Crime Weekly - S3 Ep361: The FBI Raid, the Wig & the Whispers | Inside Melodee Buzzard’s Missing Person Case

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

Nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard, last seen on October 7, 2025 after traveling with her mother in a rented white Chevrolet Malibu, remains missing as investigators follow leads across multiple states. Surveillance footage suggests her appearance may have been altered with a disguise, and search warrants have yet to reveal her location. Authorities describe Melodee as an at-risk child and continue urging the public to report any information. Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: 1. https://www.OneSkin.co/CWN - Use code CWN for 15% off! Let them know we sent you! 2. https://www.UncommonGoods.com/CrimeWeekly - Get 15% off your next gift!

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Welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Lavasar. And how was your Thanksgiving? I was good. It was exhausting. I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted. I stabbed myself.

that does not surprise me yeah it was just it was like a knife in the dishwasher and I went to go put something else in the dishwasher and it just went bloop right into my hand and then they were like Is that why you hit the bandage on your hand? I just noticed that They were like go to urgent care you need stitch and I'm like I'm not getting no stitches

stitches hurt more than the stab so I'm all set I'm gonna bandage it up and it will heal I put some glue on it we're good well I'm glad you're alive yeah never know never know if you're gonna show up yet I don't think well God willing you're gonna still be with us

I had a great Thanksgiving I hope you guys all did as well. I got a lot of the comments from you guys as far as what your favorite dishes are. It made me really hungry. And also I gained about eight pounds this week. So that's awesome. That's just fake weight. Yeah.

That's why I keep telling myself. I'm wearing this sweatshirt because it's, you know. It's slimming. It's just fake weight that's going to go away on its own for sure. Yeah, you just got to give a time. Okay. So unfortunately, fortunately, we're happy to be back with you guys. But usually that's because we're talking about news that's not good.

and this week we're covering the disappearance of nine-year-old Melody Buzzard from Lompoc, California, a case that's left investigators searching for answers and a community searching for hope. Melody was last seen on October 9th during a cross-country trip with her mother, Ashley Buzzard, who later returned home and has refused to cooperate with law enforcement ever since. Surveillance footage shows both mother and daughter wearing wigs and using what authorities believe were fake license plates to avoid detection. Now, weeks later, Ashley's been arrested in a sense. separate incident and released under GPS monitoring, but still isn't saying where her daughter is. It's a deeply troubling story that raises serious questions about mental health,

parental custody, and how a child could simply vanish despite so many red flags. Yeah, this case is crazy. And I don't know how I feel about it. And a lot of the times with these cases, all the time, I'm not going to lie, I will go based on like what my gut is telling me. My brain's a pattern recognition machine. We've done so many cases, not just here in Crime Weekly, but on my channel, you have detected perspective or always kind of looking into true crime. You sort of see things, you know, repeats, patterns, behavior, repeating. And I don't know what to think about this case. In my personal opinion, Melody is okay. She's alive. I hope. Really? Uh-huh. We'll see. I can't wait to hear what you say because you're not familiar with this.

I'm not. You talk to me about it. You've sent me some info on it, but I'm going along for the ride with everybody who hasn't heard about this case yet. So I really am looking forward to hearing what your take is on it. So basically, Melody, who's nine years old, she was reported missing on October 14, 2025, and a school official flagged Melody's prolonged absence after she failed to appear for weeks. And I guess that Ashley, Melody's mother, was doing a sort of like hybrid homeschooling kind of thing. And that's why it took weeks for the school to flag her absence and to notice that something, what's going on, although in my opinion, once again, if you know a student is being homeschooled

at home, it should probably be like a once a week thing where we check in and make sure they're okay and they're still, you know, where they need to be academically. But it was a few weeks after. And so when police arrived to the home on Mars Avenue, where Ashley lived with her daughter, Melody, they found only Ashley, who's 40 years old. And Ashley was able to give no verifiable explanation for where her daughter was. The home was searched. Melody was nowhere to be found. And authorities quickly determined that Ashley Buzzard was being uncooperative and possibly

deceptive, which I think is pretty clear. You're saying you don't know where your daughter is, but you do. So basically, the timeline of this, once police realized Melody was not there and that she could possibly endanger, they started looking around. They started looking into Ashley. behavior and activities, and they found that on October 7, 2025, Ashley and Melody were seen at a rental car facility in Lompoc. They were captured on surveillance, and they were both wearing wigs and hooded sweatshirts. So obviously, the police believed this was an intentional disguise

