Lori Vallow, the mother of two missing Idaho children, briefly appeared in a Hawaii courtroom on Wednesday before her expected extradition to Idaho and a scheduled court appearance in the state on Friday.

Joshua "JJ" Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, have been missing since September. For the past three months, Vallow and her new husband have been living in Hawaii with no sign of the missing kids.

Online court records show a status hearing on the case was held Wednesday morning on the island of Kauai.

Kauai prosecuting attorney Justin Kollar told a judge that Idaho authorities would be returning Vallow to the state later Wednesday. Vallow is charged with felony child desertion charges, misdemeanor contempt of court and other charges.

Defense attorney Craig De Costa said Vallow should not be questioned without an attorney at any time during the trip.

Vallow has been in Hawaii since early December, and weeks earlier, she married Chad Daybell in a beach ceremony, police said. Their wedding came two weeks after Daybell's wife of 30 years died under circumstances police say may be suspicious.

A court in Idaho ordered Vallow to bring the children to authorities in Rexburg, but Vallow missed the deadline in January.

The 46-year-old mother was arrested Feb. 20 on Kauai. Her bail remains at $5 million, despite her attorneys' efforts to have it lowered.

Officials from Joshua's school and two property owners in Hawaii were recently subpoenaed to appear in an Idaho court March 9 and to produce documents connected to the family.

Joshua was last seen Sept. 23 and his sister Tylee on Sept. 8. Police in Rexburg said Vallow has not been cooperative with the investigation despite potentially knowing where the children are or what happened to them.

"We strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee's lives are in danger," the Rexburg Police Department said in a statement in December.

The case is tied to suspicious deaths across multiple states and allegations of cultlike religious beliefs centered on near-death experiences and the apocalypse.

In a probable cause affidavit, investigators said the last known trace of Tylee was photos in Yellowstone National Park with her brother, mother and late uncle, Alex Cox. Joshua was last seen at his elementary school in Idaho, according to the court document.

Authorities first learned the children may be in danger when Joshua's biological grandmother, Kay Woodcock, alerted police that she had not heard from the boy in months.

When police performed a welfare check on the boy in Idaho, investigators say Vallow and Daybell lied about the boy's whereabouts. Police returned the next day, but the couple had fled.

Rexburg police announced in December that the children were missing and also said they had exhumed the remains of Tammy Daybell, Chad Daybell's wife, to perform an autopsy.

Police said that Chad Daybell received at least $430,000 in proceeds from a life insurance policy after Tammy died.

The death of Vallow's brother, Cox, is also under investigation. He was found unresponsive in Arizona in December.

Months earlier, Cox fatally shot Charles Vallow, Lori's ex-husband, in what he said was self-defense. The incident occurred in Arizona, where Lori Vallow and her children were living at the time, but police said the case was still being investigated as a homicide before Cox died.

According to the East Idaho News, Charles Vallow had a life insurance policy worth $1 million. When Lori called his insurance company shortly after his death, she learned Woodcock had been named the beneficiary. Woodcock and Charles Vallow were siblings, and Woodcock's son is Joshua's father. Charles and Lori Vallow adopted Joshua, who has autism, in 2014, according to court documents.

Friends and family have said Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell held divergent religious beliefs.

In divorce papers, Charles Vallow said Lori believed she was "a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020."

Daybell has written dozens of books focusing on near-death experiences and the end times.

In a 2017 autobiography, he described experiences of being visited by spirits of deceased relatives and visions of "the decline and downfall of the United States" and an "upcoming foreign invasion of America."

Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter: @RyanW_Miller.

Contributing: Joel Shannon, USA TODAY; The Associated Press