Pod Insights Criminology Melodee Buzzard About this episode Melodee Buzzard was reported missing on October 14th, 2025, by an administrator at the Lompoc Unified School District in Lompoc, CA. This kicked off an investigation into Melodee's welfare that has taken many strange twists and turns. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the disappearance of Melodee Buzzard. When the authorities contacted Melodee's mother, Ashlee, she was reportedly less than cooperative. What they uncovered was a strange road trip, bizarre disguises, and more questions than answers. You can help support the show through Patreon. We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Twitch - Tik Tok Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.
0:37 Speaker 01 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 386 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson.
0:43 Speaker 02 And this is Mike Morford.
0:44 Speaker 01 Mr. Morford, how you doing this week, buddy?
0:46 Speaker 02 Doing pretty good. You and I were talking about our disturbed sleep patterns going into this week. So I think I'm just now recovering, getting back on my normal sleep schedule and hopefully you're able to do the same.
0:59 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, I'm getting there. It's like we talked about, I guess to fill in the audience, when you go to bed and then wake up like two or three hours later and you think you've had a full night's sleep, but it's like one or two o'clock in the morning. That throws me off like nothing else and wrecks my whole day because I can't go back to sleep. And then obviously my schedule gets really thrown off.
1:27 Speaker 02 And that makes, makes you cranky and that's not a good thing.
1:31 Speaker 01 No, not a good thing at all. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. We had new support from A-Hunt, so we really appreciate that.
1:40 Speaker 02 Thank you so much for that. It really helps us out. Anyone else that would like to support the show, please head over to patreon.com/criminology.
1:48 Speaker 01 All right, we're quickly diving into this week's case, and this is one that's making headline news right now because a little girl is missing under mysterious circumstances. And time is of the essence as law enforcement races to figure out what happened to her. There are many people that think that her mother possibly holds the key to finding her. We're talking about the disappearance of nine-year-old Melody Buzzard from Lompoc, California.
2:16 Speaker 02 The mystery surrounding Melody Buzzard's disappearance began on October 14th, 2025, when she was reported missing. It wasn't a parent or family member that contacted the authorities. It was actually an administrator at the Lompoc Unified School District in Lompoc, California, who requested that officers make contact with Melody because it had been so long since anyone had heard from her. This is district policy based on too many absences or a failure to complete assignments. In August 2025, Melody was enrolled by her mother, Ashley Buzzard, so that she could begin independent study, which is a program that allows students to complete school off-campus, but under teacher supervision. After Melody was enrolled,
3:00 Speaker 02 she never started any of the schoolwork and dropped from sight, prompting the concern from the school.
3:06 Speaker 01 A social worker first tried to contact Melody's mother, 40-year-old Ashley Buzzard, at her home in Vandenberg Village, a community in Lompoc, on October 14th. The social worker knocked on the door, but there was no answer. On October 15th, police officers from the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office accompanied CPS officials to the home, and this time Ashley answered. But when questioned by police about Melody's whereabouts, she couldn't or wouldn't provide them with any information about where she was at or why she hadn't engaged in school activities. We don't know how the exact conversation between Ashley and the police
3:46 Speaker 01 went, but clearly she wasn't helpful, and she didn't allow police to enter her home. Fearing that Melody was in danger, police acted quickly and obtained a search warrant to enter Ashley's home, and when they did, Melody was nowhere to be found. And I think more of, I mean, this is, is starting off rocky. I mean, there's no doubt about it. Obviously, people are concerned. They raise that concern to the police. Police go out to the home. And the mother is said to have, you know, not been cooperative. That raises a red flag, I think, at least on the part of police, right away. We're talking about a nine-year-old girl. Now, I get it.
4:31 Speaker 01 There are some people who, you know, they don't want the police in their house. They're not going to voluntarily either give them information or allow the police to search their home. They may, you know, want to exercise that right. But that's, you know, that's not going to stop the, the police from being suspicious. If they think there's something possibly going on with this, you know, young girl.
5:01 Speaker 02 Yeah, what concerns me is just the fact that Ashley doesn't give them any answers. If somebody shows up at my house, I think this is probably true of most parents. And they're like, hey, we're here to check on the welfare of your child. We think something's happened. You know, the school hasn't heard from her. She's not doing her work. What's going on here? I'm going to cooperate and then say, okay, well, you know, maybe they were out sick, whatever the case is. I'm going to answer their questions. I'm going to show them my child and say, here, you know, here that she is right here. She's safe. She's fine. But that didn't happen here. Instead, Ashley's not giving them answers and it's probably going to lead to more questions and more concerns.
5:46 Speaker 01 Yeah, I think at the very least, right? She's not doing anything to help alleviate the concern.
