Morgan Loew Interview Transcript (videos linked at end) Note - the part about JC's phone contact with JJ on October 1st is not in these videos.
JC = Janis Cox
SS = Summer Shiflet
JC: Well we have a goal. So we’re just gonna do our goal. Tell the truth.
Why do you think it’s important to sit down and do this interview?
SS: I think it’s important because Lori has been portrayed a particular way in the media this far as a monster, a heartless villain that’s just after money, and that couldn’t be further from the truth of who she really is. I think it’s unfair that she’s been treated the way that she has been and I’m really hoping that by us speaking out that people might soften their hearts a little bit towards her, and help see that she’s really a loving, sweet, warm person, and she’s more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside. She’s just a loving wonderful person.
How difficult has this been for you?
JC: It’s probably the worst thing that has ever happened in our family. I hate to see it like this. I know the truth about Lori. I know how loving she is. I don’t have the answers about the children. I love those two kids with all my heart. Tylee and JJ. They’re two of the loves of my life. And I know that Lori has always protected them. If everyone knew how far she had gone to protect them, their whole lives, I don’t know where the children are but she felt like she was keeping them safe, that’s the impression she gave us.
You’re her mom and she cut off communication and you don’t know where your grandchildren are. That just, that’s gotta seem strange.
JC: It does, but she did say, she said ‘I’m not going to be able to tell you everything’. She did have some major fears, that were real, to her. She didn’t share them all with me. She felt like, in her mind, that she was protecting us, in her mind, but it didn’t turn out that way. I did talk to a friend of hers in Hawaii, that was a mutual friend, and she said, she said she was gonna see her at church, Lori was going to go to church in Kauai, and I said well if you talk to her tell her that her mom thinks she should put the kids in a room with today’s date, take a picture, and send it to the police. Please, that’s my advice, as her mother. That would solve a lot of problems.
Why won’t she do it?
JC: I don’t know. And to me, that’s what I would do.
Summer, do you think that she is guilty of the things that she is accused of?
SS: No. No I don’t. Not even a little bit. I know for a fact that she did not conspire to kill Charles, in any way, shape or form, I spent a lot of time with Lori and Alex um leading up to Charles’ death and I know that there was never any kind of discussion like that about it. Charles texted probably 20 or 30 times ranging from ‘I swear I’ll be nice, please call me’ to ‘your end is coming soon’. So I saw a lot of threatening texts from him. If Alex hadn’t have been there I think Lori and Tylee would have been on the news for a very different reason.
You asked Alex to go to the house that morning?
SS: Yes I did. I asked Alex um the day before Charles was coming, if he would please go, stay with Lori um he said Lori’s going to be fine, she can call me if she needs me, and I said please, I have a very sick feeling in my stomach, please just go stay there. I was going out of town, and I didn’t feel safe, um with Charles coming into town after the things I had read, um so I said will you please just go stay there and if you’re there then maybe nothing will happen. And that’s what I thought. I thought it would just be a deterrent from trouble.
What was your reaction when you heard what happened that morning?
SS: Shock. I think they were in shock, I was in shock, I found out er Friday evening and um I was in shock that that had transpired, but I was very grateful also because I know that um it would have had a very different outcome had Alex not been there. And I’m sad that that happened, I didn’t want that to happen, I feel for his family, um I understand what it feels like to lose a brother, it’s not fun, um, and so I don’t wish that on them by any means, but he was here with an agenda, he was here causing the trouble, she was not trying to go after him, he was here bugging her.
Janis, Alex was your son, and he has been described as the family hitman.
JC: (Laughs) I can’t help but laugh. Alex is the most laid back person. He’s been funny his whole life. He was protective of, very protective of Colby and Tylee. Very protective. He said 'I tasered a paedophile', and so he said 'I’m willing to admit it', he’s he’s always owned up to anything he’s done wrong. He certainly wasn’t perfect. But he doesn’t have the intensity of a hitman. He doesn’t have the desire to be hit…he doesn’t think that death solves anything.