to avoid recognition. And at that time, on October 7th, Ashley rented a white 2024 Chevy Malibu. and that Chevy Malibu that she rented from the rental car place had a California plate on it. Obviously, this is in California. So then the next day, October 8th, that same car was spotted with a New York license plate, which didn't belong to the vehicle or Ashley. So authorities believe, once again, this was a false or switched plate to avoid detection. And then detectives tracked the car's movements. So Ashley took her daughter, her nine-year-old daughter, on sort of like a road trip, I guess,

across Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California. And they made stops in Green River, Utah, Panglet, Utah, Northwest Arizona, Prim Nevada, and Rancho Cucamongo, California. And then surveillance footage places Melody near the Colorado, Utah border. On October night, this is the last confirmed sighting of Melody. And then on October 10th, the rental car was returned to the rental car place in Lompoc, California, with his original California plates. Ashley Buzzard returned alone. No sign of melody when she returns the car. So the last sign of melody we have is October 9th near that Colorado, Utah border.

They haven't said where they saw her. This was on surveillance. They've said that. But they haven't said exactly where they saw her or kind of what her state was. Now, this doesn't look great because it's pretty clear. And I mean, we look back and we have these cases of like Lori Val. comes to mind, right? Where she took her kids and then police were trying to find the kids and she's like,

they're safe, they're with somebody safe. And obviously, as it turned out, JJ and Tiley were not safe. They were not safe. Nope. So there's always going to be that concern right there in the back of your head. But there's some background here that we need to understand, which might help us to sort of decipher what Ashley Buzzard's motives are here, or at least what her state of mind is. So what actually happened here is Melody does have or did have a biological father.

He passed away when she was very young. So he died in a car accident in 2016. At that time, Melody was six months old. Now, there's issues here because not only has Melody not attended school for at least a year. And we come to find out she was enrolled in like an independent study program, which I feel, I feel like that's like a hybrid home school, but also the school is sort of somewhat involved. They're giving you the curriculum and giving you worksheets and stuff. Yep.

She was not seen by school officials since August of 2025. That's the last time they saw her. However, based on the fact that we've seen the surveillance footage, we know she at least hasn't been missing since August of 2025. Now, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office and the FBI believe that this cross-country trip was meant to. conceal Melody's disappearance with Ashley sort of driving a lot of places. Obviously, Melody can only be if she's alive and well, or even if she's no longer alive and we're looking for a body, she can only be in one place. But Ashley drove all over in order to, you know, probably knowing either her cell phone was being tracked or there's a GPS on the rental car.

They haven't stated how they've tracked her movements. But knowing she's being tracked and also knowing, you know, if I'm very strategic about this, then it'll be hard for them to pinpoint exactly where Melody is. I want to talk about the biological father. I want to talk about Ashley's family as well, because what it seems like is Ashley Buzzard has been no contact with both her family and many people from her ex's family. So Melody's father's family, the biological father's family. And it's, there may be some mental health issues here. So we have to really dissect everything and look at it. And I can't wait to get your take on it at this point. But let's take a quick break and then we'll be right back.

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That's 15% off at Onskin.co slash CWN with code CWN. And please don't forget to mark Crime Weekly news when they ask who sent you. All right. So apparently, Ashley Buzzard has had some issues with mental health. And I find sympathy here. because you had a six-month-old baby with a man that you thought was going to help you raise that baby. I thought it was the one. Yeah, this was it.

You were going to have a happy family. And then he tragically dies in a car accident. And you're left alone to raise this baby. And, of course, there's going to be a lot of sadness. There's going to be a lot of trauma of losing somebody so unexpectedly. And now basically having to look at your future in a completely different way than you did before. I don't know if there was previous mental health issues. Something interesting is that Ashley's mother, Lori Miranda, she says she hasn't spoken