5:52 Speaker 02 With Ashley not cooperating with police, they had to speak to neighbors, friends and family to try and figure out where Melody was. At first, no one was even sure when Melody had actually been seen last. There was a lot of confusion surrounding the actual date that Melody disappeared. And the photo of her that's been recently being used in articles is a couple of years old. But because Ashley wouldn't cooperate, investigators couldn't find a more recent photo of Melody. Neighbors told police that they couldn't pinpoint the last time they'd even seen Melody because she wasn't outside very often.
6:24 Speaker 01 At one point, it was thought that perhaps Melody had been missing for an entire year by the time a welfare check was requested. However, officials with the Lompoc Unified School District were able to clarify that Melody had been enrolled in the independent studies program at Mission Valley Independent Study School in August, two months earlier, and she was okay at that point, but then dropped completely out of contact. None of her assignments had been picked up. Surveillance video would help police verify that. It looks like Melody was alive and well and with her mom Ashley on October 7th, just days before the welfare check. That's when Ashley
7:07 Speaker 01 rented a white Chevy Malibu in Lompoc and took off on a road trip with what turned out to be confusing and senseless routes. Video footage from the rental car office on October 7th shows Ashley wearing a large blonde sort of curly wig. She's not alone in the video. The person with her was shorter, wearing a sweater with the hood up like they were trying to cover up their hair. In fact, before they make it inside the building, you can see some long, straight, black hair hang down out of the hood. But once they're inside the lobby, the hair has been completely tucked
7:46 Speaker 01 up into the hoodie. Despite this apparent disguise, it's pretty clear Melody was with Ashley. Melody doesn't look like she's afraid of Ashley in this surveillance video. Without knowing them or having any other videos of them, under normal circumstances to compare this to, it's hard to tell for sure. The only thing that makes them memorable is again, the wigs. It appears as though they were wearing disguises, which obviously leads to the question, why would that be? You know, I said this thing kind of starts off rocky with police questioning Ashley. She's not being very, you know, forthcoming with information. And I think, you know, when
8:31 Speaker 01 this video surfaces, it just adds another layer to the confusion. Why would a mom and daughter go rent a car with both of them apparently wearing wigs and Melody, you know, trying to
8:48 Speaker 01 Kind of hide her hair, face, whatever with this hoodie. I don't know. It just seems kind of strange.
8:55 Speaker 02 Yeah, definitely. And unless it's Halloween and they're going to some kind of party, you know, it's not normal behavior. Most people aren't, you know, putting wigs on and disguising themselves and then taking a road trip to boot. You know, when you add to the fact that Ashley hasn't been cooperating or answering questions, it starts to paint a bad light and really, you know, a lot of bad things can come to mind.
9:21 Speaker 01 Now, to be fair, there are people who wear wigs, right? That's, you know, that's not out of the question, but this seems to not be the norm. You know, you would think, especially for a nine-year-old girl who's healthy and has no need for a wig. It's very strange.
9:40 Speaker 02 Authorities were able to track Melody's last sighting during that road trip to October 9th, somewhere near the border of Utah and Colorado. But by October 10th, when Ashley returned from that strange road trip, there was no sign of Melody. Ashley was still driving the rented Malibu solo. Apparently, Ashley came back to California while wearing a long, straight, dark wig, just like the one that they believe Melody had been wearing on October 7th. A press statement from the sheriff's office noted that this change in appearance is believed to have been intentional to avoid recognition during travel.
10:15 Speaker 01 Investigators feel that the truth about what happened to Melody lies somewhere on the route Ashley traveled, but there are just so many long stretches of isolated desert along this route that you can't possibly search at all. There are a ton of national parks and hiking trails in the area. This scenario reminds a lot of people of the last sighting of 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, being at Yellowstone National Park. Many believe that Lori Vallow and Chad Daybo killed Tylee somewhere in the wilderness there, but that trip may have been to misdirect resources and make authorities waste time searching an entire national park.
11:00 Speaker 02 Police also discovered another troubling detail in Melody's case. Ashley had switched license plates. The rented car initially had a California license plate. She had been driving the same rental car the entire trip. But by October 8th, the car had New York plates that weren't registered to Ashley. As of the time of this recording, we haven't heard yet whether these plates were stolen, borrowed, purchased, or fake. We just know that they apparently didn't belong to Ashley and had no business being on the rental car. According to multiple reports, Ashley doesn't have a vehicle of her own and relies on rides, usually using Uber or Lyft. Perhaps if and when police figure out how Ashley came to have these New York plates, it may provide more clues about Melody.
