Preliminary hearing set in Valen murder case

Friends of Jodi Valen have been setting up memorials at the home where her body was found.

John Valen, 34, of Mountain Home, was arraigned on second-degree murder and first-degree arson charges after being released from the hospital last Friday, where he had been treated for smoke inhalation.

In a brief appearance before Magistrate Judge John Sellman Valen was assigned a public defender and ordered held on $2 million bail. Monday, after meeting with his attorney, public defender Ed Frachiseur, during another brief court appearance Sellman ordered Valen to appear this Friday, March 18, to face a preliminary hearing in the case.

That will be the first time Valen will have an opportunity to enter a plea in the case, where authorities allege that he murdered his wife of two months, Jodi Lynn Valen, 37, the former Jodi Prather, the evening of March 5, by stabbing her to death, and then setting fire to her body and their home at 114 N. 8th East St. in Mountain Home.

During Friday's hearing the state will lay out the outlines of its case against Valen, and, if Sellman believes there is sufficient probable cause, he will be bound over to the district court for eventual trial. It also is possible that Valen's attorney may simply wave the prelim, in which case he would be automatically bound over to district court and the prosecutor would not present the outline of his case.

Valen, a 12-year veteran of the Air Force, was a senior airman who worked as a weapons loader at Mountain Home AFB. He had been assigned to the base three years ago.

Firemen, who had responded to a call from neighbors of smoke pouring from the Valen home, initially found Valen standing in the smoke-filled, locked two-bedroom house, and later found his wife's fully clothed but burned body in the bathtub of their home.

Authorities allege that she had been stabbed repeatedly and then, after her death, set on fire. There were four other points in the house where fires had been set as well. Two dogs also were found stabbed to death in the home.

But beyond those basic details, authorities are keeping a lid on their investigation at present. A set of 40 questions submitted by the Mountain Home News last Friday were returned by the county prosecutor's office Monday with a blanket "no comment" to all of them.

Meanwhile, the investigation is continuing in the case and authorities are still asking anyone who might have any relevant information about the circumstances surrounding the death of Jodi Valen, or the state of mind or nature of the relationship of the couple, to call the Mountain Home Police at 587-2101.

Outside the Valen home over the weekend friends of Jodi Valen began erecting impromptu memorials, placing flowers and stuffed animals in the fence of the home, which is still surrounded by yellow police crime scene barrier tape.

Her family will be holding private memorial services soon, but they have released no details concerning that or any other aspect of her life.

If Valen goes to trial this year, it will be the third murder trial in Elmore County in a year. Each murder case typically costs the county about $200,000 to $300,000 to prosecute and defend a suspect.