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Plus, more insight, analysis, and content only for subscribers. When you really look inside these numbers. It's more context and clarity from the reporters you trust. Download the NBC News app now and subscribe for more. To get his first movie made.
Including tracking down legendary actor, director Robert Redford. Ed and I talk about how he built his career on his own terms. And the staying power of independent filmmaking. And of course I had to ask, what's the secret to his decades long marriage to supermodel Kristi Turlington. We talk about all of it.
I hope you'll join us for the drink. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcast. Tonight on Dateline. I never had anybody try to kill me before. Like was I scared sure?
I knew they killed somebody. But why? Why would they come for me? Someone just shot my window. That's one in my house.
Sorry, it's a little off-right. Muzzle comes out. Boom. Window shatters. I saw the bullet hole.
Good idea what? An inch away. Way too close. Way way way too close. I just was so worried about my brother.
My heart stopped. You realize there is some evil going on. You have any enemy? There's some crazy stuff that happened. We started to piece the things together.
It's like holy smokes. There's a pattern here. Demertering people. Demertering spouses. And you are one of those.
They're getting straight to where Brandon is. Your mind is racing like what do I do? A frightened father in the crosshairs. And a notorious killer behind it all. Yes, who?
You've been known as the Dunes Day Mom. Most hated mom in America. Good one, Keith. Your stomach just drops. All you can think about is aren't my kids safe.
How did he escape from the web of Mommy Dunes Day? I'm Lester Holt. And this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with Blindsided. Why him?
Him? Straight arrow? Quiet. I'll assume he got marked for death. Did you ever think you wouldn't make it through this?
Sure. That was really weird. When you wake up every morning and you know someone wants to kill you, it's a very different way that you live than most people. And when dead bodies began showing up, you just feel sick to your stomach. And you're just like this is not good at murdering more people.
His name is Brandon Boudreau. He is talking to us now because, finally, he can. But when it started? Where's your emergency room? Someone just shot my window.
So I was going to pull in. They lifted their back window. OK. It's our muzzle. They shot.
I don't know. I'm going to get you up. Do you think he's done? Wasn't safe at all. We've pissed off at you.
But you actually got shot right here. I just want to tell him. Sure, no problem at all. It's going to hit me now. He went underground, hiding with his four children convinced they all had targets on their backs.
They fled town to town, state to state, in a singular effort to stay alive. Instead, these sweet, Godfearing people. It's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. That's the only right word for it.
And when crazy becomes real, that's unthinkable. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Best to begin at the beginning. It was the very last day of the year 2007, a college just south of Salt Lake City, in the town of Orham, Utah. Utah Valley University, where two young people crossed paths for the very first time.
One, of course, was the man you just met, Brandon Boudreau. He was 22 years old. Had just completed his two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But same just an average person who tries to live their faith. I think there's lots of people like me in the world, you know, doing their best.
The other one, the young woman, was just 18. She was Mormon, too. And she had a curious story. She joined the Air Force. But within months, she failed to test and was allowed to leave.
Her name was Melanie Kope. How'd you meet her? We met at a New Year's Eve dance. I went with a bunch of buddies. I was kind of always the guy that could drive everybody home.
But happened to meet a girl there, dance with her. And just got her number. You know, it was a very casual thing when we first met. I was in a pager. You know, it's a mix of physical infatuation with each other.
And then as we spent time together, lots of little things clicked. Clicked all right. Maybe even something more for Melanie, at least. She was very like in love with Brandon from the very get-go. This is Jennifer Coons.
She describes herself as once one of Melanie's best friends. She's a little bit more of a wild child. Really? Yeah. She was a lot more wild than Brandon was.
Brandon's always been very like, you know, the best guy. And though Melanie seemed immediately smitten, Brandon said his friends needed a little push. This is Mark Bell. We were telling him, like, hey, you better smash this girl up. You lucked out.
Like, this is the one. Like, get this girl. And Brandon did. He and Melanie were young, yes, but that didn't seem to matter. Between the time you met and time you got married, how long was it?
Ten months. Ten months. Okay, so it was pretty quick. Yeah. Quick by most savings, right?
Within a year, Melanie was a mother. And then there was another. And another. And another. Two boys and two girls.
Brandon's sales business flourished. And the budroys moved from Utah to Phoenix, where they were enveloped in a big hug by Melanie's extended family. Her aunt Laurie, they called her Lolo, her uncle Charles, and the children they were raising. She was on Colby, daughter, Tiley, and an adopted nephew named JJ. What were they like?
As you got to know them. Wonderful. They were wonderful people. And we were as close as you can get, right? As extended family, we had lots of holiday meals together, lots of trips back and forth between each other's houses.
What you would expect out of a family that's close and loves each other. Two, one, say hi. Often the children played together. Little JJ became best friends with Brandon's older son. Laurie, no more.
I'm Tiley. Laurie and Tiley had talked to me and said, you know, you want to baptize Tiley and of course the answer is yes, right? And I was just lucky to get to go be a part of it. And I was grateful. But the relationship was about more than children.
Often Melanie spent hours and hours with Lolo. And Charles and Brandon, they became as close as two men could be with their happy families. They're successful businesses. We'd always end up in the old soul moments sitting there talking while all the kids are playing and we're just sitting there discussing the, you know, how lucky we were. How blessed we were that we had all this and it was running so smoothly.
It's what you imagine. When you imagine, like, what would a great life look like? By 2018, Brandon and Melanie had been married for 10 years, 10 happy years. And then one day he was with Melanie and oh, he had no idea. It was just, this is how it is.
There's no arguing about it. It had begun. She said that Brandon was involved in some very dark things. I was as care to be honest. Afraid for a reason?
Oh, yes. I'm really protective of my family and it's really hard for me to accept that it happened. Yes, many reasons to be afraid. Though what those reasons were? Sex, money and power.
That was really the driving motivation. About that, they had no idea at all. A decade after Brandon and Melanie, life was still very good. Very good indeed. We had a very comfortable life for sure, you know.
Trips to Hawaii or Gava or the Caribbean, a lot of trips to the Caribbean. Brandon's sales business in Phoenix that succeeded wildly too. I'm just some guy who knocked doors for a living, right? And then you're hanging out in these parties with celebrities. Like, I'm standing at a Taylor Swift concert with Shaq.
Literally next to me. I took a picture with him, right? Like, I met Mark Cuban, I went to his parties that they put on. Yeah. I mean, by all means we were blessed.
We were building a new house and things were good. Things were really good. But across town, things did not seem to be so good. People have some kind between Melanie's aunt Lolo and Uncle Charles. After 12 years of marriage, something was off.
Brandon didn't know exactly what. My initial response was like, love them both and kind of stay out of it and let them work through it or let them work to whatever the conclusion would be. You might have asked, might have offered to help, but Melanie made it very clear to me that she didn't want us to be involved in any way. And that was a hard thing for me, but it was what I felt like the right thing was because my wife was asking me she needs to come first. But events, strange events, terrible events.
Welcome over here. Did not wait long. So what's going on tonight? I can't get in touch with my kids. Perhaps you've seen this.
How old are your kids? The opening scene in one of the most disturbing stories we've told. She lost her mind. How the house is set? She took all the money out of her banking company.