11:44 Speaker 01 So we have the wigs, the hoodies, the plate switching, this road trip, the failure by Ashley to cooperate with police trying to find her daughter. All of this paints a disturbing picture. They're all clear indicators of someone on the run trying to avoid detection. But as far as we know, there was no one looking for them when these things happened. The welfare check was requested on October 14th, but the road trip began a full week earlier. A lot of people have insinuated that this indicates some kind of premeditation for
12:26 Speaker 01 something, but exactly what that something is, we don't know.
12:31 Speaker 02 Police began to look closer at the timeline leading up to Melody vanishing. Prior to registering with the Long Pooh School District, Melody was supposedly being homeschooled. But according to the California Department of Education, Ashley has never filed a private school affidavit, the paperwork required to legally homeschool in the state of California. Melody's aunt, Elizabeth Mesa, told CBS News, she deserves to be playing with her friends, cousins in school. I mean, there's just so much this innocent little girl is missing out on. And she added that keeping her isolated at home is not fair for her at all. But as we mentioned, neighbors say that Melody never played outside. And they also recall that going back as far as they can remember, no matter the weather,
13:16 Speaker 02 if Melody went outside, she had her hair covered by a hoodie. Unfortunately for police, they really couldn't find anyone that lived close to Ashley and Melody that had any information.
13:27 Speaker 01 An employee at a gas station in Utah recalled seeing Ashley because she felt that her behavior was kind of odd. According to the employee, Ashley wasn't alone, but she didn't see Melody. Instead, she saw another adult woman in her late twenties or thirties wearing a purple wig. The two women in their wigs stood out even without any strange behavior happening. Authorities believe that on October 9th or 10th, Ashley drove through the areas of Green River and Penguich, Utah, Prim, Nevada, and Northwest Arizona, as well as Rancho Cucamonga in California. According to a statement from the sheriff's office,
14:08 Speaker 01 detectives are seeking anyone who may have had contact with Ashley or Melody at any point from October 9th through October 10th, or any video footage from their route of travel. Investigators didn't mention Las Vegas, just 40 minutes from Prim, Nevada. This may show that Ashley was sticking to less populated areas during the drive.
14:31 Speaker 02 The search for Melody became too large for local authorities to handle on their own, so they called in the FBI, who are now overseeing the case. The investigation must take so much coordination. The trip Ashley made spanned at least seven states and included multiple license plates to track. Ashley made it all the way to Nebraska and then seemed to go out of her way to loop into Kansas on her way back home. Most rental car agencies use some kind of tracking device on their vehicles in case of theft. Sometimes these trackers installed by car rental agencies ping several times throughout the day. In this case, the car rental company Ashley dealt with hasn't been named. We don't know what kind of tracking they have and what, if anything, police have gleaned from it.
15:15 Speaker 01 For weeks while police and the FBI were trying to find Melody, her mother Ashley kept quiet. Her silence angered her neighbors and the community so much so that people have stood outside of Ashley's home chanting, "Where is Melody?" People have also been standing outside of the home, lining up on the sidewalk, holding hands. And praying for Melody's safe return. Some people living on Ashley's street refused to let her make a move without being watched. She was seen taking stacks of large moving boxes into the garage. One neighbor said they saw smoke and bits of paper coming out of the fireplace shortly after Ashley returned from her road trip.
16:00 Speaker 01 Ashley was also spotted tearing down missing posters and signs that asked, where is Melody? They had been placed in her yard by neighbors. To so many people, these things don't seem like the actions of a concerned mother. And maybe it shows that Ashley isn't concerned because she knows where her daughter is and what happened to her. And more of already, we've talked about a number of strange things, right? In this case, and there are a lot of strange things surrounding it. The road trip is strange, the wigs, I mean, all of that. People have been commenting on and talking about, but you know, to me,
16:45 Speaker 01 the non-cooperation is super strange. I mean, when you get to the point where people are standing outside of your house chanting, where is your daughter? They're lining up on the sidewalk, praying for your daughter and her safe return. And what's going through your mind at that point? Obviously it's not, hey, I should jump in and, you know, help cooperate with the authorities. The FBI is now involved. It just seems so strange to kind of turtle up, right? And just shut everybody out.
17:23 Speaker 02 Yeah, I don't think Ashley's doing anything at all in this case to ease the minds of people that are concerned with her daughter. If anything, she's just making things worse for herself and adding more doubt and concern that something may have happened to Melody. I think overwhelmingly, the public has not been in her favor. If anything, they're, they're thinking that she might have something to hide.
