Hidden True Crime - BREAKING: Melodee Buzzard Found & Ashlee Buzzard Arrested

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

On December 23, 2025, we learned that Melodee Buzzard had been found deceased. This episode was recorded live and includes parts of the press conference and the heartbreaking details we learned regarding the murder of Melodee Buzzard. About Hidden True Crime What started as a simple conversation at their dinner table became a captivating podcast. Join the dynamic duo of Dr. John Matthias, a criminal psychologist, and Lauren Matthias, an investigative journalist, as they delve into the psychological facets of unthinkable crimes every week. Their unique perspectives and in-depth analysis offer a fresh take on true crime storytelling. Thank you for your support through sponsorships, subscribing, listening, and becoming a Patreon member at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/HiddenTrueCrime⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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atora.com slash remove. Hello, gems. I don't even know how to to start this, we have a terrible update today in the case of nine-year-old Melody Buzzard. Not a reason I want to go live, but here I am. And before we go any further, I want to prepare you for what we're about to talk about because this is heavy. This is the update nobody wanted, but one, many of us did fear was coming, especially as the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months and nine-year-old Melody Buzzard was still missing. Fear certainly grew. But multiple sources are now confirming that Melody's body has been found. She is no longer alive. And according to law enforcement sources, human remains were actually located earlier this month in Utah,

in Utah in an area that investigators already knew Melody and her mother had traveled through. As you remember, we talked about a Utah detour earlier in our reports on this, wondering why there was a detour through a place called Pinguich, Utah. I'll get back to that in just a bit. But first, let's talk about what we know. So at the time, they were waiting on DNA testing to confirm identity, which is why if her remains were found earlier this month, they're not telling us until now. They were waiting for DNA testing to confirm identity, and that DNA has now come back, and sources say it confirms that the remains are indeed that of nine-year-old Melody Buzzard. And with that confirmation, her mother, Ashley Buzzard, who has not been helping police at all, at all has now been taken into custody this morning. Again, according to the New York Post, and I'm going to quote the New York post here, quote, sources confirmed that the young girl's body was found in an area where Melody had traveled with her mother in October. It is

believed that Melody was killed and that she likely died in October before her disappearance and made headlines, end quote. We are waiting for the press conference to start for information that the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office is going to bring us when it comes to the arrest of Ashley Buzzard. Ashley Buzzard is the mother of nine-year-old Melody Buzzard, who we have learned through sources has been found deceased. DNA has DNA testing has been done and the remains of Melody have been found in Utah. That's what we know right now. There are clearly so many missing pieces and unanswered questions and we are waiting for this press conference to begin. Then here we are. Here we are. Well, thank you and good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for being here with us today.

I am Santa Barbara County Sheriff Coroner Bill Brown, and today I am deeply saddened to report to you that the body of Melody Alani Buzzard, the nine-year-old child who went missing from the Lompoc area in October of this year, has been found in a rural area outside of Keynesville in Wayne County, Utah. and that this morning at approximately 7.51 a.m. members of our sheriff's office and the FBI arrested her mother, Ashley Lynn Buzzard, for her murder. Maternal filicide is rare and always difficult to comprehend. But this level of criminal activity is particularly shocking given the calculated, cold-blooded, and criminally sophisticated premeditation and heartlessness that went into planning it and the ruthlessness that went into actually committing the crime. We have recovered a significant amount of evidence that clearly indicates that this heinous crime was committed by Ashley Buzzard, Melody's mother, and the very person upon who she relied

upon and trusted the most in this world. From the moment this case was reported, our detectives pursued every lead with determination, with urgency, and with compassion. Our investigators and those of our allied agencies worked simultaneously on multiple fronts, some maintaining around-the-clock surveillance of Ashley Buzzard, while others focused on the painstaking collection, analysis, and verification of physical, digital, and forensic evidence. That sustained effort was critical in bringing this case to where it stands today. While this remains an active criminal case and certain details are still being investigated and cannot be disclosed at this time,

I can share with you now a timeline outlining the major investigative milestones. October 14th, 2005, a school administrator reported Melody's prolonged absence from school. Deputies responded to the family's residence in Lompoc, where her mother, Ashley, Buzzard, was contacted. Melody was not at the residence and Ashley provided no verifiable explanation for Melody's whereabouts. October 15th, 2025. Detective served a search warrant at the buzzard residence in the 500 block of Mars Avenue in the Lompoc area looking for evidence pertaining to Melody's whereabouts. Subsequent to the search warrant, it was determined that Ashley had recently rented a car and video surveillance images were obtained showing Ashley and

and a Melody at the rental car office, both of them wearing wigs in an apparent attempt to conceal their identity. These images were shared with the public on October the 22nd in an attempt to obtain additional information about their whereabouts. On October 24th, 2025, detectives shared an updated timeline

and travel route with the public of Melody these last known movements along a multi-state round-trip travel route that included California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska, with a return route including Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and then back to California. Detectives learned that along this trip, Ashley switched the license plates on the vehicle she had rented to a New York plate and found out that she would back her vehicle into gas stations in an apparent attempt to avoid detection by their surveillance cameras. Melody was last seen on video surveillance with Ashley on the Colorado side of the Colorado, Utah border on Thursday, October 9th, 2025. and detectives now believe that Melody was murdered shortly after that stop. On October the 30th, Sheriff's Detectives, along with the FBI Evidence Response Team,

