← Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
Melodee Buzzard: Search Expands to FOUR STATES for Missing 9-Year-Old Girl
00:14:04
Loading summary
Transcript24 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hey, everybody, Ashley Banfield here. Before we jump back into today's case, I want to flag another true crime podcast that you have got to listen to. It's called Scorned Love Kills. This is a new hit series from Investigation Discovery, one of my favorites. And it's all about when passion flips into poison. And when love stories don't end well, they end in body bags. Best part about this one, it's a podcast that comes straight from Investigation Discoveries archives. So it's real audio, it's real investigators and real psychologists, all of them walking you through these jaw dropping crimes. Like the husband in South Carolina running an underground gambling ring that blew up into cheating and debt and a deadly showdown. Or the perfect couple in Kentucky whose marriage collapsed into drugs, affairs and a shocking murder no one saw coming. Listen, this podcast is really gripping. It is raw, and if you're into true crime like I am, I know you're gonna love it. So make sure you check it out. Scorned Love Kills. Wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone, I'm Ashley Banfield and this is drop dead serious. Every time we hear from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, the search for nine year old Melody Buzzard gets more specific and more disturbing. And now we have huge news because the investigation has taken another wild turn. A brand new photo just released shows that Melody is with her mom, Ashley Buzzard, inside that car rental office near their home in Lompoc, California. Remember, this was back on October 7, the day a bizarre cross country road trip began to Nebraska. We had previously seen a picture of young Melody from that visit, but now the aperture has widened and now we can see her mom, Ashley too. And now I get it. Now I get why the police said we think that young Melody's wearing a wig. I wasn't sure. She's wearing a hoodie and she has very long, curly hair. So I thought, well, why would they say that? But they did say because her mom is known to wear wigs. And I thought, well, that's a stretch too. There's something they're not telling us. And now the photo tells me everything. Both of them are apparently wearing wigs because look at Ashley. Look at this picture. I mean, that is definitely not her hair, right? So now we get she's got this like insane wig on. So it is not out of the ordinary to be saying that the daughter does too. Right? They're clearly trying to disguise their appearances in this rental office. Police are now also confirming that Melody was last seen alive as late as October. 9th, October 9th. Originally, we thought October 7th. Right. The last time we'd seen her was at that. That car rental agency. We figured that was it. Some newspapers had said they thought that they had signposted markers and all the rest, you know, along that journey. But now it's the police saying she. She was last seen alive as late as October 9th, and that is when Ashley was making her way back from Nebraska back to Southern California. The police say surveillance video places that child near the Colorado, Utah border. I would love to know what surveillance video. When are they going to release that? What did they look like? Same wigs. Different wigs. Is that why they know they're both wearing wigs? They had different hair, had different clothes. It's two days after that car rental photo, after this surveillance video that they haven't shown us. On the 9th of October, they say Ashley drove through and made stops in the following places. Get your pen out. Green River, Utah, Panguitch, Utah. St. George, Utah. A tiny corner of northwest Arizona, Prim, Nevada, and Rancho Cucamonga, California. All of these stops, the police say, were on or about October 9th. Remember, this is key because police say they've got surveillance of Melody being alive on the 9th. Maybe one of those places. Right. On the 10th of October. They say that's when Ashley returned home to Lompoc alone. And police are now asking anybody who may have spotted Ashley's rented white 2024 Chevy Malibu in any of those places, they're asking, please call us. We. We want to talk to you. We need everything we can get. And speaking of that white car, we're now learning that Ashley switched the license plates of that rental car while she was on route. Nothing suspicious there. Right? She just switches license plates on a rental car. Police say that the car was spotted Oct. 8 with a new York license plate. So she rents the car on the 7th, and the next day the car is spotted with a New York plate, a plate that did not belong to the rental company, but was not registered to Ashley. So what'd she do? Did she steal it off a car on. On the way and then affix it onto the back of her car? Did she have it stolen and in a bag? Did someone lend her a plate before she took off on route to Nevada? I can tell you this. She had a New