17:52 Speaker 01 But you can't really blame people for thinking that, right? When your actions give off that vibe, you know, that's what's going to happen. I mean, the perception is there because of the way that she has acted. Losing weight on your own can feel like a fight you keep losing. Weight loss by hers offers access to the FDA approved Wegovy pill and the Wegovy pen. Wegovy is the first ever GLP-1 weight loss medication available in a pill. And it also comes as a pen. So you've got options with Wegovy. You can lose up to 20% of your body weight. People lost an average of 14% body weight at 64 weeks in a clinical trial of Wegovy alongside
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19:30 Speaker 02 As October turned to November, the hunt for Melody continued. Sheriff Bill Brown told NBC News, "We continue to seek information from the public that could help us find Melody. Authorities also searched a storage locker that Ashley rents, but as far as we know, nothing useful was found inside." Authorities gave Ashley a 72-hour deadline to produce Melody, but it came and went without Ashley giving police anything. The fact that Ashley wasn't arrested immediately after the deadline, immediately after the deadline expired, may show that there's no real proof that harm has come to Melody. And that may be the only silver lining in this case.
20:07 Speaker 01 Yeah, my thought morph is it could be a silver lining. It also could be a really bad sign that you can look at it either way. I mean, it's, it's one thing, you know, to be uncooperative, to not answer questions, to not want to let, you know, police search your house. Some people might just stand on principle and not want to, to do that and not want to give up their rights. Okay, you could make the argument for that, but when authorities, you know, give you a deadline to produce your child and that deadline comes and goes and there's no sign
20:48 Speaker 01 of melody, to me, that is in a, a different level of being uncooperative. I mean, you have a chance to kind of make all of this go away. So you have to think, or at least question, what would be the reason for not doing that? And I think immediately many people go to, it's because she can't. Now, the reason for that, we can speculate on, but no matter what the speculation is, it doesn't seem good.
21:21 Speaker 02 Yeah, I just go back to the fact that if she wanted to ease people's minds, get the police off her back, she would just say, here's where she is, she's fine. And since that's not happening, what are we left to believe? You know, the, most of the, the things you're going to believe are, are not good things.
21:40 Speaker 01 Well, and my thought is, you know, who wants people, you know, outside of their house, chanting bad stuff at them? Who wants this type of coverage? Who wants the police scrutiny? If there's any way to make that go away, you would think somebody would do that. Right? You don't, no one wants to be sitting in their house with people outside, people online, people on the television chatting about how they might be a really bad person. And that's the, kind of the shocking part to me. One thing that seems possible here is that Ashley may have done whatever she did with Melody when she did it because she knew people were about to start asking questions.
22:24 Speaker 01 The last confirmed sighting of Melody with her mother was before officers went to the home to try to put eyes on Melody. This raises the question, did Ashley get some kind of warning that there was growing concerns? Well, it turns out that there are plenty of warnings before a welfare check per school district policy. When Melody didn't pick up any of her assignments and there was no word from her mother, the public school system would have sent letters, made phone calls, sent emails, and perhaps even sent a school representative to the home. All of this prior to asking for a welfare check. We don't know how much of that happened, but it seems likely attempts were made to
23:07 Speaker 01 reach out to Ashley so she would have known that it was only a matter of time before a welfare check was requested.
23:16 Speaker 02 Some people's theory is that Ashley thought she'd get in trouble for not having Melody doing the schoolwork after signing her up. But hiding her daughter and not cooperating with the police to find her seems extreme as opposed to just cooperating and letting her do the schoolwork. Unfortunately, there really wasn't anyone around to help care for or check on Melody. As far as we can tell, Melody only really had her mother in her daily life. Sadly, her father Rolando Rubio Pinoy Mesa passed away due to a motorcycle accident when she was just six months old. After this, her paternal family and her mother really butted heads, mostly due to Ashley's worsening mental health and the grief they were all feeling.
23:58 Speaker 01 We still don't know much about Ashley's or her family's background, but some things have been pieced together. In 2017, the year after Melody was born, Ashley filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and as of today, she's still in bad shape financially with multiple accounts and collections and at least three lawsuits launched against her over the past year. Ashley was taken to the hospital. There are not a lot of details, but it sounds like it may have been for mental health concerns. It was a somewhat lengthy hospitalization. It sounds like she was gone for months.
24:39 Speaker 01 During this time, Melody's paternal grandmother began the process of trying to become her guardian.
24:46 Speaker 02 One day, without any notice, Ashley was released from the hospital. At this point, she still had parental rights and custody. So Ashley unexpectedly picked Melody up from school and just took her. After this, Ashley changed Melody's last name from Mesa to Buzzard. Ashley's mother, Lori Miranda, was cut off by Ashley sometime in 2023. Ashley also filed a restraining order against Melody's paternal grandmother. Melody's paternal family didn't even know that they had ever moved back to Santa Barbara County. Melody's grandmother Lily told K E Y T News, she's been hiding from us, especially from me. Their relationship with Melody had gone from visits on holidays to a hope of raising her to no contact at all.