In January 2019, Charles Vello. Yes, Melanie's uncle was that Charles Vello. Married to that, Lori Vello, had come home from a business trip and discovered he was locked out of his own house. Don't replace money in the house. Charles told the police that his wife seemed to have fallen under some sort of spell.
She said, you're not Charles. I don't know who you are, but I can murder you now with my powers. Has she been to the dark? She won't go to the doctor because she's a translator being and they would find out she's translated. She cannot be killed.
She cannot die. But Brandon knew none of that. There were strange events enough in his own house with his own wife, Melanie. Did you know she was going out to meetings with some kind? Yeah, I mean, when she came back, what was the way?
When she started being a little more religious and really wanted to talk to me more about faith and things like that, I got excited. You know, it was like, oh, this could be good. After all, Brandon had always been more religious than Melanie. But his excitement didn't last. In its place was confusion.
She started telling me like I'm going to go to the temple every day. It's open, you know, and going to the temple maybe once a month. Like is it a goal or is it really trying to get after it? Maybe once a week, but like every day is just a bit extreme. Maybe it's right.
It's abnormal. That's how I would put it. Not at all normal said Melanie's longtime friend Jennifer Coons. She saw this new Melanie developed on Facebook posts for sudden intense interest in the biblical end times. I really unlike the Melanie she knew.
It was a lot more extreme that she had ever been before. And so it was just weird. I never really mentioned anything to her because I don't want to make her feel awkward. Or you know, like I was judging what she was doing or whatever. But it was pretty strange.
Then in late June 2019, it was as if someone simply flipped a switch. The event? Brandon's grandfather died and Melanie announced she would not be attending the funeral. An argument ensued. And the new Melanie suddenly spoke as if it was some divine authority.
God said that I can reveal this to you now. And so then the very next thing she says is you hacked my aunt Lori's computer. I need you to admit this. You hacked my aunt Lori's computer? So this is what she says to me.
Yeah, and did you? Of course not. I mean that's why. Why would I care? But Brandon now knew where this was coming from and decided to make some phone calls.
I tell her I'm going to talk to Lori and to Charles because this isn't okay. In Tricon both, Lori never answered. Charles speaks up. Says you're right. You should have nothing to do with this.
I'm sorry. You're involved. But if Brandon thought this misunderstanding was Melanie could be cleared up quickly. He was in for a shock. What else did she accuse you of?
Eventually she came forward and said, you know, God told me that you're gay and we needed a divorce. Yeah. What's it like to hear that from the person you've been living with 10 years, have four kids with where in love with, felt closer to than anybody else on the planet. She's telling you God said we have to get a divorce because you're gay. I mean, your response is probably the normal life.
You're not personally invested in a response, which is just kind of laughing like a what? This doesn't make any sense. You know, mostly I was just devastated. Right? At this point, this was kind of the moment where I realized all this isn't just going to get better and there's something really wrong.
Deadly wrong. For him, maybe. Good luck. Certainly deadly for someone. June 25, 2019.
Then Blue Rose Head was spinning. One moment he thought Melanie was taking a deeper interest in their LDS faith. In the next, she revealed that God had spoken to her that told her he, Brandon, was gay. So it was just a sharp break like that. From you thought everything was okay and getting better too, I wanted a divorce.
Yeah, that was just a matter of hours. Won't she mean that decision? She made it clear that we weren't going to be alone in the same room ever again. Surely she would recant. Tell them that was all nonsense that their life together could be normal again.
But no, it was over. And is it to make absolutely sure there was no going back? Melanie fired off a missive to Brandon's family who had gathered for the grandfather's funeral at the time, including a sister Desiree and her husband Chandler. Like 11 o'clock at night, we got a group text from Melanie, which is very weird. Melanie did not group text us anything.
And it was just saying, please pray for our families and things have come to light. And we just were like, what? Like it was so out of the blue and it was late at night. So we were like, we'll just go to bed and figure this out tomorrow. That was it.
Yeah. So we didn't know what it was. We were like, okay, you know? And it wasn't until the next day I called my dad and found out what had actually happened. But which was what?
She accused him of being gay and us for a divorce. What do you think when you heard that? I was very surprised. That was not something I saw coming. So I was kind of like, do we have some evidence or something that supports this or like helping understand what is coming from?
Because for me, it was kind of an unbelievable accusation just knowing Brandon as long as I'd known him. And you have to remember like my grandpa had just died. So that week it was really selfish of her. Like we were already a mess. You were grieving.
We were a big mess. And then to throw this in on the mix of it, it was just really hard. Brandon must have been pretty blindsided by it. He was a mess. He was a mess.
Brandon also broke the news to a close friend and business partner. His name is Brandon too. Brandon Ewell. Here he is with his wife, Claudia. It was a pretty good shock.
The Ewells thought they knew Melanie knew all about her. They had traveled together. The kids played together and Claudia admired Melanie. She was a grandmother. They always trusted me with their kids and I always trusted them with my kids because Melanie, she was just great.
The ultimate compliment. I mean, this is the girl that you will look up to when you're trying to be. If you have an Instagram, I will be like a stock in her because she is the one that I wanted to be like her because she was very sweet, very spiritual and also always been kind to other people. So when Brandon told the Ewells why Melanie said the divorce was necessary, well, she had received revelation from God that he was gay. What did you think about that?
That was a joke. Yeah, I'm like, this is not real. I just don't think it was real. What do you mean? What?
He's like, yeah, I don't know what's going on with my life right now. And I was very sad for my friend. And it was sad to sad for what was sad, especially for his children. Man, I had such a desire to have my family stay, family unit. And I had such a, like I had spent my whole life building this unit, but in that moment, I was just emotionally overwhelmed and I was devastated.
But Brandon emotionally wrecked as he was. We're still a logical thinker. And the sequence of events was not lost on him. That is what was happening in his own life seemed a mirror image, somehow the marital weirdness that had been afflicting Charles Vallow and Laurie's husband. How long before it you made the connection?
That night, I recognized this is how Charles was feeling since January. Remember, for six months, Brandon had honored his wife Melanie's request to stay out of Charles and Laurie's marriage troubles. But what Brandon didn't know was that ever since that night in January, six months before, when Charles had called the police about Laurie's erratic behavior. She said, you're not Charles. I don't know who you are, would you give a Charles, but I can murder you now.
Charles had been, like Brandon was now, searching for a lifeline, a friend to talk to, and repeatedly reached out to Brandon by a text. Charles has texted Brandon read, call me please, is urgent. Please call me, please, please call me when you can. Please, Brandon, just need a moment. I won't bother you again.
Yet, Brandon had not received any of these text messages. Why? There's only one person who had access to my phone and got into my phone and blocked Charles. That would be his wife, Melody. As Brandon would later tell police, he found she had blocked all of his incoming texts from Charles for months.
Looking back now, knowing he was trying to reach you, knowing he was trying to communicate with you, probably needed a friend in that situation. What's that like for you? Yes, something way on you in the rest of your life. Can't go back and change it. So in late June, after Melody had made it clear that she wanted a divorce, Brandon finally picked up his cell phone and called Charles.
Tell me about that conversation. I just, yeah, I apologize to him. I missed Mark. I wasn't there enough for him. I could have done more.
