PAYETTE, Idaho — More than a year after 18-month-old twins were found dead inside their Payette home, their mother has been indicted on two counts of first-degree murder.
On May 1, 2025, Payette Police responded to a call of a possible dead child around 11:30 a.m. and arrived to find twins Dallas and Tyson Shaw both dead in a shared bed. A family member had found the twins and called 911. Investigators said at the time they were treating the case as a homicide with foul play suspected. Autopsies were conducted the following day in Ada County.
PRIOR COVERAGE | Payette woman charged with first-degree murder in 2025 death of twins
On June 30, 2026, a Payette County Grand Jury returned an indictment charging 23-year-old Andrea Shaw with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths. Boise Police located and arrested Shaw without incident. She was housed at the Ada County Jail pending extradition to Payette County.
Defense attorney Joe Filicetti has been working with Shaw since a couple of days after the incident. He said he has been to the funeral for the twins and has visited Shaw in custody.
WATCH: Defense Attorney questions murder charges in the case of 18-month-old Payette twins found dead
Filicetti said the twins were born 3 months early and spent time in the NICU before coming home. Shortly after the twins received their vaccines, Shaw took them to a St. Luke's pediatrician when they became sick. Filicetti said the pediatrician diagnosed them with a post-vaccine reaction at the time.
"If a mom was intending to kill her kids, why would she be taking them to the doctor?" Filicetti said.
He said Shaw repeatedly sought medical care for the twins in the days leading up to their deaths. The night before they were found, she had contacted the doctor's office to report that they were not doing well. That night, he said, they appeared to turn a corner — and the next morning, when she checked on them, they were dead.
Filicetti said he believes the case is medical, not criminal.
"I'm not a doctor, but the doctors I've consulted say that it's a vaccine-related death," Filicetti said.
He said the prosecution has not presented evidence of suffocation, cutting, shooting, or any clear motive.
"They don't have any proof of suffocation or cutting or shooting or, and they certainly don't have any motivation. There's nothing that the kids were doing where the mom was tired of the kids. The mom loved the kids. Both the parents love the kids," Filicetti said.
Days after the twins died, Shaw appeared on a program produced by Children's Health Defense — a nonprofit advocacy organization known for opposing vaccines. In that interview, Shaw said she believed the vaccines the twins received days earlier played a role in their deaths. Filicetti said he was familiar with the organization through prior vaccine-related litigation and that there is also a pending civil lawsuit related to the vaccine claims, separate from the criminal case.
Filicetti called the first-degree murder charges "brutal" and questioned why prosecutors chose to present the case to a grand jury rather than a preliminary hearing — a process that would have allowed both sides to present expert testimony.
"You can indict a cucumber because there's no defense attorney. There's no one asking critical questions," Filicetti said.
He said he was not notified before the indictment was returned, which he said is typical of the grand jury process. He said he has only seen a copy of the arrest warrant and does not yet have the full indictment.
"They're not going to end there, I promise you," Filicetti said of the charges.
Filicetti also described the emotional toll the case has taken on Shaw. She recently gave birth to a baby girl before her arrest, and the newborn spent a night in the NICU after being born 3 weeks early.
"She had a little girl, and she's breastfeeding. She had a C-section, so she's in jail post C-section," Filicetti said.
He said Shaw has been in the area for 14 months since the twins' deaths and never attempted to flee, and called the $2 million bond excessive.
Filicetti said Shaw trusts the legal process will ultimately produce the right outcome.
"She's in the system. She trusts that the system is ultimately going to come out with the right verdict in this case, and she's not going to be convicted of either of these," Filicetti said.
He asked the community to keep Shaw in their thoughts.
"Just pray for her. I mean, as a community, this is brutal. I think she's not rightfully charged, and we have to go through this system to prove that," Filicetti said.
Authorities have not publicly linked vaccines to the case or released details about the evidence presented to the grand jury.
Shaw was transferred from Ada County custody to Payette County, where she is expected to be arraigned on two counts of first-degree murder. The next hearing date has not yet been set.