25:29 Speaker 02 By the time of Melody's disappearance, the rest of her family hadn't seen her for around four and a half years.
25:35 Speaker 01 So as we kind of fill in some of the details, some of the backstory of, you know, Ashley's life, we don't know all of it, right, in detail, but the things that we do know, you know, they do paint a picture. There's financial trouble. A lot of people go through that. Potentially, there were some mental health issues in Ashley's life. Exactly what that is and to what extent, we don't really know. And then you have this relationship with, you know, her late husband's mother and even her own mother that just kind of. Deteriorates and is essentially nonexistent.
26:20 Speaker 01 And it's not just Ashley, right? That goes for Melody as well. She's essentially cut off from, you know, a lot of the members of her family, maybe all of them.
26:33 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's just another disturbing thing that's going on here in this story is on top of all the odd behavior and the non-cooperation, not telling people where Melody is. She's isolated the rest of family from them. So it's really a hard situation for anyone to become involved in and help maybe report something's wrong because they don't see anything going on because they're not in their lives. So it makes me wonder if Ashley did all this in advance to keep people away so she could
27:12 Speaker 02 do whatever she wanted to do without someone interrupting or standing in the way.
27:20 Speaker 01 Or at the very least, knowing something was wrong, right? No contact for four and a half years. Well, you're not going to have much knowledge of anything that's going on in Melody's life. Now, I get it, you know, when it comes to her mother-in-law, some of that might have had to do with the mother-in-law petitioning for guardianship, right, of Melody. I'm sure that didn't go over well. That could have caused a rift, but I think you do have to question the kind of isolationist aspect. You know, we talk about it more often in many cases.
28:03 Speaker 01 A lot of times we're talking about a man who is systematically kind of forcing his partner, his wife, in many cases, to kind of cut off communication with the family.
28:19 Speaker 01 That is never a good sign. In early November 2025, Ashley was taken into custody on suspicion of false imprisonment by violence that is apparently unrelated to Melody's disappearance. A statement from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office clarified that detectives learned of a recent incident where Ashley prevented a victim from leaving a location against their will, which constitutes false imprisonment. Her bail was set at $100,000. For a few days, it wasn't known exactly what this incident was about because according
28:58 Speaker 01 to the statement, detectives were unable to fully outline the crime as it would impede their ongoing investigation. The arrest warrant was sealed, but we did find out that the alleged incident of false imprisonment occurred in Lompoc on November 6th. And finally, it was revealed that the victim was a man named Tyler Brewer.
29:23 Speaker 02 Tyler met Ashley over a decade ago in 2014 after being introduced through friends. He said that Ashley's personality has completely changed in the time he's known her and that she's been experiencing severe paranoia. According to the LA Times, when he went to check on Ashley and ask her about Melody, Ashley said that she left her with someone that he thinks is somewhere in Utah. According to Tyler, after sharing information she appeared to regret disclosing, Ashley got extremely upset, repeatedly bawling her hands up into fist and squeezing her eyes shut tight as she talked with Tyler. She not only stood in front of the door, holding a box cutter and blocking his path to leave, she actually shut the door and locked all four locks on the door.
30:08 Speaker 02 When she eventually let him leave the home, he headed straight to the police station to report the incident.
30:13 Speaker 01 Tyler was clearly horrified by this incident and he told detectives everything he knew, including that he thought Melody was in Utah. Ashley dropping Melody off somewhere in Utah would fit with that last verified sighting of her near the Colorado Utah border.
30:33 Speaker 01 Some people have expressed that they feel like this gives them hope. Hope that Melody is still alive and that authorities will be able to find her. Melody's paternal grandmother Lily told KEYT News, I think everybody's looking and they'll find her. At the same time, concerns about Ashley's current mental state have led some to question if any of what she has said was true, whether it was because she was intentionally making up lies or because she doesn't quite know what's real. So more if we talk quite a bit about Ashley already in this episode, I mean, she is kind of at the, the center of everything.
31:17 Speaker 01 But then you have this very disturbing incident with this guy Tyler Brewer. You know, Ashley is charged with false imprisonment. And, you know, I think if everything shakes out to be true, that's been reported. When you lock all the locks on your door and you're standing with a box cutter, not allowing somebody to leave. Okay, that's not a good look. It's not a good thing. It actually could be a criminal act.
31:52 Speaker 02 Yeah, if these things happen the way they were reported to have happened, it's just more concerning behavior on top of everything else we've talked about to this point.