Ashley since 2023. But Lori and Ashley actually have a very long backstory together. Lori describes a traumatic upbringing. They had to flee her abusive husband, Ashley's father. They were homeless for a while. They were living in shelters and kind of staying wherever they could. And even when they would go someplace new, the first. father would track them down. And she told reporters, even though she hasn't, you know,

spoken to Ashley in a few years, they were obviously very close at one point. And I actually found a newspaper article from the time when Ashley was young, right, around the age that melody is right now. And her mother, Lori, was talking to the paper and saying, you know, we were homeless. We came from a very bad situation. I got my, you know, I went to school. I got training for a job. I pulled myself out of it. And I wanted a better life for myself and my daughter, Ashley, who at this time is about Melody's age now. And it made me feel very, you know, sad to see that Ashley had grown up in kind of very chaotic and uncertain environment. And Lori Miranda, who's Ashley's mother, she now says, hey, when Melody was still just a baby, so Melody's her

grandchild, she had received a call from, you know, police saying that they were taking Ashley to a psychiatric hospital and removing Melody for her safety. And at that time, Lori described Ashley's house as being filthy and in disarray. There was like rotten food, raw eggs and pans. Not a totally great environment. Obviously, something's going on with her mental health. Ashley's, she's got to go to a psychiatric hospital. Now, the biological father's parents or the biological father's family, they are very intent on seeing Melody and finding out what happened to her because they haven't seen her in a while. They say that Ashley's been withholding Melody from them.

So the biological father, Rubiel Metza, his mother, Lily, she says she was contacted by social services in 2021, asking if she would take custody of Melody because at that time, Ashley was in a mental hospital. So this seems to be, I don't know if it's the same mental hospital incident. If it's 2021, Melody, who is now nine, would not be considered a baby, I don't think. No. But she'd still be very young. Very young.

Yeah, I don't know if this is the same mental health incident that Ashley's mother, Lori Miranda, spoke about. But Lily, who is Melody's paternal grandmother, she and other relatives claim that Ashley isolated Melody cut off contact with the father's family for over four years. But they've been trying to get custody. So Lily has been trying to legally get custody. And that leads me to wonder, did Ashley, who, yes, probably is suffering from some mental health issues, from some trauma. I don't know what her exact diagnosis is. That hasn't been revealed or even if she has one. But is she thinking, hey, these people are trying to come and take my child from me?

Is she sort of having a flashback of when she was a child and her father was abusive and her mother had to take her and protect her and they kind of bonded through that? And now she feels like all of these people have turned on her and they're trying to take. Melody. So she brought Melody somewhere she believed was safe, not in a Lori Valo way, but in an actual way, just like I need to keep you safe and make sure that nobody can find you until I get this all strained out because I can't have somebody taking you from me because then what if I never get my daughter back? There's also some neighbors who say that Ashley's been very protective of Melody, like wouldn't really let her play with other kids, was kind of always nervous and paranoid looking over her shoulder when they were on the

playground as if somebody was going to come running up and take Melody. She seems to have a very bad relationship with Melody's father's family. She seems to resent them. She feels that they're trying to take Melody from her. She's unemployed currently. She seems to also be in some debt. Not a huge amount of debt, but family and acquaintances have described her as being paranoid, irrational, detached from reality.

Now remember, I said, well, you did say in the opening segment that Ashley had been arrested for an unrelated incident. Yep. This is very interesting because this unrelated incident has to do with a family friend who has known Ashley for quite a while. And he said he's a paralegal. He has some like legal background. And when he found out that Melody was missing, he went over to Ashley's house to offer his services. offer help and at first Ashley was okay but then one day she kind of got a little freaked out and wouldn't let him leave her house and like brandished I think a box cutter at him and was kind

of like locking the door and not not letting him leave and so he's filed charges but I want to specifically talk about this because it's interesting because what I want to ask you is is Ashley Buzzard being paranoid or is this guy who has since admitted to working with the police and working with Melody's biological father's family is, is Ashley paranoid? Or did she just figure out that he was sort of, yeah, kind of like a spy coming in, not so much to help her, but to maybe get information from her about where Melody was. And then she kind of snapped a little bit.

So. Snapped a little bit. Yeah, because she got, and also he claims that she told him where Melody is. So, well, I mean, well, first off, let's just put it out there. She's being charged with a felony and it's for false imprisonment. Yes. So it's a big, it's a big accusation. It's a big crime and it's going to probably have a serious amount of time behind bars if she's found convicted.