York plate on that white car on the 8th, but when she returned the car back in California on the 10th, suddenly it's got a California plate. Yeah, a California plate had been reaffixed to the rental car. Again, nothing suspicious. Here, Right? Nothing to see here. No, this is nuts. I mean, nobody does that unless you're trying to hide. Nobody puts giant wigs on and a hoodie up unless you're trying to hide. Nobody says nothing to see here to the cops when they say we have a missing child report. Unless you're trying to hide. What is fascinating is that the cops are now saying that they're looking in four states for Melody. And all I could think of was like, well, what? How do you do that? How do you just look in four states, right? Hey, everybody, Ashley Banfield here. Before we jump back into today's case, I want to flag another true crime podcast that you have got to listen to. It's called Scorned Love Kills. This is a new hit series from Investigation Discovery, one of my favorites. And it's all about when passion flips into poison. And when love stories don't end well, they end in body bags. Best part about this one, it's a podcast that comes straight from Investigation Discovery's archives. So it's real audio, it's real investigators and real psychologists, all of them walking you through these jaw drops. Crimes like the husband in South Carolina running an underground gambling ring that blew up into cheating and debt and a deadly showdown. Or the perfect couple in Kentucky whose marriage collapsed into drugs, affairs and a shocking murder no one saw coming. Listen, this podcast is really gripping. It is raw. And if you're into true crime like I am, I know you're gonna love it, so make sure you check it out. Scorned Love Kills. Wherever you get your podcasts. And it turns out there is a very specific way, especially when you have a rental car. Earlier on my NewsNation show, I had a really interesting conversation with retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffendoffer. I had a lot of questions about all of these new pieces of information that have just emerged on Melody Buzzard and her mom, Ashley Buzzard, especially the wigs, the switched license plates, and this map that they can now draw through four states. Here's our conversation.
- [08:17]
B
The most important part of all of the revelations today, the video, the license plates, the wig, all of it. What's your read?
- [08:25]
C
The most important thing is we have a whole new date where now we know she was alive and that was on the 9th. That is huge information. But I think on top of that, Ashley, we look at the fact that they said she was on camera on the Utah border, but yet they have all those other destinations and cities that were far west of there, yet no camera footage of her. That is so concerning it makes me think she didn't make it far past that point that she's last seen.
- [08:56]
B
So the October 9th sighting, I'm confused as to why the police are only telling us that now. If they're looking for people and extra eyeballs to get on this story and give them tips, why are they just telling these things to us now?
- [09:13]
C
Well, Ashley, I'm wondering when this information came to them, when they first were able to discern that she was on that camera. This is a situation of true gumshoe FBI agent work. You have AO leads, which are auxiliary office leads that are put out to all these different areas. And these agents have to go to these particular locations and pull camera footage. Then they have to download it, Then they have to sit there meticulously watch it. And that's how they're getting the footage like the one they referred to. So maybe this is a little fresher than we think.
- [09:49]
B
So talk to me about that route, the map that we put up, and the fact that the police are now telling us they're searching four different states. How exactly does this work, especially if the FBI is taking lead?
- [10:05]
C
So the headquarters of the FBI for this case is out of Los Angeles. There's an RA in San Maria. I believe that's the RA that that would handle this case. They are responsible for putting out what we call leads leads to all of these other offices that are throughout this four state region. From there, a lead lands on your desk and this is going to be a priority lead as opposed to routine, and you're going to go out and cover that lead. In other words, look at that location where they know that they have been.
- [10:38]
B
So when you say look in the location, those states are all big. Do they just sort of hit everything along the highway or how do they actually tackle this?
- [10:45]
C
Well, first of all, I think there's very pointed information that's from that GPS in that Malibu, possibly. Also, if she had a cell phone and certainly from her credit card, we know she had a credit card to rent that. So I think they're also working on that credit card information to track. And so those agents are going to be pointedly go to those locations along that route to try to pull information such as the video surveillance from those locations.