I could have been better while he was going through this. And so I told him, and he forgave me and say, let me and say, let me and say, I understood it. And we talked through things and he reminded me how he'd been warning me that he even sent me a text that I didn't get because my phone was blocked. And he told me, hey, Lori's going to convince Melody that you're gay. That would be the last conversation Brandon and Charles would ever have.
Because in the next few days, Charles discovered Lori was cheating with a married man and contacted that man's wife and blew the whistle. And then Brandon got a phone call, like a cold hand around his heart. What was your first thought? I was just like, what? It was the height of a tour in Arizona summer, July 13, 2019, and Brandon Boudreau's life seemed to be falling apart.
It was two weeks after Melanie demanded a divorce. And just like that, Brandon was loading her worldly possessions into a truck and she was moving out of their dream home and into a rental. When he heard his phone. I remember it was kind of like I put on speaker phone because my face was so sweaty. Yeah, I just, Adam was calling me Adam Cox, Lori's brother.
And he said, they killed Charles. Just like that, they killed Charles. Yeah. What was your first thought? I think he's just going to shock a little bit.
Yeah. So I just, I was just like, what? He said they killed Charles, he shot him. It was true. In fact, it happened two days earlier at Lori's home in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler.
We've told you that part of the story before. The police were wearing body cams when they responded to the 911 call from Lori's house. You don't know what happened? Come on out this way. And encountered another one of Lori's brothers, not Adam, but Alex, standing in the front yard.
Yeah, but please, if I'm in anybody, I'm going to stop. Inside Charles, Valle, age 62, was lying dead on the living room floor. They've seen me get one subject down. I'm trying to tell them to just. They've been a bit late to Lori arrived.
How long you lived here? Like really? Oh, geez. And then she said. That's why they never said I was like, like, hi, never, sorry.
Very strange. Just like the story Lori told the police, which was that Charles had come to her house that morning to pick up seven year old JJ for school and was in a rage. And it's like being on the door. Right? There you go.
It was just really nice. It was really nice. It was really nice. But there was just no calming him down, said Lori. He's like acting really weird.
Like he's lying. He's like, anyway, he goes nuts. He's going nuts on us a long time. Goes nuts like yelling and screaming. Yeah, yelling and screaming.
So that woke up. Tiley, she said. Tiley was Lori's 16 year old daughter from a previous marriage. And so Tiley came out of her room. Upset.
And she had bat. And she told him to leave her mother alone, like, right? So she was really whatever. And she was really screaming at her. And then I brought her out with her.
That's Lori's brother, Alex, who was staying over. And here he is telling police he felt the need to protect Lori. All I heard was her say, don't touch me. And then him coming after her. And I shoved him back.
Okay. That's it. What are you doing? I'm your processor. In another room, Tiley was supporting her mother's story.
Tiley told police that Charles made a move for the baseball bat. He just grabbed it and tried to take it. So I held on to the end and eventually I fell and he kind of took it into his hands. Like he was doing something with it. Anything with me with a bat?
Quite a scuffle then, said Alex. What did you do? Did you go? I just want to start doing it. Okay.
Listen, this needs to come down. Alex picked up his 45-caliber handgun. What happened when you came out with a gun? So put that down. The only time you say you go and put the bat down?
Once. Once. Okay. And then he started with asking for a chance. He shot Charles in the chest.
Two bullets. Self-defense, said Alex. He was a yelling at me. And when Brandon heard that story that Charles had gone after Tiley with a baseball bat, preposterous thought Brandon. One of the attempts it was made was to make him sound like somebody was potentially violent.
Who would take a baseball bat and try to hit somebody, a child. If you knew him, you'd know there's no chance. That's all I would tell you. He wasn't a quick to anger guy. You know?
He was, I mean, you don't do sales and learn all of that patience and be very successful like he was for years and years and years without learning how to temper your emotions and work through them and be patient. In fact, Brandon was coming to his own conclusion about the shooting that it was an ambush. I think they just murdered him. I think he walked in the door and they shot him and killed him. Sure.
The story that they gave doesn't even make any sense. You never got a chance to say goodbye properly. But I did. I got a phone call. It's more than most people get.
But in the middle of a divorce himself and it's by the lesson he might have taken from the killing of Charles, Brandon didn't quite make the connection. The connection to his own mortality. Too far fetched. In that moment, did you get your mind around the idea that if that happened to him, I'm next. He'd scared.
I'd be like to just assume that someone was going to murder me. It's just a felt extreme, right? Scared, yes. A little bit of concern for safety. Yes.
I still knew in my mind I hadn't been doing anything that they were accusing me of. So some, what seemed logical to me at the time, I'd be fine if I just minded my own business and, you know, stayed away from the crazy people, right? All very well. Unless the crazy comes to you. Being on the door, he's acting really weird.
Like he's in my brother's house. After Lori Valas spun her story for police, Brandon Boudreau felt like he was sinking, falling into some weird, unfamiliar, netherworld. While their divorce was in the works, Brandon found himself exchanging the children every week with his now estranged wife, Melanie, who seemed an entirely different person. The people he had loved and trusted without reservation were quite suddenly strangers. And Lori had been treating her husband, Charles, like some satanic enemy.
And now Charles was dead, shot to death by Lori's brother, Alex. He came at me, put the back again, after he got me in the head, so I shot him to stop. And it seemed that nobody was doing anything about it. He considered calling the police. But it's complicated, right?
Because like, what do you know? When you think about it from a police perspective, right, they just only want to deal with facts and it's like, man, I don't have a lot of facts for you. Just a lot of conjecture. Besides, an unpleasant notion was beginning to grow in the very darkest corners of Brandon's mind. Maybe safer, please.
Yeah. Maybe a little bit lower. I think the real thing was I just didn't think that what I had was important. I still could have done it. I still should have.
But Brandon had just made a big commitment that might require not rocking the boat. He just sold his shares in his multi-million dollar business so he could bank the money and take some time and focus on his family. So he tapped down his suspicions, or tried to, and busied himself with the duties of a dad. He had to stay friendly, he figured. After all, he was sharing custody of his four kids with Melanie.
And with all four under the age of ten, he was an eye-opening experience. I was always a daddy to my mind, changing a diaper. That was easy enough. He started realizing, I don't know some of the things that these little girls need. And so you're trying your best to be the best dad you can be.
But for sure, you feel like you start trying to do your daughter's hair? You realize real quick, oh, I don't know how to do this. And it's not a skill I'm going to learn quickly. Oh, he did his best to keep life for his children as normal as seemed possible under the circumstances. How were they taking all of this?
Young kids are resilient. They can adapt quickly and change. But deep down, you don't know what you're doing to him. No. And then with his blessing, they go, they be with their mother.
This woman he didn't really know anymore. And those days, without his kids, said Brandon, he counts as some of the darkest of his life. You sell your business, you really have no job. You're facing all these situations. What was it like?
What was your mood? What was your emotional mental health? You're just doing your best. I chose to try to wake up and be positive. You don't always win.
You know? Some days you're... You've got a wall once in a while. Yeah, some days you're in the slog of it and you're just working your way through. And for a few months, that was what I was doing.
I was just working my way through. Just... Sure. You just wake up and you just try to move forward. No way to turn your back to somebody who's going to come gunny for you.
I never had anybody try to kill me before. You know? And I'd never even put myself in a position where I thought there was anybody who'd hate me that much. His friends and Big Extended Family tried to help. It felt mostly helpless.