Yes. Or they're kind of going hard because they hope that if they levy these charges against her, she may be. And then they may say, oh, go easy. If you tell us more melodies, yeah. Absolutely. No doubt about it. I was just covering a case where they hit a guy with, I won't get into. the details of it because the case hasn't even came out yet. Well, I'll tell you the name. Tracy Ocasio is the

name of the victim, but essentially they felt like this guy was responsible for her death and they were searching his house, couldn't find anything, but they decided to charge him with possession of drug paraphernalia because he had a bong and he was out on bail. So it was a way to basically get him back behind bars. And I said right in the episode, there's no way they would have charged him with this crime if it wasn't for what they suspected him of. Yeah, what state is it in? It was in Florida. So right around the Orlando area, I think O'Coy is the name of it. Which makes sense because they don't have super friendly marijuana laws anyway.

No, but I still think most of them would probably have turned the other way, but trying to find something to get this guy off the street because they suspect him of murder. This is what they went with. So similar set of circumstances where sometimes law enforcement, their grace, their leniency will be much less depending on what they're actually trying to accomplish. And some people may agree with that. Some people may not. Well, I mean, in this case, when you have a child who's missing, I agree. Like, throw everything at them. Yeah.

So this incident with this guy, his name's Tyler Brewer, it happened November 6th. He's a local paralegal. He's known Ashley for years. She brandished a box cutter, tried to stop him from leaving her house after becoming visibly distressed. After sharing information, she appeared to regret disclosing. So Tyler Brewer has come out with a statement. He said that he's known Ashley through a friend since 2014, and he's been going to her home

since Melody's disappearance was reported and publicized, he said, to check on her. Now, he claimed that Ashley has mental health issues, is extremely paranoid, is a totally different person from when they first met once again when you met her in 2014. The father of her child hadn't tragically and unexpectedly died in a car accident, so I think that people need to understand when certain things happen to you. You're not going to be the same. You're not going to always be okay. Tyler also said that Ashley's been acting irrationally since October 6th, which when he visited

her home where she accused him of working with the police and with the paternal side of the family to take Melody away from her. Which once again, he seems to have done that because he makes a statement and he said, quote, when Melody was reported missing, I contacted Ashley Buzzard solely to offer assistance in locating a missing child. I am a legal document assistant, process server, mandated reporter, and perceived officer of the court. In that capacity, I immediately reported all concerning communication and inconsistencies directly to law enforcement. On November 6th, during an interaction at her residence, the situation escalated. Ms. Buzzard became visibly distressed after sharing information she appeared to regret disclosing.

A box cutter was produced, and despite multiple requests to be allowed to exit the home, I was not immediately permitted to leave. The door was secured by several locks, which delayed my ability to exit. The incident was reported to law enforcement. I am also in communication with Melody's father's family who share the same objective, locating her and ensuring her safety. So this happens on November 7th, and he says that it was October 6th when Ashley started acting irrationally and accusing him of working with the police and with the paternal side of the family, which he has now admitted that is exactly what he was doing. So, I mean, was she being paranoid or did she realize that that's what he was doing? Right. Well, I mean, she's not wrong in that sense.

The question is not whether she's right or wrong. It's whether how she handled the situation is right or wrong. Because I don't think she's super mentally well, right? I mean, she could be right in one sense where she's pinpointed exactly what his intentions are, but yet the way she responded is still wrong. Well, Tyler Brewer has also told News Nation that Ashley revealed to him where Melody is and who she was left with. So this is confusing to me because if that's the case and you're already reporting concerning, you know, statements or activity to the police, why have the police not gone to this place and gotten Melody? Yeah, we're missing some, we're missing some. details. So Ashley was arrested for false imprisonment on November 7th. She pleaded not guilty. She was

released from custody with GPS monitoring after her arraignment on the 12th. She was released under court supervision. So there's conditions. There's weapons prohibition. She can't have any contact with Tyler Brewer. And court filings indicate she has no prior criminal record and did not waive her right to a speedy trial. So at this point, we're kind of waiting to see what happens with that. Are they going to use it to try to find Melody? I don't. Don't think that Ashley's going to tell anybody where Melody is. It's not looking good. It's not looking good.

This actually reminds me of another case, and I want to talk about it because it has a lot of similarities. Let's take our last break, and we'll be right back. All right. If you're listening to this and suddenly you are realizing the holidays are basically here, don't panic. Don't panic. The holidays are almost here. And if you still have names on your list, Uncommon Goods makes holiday shopping. stress-free and joyful with thousands of one-of-a-kind gifts you can't find anywhere else.

