'It's pretty shocking': Virginia mom, 4 kids found in Plainfield after nationwide manhunt

The Virginia woman who sparked a nationwide manhunt when she disappeared with her four children nearly eight months ago is now in the Hendricks County jail, facing allegations that she abducted her children, violated a court order and filed a false police report.

Melody Bannister of Henrico, Va., was arrested shortly after 2:30 a.m. Wednesday by members of the U.S. Marshal's Office and Hendricks County Sheriff's deputies.

The 34-year-old was taken into custody at a gas station in the 6000 block of Cambridge Way in Plainfield on an outstanding warrant from Stafford County, Virginia. Police said the four children were found safe inside Bannister's car and are now in the custody of the Indiana Department of Child Services.

Bannister’s capture and arrest is the latest chapter in a months long interstate custody battle with her husband and children’s father, William Joseph Bannister.

Melody Bannister left her family home with her children, ages 13, 12, 10 and 7, after she reported to police and child welfare officials that at least two of her four children had revealed to her that they were being molested by their grandfather and his friends with their father’s blessing.

The mother, who chronicled her life on the run through an online blog since shortly after her disappearance in June, received help from a mostly underground network of benefactors and a growing number of supporters on social media. A Change.org petition titled “Save the Bannister children from sex trafficking” had nearly 46,000 signatures by Wednesday night.

“It’s pretty shocking,” Melody Bannister’s Alabama-based family law attorney Sam McClure said of her capture late Wednesday. “Right now my focus is to make sure the children remain safe."

Melody Bannister was at the Hendricks County jail late Wednesday, where authorities say she will be held until she is extradited to Virginia.

According to the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia, police began investigating Melody Bannister in June after she reported that her children were being abused. Police say they conducted a joint investigation with child protective services and determined that the allegations were unfounded.

A judge in Virginia granted custody of the children to their father the next month.

By then, Melody Bannister was already on the run with her children.

In Alabama, she began working with McClure, who had her evaluated by nationally-known Beverly Hills forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Carole Lieberman. Lieberman, whose past cases include the Terry Schiavo appeal, evaluated Melody Bannister and her children.

Lieberman's report said she found the abuse claims credible. Melody Bannister had petitioned the courts there for custody of her children as well, but an Alabama judge ruled that the children should be returned to the father.

McClure appealed , but an Alabama appellate court by Wednesday had not ruled on the petition.

“Her arrest is going to have a terrible influence on other mothers whose children have been abused,” Lieberman said in a phone interview Wednesday, later adding of her children: “If they were to be sent back, worse could happen.”

According to Lieberman’s report, two of the Bannisters’ four children reported being taken to their grandfather’s home at night while their mother was asleep and being molested by their grandfather and his friends inside the grandfather’s barn.

William Joseph Bannister’s attorney, Mary Elizabeth White, said on Wednesday she’s spent most of her career protecting children from allegations of abuse but is representing the father in this case because she doesn’t believe there is any evidence that abuse occurred in this case.

“If you can find any piece, any scintilla of evidence that this occurred, I would be off this case in a heartbeat,” she said. “But I don’t think there’s any truth to this at all. I believe my client. I’ve believed him all along.”

While McClure on Wednesday said he hoped child welfare authorities would put the Bannister children into foster care in Indiana while they look into the abuse allegations, White said their father headed to Indiana Wednesday with the expectation that the children would return to him.

“I got a text from him this morning saying ‘I’m going to get my kids,’” she said.

Call IndyStar reporter Justin L. Mack at 317-444-6138. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack.

Call USA TODAY network investigative reporter Daphne Duret at 561-820-4790. Follow her on Twitter: @dd_writes.