32:03 Speaker 01 And then in addition, you know, you have this information that according to Tyler, Ashley told him she left Melody with someone, possibly in, in Utah. And it was after that that she got extremely upset with him. What does that mean?
32:21 Speaker 02 Yeah, you have to wonder who would she be leaving her with? Does she know anyone out there? It just leads to more questions. It doesn't unfortunately lead to more answers.
32:32 Speaker 01 And that can be a real source of frustration, right? With, with cases like this, you get information in drips and drabs. But a lot of times the information doesn't really help clarify as much as it does, you know, really make things even more cloudy.
32:53 Speaker 02 Ashley was held at the Northern Branch Jail in Santa Maria, California. On November 12th, she entered a plea of not guilty to one count of false imprisonment. She was released from jail, but ordered to wear a GPS monitor. She was also due in court on November 13th, 19th, and 20th for pre-trial hearings. Well, those proceedings happened right before we recorded this episode. And shockingly to some people, the charges against Ashley Buzzard were dropped and she was released from custody. According to People Magazine, "An audio recording captured by Ashley was played in court and seemingly disproved Tyler Brewer's claims." In the audio, Ashley opened the door and allowed Brewer to leave her home. So Ashley's free from charges related to this incident.
33:37 Speaker 01 And obviously that's why you have to be very careful, right? To not jump the gun in any of these situations. Yeah, a person can be charged, but you never know how things are going to play out. And I don't know that we know exactly how they did play out, but you know, when you have a recording, as apparently Ashley did, that seems to disprove the charges against you, all right, sometimes that can be pretty powerful. And that seems to have been the case here. For Melody's paternal family, this situation is gut-wrenching. If Melody had stayed in their care, there would never be any question of where she was
34:22 Speaker 01 or whether she was in danger. And to wonder for years where she was, only to find out that she had been in the same county the whole time, must have been an unpleasant surprise. And now it's not just her paternal family who doesn't know her whereabouts or how she's doing, no one can find her. And it seems, at least as far as we can tell, and many people have speculated on this, that it's only Ashley who really knows what happened.
34:54 Speaker 01 The major question right now in the minds of many, other than where Melody may be located, is whether Ashley had been planning something from the time she decided to enroll Melody in an independent study program, or whether it was all the notices about truancy laws that triggered whatever plan she might have come up with. And I think the fact that Ashley was willing to face potential charges, rather than you just come out and explain what's going on with Melody, that's what has everyone so scared for Melody. All we have right now is
35:36 Speaker 01 that she didn't go to school, and she was on a trip with her mom. We don't have, at least at this point, a long history of child abuse, or contacts with child protective services. We don't really know anything for certain at this point. We don't know that Melody has been abducted, is in danger. We don't know if Ashley dropped her off with a stranger, but we don't know that Melody isn't in danger. And a lot of people have asked this question more. You know, if there was a simple or innocent explanation that ended with Melody
36:16 Speaker 01 being perfectly fine, why wouldn't Ashley just explain the situation and end this nightmare?
36:24 Speaker 02 Cases like this one often fuel rampant speculation and theories on sites like Reddit and websites, and this case is no exception. The first common theory is that Ashley killed Melody and went on that trip to dump her body. But this theory was out there before the public was made aware about the surveillance footage from the rental car office. Many people wonder whether Melody could have trafficked Ashley somehow, selling her to an unknown person for money. We do know that she has financial troubles, but this seemed to cause her more problems, not solve any. The outcome most people are hoping for is the possibility that Ashley gave Melody to someone she trusted, but who and why?
37:03 Speaker 01 Melody has a large extended family that has been missing her for a very long time. Her Aunt Bridget Truitt told the LA Times, "We never stopped thinking about her, or loving her, or praying for her." And Melody's Uncle Marvin Mesa told the Lumpoke Record, "Had the court left Melody with us, she wouldn't be missing. Our kids are doing good. As parents, we can say they are doing well." And Melody's grandmother Lily Hope that her words would reach Melody on TV, telling CNN, "If she's listening, we love you. We're here for you, and we just want you to be happy. Call me. There are numbers on the TV that you can call, and I will come pick you up."
37:48 Speaker 01 Melody has extended family on her mother's side, hoping for her safe return too. Melody's aunt, independent of her grandmother, released a statement urging the public to focus on finding Melody and to let go of any judgment of Ashley's mental health issues. Their statement read in part, "Our sole priority remains the safe return of Melody and getting Ashley the help she needs." And to me, Morf, this is, you know, a lot of things that I would expect loved ones to say. You know, they're worried about Melody. They want her to come home safely. But there is one aspect that I think kind of jumps out at me.
