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The day after Alex Cox and Zulema Pastenes’ wedding in Las Vegas, he offered to give her a massage.
It was Saturday, November 30, 2019 in the middle of the day. Cox, a massage therapist, had never done a massage in Pastenes and said they had to go to Walmart first to purchase a large plastic drop cloth commonly used for painting projects.
They bought the item, went back to their room, and he spread the fabric on the bed. Pastenes remembers lying down and falling asleep quickly.
“I was really, really (relaxed) – like when you try to wake up and you can’t,” Pastenes recalls. “I was like, ‘Why am I so relaxed and can’t wake up? I was going in and out and I could hear him talking and I was like, “Who is he talking to?”
Pastenes said it appeared Cox was chatting with someone on the phone in the bathroom. When she was finally able to wake up, she asked her new husband who he had spoken to.
“He’s like, ‘Nobody. I was talking to myself, ”Pastenes said.
She took a bath and then suggested that Cox watch a movie together. He was doing something on his phone and behaving “super quiet”.
“Alex usually jokes and he would find a way to turn things into a joke. He still made you laugh but he didn’t say anything for the rest of the evening, ”Pastenes said. “I asked if he was okay and he said, ‘I’m just tired.’ The fact that he’s silent and doesn’t say anything – that’s not Alex at all. Alex is not at ease.
Pastenes explained the unusual events of that day to detectives from the Rexburg Police Department and the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office who met her for two hours last April in Arizona. The interview, which you can watch in full at the end of this story, was videotaped and is part of several tapes, documents, videos and other files released by the Chandler Police Department on Wednesday.
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The department investigated the death of Charles Vallow, Lori Vallow Daybell’s fourth husband who was shot dead by Cox in July 2019. Lori married Chad Daybell four months later, weeks after the death of Chad’s wife, Tammy Daybell, in her sleep.
Lori’s two children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, were found buried on Chad’s property in June 2020. The couple face multiple charges in connection with the deaths of JJ, Tylee and Tammy, and the reports police suggest Cox was involved. Lori was also charged in Arizona with conspiracy to commit murder in Charles’ death.
RELATED | Messages reveal romantic relationship between Chad and Lori Daybell before Tammy Daybell died
Detectives met with Pastenes and her attorney Garrett Smith to follow up on previous statements she had made to them regarding Chad, Lori and Cox.
“At the time (of the massage), I had no doubts about it,” she told them. “There wasn’t enough oil for a tarp (and) now I’m like, ‘Why would you need a whole tarp all over the bed to give me a massage?’ It doesn’t make sense to me… Maybe I’m just a little too crazy about everything that’s happened, but in the back of my mind I still think that who was on the phone was Chad and Lori and it was supposed to be my last day.
Pastenes does not remember eating or drinking anything unusual that afternoon and said it was the only time Cox gave her a massage.
The death of Alex and Tammy
Less than two weeks later, on December 12, 2019, her husband died of natural causes, according to a medical examiner. An autopsy report says Cox had blood clots stuck in the arteries in his lungs. He was 51 years old.
“Like a day or two before he passed away, he said to me: ‘Zulema, if anything happens to me, I want you to know that there is money in a bag in the closet and that. is for you. It’s not much but it’s for you, ”Pastenes told police in the video released this week. “I said, ‘Don’t say things like that Alex. Why would you say something like that? ‘ He said, “Just in case.
Pastenes explained that there was a black gym bag in the closet. Inside was a plastic Ziploc bag containing five to seven thousand dollars and next to it were headphones, a phone, and a pistol in a holster. The phone was seized by police, but Pastenes told detectives she still had the gym bag and everything in it.
The day before Cox’s death, Pastenes said Lori and Chad called her husband to tell him that Tammy Daybell’s body was exhumed from Springville Evergreen Cemetery in Utah.
“The way they spoke – they weren’t really saying something like they were worried or anything like that,” Pastenes said. “I got the feeling it was really weird… I knew if I asked Lori and Chad about it, they probably wouldn’t say anything.” But I thought if they had done something, Alex would probably tell me.
Pastenes told police that months earlier Chad had said Tammy would die in a car crash while on a trip to Utah. Tammy visited her family in Springville alone in early October 2019, but returned home safely to Rexburg.
“Chad said she was dead but was taken over by an evil spirit. Deep down I think they said the same thing about Charles and then Charles ended up getting shot, ”Pastenes said.
Two weeks after the trip to Utah, Tammy passed away in her sleep. Tammy and Chad’s five children said last month investigators told them their mother died of asphyxiation.
After Cox hung up on the phone with Chad and Lori, Pastenes asked if he had anything to do with Tammy’s death.
“He says, ‘No.’ That’s it. Nothing else. I was waiting for him to say something else. So I’m like, ‘Ok… are you going to say something else?’ (He replied) ‘No,’ ”Pastenes said.
She explained to investigators that Cox “seemed so sure” of his answer that she didn’t think he was involved. She stood up and started to walk away when he said something that made her stop.
“He said, ‘I think I’m their fall man.’ I asked him: ‘Fall guy for what? What are they trying to pin you down? What did they do?’ He didn’t want to say anything, ”Pastenes said. A few minutes later, Cox looked at her and said, “Either I’m a man of God or I’m not.” “
The next day, Cox was dead.
Pastenes told detectives she was unsure if Alex changed life insurance policies before her death, “but Lori would.”
True love or lies?
Pastenes shared with detectives that she, Cox, Chad, Lori and others closely associated with them often used code words in the conversation. “Pretty bird” was the expression used when it was not safe to speak and “not happy Bob” was the code for when things were going well.
She said after Chad and Lori got married they wouldn’t say where they were “for her protection” and Pastenes assumed they were in Utah when they actually lived in Hawaii. They constantly told her that she was special and needed to be taken care of before anyone else. Before she and Cox got engaged, Chad and Lori strongly encouraged the relationship. Chad gave her a spiritual blessing telling her to marry Cox so that her “mission could be accomplished”.
Pastenes told investigators that she loved Cox and that they spent hours on the phone discussing the scriptures. Cox “loved” Pastenes and she thinks the two were really in love.
“I don’t know if anyone could really pretend. If I didn’t love someone, I don’t know if I could be in love with that person as well. I couldn’t pretend. Maybe he could and if he could pretend he was a really good faker, ”she said.
Pastenes has spent a lot of time reflecting on the events of the past two years. She told detectives that if she had moved to Idaho, as Chad and Lori urged her to do, she is not sure she is alive today.
“I (see) now that they had a really nefarious plan to do something for me or Alex or that we were the last room to move to Rexburg and by the grace of God I didn’t move there.” , she said. “I dodged a bullet by not moving to Rexburg. Now more than ever I think… Was Alex real? Was he lying? Were they telling him what to do? Did he really have a relationship with me (or) was he just following what Chad and Lori were telling him? … I wonder if these people are crazy or if they are just ruled by evil.
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