November 13, 2025 • 46 mins
When Melodee Buzzard is first reported missing, school officials fear the little girl hasn’t been seen in more than a year.
The school district discovers Melodee was seen much more recently, enrolling in another year of homeschooling.
Santa Barbara County sheriffs then find that her mom, Ashlee Buzzard, left Lompoc with Melodee on October 7; they were spotted together at a car rental.
Security footage caught Melodee for the last time on October 9. Buzzard returns home the next day, alone. Melodee has now been missing for 35 days.
The only photo authorities have of Melodee is more than two years out of date, as the little girl is “homeschooled” in Vandenberg Village, just north of Lompoc, California.
Ashley Buzzard was arrested on Nov 7 for false imprisonment, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office. Ashley's arrest was for false imprisonment. This is not a child-related charge. So, this arrest is not related to Melodee. And it's not related to the ongoing missing person case directly. But, it is a case that came up amid this missing person case.
Four days after her arrest, Ashlee Buzzard entered a not guilty plea to false imprisonment. Prosecutors argue that Buzzard should remain incarcerated due to her flight risk and potential for violence.
However, her attorneys counter that she does not own a vehicle and did not specifically threaten Brewer with a box cutter. The judge agrees to grant Buzzard bail under close supervision and orders Buzzard to stay away from Brewer.
The 40-year-old is once again walking free.
Anyone with information asked to contact Santa Barbara County investigators at 805-681-4150. Anonymous calls can be made to the tip line at 805-681-4171. Contact the FBI at 800-225-5324.
Anonymous tipsters can also share information online to the sheriff’s office.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Greg Morse - Criminal Defense Attorney of Morse Legal, Author of “The Untested” (found on Amazon)
- Lauren Johnson-Norris - Defense Attorney (specializing in juvenile, and CPS cases in Orange County, California), and Founder of Johnson Criminal Law Group
- Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, Author: "Deal Breaker," and featured in hit show "Paris in Love" on Peacock; Instagram & TikTok: drbethanymarshall, X: @DrBethanyLive
- Irv Brandt - Former Senior Inspector, US Marshals Service International Investigations Branch, Chief Inspector, DOJ Office of International Affairs; Country Attaché, US Embassy Kingston, Jamaica. Author of, “SOLO SHOT: CURSE OF THE BLUE STONE," "Forever Solo: Knight of the Dragon,” “Flying Solo: Top of the World," “Solo Journey: Buddha Knights a Jack Solo Mystery Novel," and “Going Solo: The Gospel of Luke” X: @JackSoloAuthor”
- Rhonda Dequier - Founder, Missing In America Network (an advocacy program for the families of missing persons)
- Anne Emerson - Senior Investigative Reporter for Criminally Obsessed (which can be found on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X and Facebook: Criminally Obsessed), Host of the Award-Winning Podcast: "Unsolved South Carolina: The Murdaugh Murders, Money and Mystery."
- Sydney Sumner- Investigative Reporter, 'Crime Stories'
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Mommy disguises, missing Melody just
nine years old, and a bizarre series of wigs on
a very odd cross country road trip. Mommy comes home,
(00:21):
No Melody. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I
want to thank you for being with us. Where is
this little girl?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Timeline was very sketchy and mom is not giving any
information at all.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Where is Melody? Please help us find this girl. Mommy
being completely uncooperative in the search for Melody. Why is
there any good reason Mommy can't tell us where her
nine year old little girl is before I bring you
(00:57):
up today on this bizarre cross country road trip and
the changing of the wigs and the outfits and the disguises.
Mommy changing the license plates on a rental car during
that cross country trip with her child. Who does that?
I want to take you straight into a court room.
(01:17):
In the last hours this has gone down. Mommy Ashley
Buzzard in court on criminal charges this round friends at
Court TV, but they were not charges in relation to
her missing little girl. And yes, Melody nine years old
(01:39):
is missing. Straight out to Anne Emerson, senior investigative reporter,
criminally obsessed on YouTube and star of Unsolved South Carolina,
The murdog murders, money and mystery, and thank you for
being with us. Why isn't mommy charged with her disappearing child?