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Don't miss out on this limited time offer. Uncommon goods. We're all out of the ordinary. Okay, we're back from break. And as you were kind of given us the overview of the story, and I'm hearing it for the first time, you start to pull from your, you know, your own encyclopedia of cases you've covered, cases you've worked, and you start to find patterns. You talk about like pattern recognition. And this case is eerily similar to a case that I covered not too long ago. Timothy Pittson. Have you ever heard of it? Timothy Pittson. Okay. Timothy with one, with two M's.

With two M's. And his mother's name, ironically, was Amy. So a little different than Ashley, but pretty close. And Timothy was six years old. This happened, I believe, 2011. And it was in Wisconsin. But with this case, kind of a similar circumstance where the father was still in the picture. There was like a child custody battle.

They were getting ready to separate. They were still living together, I believe, not 100% on all the details, but drops Timothy off at school, but then picks him back up. Like, lies to the father, picks Timothy back up. And then she's seen on surveillance footage with Timothy multiple times. Some of the locations were places that Timothy always enjoyed going to. And then she's traveling around all of Wisconsin into Illinois, hundreds of miles. Finally, she ends up in a motel where she kills herself. So that one's a little bit worse because when I covered that case, obviously 2011, some time has passed.

There's a belief that there's certain locations where Timothy might be. But at this point, it's one of two things. Either he's deceased and he was placed somewhere or she gave him up to someone else, which is also still possible. And I feel like I bring up that case because it's kind of the same here where it's binary. It's one of two outcomes. In that case, the mother did kill herself, and Ashley has not done that. That's the only silver lining we have here. And the knife that she used that they found, if I recall, had only Amy's blood on it.

And even Timothy's father, James Pittson, has said, no, I don't believe that she killed Timothy. Like, she loved him. I think she gave him to somebody, and this person is not going to want to give him up, doesn't want to give him back. Do you think that's the same here when we're talking about melody? That's the question because I personally, as I said in that episode, I have a strong suspicion that Timothy is no longer with us. There were areas that her car kind of stopped for a while that would have been good places to dump someone and have them not be found. That's my belief. I hope I'm wrong.

I feel like at this point because Timothy was six years old, he wasn't a baby. He knew one life and then went to another life. So he kind of knew who he was. He knew his name. and so growing up, unless they convinced him that he couldn't come out into the public eye. Or unless it's somebody he knew very well beforehand and was comfortable with. Maybe. We could talk about that story for an hour.

That's a good one. Maybe that's a case we cover here. But how it applies to Melody's case, like you said, the one thing is Ashley has not taken her own life. So that does give me a little bit more hope. But what I was saying was it's kind of binary. either Melody's no longer with us or she's been left with someone that

Ashley trusts. What's your gut tell you? My gut tells me that she's left her with somebody that she can trust. But then my next question would be what's the game plan after that, right? That's what I'm saying. Is it just like, hey, if I can't have them, nobody can? Because

you said something that does also apply to Timothy's case where even though the biological father is no longer with us, his parents were fighting for custody of Melody. So it could have been a similar situation. And with Amy Pitson, I think her name was Amy Frye Pitson, wasn't it? I can't remember if it was Frye.

I think she went by both names. But in Amy's case, she also had a history of mental illness. And she was concerned that when the custody battle kind of push came to shove, that she was going to get custody of her son. And so I think that Ashley Buzzer is probably feeling the same thing. If these people, the biological paternal family, come after me and they can prove that I've had issues with mental health. That's it. They have a chance of taking my daughter from me. And so I have to maybe place her someplace temporarily until I can figure out what to do. But that's not good

either. Now, legally, she's done nothing wrong with Melody. And that's what I think people are having a hard time understanding. Why hasn't she been arrested yet for, you know, child neglect or for withholding information or not cooperating with the police? She is Melody's mother. She is her her custodial's supervisor, whatever. She's legally She's our guardian. She can bring her anywhere she wants for as long as she wants and not tell a damn person. That's the issue here. And until the police have any

evidence that a crime has happened, like blood, and they check the rental car, obviously, no issues. Unless they have blood or, you know, they found something because they've done searches of the house, a storage unit, unless they find something during these searches that suggests melodies in danger

or no longer alive, they can't really do anything. Once again, We saw this with Lori Vallow. How long did it take for the police to actually be able to get Lori Vallow into custody? And that was after they already had the text between her and Chad and Alex and all this weird stuff that was being said, which kind of gave away what was going on, their whole demons and light forces and time jumping universes, stuff like that. Then they could do something. But that still took, what, years, I feel like for Lori Vallow to ever get arrested.