He fell into something of a depression over that summer, didn't he? Yeah. Well, that's the thing is, it came out of nowhere. Even though all this is happening, like he's still loved her. So we're watching him grieve the marriage as he's trying to figure out how to figure out custody and get his own home and everything.
I was like, let's go to a movie because you're just depressed and you can just see... Just his whole demeanor was just slumped over just almost like a ghost, almost just got... We were watching Spider-Man at one point. Spider-Man kisses MJ. He just turned to the side and was like, holy smokes.
He is just destroyed right now. And then, late September 2019, with the separation complete with the divorce still in the works, Melanie asked Brandon if he'd take the kids a few extra days. Of course, he said happily. He didn't know, of course, that she was taking a trip. To see her aunt Lori, who'd recently left Phoenix with children JJ and Tyler, and moved to Idaho.
Didn't know that Lori's brother, Alex Cox, the man who'd shot and killed Lori's husband, Charles, had also moved to Idaho and lived in an apartment near Lori. Didn't have a clue that on October 2nd, Lori was caught on camera moving the back seat from a jeep she owned along with a spare tire and putting those items in a storage unit in Idaho. Didn't know Lori and Alex got the jeep's windows tinted. Didn't know the jeep would be caught on a license plate reader on the road to Phoenix, where Brandon lived. And almost certainly did not know why that very jeep was parked near Brandon's house.
For why, as Brandon watched, the back window opened and the muzzle of a gun appeared. Howard at stake, joined Savannah Gutter, Tom Yomis, and the NBC News team for election night coverage, with Steve Cornaki breaking down the numbers and exclusive analysis from our political experts, Tuesday night on NBC and streaming on NBC News Now. The midterms are just around the corner and it's sick to say there's been a lot of noise about the election. Well, now it's time to lock in. What's really on the ballot this November?
And what's really at stake? We'll get you up to speed on all of it. I'm NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Garrett Haig and every Saturday from now to Election Day, I'm hosting Here's the Scoop Election Edition. We'll talk to some of the smartest voices about the top issues that are going to define this election, for President Trump's influence to the war with Iran, to affordability and AI and politics. We're diving into all of it and what it could all mean for the direction of the country.
Join me every Saturday. Just search Here's the Scoop wherever you listen and follow now. Over the years, I've met people whose lives were changed forever in a single moment in my new podcast Before and After. I explore what happens after that decisive moment, personal, powerful conversations with Colin Kaepernick, Jeremy Renner, Gabby Giffords and others. Join me wherever you get your podcasts.
And to all episodes of Before and After with Lester Holt now, wherever you get your podcasts. It might not be too much to say that as October 2019 dawned, things were finally looking up in the life of Brandon Woodrow. In fact, on October 1, Brandon had finally closed the deal to sell the family home that he and Melanie had shared. October 1 is the day that the deal finishes. It's done.
I had divided up all the other assets and given a bunch of money. To Melanie, that is? That was kind of the final piece to that puzzle. And so on the morning after, on Wednesday, October 2, Brandon had an extra spring in his step as he left his house and got into his car, all four children went in. And then dropped them off at school, two older and then dropped my next oldest off at a preschool, and then my youngest at her mom's house.
Mom would be Melanie, of course. Remember, they were doing custody exchanges every week. And then Brandon went on with his day. No idea what was waiting for him. I go to the gym for an hour, hour and a half, then I drive from the gym back to my house and as I pull around the corner, I notice this jeep's parked awkward in a weird spot.
Alarmy? Not yet. But that jeep seemed familiar somehow. Had he seen it before? Why was it parked that way?
Back in and facing his house. As I pull up, I notice it's got a Texas plate. Southern recognition. The jeep. And what was this?
Windull is up. Muzzle comes out. Boom. Loud noise. Windull shatters.
And I think of someone shooting at me. He tells the story so nonchalantly now as if refusing to reenter the moment. But back then, in the moment, and so I just push the accelerator on my car and zoom straight instead of turning into my driveway. And as he sped away from danger, Brandon dialed 911. Someone just shot my window and I was pointing my house.
I drove away but I couldn't see them driving off. And I was trying to fooling my driveway. All right. A little off. Within minutes, a Gilbert City police officer showed up.
Right there. So what's going on? Someone shot my window out. Okay, give me a little bit more than that. Yeah, so I just pulling in.
Mm-hmm. I noticed the green Jeep Wrangler. They lifted their back window. Okay. I saw a muzzle.
They shot. Hit my window. And it's turning in. It's getting really bad. I wonder if you were shot again if you hadn't driven off an array.
Yeah, that's the kind of thing you think about. The jeep with a shooter inside. It disappeared from the subdivision. A search was on. More patrol units arrived.
Anyone who wants to can see all of my trauma in real time. Where were you on the car? He began to doubt. Maybe that shooter wasn't trying to kill him. Maybe it was some kind of prank.
I was thinking maybe it was just a people down or something. Because when I opened my door, the window shattered and fell down. But I couldn't see a bullet hole anywhere. So I was like, maybe I didn't get shot at. But then he saw it.
The door frame of his car. I think the point where I realized for certain I had been shot at was when I saw the bullet hole in the frame. How close did it come? A couple of times. It was right here in the frame.
My head was about the exact same height. Way too close. That's all I can say. Way, way, way too close. That's when I was like, oh, it was 100%.
Like someone was trying to kill me. Then your body just, I think the shock starts setting in and you go from the adrenaline to whatever else. And you start getting up one bite. I remember someone had to sit down. I couldn't even stand up anymore.
Brandon sat down on the sidewalk, started texting. One went to Mark. Mark Bell. I got a text message saying somebody just tried to kill me. I said, what?
He said, yeah, somebody just tried to kill me. And I said, what do you mean? Somebody just shot at me. He's like, I need you. So jumped in my car and headed over there and still in your mind you're thinking, this isn't possible.
Like what's going on? And it's not making sense. Before long. The two surrounded Brandon seemed to recognize that a serious investigation would be necessary. I don't know.
This definitely, I don't know. The detective should come up to me. So they asked Brandon the obvious question. You have any enemies? Any anybody that you?
I just want your divorce. There's some crazy stuff that happened with her and her husband. But I don't know. I would hope that has not been to do this. But as the shock diminished, a new certainty took its place.
And Brandon told detectives something different. Yes, he said. There were people who now that he thought about it, people who wanted him dead. Asap. And so would begin his life on the run.
And we're like Brandon, this is the only thing that makes sense where there's smoke there's fire. Oh, and speaking of smoke. Did you realize how astonishing this sound? I know. But I mean really astonishing.
Events thought Brandon Boudreau were more than strange now. They were frightening. So they shot, then what happened? Someone had taken a shot at him, missing his head by mere inches. Now even three months after Aunt Laurie's husband Charles Vello had been shot dead by Laurie's brother, Alex.
Brandon's worried family surrounded him. I can still picture his face like he just was in shock. His protective friends jumped in to support him. Since there's an attempt on somebody's life, that's when you realize there is some evil going on. But one person Brandon did not hear from.
Another word about this incident was the mother of his children. Did you hear from Melanie at all? About this? No. She didn't express any concern about you.