responded and served follow-up search warrants at the home of Ashley Buzzard, as well as for a storage locker that she had rented and upon the car that she had recently rented as well. During the search of the Mars Avenue residence, an expended cartridge case was recovered. During the search of the vehicle, a live round of similar ammunition was located. Detectives submitted the expended cartridge case to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives for inclusion in their national database called Nibis. the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. December the 6th, 2025, members of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office in Utah responded to a call from a man and a woman

who were taking photos just off the 3,300 block of East State Route 24 in a remote part of Wayne County, Utah. This couple had discovered the decomposed body of a deceased person off of the side adjacent to West Caneville Road. On December 8th, 2025, a member of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office notified the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office of the discovery of the unidentified found body. Although immediate identification of the deceased person was not possible, it was apparent that the decedent was a female who had died from gunshot wounds to the head.

December 17, 2025, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Examination of cartridge cases found at the Utah crime scene resulted in a Nybin hit, linking them to the single cartridge case that was found at the Buzzard residence. On December 22nd yesterday, the FBI Crime Lab notified our agency that DNA analysis had determined that the remains found in Utah were a familial DNA match to Ashley Buzzard. Today, December 23rd, 2025, members of the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office and the FBI served search and arrest warrants at the Mars Avenue residence and arrested Ashley Lynn Buzzard for the murder of Melody Buzzard. Ashley was taken into custody without incident and she was booked at the Northern Branch Jail for first-degree murder where she is currently being held without bail. While these developments represent important steps towards holding Ashley Buzzard accountable for the murder of her daughter, They do not diminish the profound loss that we are acknowledging today.

Because this case is now moving through the court system, there are limits on what additional detail we can share publicly at this time. Good afternoon. My name is Patrick Brandy. I'm a special agent in charge with the FBI's Los Angeles field office. Various FBI field offices in multiple states devoted resources to this investigation and I can confidently speak on behalf of all FBI employees when I say that our collective hearts are broken as a result of this senseless outcome. The agents in our Santa Maria office just north of here worked tirelessly for the past couple of months with the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office and this has no doubt affected them as well personally. We were all hoping to find

Melody alive, as you undoubtedly were as well. That said, the FBI will continue to provide resources to the County of Santa Barbara as they pursue justice for Melody, whether that be laboratory services, running down leads in other states, or other investigative assets. As I mentioned, this investigation spanned multiple states. FBI field offices in Denver, Kansas City, Los Vegas, Omaha, Salt Lake City, San Diego, and San Francisco, as well as numerous other local partners provided resources. In particular, as the sheriff mentioned, the Wayne County Sheriff's Department in Utah and their medical examiner for their dedication to melodies remains once they were

The loss of a child is among the most profound tragedies any community can endure, and that loss is exacerbated when it is at the hand of someone else and particularly at the hand of the one who should have loved them the most. Today, we stand together in grief, but also with resolve. Melody deserved a far better life than she had. We will honor her memory by ensuring that every step of this process is handled with care, compassion, and a steadfast commitment to justice. Our investigation does not end here. We will continue working closely with prosecutors and ensure that the judicial process moves forward with integrity. May God bless the innocent soul of Melody Alani Buzzard, who we will never, ever forget. We have a lot of some time. If anybody has any follow-up questions, again, reinforcing the fact that we do have an ongoing investigation and while we're trying to balance transparency with seeking justice for Melody. So we do have an opportunity to take just a few questions. Yes, Crystal. Yeah, Raquel, I'm just curious, you know,

Do we believe at this moment that Ashley acted alone? Or is there any potential leads that other suspects may be involved? Thank you for your question. On investigation, as far as revealed, at this time, we don't believe that anyone else was involved. So the question is about the location of the murder weapon, if we have that in our evidence or in our possession at this time. I'll turn that over to Sheriff Brown. Thank you.

The short answer is no. We do not have the murder weapon yet, but we continue to seek it. Okay, so the question is where this trial will take place. I believe Sheriff Brown will have a response for that. Yes, the plan is that this trial will take place here since the intent was believed to have been formed here in our county prior to going on this road trip and committing the actual crime. So the question is if investigators on their initial routes had been through that area of weighing. County. I believe you're asking if we'd specifically probably been to the scene of the crime. I'm going to refer to Lieutenant Gossel for that.

Thank you for your question. We've been following a ton of leads looking at a lot of different data and information. It is an expansive area of the United States that we were searching, and unfortunately we didn't have specific location information until recently. We'll take one final question here and then that'll be a wrap for us. Is there a motive that you can share with this at all? The question is to a motive if we have one established, I'll have Sheriff Brown cover. We have not established a motive at this point. We have obviously established that it is what's known as a philicide,

the slaying of a child, in this case a maternal filicide. And there's been a lot of study and a lot of discussion about that and what motivates people to do that. But as far as an actual direct motive, we haven't established that yet. A very quick follow-up. I know that Ashley, you had described her as uncooperative throughout the investigation. Can you describe her demeanor now? Has she spoken or confessed in any way? Can you talk about her demeanor now?