- [11:16]
B
So does that mean they put boots on the ground at every single stop that, say, a credit card is seen to have activated? Like every gas station, they'll go to each gas station and say, what did you see? Did you see the little girl? I mean, is it literally that much gumshoe? Detective boots on the ground work.
- [11:32]
C
Absolutely. You're going to go to those locations and I'm sure they're going to do this the right way. You're also going to want to go at the exact time that they are believed to have used that credit card. And this is why there's people that hang around those gas stations at different times. You've seen them, I've seen them. People are routine. So you're going to want to interview all those witnesses, the clerks that were working at that particular time and pull that footage.
- [12:01]
B
So, Jennifer, like you and I have been talking about this case for weeks, and there's just what I feel like is a mountain of evidence of bad acting.
- [12:12]
A
Right.
- [12:12]
B
Bad actor behavior, switching license plates, wearing wigs. Evidence is taken from the home, renting cars. You know, this is all the sort of stuff that innocent people don't typically do. Why is this woman, Ashley Buzzard, Melody's mother, not arrested yet?
- [12:30]
C
Well, the biggest problem is anytime you want to arrest somebody, you have to have the criminal violation in hand that you can charge. So if you look at this case, the number one thing they could do is put her before a dependency court. All they have to do is have a judge issue a summons to her. They need to pull her into court and have her explain what is going on with her daughter. At the point she does not explain, she can be held in contempt and jailed until she explains.
- [13:02]
B
So the dependency court. This is the thing that's been really bugging me. I feel like we got two weeks ago, CPS going to the door, handing her a document that neighbors said was produce this child in 72 hours. Well, 72 hours came and went. And then we learned it wasn't a police request, this was a CPS request. But we never heard that police made that same request. Why would they not have made the same request? Why aren't they making it today?
- [13:29]
C
Well, you know, I'm looking at this thinking that there is good reason for when she is out. Remember, she is the only person that really knows what happened to Melody. And so she's a key, key witness. For instance, storage locker. Do they know about the storage locker from the credit card information or was she frequently going to that storage locker? I am sure they have her under surveillance and she's providing information unwittingly about just through her actions. Now.
- [14:02]
B
Again, surveillance is one thing. Arresting someone and then scaring the bejesus out of them with, you know, potential murder charges until she coughs up information, that's another thing, is that Just not a good strategy.
- [14:18]
C
I don't think it's that it's not a good strategy. I think that they're toiling with. What are they going to arrest her for? Any parent can take a child and have them go and visit an individual that they deem appropriate to visit. That's not a crime. Certainly everything she's doing and everything we know leads us to think this is a crime that she has possibly committed. But Ashley, the truancy law changed October 1st in California. So to me, the truancy would have been the number one thing they could have charged her with. But now that's not a criminal violation. As of literally October 1st should be.
- [14:57]
B
Makes me livid. All right, last question. Are they watching for a major mistake being made on the part of Ashley Buzzard? And if so, what's that mistake they're looking for?
- [15:08]
C
Well, Ashley, do you remember when we talked about about a week and a half ago, the cars that she tried to rent? I think that could have been a key clue. If she would have been able to rent those cars, was she going back to the location that she left Melody? That's the kind of mistake they're looking for and that's what they're hoping, that somehow that she will make a huge mistake like that and lead them to Melody.
- [15:34]
B
Not hoping that she's listening to this. But how on earth do you keep eyes on someone like this so that she doesn't disappear into the ethereum?
- [15:43]
C
Well, there are, there's cameras that can be put on in her neighborhood and that can watch her and I would believe that they have that in place and are watching her remotely.
- [15:57]
A
That's the latest on the search for Melody Buzzard, a case that gets, I mean, honestly more strange by the day and more infuriating. I'm going to be following every twist in the search for this little nine year old girl and if you don't want to miss what comes next, make sure you subscribe so you get every one of the UPD the moment that they break. I'm Ashley Banfield and remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead seriously.