Stafford woman, children found safe in Indiana; charges filed

A Stafford County woman who abducted her four children in June 2019 was
arrested early Wednesday morning in Indiana with the assistance of a U.S. Marshals Service Task Force.

On February 12, 2020, at approximately 2:30 a.m., detectives with the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office and members of the U.S. Marshals Service located Melody Bannister, 34, of Stafford and her four children in a vehicle at a Speedway gas station in Plainfield, Indiana.

The arrest followed a five-month-long joint investigation and a nationwide search for Bannister and the children. The children have been identified as Genevieve Bannister, 13; Janelle Bannister, 12; Vivienne Bannister, 11; and Peter Bannister, 7.
The children were found safe in the vehicle and were turned over to the Department of Child Services.

They are in the process of being reunified with their father. Bannister was wanted out of Stafford County on a felony charge of violation of a court order,
four misdemeanor abduction charges, and a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report.

She is currently being held at the Hendricks County Jail in Indiana.

The investigation began in early June 2019 when Bannister informed deputies that her four children were being abused by a family member, according to the Stafford sheriff’s office.

A joint investigation with Stafford County law enforcement and Child Protective Services determined the allegations were unfounded. Shortly after the conclusion of the investigation, Bannister left Virginia with the children on a planned vacation and never returned.

In July 2019, the children’s father petitioned the Stafford County Juvenile Domestic & Relations Court for custody of the children. The courts issued an order granting the father custody, according to the Stafford sheriff’s office.

Bannister refused to return the children and subsequently petitioned the courts in Alabama requesting custody be issued to her there, according to the Stafford sheriff’s office.