Could Lori Vallow's niece Melanie be charged, according to Dateline's Brittany Morris?

Brittany Morris said prosecutors identified Melanie as an active member of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell's conspiracy, but she has never been charged. The Gilbert Police Department has an active investigation, and any charge requires sending the case to Maricopa County prosecutors for review. Maricopa County already returned a Gilbert police case against Chad Daybell as not strong enough to take to court.

• Gilbert police could keep investigating and resubmit, and prosecutors could still decline.
• Melanie's lawyers did not respond to Dateline's request for comment.

▸In their words

“We know there's an active investigation in the Gilbert Police Department” Brittany Morris · at 25:21 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Dateline NBC (2026-10-28). Read the whole episode summary →

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