38:31 Speaker 01 And it's, you know, Melody's paternal side of the family, who wanted to take care of her, right? Petitioned the court to take care of her, thinking, "Oh, if that would only have happened, we wouldn't be going through any of this right now. Melody would have been safe with us." And I think there's a really, really good chance that that is true.
39:01 Speaker 02 Yeah, as a, as a family member that's missing Melody and doesn't know where she's at, you, you wonder if they feel some kind of guilt, even though they're not responsible. They shouldn't feel guilt, but that's human nature. But I go back to where they were cut off by Ashley in the first place. And most people, especially after the incident where Melody's father was killed in that motorcycle accident, they're going to get closer with family. They're going to have people come help them get through the situation, help take care of Melody. It's always good to have someone there to help you with that stuff. And Ashley did the opposite. She pushed them away.
39:45 Speaker 02 So I feel really bad for, for the family that didn't get to see Melody, didn't get to be in her life. And now they're wondering where she's at, what happened to her.
39:56 Speaker 01 Yeah, I'm, I'm sure there's guilt there, even though there's no reason to really feel guilty. I don't think they had any options, right? The court is going to make whatever decision they're going to make and you have to live with it.
40:12 Speaker 02 As of the airing of this episode, we're just over a month since the welfare check was requested and this entire mystery came into the public eye. Despite the strong possibility that Melody is somewhere in Utah, she still hasn't been located. There are serious resources being put into this investigation. And if it were as simple as going to the spot Ashley mentioned to Tyler and picking Melody up, it likely would have been done by now. We don't know if the person that Ashley supposedly claimed to have left Melody with even exist. It could be a Casey Anthony style Xanny the nanny story. Hopefully if that person is real, they do the right thing and come forward. Perhaps cooperating with investigators will help their outcome in all of this.
40:53 Speaker 01 What a lot of people fear is that Ashley didn't leave her daughter with someone and that that person doesn't even exist. That could mean that Melody met with violence, possibly at the hands of her own mother. There is a possibility that Ashley did have a very real mental health episode stemming from her own traumatic childhood. Ashley had a hard life. Her childhood was full of instability. It's been reported by many outlets that her father was abusive and her mother had to go to great lengths to get the two of them away from him. They spent some time homeless, bouncing around between different
41:34 Speaker 01 hotels and shelters, just waiting for him to find them and cause trouble. On at least one occasion, he broke the windows when Ashley's mom Lori wouldn't let him inside. There are articles in the local paper about how rough her life was when she was just nine years old, the same age that Melody is now. As bad as her childhood may have been, that obviously would not be an excuse if something bad happened to Melody at the hands of Ashley.
42:06 Speaker 02 Ashley's family believes that Ashley may have experienced postpartum depression after Melody's birth, but never received any treatment. Her mother Lori said that the death of Melody's father, just six months later, deeply and negatively affected Ashley's mental health. If Ashley was experiencing such paranoid thoughts that she felt that she needed to keep Melody hidden, who would she even possibly trust to keep her safe? Ashley was once close with her mother Lori, but they haven't spoken in years. Ashley cut her off, just like she cut everyone else out of their lives. And the woman in the purple wig was described as being in her late twenties or early thirties. Multiple sources say that neighbors were concerned that, especially in her paranoid state, it's unexpected that Ashley would be traveling
42:51 Speaker 02 with anyone other than Melody.
42:53 Speaker 01 And there's no doubt, right? The situation has been a nightmare for Melody's family. Melody's aunt, Lisbeth Mesa, told CBS News, "This whole situation has been like playing a game of Jumanji," explaining that every day you roll the dice and it's a whole different story. Melody's older half-sister, Karina Mesa, told NBC News, "We're all looking for answers." Police have been quick to point out that the Lompoc School District did the right thing and took the right steps. Lieutenant Chris Gottschall from the Criminal Investigations Division told KSBY.com, "Lompoc Unified School District deserves credit for recognizing that something wasn't
43:38 Speaker 01 right, reaching out and continuing to assist with this investigation. We're doing everything within our authority to support this investigation, including providing records and coordinating with the sheriff's office," read a statement from the Lompoc Unified School District.
43:56 Speaker 02 "This case is important to get out to the public because it's so recent and most people believe they know exactly who has the answers. And this is a case where someone listening may be able to help with the resolution." One neighbor of Ashley's, who asked to stay anonymous, told the Lompoc Record, "Imagine a world with more connections, where neighbors know each other and each other's kids, and we all kept track of each other. This is a wake-up call to the community to check on your neighbors and know where they are."