And by that time, they had tracked Chad and Lori. They were listening in. They were kind of watching them. They figured out where Tiley and JJ had been and where they were buried. So they can't just arrest Ashley because she won't tell anybody where her daughter is. They can't do that yet at this point. But if what this dude, this paralegal dude, Tyler is saying is true. And Ashley told him where Melody was and who she was with, then the police, I would assume, have already gone to

this place. I would also assume the police have Ashley's cell phone records so they can see who she's been talking to. Maybe she got a burner phone that they don't know about. But they can't do anything. Yeah. There's a lot of work to do. We're not going to know everything as because this case is still relatively new. But as you kind of started to mention there, there's a couple things that investigators are going to do. They're going to look into Ashley's behavior prior to the disappearance. They're going to look for any paper trails. They're going to look at patterns, places that Ashley had frequented. Did she pick up a phone? Did she go visit certain locations? Did she scout anywhere prior to taken off? And then as you also mentioned, digital trail. They're going to look

at her digital footprint, see who she was communicating with, what phrases and words that she had been searching prior to the disappearance and tried to figure out if there's any indication of her setting up some type of location where she was going to meet with another set of people to to basically transfer Melody over to them. If there's no indication of that whatsoever, then maybe she just was really good and did everything right. Or we have to be honest here. We're dealing with someone who on the surface

appears to have been going through some mental health struggles. Is it reasonable to speculate that she in her mind might have said, if she can't be with me, then she's not going to be with anybody, meaning Melody? You think she would take her own life then? Well, you would. You would. And maybe that was still the plan, but she didn't get there yet. I don't know. Yeah, I mean. But it's not completely out of the realm of possibility that she brought her around, spent some time with her, and then decided, hey, I'm going to be with you later. But if I can't have you, then nobody can. And again, we're all looking at that going, what the hell? How does that make sense? But we're talking about someone who's not thinking the same way we are. So I hope I'm wrong. Time is a.

the essence. So there's actually new information and this is an evolving case and I want to see what you think about it. So there's a PI. Bill Garcia, he said he's been working with Melody's aunt on her case since the beginning. He said he began several days after it was discovered by law enforcement that Melody was now with her mother. And he said he spoke to this Tyler guy, the paralegal, for the better part of two hours. And Tyler Brewer, he told this PI that Ashley told him she left Melody with a couple she met at the zoo, which either that's not true or that is suspicious and concerning. Well, can I pause right there to compartmentalize?

To me, that comes off as bullshit, right? Because if Ashley's so concerned about her daughter and wants to get her back at some point, she's not going to leave her with this random couple that may take her kid and never return it. Or who as soon as they see Melody's missing on the news, they're going to be like, can't we have. They don't want to be tied to that. So to me, right off the rip, you're just, you're just, you're just, you're just, you're just, you're relaying the message here, I don't buy it. I think it's bullshit, which is concerning. It's either

she's lying because she's with someone else or she knows where she is and that if they find her, it's not going to be good for Ashley. So apparently Tyler Brewer said this zoo, this couple of the zoo thing to a local news station. And Bill Garcia said, quote, I'm listening to this last news interview that he gave with one of the other national stations. I don't remember it quite as such and have gone back and reflected on our initial conversation and don't see that it meshes exactly correctly, as I remember, as we documented. End quote. Now, Garcia, the PI, he said that later on Brewer told him he was having a difficult

time remembering what occurred and how it happened. And if this is the story that actually came from Ashley, if Ashley told Tyler Brewer this, Bill Garcia, the PI, he's like, well, we don't know how much of this is real, how much of this is made up, but Garcia says he has his own theory. He said, quote, I suspect that Ashley may actually be involved in some kind of trafficking, whether it be good drug trafficking, I don't believe it's human trafficking, but all the elements I've looked at fit the criteria of someone that's going to be a transporter. And he said that this wasn't Ashley's first trip to the Midwest.

Police said she has rented cars before, and Garcia, the PI, he said that in those types of operations, the transporter takes the drugs to one location, gets handed money, and is responsible for bringing the money back to the sender. And then he said, quote, if something has gone wrong or if for some reason the people receiving, the people expecting any kind of funds to come back, has any kind of problems with Ashley, they may have asked her or may have told her to leave Melody with someone until she completed the project, end quote. Now, here's my issue with that.