When’s the last time you communicated with Tylee?
SS: August, before they moved was the last time I saw her. And then I texted with her a couple of times but the last time I texted with her was September 24th on her birthday, and she responded and said ‘thank you Summy, love you, happy birthday to you too’.
And that date is significant because the FBI said she has not been seen since the beginning of September. Do you believe that that was Tylee who was texting you back?
SS: I don’t really have any way to know. Um, I like to believe that it is, um, but I, I really don’t have any way to know, it could be either way, but as far as I know it was her. Um, I don’t have any reason to think otherwise.
Are you defending Lori because she’s your daughter, and she’s your sister, or are you defending her because you really think that she did nothing wrong?
JC: We really think that she did nothing wrong. She’s had some bad judgement. She’s married a few men that we didn’t care for.
SS: She’ll be the first to say..
JC: Yeah, she’s made mistakes.
SS: She’s made a lot of mistakes and she’s paid high prices for those mistakes. She is a very humble person. She doesn’t blame other people, she takes responsibility for herself.
So what is the scenario that Tylee and JJ are still alive?
JC: Well to us we believe they are because we know Lori. And that’s…we have seen her dedication. His mother had been drug, drug mother, he was born addicted to drugs, and he only weighed 1 lb 9 oz. They didn’t know of course then that he was autistic. But she was dedicated to him from the moment he came home.
Are they in a bunker somewhere? Are they with friends? Where do you think they are?
SS: We don’t know. We wish we, we wish we knew. We don’t know. But we also don’t know what Lori has been through, she was being threatened, she was being followed, um she had reasons for doing what she did, and we don’t know everything that she’s been through or why she’s doing things the way that she’s doing them now.
Who was threatening her?
SS: Well, um, Kay was threatening her, um.
JC: And her brothers. They were very upset about Charles’ death. There was a lot of threats made to Lori.
SS: I feel like Kay could have handled this uh a lot of different ways, and she could have gone and filed in court for JJ she could have done things a lot of ways. She did this very strategically and deliberately um this is somebody who’s hurting and in pain because she’s lost her brother and I understand that but this is a revenge situation, this is not a, um, this is something that could have been settled much quieter and calmly, and it didn’t have to get to this level. Lori is the legal parent of both Tylee and JJ. She has a right to live wherever she wants to live and raise them and not include anybody in their lives that she doesn’t feel is good for them, that’s her right as a parent. She should not be forced to do any of the things that she’s been asked to do. That’s not, it’s not okay.
Have you asked your sister where the kids are?
SS: No. I’ve talked to her a couple of times, um the first time I talked to her, everything is recorded, and I know she can’t tell me, and I don’t want to put her in a position that’s gonna make anything worse for her, um, I want her to know I love her and I support her and she knows I love her and the kids. But I did tell her we were worried about her and the kids the first time I spoke with her, and she said to me ‘you know me and you know I’ve always taken care of my kids’. And I do know that. I do know that, it’s removed every doubt in my mind that she’s done anything wrong. I know she wouldn’t do that, that’s just not who she is and her children are everything, she’s always put them first, above everything, every fight she ever had with Charles was about how he treated Tylee and if he was not kind to Tylee she would leave the house and say 'if you can’t get along with Tylee we’re not staying here'.
All she would need to was show proof that the kids are alive, and are well. Can you understand why she is refusing to do that?
JC: You know it seems simple, it did to me, that’s why when I was talking to her friend, I said if you see her, just tell her, that’s what I would do, that’s my advice. But I don’t know what she knows. All I know is the woman that she is. I did not see any great change in Lori. I think the only change that happened was when she found out Charles was cheating on her, that ruined that marriage. Before she accused Charles of cheating he never said one bad word about Lori ever. Not once.
SS: Never.
JC: He never said anything, then he started all of this ‘she thinks she’s god’, tried to get her excommunicated from the church,
SS: Took JJ.
