The mother of 18-month-old twins who claimed her children died as the result of routine vaccinations has been charged with their deaths. Andrea Shaw, 23, was arrested June 30 in Boise after having been indicted on two counts of first-degree murder by a Payette County, Idaho, grand jury. Shaw is alleged to have deliberately suffocated the twins.
Shaw told police that she found her son Tyson and daughter Dallas, dead in the bed they shared on May 1, 2025. At that time, police said the twins’ deaths were being investigated as homicides, but did not release Shaw’s name.
Shortly after the twins died, Shaw and her husband appeared on a podcast and claimed the children died as the result of routine vaccinations they received during a well-child visit a few days earlier. The podcast was produced by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccination organization that was once led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is currently secretary of health and human services. An article based on the podcast is still featured on the Children’s Health Defense website.
Shaw is also a named plaintiff in a lawsuit the Children’s Health Defense has filed against the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The complaint claims the AAP played a central role in defrauding American families about the safety of vaccines for decades. The complaint brings civil RICO claims and cites prior RICO litigation against tobacco industry trade associations as a model. That litigation found non-profit tobacco trade associations to be liable for decades of fraudulent health-risk denials.
Shaw was arrested by Boise police without incident and appeared virtually for her July 2 arraignment. She is being held on a $2 million bond and is expected to appear in Payette County District Court July 14 for a hearing on whether her bond should be reduced. Shaw’s attorney claimed the fact she gave birth to another child by C-section on June 25, which was three weeks premature, should be considered when setting her bond. The attorney said that Shaw maintains her innocence.
Deaths Treated as Possible Homicides
The twins’ parents say they were treated as suspects early in the investigation. However, following Shaw’s arrest, Payette police said in a press release that they would not be providing additional information on the case before trial.
In her podcast appearance, Shaw said she had been interrogated by police regarding the deaths and that the officers contended they had died by asphyxiation. The Children’s Health Defense lawsuit said local police had appeared on television implying wrongdoing and that the family moved from Payette after receiving death threats.
According to the lawsuit, prosecutors had theorized that Shaw caused her children’s deaths through a postpartum blackout or that their house was too hot. It added that the criminal investigation was a foreseeable consequence of the “AAP’s fraudulent safety claims” because parents are blamed when the medical system has been told vaccines can’t cause serious injury or death.
During Shaw’s arraignment, her defense attorney said the twins’ deaths were the result of a medical issue and not a crime.
Shaw Claimed Twins Ill Following Vaccinations
According to the article posted to the Children’s Health Defense website, the twins had received most of their routine vaccinations. However, during their 18-month visit to the pediatrician on April 23, 2025, Shaw and her mother-in-law told the doctor that their father’s family had a history of bad allergic reactions to the flu vaccine. She was told they would be OK, and the twins were administered vaccines for the flu, hepatitis A, and DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis).
Shaw claimed that the twins were not OK the next morning. She explained that they had blue lips and were lethargic. Shaw and her mother-in-law then took the children to the emergency room and were told the twins were having a bad reaction to the vaccines. The children were given Tylenol popsicles and told that if the twins could eat them without throwing up, they could go home. The children finished the popsicles and went home.
For the next week, the twins experienced nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fatigue, Shaw said. On the morning of April 30, Shaw claimed that she tried to get a walk-in appointment with their pediatrician, but was told none were available. A nurse suggested a diet of bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast.
On the morning of May 1, Shaw said she went to wake the twins up, found them to be cold, and called 911. Shaw and her husband claimed that when police arrived, they treated them as suspects and began interrogating them.
No court has yet decided whether Shaw is guilty of the charged offenses, and she is presumed innocent unless and until proven otherwise. Likewise, the vaccine-related allegations in the Children’s Health Defense lawsuit and in the podcast remain unproven claims by the plaintiffs and are contested by public health authorities.