If Ashley Buzzard is doing this high profile drug trafficking, which you would assume she's getting paid for, why is she still in debt? I'm not turning a blind eye to it. Everything is, I'm Derek. You know, anything's possible, Lavasser, right? But a lot of this gets sensationalized. people watch a lot of TV, a lot of movies, and most of the time you're not looking at some type of drug trafficking mule transporter situation. And it's very contradictory to the person

that we're speaking about. And I mean, Ashley, yes, she had some financial struggles. But on the other hand, she was in love with her daughter, cared about her, wanted to be with her. I don't see her handing her over, meaning melody, as collateral for something. Or even if it's not collateral, taking her and giving her to a trafficking organization when, by all accounts, she loves and cares about Melody. The only thing that I can see where Ashley would give Melody up is if the plan was to get her back at some point. And even in her state of mind, she has to know that, and I'm just, I'm not going to be, I'm going to be not as descriptive here. But if she hands her daughter over to a drug trafficking organization, bad things are going to happen to her daughter. She has to know that.

So I don't see her doing that. And as bad as the other scenarios are, that to me is almost just as bad if you know where I'm going with this. And I, yeah. And I mean, there's a lot of people who are like, well, if it's not drug trafficking, then like how is she paying her bills when she doesn't have a job? Well, we don't know her situation. We don't know this. She could be getting like assistance for her mental health issues. She could be having, you know, help from the state.

or whatever. We don't know that. But once again, I have more new information. Oh, Jesus, man. This is like, this should have been

a crime weekly at this point. I know. So now the judge, a district judge, has dismissed the false imprisonment charge against Ashley Buzzard. They said that after hearing testimonies this Thursday,

Judge Stephen Dunkel ruled there was not sufficient evidence to continue the case. As part of the preliminary hearing, Judge Dunkel heard an audio record of a conversation between Buzzard and Tyler Brewer from that night. And KSBY News reported that a detective from the sheriff's office testified in court saying that law enforcement found two cell phones in Ashley Buzzard's purse after her arrest,

after obtaining a search warrant, of course, and law enforcement found the recording on, I guess, one of those phones. And Judge Dunkel said that the recording did not provide sufficient evidence that Brewer was in fear during the encounter. So while the felony case against the mother has been dismissed, Obviously, Melody is still missing. Now, this is interesting to me because is Tyler sort of trying to get himself, like inject himself into this case and be inflammatory and just like make a name for himself?

Because he's saying, oh, she wouldn't let me leave and the judge heard the recording and the judge, which is kind of smart for Ashley, if she's the one who recorded it. And I guarantee you she's recording every conversation she's having with people because if she's as paranoid as everyone says, she's recording things. But the judge said, yeah, I don't believe that Tyler felt he was afraid for his life or that he, you know, couldn't leave, et cetera, et cetera. So is he kind of like exaggerating things? Did Ashley even disclose something that she appeared to regret? Because the judge heard the conversation, the police have heard the conversation, yet we have no sign of where melody is.

So this is a very convoluted case. And at the center of it all, we have melody, who we still don't know where she is. We got Tyler Brewer over here going on News Nation and other networks giving interviews saying he knows things and, you know, he was afraid for his life and she took a box cutter out, all valid things. But now the judge is saying, no, this isn't enough for the charge to hold. So is there some kind of conspiracy against Ashley and maybe she's a little mentally ill, but is all the people that are kind of trying to come and take her child away from her when she's doing the best she can as a parent? Is that kind of pushing her over the edge a little bit and making her feel more paranoid? making her feel more like the world's against me. I don't know, but I feel bad for Ashley in general.

I feel bad for Melody. Where is she? Do I think that Ashley did something to her in my gut? It's saying no. I hope not. I think we got to get off the whole false imprisonment thing. I'm glad they're moving on from that. I think it was an opportunity to try to keep her in custody while they searched for

melody. It didn't work. Move on from it. You need to devote all resources to finding melody. that's going to be a very involved, intense process. They need to go back, use GPS, use satellite imaging. Yeah, they get two phones now. So maybe one was a burner phone, yeah.

