, a bit of a letdown for the conspiracy theorists. They ruled he died of natural causes. Specifically, bilateral pulmonary thromboemboli and hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
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Basically? Blood clots in his lungs and a bad heart.
Honestly, the stress of being a primary person of interest in multiple homicides probably didn't help his blood pressure. His sister, Lori Vallow, and her husband, Chad Daybell, were already deep into their beliefs about "zombies" and "light and dark scales." Cox was their "warrior." But even warriors get blood clots.
A timeline of a 51-year-old "Protector"
To understand the weight of his age, you have to look at what he did in those final months. At 51, most people are thinking about their 401k or maybe a nagging knee injury. Alex Cox was busy.
In July 2019, he shot and killed Charles Vallow—Lori’s husband—claiming self-defense. He was the one who allegedly hovered over the graves of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow in Chad Daybell’s backyard. Phone pings placed him exactly where the children's remains were later found. He was the family fixer.
It’s a bizarre arc. Most of his life was spent as a stand-up comedian and a truck driver. He had a history of violence—he’d served time in Texas for attacking Lori's previous husband, Joseph Ryan—but the sheer scale of the 2019 events was an escalation that defied logic.
The "Natural Causes" debate
Despite the official ruling, many people still side-eye the 51-year-old’s cause of death. Why? Because the timing was just too perfect.
- Tammy Daybell’s body is exhumed on December 11.
- Alex Cox dies on December 12.
If he had lived, he likely would have been the star witness or the primary fall guy. With him gone, the prosecution had a much harder time piecing together the physical acts of the murders. He was the only one who couldn't talk.
Medical experts like Dr. Erik Christensen, who performed the autopsy on Tammy Daybell, have noted how "natural causes" can sometimes be a catch-all when a specific toxin isn't found. But in the case of Cox, the physical evidence of the clots was pretty definitive. His lungs were failing. He was a 51-year-old man whose body finally gave out under the weight of his actions and his health issues.
What we lose when a 51-year-old takes secrets to the grave
The tragedy of Alex Cox’s death isn't about him. It’s about the lack of closure for the victims. Because he died at 51, before charges could be filed against him for the murders of the children, we never got a confession. We never got the "why" beyond the bizarre religious filings of Chad Daybell.
He was the brother who did whatever Lori asked. Whether it was protecting her from "dark spirits" or something much more literal and lethal.
His age at the time of death matters because it reminds us he wasn't some impressionable youth. He was a grown man who made choices. He chose to follow his sister into a rabbit hole of radicalization that ended in a Gilbert bathroom, gasping for breath while the world waited for answers he would never give.
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Making sense of the aftermath
If you're looking for lessons here, it’s mostly about the toxicity of unchecked devotion. Cox was 51, an age where maturity should have reigned, yet he was completely subservient to a delusional narrative.
For those tracking the legal fallout, the most important takeaway is how his death shifted the burden onto Lori and Chad. They couldn't point the finger at a living Alex. They could only point at a dead one. And dead men make very convenient scapegoats until the forensic evidence starts speaking for them.
Practical Steps for Following the Case:
- Review the Maricopa County Autopsy Report: If you're skeptical about the "natural causes" ruling, the full toxicology and physical exam reports are public record and provide a granular look at his cardiovascular health.
- Cross-Reference Phone Records: Look at the Rexburg PD's released documents regarding the "Daybell Pings." They show exactly where Cox was during the windows when the children disappeared.
- Watch the Trial Testimonies: Specifically, the testimony of Zulema Pastenes. She gives the most intimate look into his final days and his state of mind before he collapsed.
- Audit the Timeline: Compare the dates of Charles Vallow's death, the move to Idaho, and the attempted shooting of Brandon Boudreaux. Cox is the common denominator in every single one.
The reality is that 51 years isn't a long time to live, but in the case of Alex Cox, it was long enough to leave a trail of destruction that investigators are still fully untangling today.