Why is she charged on some other false imprisonment? What happened.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Right now?
Speaker 4 (02:07):
We were so surprised when that false imprisonment charge came in.
It looks like somebody had gone to the house to
try and talk to her. From what he's told us
that we now know the man who says he was
the one that filed this criminal complaint.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well, Anne Emerson, you're absolutely correct. His name is Tyler Brewer.
And apparently he goes over to Buzzard that's actually Buzzard
Melody's mother's home, to offer to help look for Melody,
and they get into it, and apparently Ashley Buzzer tells
(02:43):
him some story about where Melody is, then thinks better
of it and holds him in her home, locks the doors,
and holds him with a box cutter. Listen.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
After weeks of refusing to give any information about her
daughter's whereabouts, Ashley Buzzard is taken into custody, but the
arrest on a charge of false imprisonment isn't related.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
To Melody.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
A friend of Buzzard's, Tyler Brewer, stopped by Buzzard's home
to offer help locating Melody. Brewer claims Buzzard told him
exactly where and with whom she left Melody in Utah.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
Brewer tells police he doesn't trust the information Buzzard gave
him about Melody. Brewer says Buzzard is visibly distressed after
divulging Melody's location, screws her eyes shut and makes fists
over and over. Buzzard allegedly produced a box cutter and
secured her front door with four locks standing in front
of it to prevent Brewer from leaving. When Brewer does
(03:36):
manage to escape, he goes straight to police.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Who does that to a guy, this guy, Tyler Brewer,
who's coming to try to help find Melody? And what
did she tell him about Melody's location? Of course, now
he thinks she could have been lying, And why lie
about your daughter's whereabouts? This as a specter, was Melo sold?
(04:01):
We know she actually Buzzared is in a lot of debt,
thousands and thousands of dollars a debt. We know she
needs money, she doesn't have a job. She's in debt.
She takes Melody on a cross country bizarre road trip
and comes back without her. Has Melody been sold? Has
Melody a nine year old little girl been trafficked? Is
(04:25):
Melody still alive? Why let's take a look at her
in court again? Because when you see her in court,
there's Ashley Buzzer standing with her lawyer and that's a
friend friends at court TV. Why didn't anybody ask her
where's Melody? And why does she look like that? Let's
(04:46):
see how she looked at a rental a car rental
business where she was renting a car. Hey, is that her? Yes?
It is? And she is done up. Let me tell
you look at that head full of fake hair, Okay,
the false eyelashes, the makeup, the outfit completely uncharacteristic of
(05:12):
Ashley Buzzard. Why the change in appearance? And why there
you go? Can you do you see those go go
boots she's got going on right there? Why is her
daughter following recalcitrantly behind her wearing a wig? It's just
it's too much for me. Straight out to Lauren Johnson Norris,
(05:34):
joining US high profile defense attorney specializing in juvenile and
CPS cases. You can find her. She's the founder of
the Johnson Criminal Law Group. Lauren, she's in court, she's
in the clutches of law enforcement, she's in front of
a judge. Did nobody say, hey, where's Melody?
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Well?
Speaker 7 (05:57):
I'm sure absolutely, and understand the frustration about wanting to
ask that question. But when a defendant is in court,
they won't be speaking. Your attorney speaks for them, and
her attorney would have asserted the Fifth Amendment privilege against
self incrimination to protect her rights so that she doesn't
say something that could land her in jail.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You know, I really appreciate what you're saying, Lauren Johnson Norris.
But if you notice, there's not a jury there, so
her asserting. As we all know, trial lawyers know, if
you know the defendant is going to assert the Fifth
Amendment right to remain silent. If you know they're going
to do that, you cannot continue to ask them that
in front of a jury. You can't do it if
(06:38):
they's already advanced their Fifth Amendment right. But there's not
a jury, So why didn't the prosecutor ask why didn't
the judge ask? Am I the only one that wants
to know where is Melody? You're so concerned that by
asserting her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, it could
somehow prejudice a jury. There is no jury, Lauren, Well, of.
