Inset (left): Andrea Shaw (Ada County Sheriff's Office). Inset (right): Tyson and Dallas Shaw (GiveSendGo). Background: News footage of the trailer park in Payette, Idaho, where the Shaw twins were found dead (KTVB).
An Idaho mother who woke up to find her twin toddlers dead has been charged with their murders.
Andrea Shaw, 23, was arrested in Idaho's Ada County on Tuesday, more than a year after she called for help upon finding her 18-month-old twins, Tyson and Dallas, dead in their shared bed. Following a grand jury indictment, Shaw now faces two charges of first-degree murder in connection with their deaths. Local ABC affiliate KIVI reported that Shaw openly blamed vaccines for the twins' deaths and appeared on an anti-vaccine podcast, saying the twins had received routine vaccinations days before she found them dead on May 1, 2025.
The Payette Police Department told local NBC affiliate KTVB at the time that they were investigating the twins' deaths as a homicide and suspected foul play.
According to a press release by the Payette Police Department posted after the twins' deaths, officers responded to a trailer park in Payette, Idaho, at 11:30 a.m. on May 1, 2025, after receiving a call about "a possible deceased child." When they arrived at the home, they found both twins dead in a shared bed.
Payette Police Chief Gary Marshall told KTVB at the time, "It's extremely unusual for two infants to be found deceased and be believed to have passed at the same time, so there's a lot of unanswered questions that we have right now." He said an autopsy was set to be conducted on both twins, but results from that autopsy were never made public.
In a fundraiser posted to GiveSendGo, a family member of the Shaws wrote that Shaw and her husband brought Tyson and Dallas to a pediatrician for a routine visit on April 23, 2025, when they received vaccines. The next day, both twins fell "extremely ill," and Shaw and her husband brought them to the emergency room. An attending physician said the toddlers might be having a reaction to the vaccines. The family member wrote, "The twins were treated with Tylenol and popsicles and the family was sent home."
A week later, the twins reportedly began to improve but were still "lethargic" on April 30, 2025, when the family went to the park "for a moment of normalcy and fresh air." One of the twins went to bed early, while the other one stayed up longer.
The next morning, Shaw allegedly discovered that they had both "passed away in their sleep."
Weeks after Tyson and Dallas died, Shaw and her husband appeared on a podcast presented by Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine organization associated with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Shaw's defense attorney, Joe Filicetti, told KIVI, "I'm not a doctor, but the doctors I've consulted say that it's a vaccine-related death." He provided a similar statement to KTVB, which requested documents that supported his and his client's belief that the twins died as a result of a reaction to vaccines. Filicetti did not provide any such documents. He noted to KIVI that prosecutors "don't have any proof of suffocation or cutting or shooting, and they certainly don't have any motivation."
The grand jury indictment is currently sealed, and police did not provide any details about the twins' official cause of death. When Shaw was arrested, the Payette Police Department stated that it would not provide any further details while the case is pending in court.
Shaw is currently in custody at the Ada County Jail and is expected to be extradited to Payette County to face murder charges. Her arraignment is scheduled for July 14.
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