Yeah, I can tell you that as of this morning, no, there was no change in her, her attitude and her demand. So uncooperative. I don't even know what to. say I'm learning all of this with all of you. I saw a lot of comments saying how shocked they were and I am with you. We still don't have a motive of why a mother would do this to her nine-year-old daughter. As of right now, please say it looks like this mother, Ashley Buzzard, acted alone and murdering her little girl by, I like it. It's hard for me to even like say it by shooting her in the head. They found cartridges. They have not found the murder weapon, but they found extended cartridges or a cartridge in the car and home from what I could tell. It looks like two photographers in Wayne County, Utah. That's southeast or just southeast of central Utah. December 6th, just two people,

photography. It's a beautiful area in unincorporated community in Utah, came across decomposed remains. And they could tell this was a female and the way County medical examiner took over and yesterday DNA testing confirmed that this was Melody Buzzard.

Nine-year-old Melody Buzzard that she had been shot in the head. You heard reporters at the news conference ask if she acted alone. The answer is yes. You heard them say, that she has been charged, Ashley Buzzard has been charged with first-degree murder, no bail,

the murder of her daughter. This is a philicide. This is an unusual crime. And that they have not, again, discovered the, they do not have the murder weapon, but that the cartridge matched what they found at the scene, and that they believe that the crime happened. And shortly after Melody and her mother, Ashley Buzzard, were seen on the Utah, Colorado border. I know I've mentioned Pinguich, Utah a lot as an unusual detour. They seem to take. And oddly, this is close to Pinguich. Let me tell you a little bit about this area.

You know, so Cainville is, it's an unincorporated community. in central Wayne County, Utah. The community is located east of Capitol Reef National Park. Again, as I've shared this area, it's Red Rock Country, it's rural, so it's near just east of Capitol Reef National Park, west of Hanksville. It sits along the Fremont River and Utah State Route 24. The charges are going to. be in California, despite the crime happening in Utah, we learned at the very end there because

the trial will be in California because the intent, the intent to do this, meaning premeditation of a mother happened in the state of California, Lompoc, California, Mars Avenue. They went over the timeline in the press conference. I'm just going to go over that again really quickly here. So in October 14th, 2025, a school administrator recognized that Melody was, schoolwork was not being picked up, request of welfare check. I want to compliment that school administrator.

A lot of people have said, why is it that nobody noticed beforehand? I want to point out that Melody's mother, Ashley, did everything she possibly could to isolate her daughter, away from family, away from friends, away from school,

homeschooling, everything. They say this was a premeditated act. That was plotted and planned by her own mother. And so I actually want to say that that school administrator did a good job noticing and requesting that welfare check. October 15th, a search warrant happened. And then subsequent to that search warrant, they learned that Ashley and Melody had gone to rent to rent a car for that road trip. And they were both wearing wigs.

And then they shared that with the public on October 22nd. On October 24th through 2025, law enforcement updated the timeline. They've realized that timeline happened to show Melody and Ashley at the Colorado, Utah border. They believe the crime happened shortly after the stop on that border. They had another search warrant. They searched the car, the Mars residence, and they found that extended cartridge case as well as ammunition. On December 6th, 2025, two photographers in Wayne County came across a decomposed body. and it was just west of Keynesville.

They mentioned multiple places that helped federal FBI. They mentioned Denver, Kansas City, Las Vegas, San Francisco, so many states, a lot of effort into finding this little girl. and finding out what happened to her, it turns out two photographers on December 6 came across her, her remains. One of the last things in the press conference that was mentioned is, is Ashley talking now. Is she cooperating now? Is she sharing a motive? What she's saying now? Is she confessing? No. She is not cooperating. She's not sharing any more information.

Police do not have a motive. And they don't believe that she acted with anybody else. That was the first question asked of a reporter. The answer is no, that the mother, they believe, acted alone. And that Melody's cause of death again is that she was, she had a gunshot wound to the head. So shortly, again, this crime happening shortly after they were last seen on the road trip in Utah. Cainville. Again, Cainville, an unincorporated, unincorporated community in central Wayne. County, Utah, United States. Again, just east of Capitol Reef National Park.

There's a lot to take in. So I'll certainly be discussing this with Dr. John. And, yeah, we will share more soon. May justice be served. Melody, you will not be forgotten. Most people don't realize how much their personal information is being bought and sold every day. Data brokers are making billions, pulling details about you from public records and the internet, and then packaging and selling it, usually without your consent.

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Other companies might sell just credit monitoring, or just a VPN. ORA gives you all of it, together, at the same price competitors charge for just one. one service. Start your free trial today atora.com slash remove. Protect yourself now at ora.com slash remove. Most people don't realize how much their personal information is being bought and sold every day. Data brokers are making billions, pulling details about you from public records and the internet, and then packaging and selling it, usually without your consent. That's how your information lands in the hands of scammers, spammers, even stalkers. It's why you get endless robocalls and why ads seem to follow you everywhere. That's where ORA comes. That's where ORA comes.

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