Like somebody shot at you? Or you okay? Didn't say anything like that? I guess I already been conditioned not to expect that out of her from everything else that had happened so far. Still, Brandon didn't deep down really want to believe Melanie's Aunt Laurie and Uncle Alex and Murg and had plotted to kill him, Brandon, or that Melanie had anything to do with it.
Even as his friends told him. I was like Brandon, this is the only thing that makes sense. Whether smoke, there's fire. But it did almost take some convincing because I think he also couldn't believe it all the way. He was already just so broken that something inside of him was also helping protect him.
And the thing was, as Brandon soon realized his friends didn't know the half of it. For instance, the timing of that attempt to kill him, it happened the day after the sale closed on Brandon and Melanie's family home. And why was that significant? That sale, along with a whole life insurance policy still in effect on Brandon, made his life worth a few million dollars. Able to, Melanie.
There's not a better time. It's going to be the maximum amount of money you can get. That's the best day ever if you're going to get the most money you can for a situation, which is heartless and emotionless and super scary. But Brandon had just moved. So how would the shooter know where to find him?
It hit like a rude awakening. Melanie had sent him a text asking, what's your new address? And he told her, told her, and almost no one else. In our divorce degree, we had agreed that any time we changed, we let each other know. So, she's the only person besides the people who helped me move.
We know where my house is because I didn't tell anybody. And he thought about that Jeep with a Texas plate, the one the shooter fired from. He knew that Jeep. It belonged to Melanie's aunt, Laurie. He was all but sure it was Alex he saw in the Jeep aiming that rifle at him.
And he knew Alex had already killed Melanie's uncle, Charles. It all seemed to lead straight back to Melanie. Did you have any doubt that she must have known? At that point? For me personally?
No, of course not. Investigators in Gilbert called Melanie in for an interview. She denied knowing a thing. Didn't know who shot at Brandon. Although she did admit being close to Laurie.
That was that. The police snagged her and then her go home. Where a few days later it was time to exchange custody of the kids. Again, Brandon was to pick them up at Melanie's place. I was very, very concerned about picking those kids up.
I mean, that's how they killed Charles. Wasn't sure it was an exchange. Brandon thought it smelled like a setup for another attempt in his life. He asked Melanie to change the meat location to the police station. She refused.
They met in a park, steps from her home. I've really got to lean into figuring out how do I work with law enforcement to get them caught for the thing that they did. So I think a lot of what starts to occur is you're just mind just racing trying to figure out like what do I do. But when he collected the kids, Brandon enlisted his friend Brandon Ewell to come along. I usually have a firearm in my vehicle.
Did you think at the time I might have to use this gun? I was prepared for the worst hope for the best. How comfortable were you about that, Claudia? Nobody comfortable at all. I even asked him, I say, does he not have any other friends that can go help him?
Because we also have younger kids. But he's like, you know, he said like Brandon really needs us. In the end, the custody exchange was uneventful. But a week later, in October, Melanie sent Brandon a text that would take this strange tale in a new and even weirder direction. I get this bizarre text that says that she's moving Taito and I can keep the kids.
Just like that. Just red flags, right? The brand that it felt like Melanie was quite prepared to abandon their kids. Though she did offer him a choice, keep the kids in Arizona or send them the I-Doh. To him, it amounted to the same thing.
Melanie was ready to ditch her own four children for the sake of whatever awaited her and I-Doh. Like no one would say this about their kids. Like you can just have the kids, I'm just moving to a different state and I'm just abandoning my kids. What did it say to you that she was suddenly moving to Idaho? Honestly, I didn't even know how to process it.
It was just, oh my gosh, something else is up. I gotta get so custom my kids and I gotta get us somewhere safe. To gain so custody, Brandon needed a new attorney. When he found one, the attorney dropped the shocking news. Brandon and Melanie's divorce was not yet final.
The person we paid to file the divorce papers hadn't even filed them yet. And so he kind of explained how the law works and that either of you can take the kids and now return to the other person. And once everything's filed and you have a pattern for how you resolve disputes, it's not filed yet. Your fault is just parents, neither of you can have a domestic kid. So just take the kids and run.
Once they run, I would just take the kids and keep them safe. You know, there's a difference. Running implies that you're the one that did something wrong. Brandon took his kids and left Phoenix to stay with a sibling. And while he was there, he went through his old emails.
The emails Charles Valle sent him before he was killed. I'm just going through every little detail, every crumb that Charles left me, right? And one name jumped right at him. This guy who had never heard of his name was Chad Debel. Chad Debel?
Who was he? He typed his name into Google and it pops this obituary for a Tamara Debel. You're going to realize this is his wife. And it just says she dies, doesn't say how. And I'm sure I sounded like a crazy person but like, he'll Charles, try and kill me.
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Coming soon, wherever you get your podcasts. Listen now. Late October 2019, with his divorce from Melanie now complete, Brandon Boudreau thought he had uncovered another murder. He was sure of it. So he called the Gilbert Arizona Police, told them about this guy Chad DeBell, whose wife Tammy had just died of an idol.
Both Chad spouse and Lori Velos spouse were now dead. As with Brandon's attempted murder, Gilbert police weren't immediately sure what to make of Brandon's claims, but they did follow through and call Idaho about the death of Tammy DeBell. She'd done. She had already passed when her husband called in. They just kind of looked at her and I was advised in the family to refuse to not stop me.
Refused and autopsy? That didn't look right at all. Brandon started calling around to check in on members of Lori's family. Like Tylie, Brandon had baptized the girl. Now, he worried about her, especially when she didn't answer his calls.
He couldn't know, of course, but it already happened to Tylie. Anyway, just then solving a murder took second place to avoiding his own. Melanie, who weeks before, I told Brandon he could keep the kids in Arizona, while she moved to Idaho, had apparently changed her mind and posted on Facebook a $10,000 reward for help to find him and the children. Pernoyah kicks up to a whole different level at that point. Did you take any steps to protect yourself?
You know, I bought my first hand gun. Melanie's post made it clear that she and her uncle Alex were still hunting him, and in his mind, Alex was looking for another chance to shoot him, and Brandon didn't know where they were. Brandon hired a private eye, this man. Rich Robertson, Brandon's story spilled out of the PI as if from a fire hose. Did you believe all this stuff?
Well, not entirely. You just never know. Some people have tried to hire private investigators as an alibi. I didn't know if maybe he had done something to her and was hiring me to make it look like he was a strine finder. There's all kinds of scenarios in your mind.
If I was him, that's probably how I would feel. But no matter, Robertson took the case and drove over to Melanie's last known address. Then what do you know? Soon found Melanie and Alex moving clothes and such into a U-Haul. In between loads, but just slipped up there and popped up to the GPS unit on the bottom of that U-Haul.
A tracker. A tracker. That's how I was able to keep track of them for a couple of days. Soon, Melanie and Alex showed up at the home of Brandon's friends, the U-Hools, who had been helping him take care of the kids. Claudia U-Haul was pulling out of the garage when she saw a car, parked at the curb, a bald man behind the wheel, and standing in her driveway, Melanie.
My heart stopped. Claudia quickly made a decision to act like this unannounced visit by Melanie was nothing unusual, but... She said, I'm here to become my kids. And they said, what do you mean? The kids are not here.