JC: He went to, he went to attorneys, and said ‘I’m scared for my life’. The whole time he was texting us, calling us trying to get Lori back. Finally he said tell Lori I’ll drop all the court proceedings if she’ll just come back and talk to me.
Do you think she’s in a cult?
JC: No.
SS: No.
JC: No.
SS: No.
JC: We don’t.
I’ve spoken to people who live near Chad and they say ‘we follow Chad’. They look at Chad like he is some sort of messiah.
Cut from long interview but found in short video:
JC: We can’t see Lori blindly following anybody. Can you?
SS: No.
JC: No. We can’t see it.
SS: Some people can do that if that’s what they choose to do. They’re entitled to their religious freedom and belief, that’s the great thing about our country, we have religious freedom and you can believe whatever you choose to believe. He, I don’t know Chad very well. I’ve only met him one time. I’ve never heard anything about him self-proclaiming to be a prophet, or anything else of that nature, or trying to get people to follow him. But if somebody chooses to do that on their you know, on their own, that’s their choice, I certainly wouldn’t ever do that, I, I follow the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints they might be misguided in their thoughts or thinking but I don’t think it makes them bad people.
You don’t think that Chad brainwashed her?
JC: No! (laughing) No! He couldn’t do it. That’s not possible. It wouldn’t be possible. We can’t speak intelligently about Chad and Lori, um, I think that you know when you don’t have any understanding, we didn’t know anything about it, we didn’t know they, we learned they got married on the news. Right? So we didn’t know.
SS: Yeah, We didn’t know. We’ve never been invited to any of Lori’s weddings. So this was not unusual for us.
JC: Well we were invited, we didn’t go to any. (laughs)
SS: Well I’ve never been invited to one, but that’s fine.
How has this last year affected your family?
JC: It’s been devastating. It’s been devastating. We’ve had a family that loved each other, that did everything together, we loved each other through good and bad, we had wonderful parties, they were all very clean, Charles said I’ve never been to a party before without drinking, he didn’t think it could be fun, he was fun at the parties, all of us had a great time, we knew that there were, you know, we all know each other’s imperfections, but we were very close. It’s been devastating not to see Tylee and JJ in such a long time. We love(d?) them so much. (4:02 in video of the 4:52 short video) And it’s been devastating not to see Lori. And it’s, it was hard to hear about Alex, from the police. We didn’t know he’d gotten married, we didn’t know he’d moved back to Arizona, that was very hard. So it’s affected every part of our family.
Is it fair to criticize her for being in paradise in Hawaii while there’s a manhunt on for her kids? I mean, that just, that didn’t look good.
JC: It didn’t look good. I agree, we agree. We didn’t like the way it looked, but we knew that she, they weren’t missing to her. That’s a whole difference if your children are missing-missing, or if they’re not missing to, to her.
SS: Yes, she wasn’t like ‘oh my kids are missing I’m gonna go on a vacation', that’s a very different scenario,
JC: But it’s still, it’s still hard to see because we know how much Tylee and JJ love Lori. They want to be with their mom. JJ would say all the time “Just Mom, just Mom, I want Mom”, he touches Mom. So I don’t like the fact that they’re separated. I don’t like that. But I don’t know what the reason is and it could be a wonderful reason. And maybe she’s protecting them from something terrible. I don’t know. But I do know that, I have faith in her as a mother that she’s doing the best she knows how for her children.
Is there any part of the dark recesses of your minds that say ‘maybe she cracked, and maybe this is not going to end up well’?
JC: We have gone through those scenarios probably a hundred times.
SS: If something has happened to those children it is not by her doing. And it’s not by her permission to do something. There is no way that she did anything to them. There’s just no way.
JC: We know her well enough to know that. We know that. And she couldn’t crack enough to do harm to her children. I’ve never seen anyone who put their whole life and soul into a child like she did. With each one of those kids.
