Who is Melanie Gibb?

Melanie Gibb was Lori Vallow Daybell’s former best friend. According to Gibb’s testimony in Vallow Daybell’s murder trial, the two became close in 2018.

She initially entered the Vallow Daybell case in a charging document when Vallow Daybell was arrested in Hawaii in Feb. 2020, after she had been ordered to bring her missing children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, to Madison County and failed to do so.

The charging documents state that when questioned, Vallow Daybell told police that JJ was with Gibb in Arizona. Police asked Vallow Daybell to call Gibb because they couldn’t get a hold of her. Vallow Daybell said Gibb wouldn’t answer because she had taken JJ to see “Frozen 2,” which was proven later to be a lie.

Gibb took the witness stand on April 13, 2023, and was questioned by Idaho prosecutor, Lindsey A. Blake. Just over a year later in the trial of Chad Daybell, Gibb took the stand on April 18, 2024.

Gibb detailed a trip to Rexburg, Idaho on Sept. 22, 2019, where she stayed with Vallow Daybell. Tylee was last seen earlier in the same month.

Gibb said Vallow Daybell and Daybell believed people had a “light” and “dark” scale, and a person’s position on the scale was determined before they came to Earth. They believed a light person could become dark, and under that circumstance, the couple would perform what they called a “casting.”

A “casting,” meant that the two would pray for an evil spirit to leave the dark person. If they were successful, either the person would die or a new spirit would enter their body. Gibb testified that she did not understand the castings would mean violence.

In her second testimony, Gibb said she was awoken one day while staying at Vallow Daybell’s home. Vallow Daybell told her to leave because Charles Vallow, her then-husband, was coming home and was going to try to kill her. Vallow Daybell told Gibb that her brother, Alex Cox, would protect her.

Vallow was killed by Cox, which he told police was in self-defense. It was later ruled a homicide.

During a trip Gibb took to Rexburg, she stayed at Vallow Daybell’s house in Tylee’s room. She noted that there was not any clothing present in Tylee’s bedroom, just furniture. Charging documents from Vallow Daybell’s arrest stated she told Gibb that Tylee was attending classes at BYU Idaho. Authorities later confirmed Tylee had never been enrolled.

Gibb said at that point, she was previously told by Vallow Daybell that Tylee was “dark”, and that JJ had “become dark.”

Gibb and her boyfriend stayed in Vallow Daybell’s Idaho townhome the night investigators believe JJ was murdered, on Sept. 22, 2019. Gibb said she was recording a podcast inside Vallow Daybell’s house when Cox walked in the door with JJ asleep on his shoulder. It was the last time she saw JJ.

Gibb’s boyfriend, David Warwick, also testified in Daybell’s trial on April 22.