And she says, the spirit told me that my kids are here. The spirit told me? Yes, and I thought... The Holy Spirit. Yeah, the Holy Spirit told her that the kids were at my house.
And immediately for me, I was like, oh my heavens, this is not gonna be okay. Claudia went into the house and yelled for her husband. Melanie joined her inside. How was she behaving? As if she was angry or did she behave like your friend or a stranger or what?
Stressed out, very troubled. Melanie asked the ewos if they knew where her ex-husband Brandon was. When they said they did not, she said this. That Brandon was involved in some very dark things. It's better for you do not get involved.
She said, if you guys know what's good for you and your family, it's like... Do not get involved. Wait a minute. If you know what's good for you and your family, don't get involved. It sounds like Mophie talk or something.
Yeah, it was a fella, like, for us. At that moment, we just barely scared. Guys are hiding my kids, like, it's not gonna go good for you. It became clear to the ewos that Melanie wanted to search their home for her children. Claudia was telling Melanie the truth that the butro kids were not there.
But she didn't tell Melanie that they had been there. And very recently. My biggest fear was, like, if she would have found something like a toy from the kids, there was actually this teddy bear that one of the boys always carried everywhere he goes. And that teddy bear was upstairs. So I was like, if she really finds that, she's gonna know that we're lying to her.
I was like praying that she would not notice. And then, quite suddenly, Melanie seemed to change her mind. She did not go upstairs, but left the house to rejoin the bald man in the car. And I went to the car. I asked, so who's that? Who's that?
And she said, that's my uncle. Uncle Alex, of course, Alex Cox. And the uncle didn't even, like, he didn't even look at me. He didn't even acknowledge me. They drove down a couple houses.
And they stayed there for a long time. And I'm just, I'm sitting in my driveway in a beach chair. Watch it. Stand there. I mean, I stayed awake very late into the night watching.
Maybe they thought they were gonna catch the kids coming in or out or something or, I don't know. Later when they called Brandon and described the man in the car, there was no doubt said, Brandon. That was Alex. That's the guy that shot at me. So you need to know that.
Pretty spooky stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So Melanie and Alex were still looking for Brandon, still looking for the kids. And the P.I.'s tracker was about to show something alarming.
One month after the attempt on his life, Brandon Boudreau was hiding. Hiding with his four children from Melanie and to Uncle Alex, the one with a gun. He felt like as long as Alex and Melanie were in Phoenix, he needed to put some distance in their for his own protection and the kids. Brandon had taken refuge 10 hours away at his parents' house in American Fork, Utah, just south of Salt Lake City. Seemed like a safe choice.
Until the P.I.'s tracking device showed Alex and Melanie heading north straight for Brandon. Did somebody know that Brandon had taken the kids up there? Are they headed straight to those kids? And what would happen if they went and showed up where Brandon was staying?
As the U-Haul sped toward American Fork, P.I. Robertson contacted law enforcement. Just compiled all the information I had on the vehicle, the license plate, who was driving Melanie and Alex's information. And I put all this into a report that we were able to give to the American Fork, Utah Police Department and let them know what was going on. The P.I. called Brandon, too, of course.
What'd you do with the kids? How'd you keep us safe? I didn't know for certain that they had my parents' address, but I knew that if they had my parents' address, that they didn't know where my sister lived. So I sent my kids over there. And I stayed there just in case of my parents' house because I figured it was better.
Just me than my kids. Brandon's sister desirated her husband Chandler at night. Suddenly had a house full of children. Was there any concern in your mind that they might be targets? Yes.
Like, I just was so worried about my brother, about my nieces and nephews. And even as I talk about it, it brings back some of the stress that I felt because it was such a hard and scary time. Then Melanie and Alex suddenly stopped at an exit 20 minutes from Brandon's parents' house. At that point, I think the parent way hits the peak for me, pacing, you know, waiting, expecting a knock any minute. I just waited, waited, waited.
I don't know how long it was if you want the honest truth to keep them maybe 30 minutes an hour. Then eventually I got a text that they were moving again. Getting closer and closer. But then they drove right by. They drove right straight through.
They went right through the middle of Salt Lake and kept head and north. Never stopped. What happened inside your stomach when you saw them? It was like everybody's just sigh of relief. The PI relayed the news to Brandon.
I started calming down a little bit. Brandon brought his four kids back to his parent's house. Read easy for a week or so. Until... 911 was the act of the emergency.
While Brandon was out and his mom was watching the kids' Melanie showed up. Although she ditched the tracker, Brandon saw her on doorbell video. And he called police. Melanie left. She didn't know the kids were here.
She tried to find my son and kids. Minutes later, Brandon arrived. Unlike the two-city ones. Talk to kids. And then two days later, she was back.
Officers, I have a legal of D.D.H. Just to get my kids to have been held out of state. Melanie showed up again, tried to push her way into the garage, demanded to see if her kids were safe. My kids are, I'm worried they're in danger because my husband's been doing a lot of things that caused me to worry. So officers went inside and checked.
They are safe and they're taken care of. So we're not going to go and go to the house. Then the officers noted somebody sitting in a car on the street nearby. Wasn't that car what yet? No, Alex.
Alex, car. Uncle, Alex, the shooter. Yeah, you're right. Here, an officer approaches him. Alex is calm, cooperative, and unruffly.
That's all? Pretty good, dude. Not bad. You guys come all the way from Arizona. Oh, where are we coming from?
Idaho. Oh, Idaho. That's right. Do you live in Idaho? Yeah, I just moved up there.
So you're going to be receiving citation from criminal trust pass? Initially the police decided to give Melanie a ticket. Then they spoke with their down to the station. And before long, they changed their minds and upgraded the charges. Okay, so things have changed a little bit.
Okay. Your criminal trust pass is enhanced to domestic violence. Can't say I work. Because you were in domestic relationship. You had in-laws there.
You trust pass. You entered the garage unlawfully. So we're actually going to be taking you into custody tonight. So I'm just going to need you to go ahead and stand up, face away from me, push your hands back. All right.
Let's go ahead and have a seat in there. All still nearby was Melanie's uncle, Alex. Fox it. You'll leave this with you. Melanie, will you go into the U-Talk county jail tonight?
Alex posted bail before dawn and Melanie was freed. Eventually, she pleaded no contest to criminal trust pass and got a suspended six-month sentence. But Brandon knew now that Melanie and Alex had been to his parents' house. It wasn't over. Now, more people I love, more people I don't want anything bad to happen to.
And I'm putting all this extra pressure on them. You know, now they're in there. What if my dad has to do something that's one of you or my mom? Only one thing to do. It was drastic.
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Commonwealth confidential, the Sandra Birchmore case. Download the podcast today. Watch full episodes on the NBC 10 Boston YouTube channel. Brandon Boudro felt like a fugitive, hunted by his ex-wife, Melanie, and her uncle, Alex. The guy he was sure had already tried to kill him.
And when they showed up at his parents' house in Utah, he warned his family. He was about to vanish. He just said, I need to get somewhere where I don't have to feel that stress that they're always going to show up. He was so paranoid and I've been rightfully so. So Brandon threw it dark at the map and flew with his children ages 9, 6, 4, and 2 across the country to Florida.