Track everything. And what they need to do is follow her GPS coordinates as much as they can and locate every single area where there potentially was a camera. Home ring camera, commercial camera, a gas station, whatever they can do to try and pinpoint the last known location for Melody where they can see her on, some type of surveillance footage, even if she's sitting in a car while Ashley's running in a store. And once they do that, I think they did that. I think they did that. That's kind of the issue is they

have her last known location being, you know, do it again. Yeah. Do it again. You have to go back and then you have to look in that area to see what connections Ashley could have to that area. I agree. And if there's any dumping grounds that would be suitable for a body if that is the route. Yeah, well, you're talking about desert area. You're talking about Utah. You're talking about Arizona, Nevada, California. That's concerning to me. Because here's the reality.

If Ashley killed Melody, she's never going to admit to it. She's never going to admit to it. Most of the time, statistically, they will not admit to it. They'll leave this earth with people wondering what happened. Which is what Lori Vela was trying to do, I think. Yeah, that's what they'll do. So I hope that through the investigation, through maybe the second phone, they're able to make a connection to someone in Ashley's life that's going to lead to Melody's location.

Time is of the essence. They got to do it soon because the longer time passes, the easier it is for whoever these people are if they have Melody to get away. They could leave the country. You never know. So thinking about Melody, thinking about her family, I'm not as supportive of Ashley as you are, surprisingly, but maybe that's because I'm just learning about it now. I'm not necessarily supportive. I just, you know, I feel, I understand that you love your children. And if, even if you're going through something, you're trying your best.

And if somebody comes in and they're like, oh, you're not a fit parent and I, you know, I'm going to take this child from you. Yeah, it's terrifying. It's scary. It's, you know, I don't, I don't think that that should be the main concern. I think getting Ashley help instead of telling her like, we're going to take your kid from you. That should be the main concern. Even if this family, the father's family, if they wanted to actually be helpful, they could say, hey, you go to the hospital, we're not going to try to get custody. We'll take care of Melody for a few months, get better so you can be the best mother you can for her, and then come back and we will gladly allow her to return to your custody.

We're not trying to separate a mother and a child. We're trying to make sure you're okay so you can be the best mother for her that you can be. like work with her not like we're going to take that kid from you and in a lot of interviews and a lot of things that I've read it does kind of seem that that the father's family had this like oh I never liked her from the beginning like the mom of maybe that maybe it was justified the mom said like oh when my son when my son first brought her around she just kind of was like quiet and she was looking around and I said to my son what's going on with this girl she's weird and it kind of maybe seems like maybe you were kind of an asshole to her

her from the moment you met her and she doesn't really have warmer trusting feelings towards you or they had the right vibe no because remember even tyler brewer said it wasn't until 20 2016 or something that ashley started developing these mental health issues or 2018 but it was after the car accident but before he said he's known her since 2014 she was absolutely fine yeah listen i'm i'm being i might be a little like cold here but i'm thinking about a six-year-old or i'm sorry a nine-year-old girl who's currently missing and God knows where she is. So, you know, I know, normally, I'm normally, I'm like right there too. Normally.

And when I first started reading about it, I was like, this isn't the right course of action, regardless of your situation. When I first started reading about it, I was like, oh, this woman did something to her kid and I was angry. And then I started to see the family dynamics. And I'm like, this is, you know, when somebody's going through a mental health crisis, what they don't need is for anyone to tell them, like, you're not a competent parent. You can't have your kid.

I'm going to take them. It's not going to help their mental health. It's not going to help, but I would also say there are some people who are not competent enough to take care of the kids and the people around them are trying to remove that child before something like this happens. Yeah. There's a fine line there and not knowing all the specifics, it's tough to make judgment. But I want to hear your guys' opinion on this.

What do you think about this case? What do you think about everything we know so far? And what do you think happened to Melody? Is there anything that we didn't mention that you think should be vetted and looked into? sooner than later. We'd love to hear your thoughts. We're thinking about Melody. We're thinking about her family. We just want her home to make sure that she's okay. Any final words from you, Stephanie? No, same. I'm hoping that this develops quickly, but it has stalled out. So I think it's going to be a while. Yeah, to go back to Timothy Pitts and still haven't found him. No clue where he is.

And I hope that history does not repeat itself. We're thinking of everybody. If there's an update in this case, we'll absolutely let you guys know. We'll be back later this week with the fifth and final part of our BTK series. Until then, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you soon.