An Idaho mother has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder more than a year after her 18-month-old twins were found dead inside a Payette home. Andrea Shaw, 23, was indicted by a Payette County grand jury on June 29, 2026, and arrested the following day in Boise, according to local police and Idaho news reports.
The case began on May 1, 2025, when Payette police responded to a report of a possible deceased child at a residence on North 9th Street. When officers arrived, they discovered two toddlers dead in a shared bed. Authorities later identified the children as Dallas and Tyson Shaw. From the beginning, investigators said the deaths were being treated as suspicious, with foul play suspected, though officials did not immediately release a cause or manner of death.
In the days after the twins’ deaths, Shaw and her husband appeared on a podcast produced by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine organization, where Shaw suggested the children became sick and died after receiving vaccinations. Those claims drew public attention, but police continued investigating the case as a potential homicide rather than closing it as a medical event.
For more than a year, the Payette Police Department kept the investigation active while withholding many details, including the children’s official cause of death. Local reporting stated that investigators continued interviews and evidence review while the case remained open. By early 2026, police were still publicly describing the matter as active and said foul play was suspected.
The investigation eventually led to a grand jury indictment against Shaw on two first-degree murder counts. Police said she was arrested without incident in Boise and was being held in the Ada County Jail while awaiting extradition to Payette County. As of the latest public reports, it was not immediately clear whether she had entered a plea.
Shaw’s attorney, Joe Filicetti, told KTVB that he believes the twins’ deaths were vaccine-related, but the outlet reported that he did not provide evidence supporting that claim. He also said Shaw had recently given birth to another baby prematurely. Authorities, however, have not publicly released the medical findings that led prosecutors to present the case to a grand jury.
The case now moves from a long-running death investigation into a criminal prosecution. For investigators, the central question is no longer only how two toddlers died in the same bed, but what evidence persuaded a grand jury to accuse their mother of murder. Until more court filings are released, the public record remains limited: two children are dead, their mother is charged, and the cause of death has not been publicly disclosed.
