A mother blames vaccines for her twins’ deaths. She is now charged with murder.

An Idaho mother who said her twin children died after receiving routine vaccinations has been indicted by a grand jury on murder charges, with authorities accusing her of suffocating her children.

Andrea Renee Shaw, 23, who became an outspoken anti-vaxxer after her twins died in May 2025, told Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccination nonprofit founded by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that she believed the shots were to blame.

She eventually became a co-plaintiff in the nonprofit’s lawsuit against the American Academy of Pediatrics, alleging that the association engaged in a fraudulent scheme with major vaccine manufacturers to mislead the public about the safety of childhood vaccines. The lawsuit states that Shaw’s twins died from a severe reaction to the vaccine they received eight days earlier.

“I wish I could have tested them more,” she said in a video interview with Children’s Health Advocates at the time of their deaths. She described finding twins Dallas and Tyson lying in the same bed, cold, lifeless and showing signs of rigor mortis. “They looked like they were asleep,” she said.

Last week, Shaw was arrested and charged with the murder of her child. The indictment alleges that she “premeditatedly and maliciously” suffocated her 18-month-old son and daughter or used severe battery.

She is being held in jail on a $2 million bond following a grand jury indictment. Shaw’s defense attorney, Joseph Filicetti, has filed a motion asking the court to reduce her bail to $100,000. If convicted, Shaw could face life in prison or the death penalty. Her next court date is July 14.

Payette Police Chief Gary Marshall said the arrests followed a “lengthy and thorough investigation” by the Payette Police Department. A spokesman for the department declined further comment.

In an interview with Children’s Health Defense, Xiao said local police accused her of “postpartum amnesia” that led her to kill her child.

Felicetti, who was reached by phone Wednesday, said his client is innocent. “Our explanation is the vaccine and that’s what our experts will testify about,” he said.

Mary Holland, chief executive of Children’s Health Defense, said Shaw tried to warn her pediatrician about a family history of adverse reactions to the flu vaccine. “All parents deserve to be heard when they raise vaccine safety concerns,” she said.

According to the civil lawsuit, the twins received hepatitis A, influenza and DTaP vaccines, including diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines, during an 18-month wellness visit at their pediatrician’s office in April 2025. There is substantial evidence in the scientific literature demonstrating the safety of these vaccines, including when given separately or together.

“There is no evidence that vaccines given to children cause choking,” said Dr. Daniel Salmon, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who is not involved in the nonprofit’s lawsuit or Shaw’s criminal case.

In the Children’s Health Defense lawsuit, Shaw said she took the twins to a local hospital the day after they were vaccinated. The twins suffered severe symptoms, including blue lips, lethargy, diarrhea and sunken eyes, according to the civil lawsuit. Court documents say the emergency room’s attending physician recorded their diagnosis as a “post-immune reaction.” About a week later, the twins died.

Filicetti said Children’s Health Advocates would not financially support Shaw’s efforts to protect the state, and he did not yet know whether the organization’s experts would be invited. He said defense experts would include doctors “familiar with vaccine reactions.”

The CEO of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who is being sued by an anti-vaccination nonprofit, said he has asked the court to dismiss the civil lawsuit.

CEO Mark Del Monte said this is the nonprofit’s latest campaign to address “the use of scientific evidence in vaccine recommendations by pediatricians and the AAP.” He said its claims had “no basis in reality.”

Write to Alex Janin at: alex.janin@wsj.com