I was on the run from people who might be able to figure out where I was. And he revealed his location only to his parents, siblings, attorney, and the Gilbert police detective back in Arizona. A long time friend and business partner, Mark Bell, was in the dark. I had no idea where he was and that's how it was supposed to be. He wanted to vanish.
You know, we moved around wherever we needed to. Stay in hotel. Airbnb's, I tried to never have anything in my name, no, railcar in my name. I mean, I was trying everything. There were, of course, some issues.
Like, what to tell the kids? Yeah, I still weren't doing vacation. When we talked about where Mom was, it was just a she's visited some friends. We all missed her. We'll see her again soon.
But it helped with the kids and their questions that Brandon's mom and two sisters flew out to help as the little family hopscotched around the deep south. It was a family affair. It was. One thing I can say about us, we take care of each other. So, Brandon's youngest sister, Danie, was a kindergarten teacher at the time.
So she played the role of the fun at the first day was there. I took an easy my nephew to Disney World and I took my nephew for a full day in Universal. I bought coloring books and board games, whatever I could do to just ease his burden and help take care of his kids. It sounds like a kind of a sweet time that week. Sweet time is what I call it, but it was a time.
Thanksgiving 2019 approached a couple of weeks after Brandon had gone underground with his children. He got some good news from the detective working on his case back in Arizona. Investigators had found the Jeep, the one believed to have been involved in Brandon's attempted murder and in what came as a surprise to no one, the Jeep had been traced to a town 900 miles from Phoenix, Rexburg, Idaho. Traced to this apartment complex where Laurie Valle, suspected shooter Alex Cox and Laurie's niece Melanie, AKA Brandon's ex-wife, all lived in separate units and where the police knocked on Laurie's door as you can see in this body cam footage. Laurie and with ten of all police department, are you young?
Laurie said she was new in town. I had to move around a lot when my brothers tried to tell me. Kill her for her life insurance money, she said. Wasn't true of course, but she told the police that was why she was being a bit dodgy. So I don't tell people the truth about where we are and what we're doing because of those reasons.
So I look like a suspect, but I'm a good person. Oh boy. Laurie soon learned that detectives weren't just looking for that Jeep. They were also looking for Laurie's children, Tyler and JJ. JJ's grandmother had reported she hadn't had any contact with him since Laurie moved the children with her to Idaho three months before.
They just told Brandon that Lawrence would be served at Laurie's apartment the next day. They got those warrants and so we were like fingers crossed, like it's going to help. It's going to do something. But when a SWAT team arrived the following day, they go in and guess what? Everybody's gone.
That'll just disappear. Laurie was gone. There was no sign either of Tyler or JJ. It was just kind of par for the course. You kind of get used to being disappointed.
But clearly the ground was shifting. In the following days, detectives told Brandon that his ex-wife Melanie had gotten remarried. To a man she had just met weeks before. Very shocking. It was within a month I think of our divorce.
Melanie's marriage was related to a cult-like group called the Church of the First Born. Run by that guy whose name Brandon had come across in those emails from Charles, Chad DeBell. Chad who was now Laurie's husband. Chad and Laurie seemed to be on the run. A nationwide alert would soon be issued for Tyler and JJ.
And Brandon was told that the body of Chad's wife Tammy would be exhumed and autopsyed. It's just kind of a wave of like, they're good for change. You know, like you're going through like just trying to keep your head above water and you're like, oh, some good things are happening. Like, there is some hope. Then King McCall from the Gilbert Police Detective.
It was about Melanie's uncle Alex. Alex Cox. He tells me he got some news. Alex is dead. And I say, who?
So Alex Cox, who we believe shot at you, he's dead. Dead. And quite surprisingly given the events enumerated in this report of natural causes. So was Brandon safe now? He and his four kids?
And what about Melanie, their mother? What would become of her? Answers. We're coming now. Strange.
Terrible. Take it away. Very, very good. As the calendar flipped from the worst year of Brandon Boudreau's life into the new year, 2020, Karma finally began to catch up. Good Karma, that is.
A judge awarded Brandon temporary sole custody of his four children. And after the sudden death of suspected hitman Alex Cox, their life in hiding, popped scotching across the south. That all could finally end. And the family was back home in Phoenix. And one day, when the Karma was particularly auspicious, Brandon encountered her.
Her name is Jenny. So one of my dear friends was marrying one of his dear friends. I was one of the bridesmaids. He was one of the groomsmen. So they paired us up to walk down the aisle together.
And that was the beginning of the end. Jenny lived more than a thousand miles from Phoenix. So for months after meeting, she and Brandon were only together by phone. It was enough against her better judgment. Jenny fell in love.
Did it occur to you? I have allowed myself to get close to somebody who, you know, maybe tied up with the wrong kind of people who want to shoot other people. Maybe you want to sink twice about this. Absolutely. But let me tell you, when you meet a man like this, he's hard to let go of.
He is, even through all these hard things. By the end of January 2020, some of those hard things were over. And one day, Jenny and Brandon were spending time together in person when they saw this. Chad, where are Lori's kids? Listen, just tell people what's happening.
There's people around the country. Lori and Chad, J. Bell had been found in Hawaii. But there was no sign of Lori's kids, Tyler and J.J. There's people around the country praying for your children, praying for you guys.
Why don't you give us answers? Here these two are off just gallivanting around in the sun, you know, and enjoying their lives, as if there's nothing that's happened. And finally, you get to see somebody asking the question. Can you tell me where your kids are? And with that, the shroud of mystery around Chad, Lori, and this group, Chad had christened the church of the firstborn.
We began to melt away. Where are your kids? You remember the story? How Chad, a small-time author of End Times Fiction, met Lori at a meeting of like-minded believers back in late 2018. Well, Lori was still married to Charles.
And convinced her she was a goddess who'd been his wife in previous lives. And in this life, Chad told Lori, their mission was to bring together 144,000 true believers for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Oh, and Chad decreed, they also had to fight off evil spirits inhabiting people in their own families, including Chad's wife Tammy, who an autopsy show died of a six-year. And of course, Lori's husband Charles, who'd been shot to death. And now, with Lori's kids, Tyler and Jay Jay missing, everyone was fearing the worst for them too.
Less than a month after these scenes, Lori was arrested for refusing to produce the children, and was flown back to Idaho, held on a million dollars bail. Not long after, Brandon's ex-wife Melody and her new husband Ian sat for an interview with us on Dateline. She denied being part of any cult and defended her aunt Lori. Remember, Melanie had moved to Idaho and lived next door to Lori for several weeks after the divorce. Did you ever see Tyler and Jay Jay?
When I moved up there, I did not see them. Did you ask? Where are they? I'd ask Lori. You know, I wasn't close with Tyler.
During her teenage years, she was very independent. So if Lori said that she was with friends, I just believe her, I didn't ask for other questions. He had to wonder. I just have a lot of trust for Lori. She's always done her thing to protect her kids.
And I have to wonder if she doesn't trust authorities or the court system. You realize how astonishing this sounds? I know, but… I mean, really astonishing. Sure. I understand that.
But the bottom line is I don't know what I don't know. Will we see Jay Jay entirely again? I absolutely believe so. I hope so. Hmm.
Brandon and Jenny watched Melody on Dateline 2 in disbelief. I couldn't believe she did it. And it made me sad for Brandon and sad for these extra bonus kids of mine who I love, because one day they will see it and be disappointed. Well the search for the children went on. Brandon and Jenny planned a wedding.
