In 2019, a bullet came within inches of Brandon Boudreaux’s head when someone opened fire as he arrived at his home in Gilbert, Arizona.
The shooting revealed a murder-for-hire plot prosecutors linked to Lori Vallow Daybell. They said Vallow recruited her brother, Alex Cox, to kill Boudreaux, who was going through a bitter divorce from Vallow’s niece, Melani Pawlowski.
Boudreaux is now sharing his account of what happened.
On Oct. 2, 2019, Cox allegedly fired from a parked Jeep Wrangler as Boudreaux pulled his Tesla into his driveway. Boudreaux noticed the Jeep’s rear window open just before the shot rang out. The bullet hit the driver’s-side door and shattered the window.
Police named Cox as the suspected shooter soon after the attack. He died in December 2019 before he could be charged.
An Arizona jury found Vallow guilty in June 2025 of conspiring to kill Boudreaux. Two months earlier, a different jury convicted her of conspiring to murder her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, whom Cox shot and killed in July 2019.
Those convictions followed Vallow’s 2023 trial in Idaho. Jurors found her guilty of murdering her children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, and conspiring to murder Tammy Daybell, the former wife of her husband, Chad Daybell. They also convicted Vallow of grand theft for collecting Social Security benefits meant for her children.
Boudreaux recounts his experience in his new book, Unthinkable. He first wrote it for his four children, hoping they would have a fuller picture of what the family went through and why he made certain choices.
“I’m sure I made mistakes,” Boudreaux said. “I wanted them to have the information, in case it helped them find some closure or understand things a little better.”
He also wanted to explain how his faith helped him through the experience, while leaving his children free to find their own beliefs.
“I want them to understand their dad and why he made the choices he did,” he said. “Maybe that will help them understand themselves, too.”
Boudreaux decided to make the book public after sharing the manuscript with people close to him. They encouraged him to publish it, he said, believing others might find it meaningful.
He waited until the legal proceedings had progressed before speaking openly, concerned that sharing details too soon could affect the investigations.
“I wanted to testify with a defense attorney there,” he said. “I felt more comfortable waiting and letting that process happen first.”
Now, with the proceedings largely behind him, he felt it was time to share his perspective.
During Vallow’s Idaho trial, Boudreaux testified that his marriage to Pawlowski broke down in 2019 as she became closer to Vallow. The couple filed for divorce that July and later disputed custody of their children.
A 2020 custody filing in Maricopa County Superior Court said Pawlowski believed a “dark entity” or demon had possessed Boudreaux. The filing also alleged that Chad Daybell told Pawlowski something needed to happen to Boudreaux to advance his spirit and the Lord’s plan.
Pawlowski has not been charged in connection with the shooting.
Boudreaux remarried in 2020. He said the shooting, the divorce and the continuing fear that someone might still be looking for him made it difficult to trust people.
“After someone has shot at you, and you feel they may still be looking for you, you’re naturally going to have trust issues,” he said.
He said the attention has sometimes been uncomfortable, though most people he encounters are kind and respectful.
Boudreaux declined to discuss details of the shooting investigation, saying he wanted law enforcement to handle it.
“I encourage them to keep investigating,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about the investigation. I’ll leave that to them.”
The Gilbert Police Department has confirmed that the investigation into the 2019 shooting remains active.
Boudreaux hopes readers come away from Unthinkable with a sense that people can find meaning and help others, even after difficult experiences.
“I hope people see that everyone has value and that everyone can help someone else,” he said. “Just because something hard happens in your life doesn’t mean you have to respond in a particular way.”