Speaker 7 (07:00):
Course there's no jury at her raiment, but we know
that anything that she can say can incriminate her, and potentially,
if she's placed under oath, anything that she says, of course,
could be used in a case. So well, everyone may
want to ask if the fifth sure, But if she
searts the fifth, we know she's not going to be
speaking right, so she wouldn't be saying anything at all.
(07:23):
A judge would rather, a prosecutor would have to give
immunity to her to get that information. Now, we don't
know if that has been discussed between the prosecution and
the defense about just locating Melody and seeing where she
is to get that information. But I am sure that
the law enforcement investigation is going on behind the scenes.
We just don't see it on TV.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Okay, guys, So she's there in court. You see Actley
Buzzard in court with a defense lawyer there. That means
there's a prosecutor, that means there's a judge, there's law
enforcement standing right, they're staring at her shooting diggers right
at or this is from our friends at Court TV.
And nobody says, hey, where's Melody. Maybe she'll answer, maybe
(08:08):
she won't, Maybe she'll assert her Fifth Amendment right to
remain silent. But nobody even asked, guys, where was Melody
taken on that road trip? Joining us tonight a special guest.
It is the Santa Barbara Sheriff's PIO Public Information Officer
Raquel Zick. Raquel a three day road trip? What have
(08:32):
you learned?
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Detectives learned that there was a three day road trip
that began on October seventh, and it went as far
out as Nebraska down into Kansas before it before the
return trip that ended in Lompope. We do know on
that return trip that Ashley did come back to Lompope
without Melody.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
To Sidney Sumner Crime Stories investigative reporter, Raquel will be
right back with you, Sidney, Lompope. Where is Lompoke.
Speaker 8 (09:03):
Southwest of Vandenburg Village where Ashley and Melody lived together
at that home on Mars Avenue, So that's the main
city center. Vandenburg Village is very small, so you would
head into Lompoke for shopping things of that nature.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So sid where exactly did she go?
Speaker 8 (09:23):
Well, from Mompoke, it looks like she made a really
big loop, driving east all the way to Nebraska, then
driving south into Kansas, and then coming back to California
back to Lompoke through Utah and Colorado.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Wow, a circuitous route. Take a look at that. Now?
Can we establish was Melody with her the entire time?
We now know that she stopped at a gas station,
the Junction gas Station. Listen, it was really really freaking weird.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
She just like opened the door at the store and
then said, did you guys know you have a whole
bunch of kittens out here?
Speaker 6 (10:05):
So gas stations in Panguage and Circleville could not provide
surveillance footage, finding it taped over two days prior. An
employee at the pit stop in Junction, Utah is convinced
she had a brief interaction with Ashley Buzzard. Employees say
Ashley did not purchase anything, but told her about cats
hanging around the store. The employee says Buzzard left with
(10:26):
a woman in her late twenties to mid thirties with
purple hair, driving in a white car with California plates.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
From our friends at KUTV and there's more. I kind
of walked towards the door, going what the crap was that?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
When they left and noticed that they had a California
license plate.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
There's a lot of nature, a lot of woods around here,
so it's like, if this is where she was the
day before she got home, Like, who knows? You know there,
anything could happen. KUTV straight out to IRV Brandt. You
know him well, former Senior Inspector US Marshall Service International
Investigations Branch. What is that He's gone all around the
(11:08):
world looking for missing people and bad guys. IRV Brandt
is also the author of a series of books about
Jack Solo g I wonder who that could be patterned after?
IRV Brandt? Did you hear what the gas station attendants
are saying. They're convinced they saw Ashley Buzzard. They are
(11:31):
convinced she had melody with her. They state that she
had poked her head in and when she about kittens,
and when she left, it was so odd, her behavior
was so odd. They actually said, what the crawd was that?