And then one day before they were to walk down the aisle, they saw this. It looks like there was an area of focus in the back yard. Authorities had finally found the bodies of the children, just outside Rex Bergato, buried in the property of Chad Digbell. When you found out those kids have been buried like animals in the backyard, what did that do to you? You knew those kids.
Well, you baptized Tyley. What was that like? It's miserable. Like there's no good words for it. It's miserable.
It's terrible. You grieve. That's all you can do. Difficult? Sure.
How did that affect your wedding day? You can only imagine. You know, this is a day that's supposed to be filled with joy and anticipation. Our hearts were heavy. That day.
But the wedding went on in Provo, Utah, with Brandon's four children and Jenny's two standing up for their parents. And when the day after, dawn? I woke up in the morning and I just told her I said, hey, I feel like we need to drive up to Rex Berg. Brandon and Jenny visited the burial site to pay their respects. And Brandon volunteered to identify Little JJ's body, so the boy's grandfather wouldn't have to.
It's an unfortunate side effect of a situation like this, is that someone has to do that. And so I just said, I'll do it. What was that process of like, of identifying the kids? It's terrible. I don't know what else to say.
I'm grateful that everybody else has his memories. That's all I would say. There would soon be opportunities for answers for Brandon to face the people who had tried to kill him and in an unbelievable twist. To be questioned on the witness stand by Laurie DeBell herself. Mr. Boudreau, you and I met in 2009, is that correct?
Justice grinds slow, as they say, and Brandon Boudreau and his wife Jenny were marking their third wedding anniversary. By the time Idaho prosecutors were finally able to put Laurie and Chad DeBell on trial, the charges murder and conspiracy. Children JJ and Tyler and Chad's wife Tammy were killed for the basis of reasons, said prosecutor Rob Wood. This was about sex money and at some level some degree of power. That was really the driving motivation for the case.
Tammy, the life insurance. Yes, and there were social security funds for Tyler and JJ. Chad viewed those children as obstacles to the life he wanted. So Chad wanted them out of the way and Laurie needed money. My name is Brandon Boudreau.
Brandon testified at both trials and it was that trial that he learned Chad had declared two of Brandon's children dark, possessed by evil spirits. Some of those Chad declared dark aren't around anymore. In fact, not lost in Brandon. What kind of person is that? That's what you ask yourself.
How could you think that about children? The Idaho trials ended with convictions on all counts. Laurie received three consecutive life prison terms. Chad, the death penalty. My feelings were that we needed to keep everybody else safe so the only option was to keep them in prison the rest of their lives.
A year later in Arizona, Laurie was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for the killing of her fourth husband Charles Vallow. And then finally in June 2025, it was Brandon's turn. Laurie went on trial for trying to get him killed. Gene Brangler. Prosecutors showed the jury that security camera video recorded the day of the shooting.
Laurie and Chad putting a tire and a rear seat from a Jeep Wrangler into a storage unit to make room for the shooter, Alex Cox. And then the day after the shooting, there were Laurie and Alex removing those same items from storage and loading them back into a vehicle. There was also evidence in the Jeep that was used in the shooting. Gunshot resident and Alex Cox's DNA. And there were witnesses who testified that cell phone calls linked Alex, Chad and Laurie to the shooting conspiracy.
My name is Brandon Woodrow. For Brandon, the strangest moments came when Laurie, acting as her own attorney, questioned him on the witness stand. So we've known each other a long time? Is that correct? A long time getting a lot of different things.
Your heart's just racing when you start and then you just try to breathe, calm. And we always had a friendly relationship, you and I? Is that correct? I wouldn't say always. Who's the beneficiary on October 2nd on your policy?
Melanie Woodrow. Were you trying to have him charge Melanie with your murder? Object to relevance. Sustain. No more questions, Your Honor.
When all the testimony and arguments were finished, the jury came back. And seriously to the men, first of the remurder, guilty. At Laurie's sentencing, Brandon gave an emotional victim impact statement. I choose to forgive Laurie for myself so that I can be able to be a better father to those children I described. But I have never seen any remorse or acknowledgement from Laurie.
The judge sentenced Laurie to two more life prison terms. And then it was done. Or was it? Because at Laurie's final trial, prosecutors referred to Brandon's ex-wife Melanie as an active member of the conspiracy to kill Brandon. But Melanie has never been charged with any crime.
But as Brandon sees it. I think it's pretty clear anybody can put the pieces together, whatever level she wants to claim. There's no way she wasn't involved in it and up participate in what was going on. The lack of charges doesn't sit well with Brandon's friends and family. It's all crap that pisses me off, it makes me sad.
I think that people have dropped the ball to be honest. How is she not in trouble? How is she still out? So about that, we asked this woman. Well we've never received a submittal to charge her.
She is Rachel Mitchell, the elected Mary Cobra County attorney. And the one who would ultimately make the decision whether or not to put Melanie on trial. If the police submitted it to us, we would definitely review it to go over everything we could and then make a charging decision as to whether we should go ahead with that. You can't charge her until the Gilbert Police Department decides to recommend that she be charged? That would be unusual on our part.
It's telling that it has not been submitted to us for charges whether there's a feeling that it's too circumstantial. I don't know. What too much time has passed for charges to be laid? What would you say to that? I don't believe too much time has passed.
Obviously in a conspiracy to commit first degree murder, you don't have the statute of limitations concerns that you do in other cases. Would you encourage the Gilbert Police Department to take another good close look at this? You know, I don't guide what the Gilbert Police Department does. If they choose to do that, I certainly am open to reviewing it. So we asked the Gilbert Police Department about that and the PD would say only this.
Quote, we can confirm that this investigation is currently active. End quote. We also asked Melody for a statement regarding her alleged participation in the conspiracy to kill Brandon. Through her lawyers, she declined to comment. But in past court filing, she's denied having anything to do with the shooting and said she would never put her children in harm's way.
So right now, Melanie has not faced charges in the attempted murder of Brandon and she might never face charges. Is that something you can accept if nothing ever happens? You've already had to. I mean, that's the way life works. We have a system and I've got to follow the system.
Which included this. In 2020, Melody filed for a custody reevaluation. And after a court appointed evaluator recommended that Melody and Brandon share custody of their kids 50-50, Brandon decided not to fight it. So for now, Brandon pays child support to the woman he's convinced tried to have him killed. And he and Jenny drop off the four kids, now age 17, down to 9, every week with Melanie, who lives about a mile away with her husband Ian.
We see her occasionally sporting events. Yeah, occasionally at a sporting event or a play or... What happens in here when you see her show up? Yeah, we just... You find your space, you give each other space and you just...
Ignore and pretend. Avoid conflict. That's the way I put it. Said Brandon, but go. People are going to go through hard things and we can move forward through those hard things.
And you can create a new family, pick a family, and if it doesn't work the way it was supposed to, you can heal and then you can go create a new one and you can make something better. And you can make something even more beautiful than you imagine. And that's the blessing that I get. Keith is I get to make something more beautiful than I imagine. That's all for this edition of Dateline.
And don't forget to check out our Talking Dateline Podcast, in which we'll go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the Dateline feed, wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again next Friday at 9. 8 Central. Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News.
Good night.