Ex-Joliet Walmart Manager Captured 1 Day After Joliet Patch Article: Here's Where Her Criminal Case Stands

JOLIET, IL — Approximately 24 hours after last week's latest Joliet Patch exclusive, a crime and courts story read by tens of thousands of people, the ex-Joliet Walmart night-shift manager who had been missing and skipping out on her Will County Courthouse criminal court appearances since May 2024 was captured, booked and released on electronic monitoring.

Last week, Patch revealed that Melissa Vanderwall, 50, failed to show up for several of her pretrial hearings in connection with her felony theft charges from the Will County State's Attorney's Office. Back in November 2022, Vanderwall stole bags of money, more than $136,000, from the West Jefferson Street Walmart store, loading the money into her Jeep and driving off, the Joliet police investigation showed.

Vanderwall was eventually arrested and kept in the Will County Jail under the state's now-abolished cash bail-bond system. Although her bail was originally set at $100,000, a different Will County judge, Amy Bertani-Tomczak, chose to cut Vanderwall's bail by half, setting it at $50,000, back in 2023.

After Vanderwall's mother, who lives in Romeoville, posted the $5,000 on her daughter's behalf, Vanderwall remained free. Then in the spring and summer of 2024, Vanderwall stopped going to her pretrial hearings in Judge Bertani's courtroom, according to court records. Although the judge issued a no-bond warrant for her arrest, nobody in law enforcement, including the Will County Sheriff's Office, managed to track her down.

Then came last week's Joliet Patch story, revealing how Vanderwall had been missing for nearly 18 months, putting her criminal case on hold. By the next morning, Bolingbrook's Police Department had captured Vanderwall, and she was booked into the Will County Jail at 11:15 a.m. on Oct. 16.

Vanderwall stayed in the Will County Jail until Monday morning, when she was released and sent back to Romeoville, her jail logs show.

Newly filed court records show that Vanderwall is residing at her mother's place in the 1000 block of Romeoville's Birch Lane, the same address that was on her previous court documents. Vanderwall told the judge that she has no assets and no wages, even though she worked for several years as the Joliet Walmart's night manager and is accused of stealing $136,000 in cash from the store three years ago next month.

At last Friday's court hearing, the judge found that by clear and convincing evidence that Vanderwall violated the terms of her pretrial release. She was ordered to serve 10 days in the Will County Jail as her punishment, given day for day credit, and her criminal case involving the $136,000 theft from the Joliet Walmart store was continued until Nov. 20 at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 405.

In addition, Judge Bertani also ordered Vanderwall to start wearing an ankle bracelet, placing her on electronic GPS monitoring "until further order of the court."