‘Loved her children’: Idaho attorney says vaccine reaction, not mom, killed twins
A Boise attorney representing an Idaho mother charged with murder in the deaths of her 18-month-old twins says that the children died as a result of reactions from vaccinations and that the woman did “absolutely nothing” to harm her boy and girl.
Joe Filicetti told the Idaho Statesman in a phone interview Wednesday that Andrea Renee Shaw did not suffocate her children — an indictment and the Payette County prosecutor alleged that as being how the children were killed — but rather the fraternal twins died days after receiving vaccinations for Hepatitis A, DTaP and influenza.
“I’ve not seen one shred of evidence from the prosecutor. We’ve not received discovery. I did get a copy of the grand jury indictment. It indicates smothering or suffocating,” Filicetti told the Statesman. “We also believe the babies died from suffocation — more than likely that’s the mechanism of death in this particular reaction — but there’s absolutely nothing my client did to injure her children.
“She loved her children, and the fact that both of them died is a tragedy. To compound that with charging her for two counts of murder is just almost beyond belief, and we will defend it just like that.”
After her arrest on June 30, Shaw was arraigned July 2 on two counts of first-degree murder, and her bond was set at $2 million by 3rd District Magistrate Judge Robert L. Jackson, according to court records.
She was taken into custody five days after a cesarean birth, Filicetti said, and Shaw’s husband, Nathaniel, is caring for their newborn child.
Payette police were originally called to the Shaws’ home in the 1300 block of North 9th Street in Payette on May 1, 2025, in response to a 911 call about a child death, according to a May 2025 Facebook post from the Payette Police Department.
When officers arrived, they found fraternal twins Tyson and Dallas deceased in a shared bed, the release said.
Days after the twins died, Nathaniel and Andrea Shaw appeared on a streamed show for Children’s Health Defense, a controversial group started several years ago by current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that has gotten in hot water for inaccurate claims about vaccines and other health issues. It says on its website to be fighting for a “world free of childhood chronic health conditions caused by environmental exposures.”
During the interview, the Shaws said they told their pediatrician before the vaccinations that some of Nathaniel’s relatives had experienced reactions to the flu vaccine.
“They said despite the fact that you said there are issues on the father’s side, the pediatrician still said it’s OK to vaccinate these babies with the flu shot,” Andrea told CHD.
The children fell ill the next day, Andrea said, and she took them to a hospital emergency room.
“I was kind of in disbelief that just so quickly, within a matter of 24 hours, the kids have went from perfectly happy-go-lucky, active babies to looking like they were dying,” Nathaniel told CHD.
Andrea Shaw is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit brought by Children’s Health Defense against the American Academy of Pediatrics, according to court records.
Filicetti refutes the claim that his client is an anti-vaxxer.
“My client was getting all the vaccines for her children according to the vaccine schedule, and then there was a problem, and both of them died,” Filicetti said. “They’re eating together. They’re sleeping together. They’re getting dressed together. They took the vaccines together, and then they both died.”
Shaw is scheduled to appear in district court for an arraignment hearing on Tuesday, and a motion filed to reduce her bond also will be considered.
This story was originally published July 9, 2026 at 12:19 PM.