44:25 Speaker 01 And to me, Morf, that's a very interesting statement. You know, I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like when I was a kid, there was a lot more connection among neighbors. I don't really know a lot of my neighbors all that well. I don't know a lot of their kids' names. And again, maybe that's just me, but maybe it's also the time.
44:54 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think there's a fine line between wanting to know what's going on with your neighbors and being aware of who you're living near, but also not wanting to get too involved or seem like you're nosey. And so there's that line that you try not to cross, but you need to be aware of at least what's going on and who's living near you.
45:20 Speaker 01 Melody Buzzard is considered at risk. She is four feet, six inches tall and around 60 pounds. Her natural hair, as far as we know, is long, dark brown and curly, but she could be wearing a wig in any color or style. She may be even wearing a hoodie covering her hair. She has brown eyes. In the surveillance video from the rental car office, Melody was wearing some kind of messenger bag. The last verified sighting of Melody during that road trip was somewhere along the border of Utah and Colorado.
45:55 Speaker 02 If you have any information about the whereabouts of Melody Buzzard, you can call the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division at 805-681-4150. If you'd prefer to remain anonymous and still give authorities your tip, you can call the tip line at 805-681-4171 or submit information online at sbsheriff.org/home-anonymous-tip.
46:23 Speaker 01 So Morph, as we wrap this case up, you know, obviously this is breaking news. This is ongoing and it's early on where we wanted to cover it because it's that important. But because it's so early on, you know, obviously there's probably a lot more information that is going to come out. And I know we'll be paying attention to that. I think a lot of people will.
46:51 Speaker 02 It's definitely a case that a lot of people find interesting and especially if their parents concern that they would have if this was happening to their child. So I think that's why people gravitate towards this kind of case. And it's, to me, it has shades of Casey Anthony. And we know how terrible that outcome was. And I hope that's not the case here. But just that level of non-cooperation, it usually doesn't have a good reason. You want people to know that your child is okay. You help the police. You answer questions. You let them know where she's at. In fact, that's not happening is really concerning.
47:35 Speaker 01 Yeah, unfortunately, a lot of times, this type of scenario doesn't have a happy ending. I hope that's not the case here, but you know, that remains to be seen. I'm also thinking that, you know, we may get more information eventually about Ashley's mental health. Because that's, it's brought up quite a bit in the research. I just don't think anyone has a real clear understanding of, you know, the status of her mental health at this point in time.
48:12 Speaker 02 Yeah, and part of that is because she cut her family off. So there's no one really there to, to help them or be in their lives. So what was going on every day? What was Ashley thinking every day? We just don't know. And that's a frustrating part of this case.
48:31 Speaker 01 But I think, you know, it's, it's pretty easy to see why people would gravitate towards a, you know, a case like this. They speculate on it. You know, obviously, there are a lot of strange things that have already happened. There may be more strange things to come. And I go back to one of the questions that, you know, people are asking. If there was a way to clear all of this up.
49:03 Speaker 01 To prove that Melody was okay, you would think Ashley would have taken that opportunity. Because, you know, who wants all the scrutiny? Who wants people speculating that you've done harm to your child? Who wants people outside their home chanting? People lined up on your sidewalk? And I think that, that has got a lot of people thinking that, you know, something's not right here.
49:31 Speaker 02 Yeah, it certainly seems like it's not going to, this whole situation's not going to win over fans or people that are supporting Ashley. If anything, it's probably going to do just the opposite. So it'll be interesting to see what happens and how she's perceived and how she's treated and how she's accepted or not accepted by neighbors and acquaintances.
49:58 Speaker 01 Well, I think a lot of that's going to, you know, have to do with what ultimately comes out in this case. But again, I, I think that's, you know, something that I know you and I will be paying attention to, but I think a lot of people will. I mean, this is already a pretty big case. As far as the attention that it's getting, it could become huge, even bigger, depending on what information comes out. You know, you said more, if there's, um, you know, a Casey Anthony like vibe to this case, a lot of people have mentioned that.
50:38 Speaker 01 And we know the media storm that that case generated. This could be similar, depending on, you know, what comes down the road, what comes out in the future. But I think that's something that we're just, we're going to have to wait to find out. But that's it for our episode on Melody Buzzard. As always, if you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a review, leave a five star rating. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really helps us out.
51:13 Speaker 02 If you want to find us on social media, we're on every major platform. Just search your favorite for Criminology Podcast. For news and old episodes, head over to our website, criminologypodcast.com. And if you want to join a discussion about the show or episodes we cover, head over to Facebook and check out the Criminology Podcast Discussions and Fans Group.
51:34 Speaker 01 So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, from Mike
51:43 Speaker 02 And Morph.
51:44 Speaker 01 We'll talk to you next week.
51:45 Speaker 02 Take care, everyone.
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