And they even looked out and saw she had a
(11:52):
California car tag? What could have happened that made them curious,
curious enough to go. I mean, you know, how many
times have you seen something you thought was odd and
you look to check the tag.
Speaker 9 (12:08):
Well, the gas station attendance, and I agree with you, Nancy,
that it is very odd. But when you're talking about
that area of the country where you're going into Utah
and Colorado, I'm pretty familiar with it. There's not a
lot out there, and there's not a lot of people
coming through, and the people that tend to live and
work there look at people they don't know hard and
(12:33):
something about that struck those people as unusual.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Straight out to Anne Emerson, senior investigative reporter, criminally obsessed.
And what I find significant, and I'm circling back in
a moment to Sydney regarding the timeline, is when this
gas station attendant saw and they're convinced they saw the
mom Ashley buzzard, they did not see Melody. What do
you know about this interaction? Well, it was so bizarre.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I think that that's why this gas station attendant remembered
what she thought she saw. First of all, remember Ashley's
wearing a wig and it looks weird, So I think
there was a part of it that was like, why
is this woman coming in with this wig talking about
these kittens outside? So she kind of leans out and
she was actually on the phone, I think right after
(13:23):
or d during this interaction with her husband, and that's
why she could recollect it. She looks out and she
sees in the car someone with purple hair, is what
she said. Now, we asked very specifically. Our partners at
KUTV were sent down to this area to talk to
them about this, and she said she thought the woman
in the car was in her twenties or thirties, and
(13:47):
that was a huge red flag to all of us
that something had possibly happened between that Colorado Utah border
and now we're just down the road on Route eighty nine.
What's going on? And that really was very concerning, But
we don't know for sure, right we don't know for
sure if Melody looked older for some reason, but a
(14:09):
nine year old looking like a twenty to thirty year old,
it was just too much for me to believe.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
To Sidney Sumner, Crime Stories investigative reporter Anne Emerson is
spot on and she's identified a very critical moment in
this road trip. So the mom, we believe Ashley Buzzard
goes to this gas station and where is the gas station?
Quickly Sydney Junction, Utah Junction, Utah. They see who they
(14:38):
believe to be this woman, the mother Ashley Buzzard. She
comes in, she doesn't buy anything, but she asked them
about kittens cats outside the gas station. It sticks in
the attendant's memory. She was on the phone with her
husband and must have recounted what just happened. They look
(15:01):
out for some reason, their suspicion is roused. They look out,
they see the white rental car, They see that it
now has California plates, and they see what they believe
to be a woman in her twenties to thirties with
purple hair in the car with the mom. Do I
(15:26):
understand it correctly, Sidney?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yes, That is the.
Speaker 8 (15:29):
Gas station attendant's account of what happened. And she didn't
really get a good look at that passenger in the car,
so she claimed that this woman with the purple hair
looked to be in her late twenties to maybe her
early thirties, but she didn't have an interaction with anyone
outside of Ashley, and this was weird. Ashley poked her
head in the door, said hey, do you know there's
(15:51):
a bunch of kittens out here, and walked off, got
back in her car and took off. So it was
kind of a weird interaction. But yeah, she didn't get
a good look at that pass in the car, and
the car did have California plates, which matches what she rented.
So that car, that rental car, was assigned a California
plate when she left. We know at some point during
(16:12):
the drive she switched to a New York license plate,
but by the time that she was back in Junction, Utah,
that car had California plates.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Again, was that melody in the car wearing another bizarre
wig courtesy of mommy? Or was that truly an adult female?
And you got to look at it, IRV Brandt from
the perspective of the gas station attendant. If the gas
station attendant saw the California tags, I originally thought that
(16:44):
means she sees the car leaving. But in California you
have to have a tag on the front and the
back of your car, so she could have seen the
car coming toward her. So we've got to get a description,
a good description as best as she can give of
the woman or child with a purple wig on.
Speaker 9 (17:07):
That's correct, Nancy, I mean, this is a This is
a very important piece of the investigation and it needs
to be locked down as closely as it can. If
she didn't actually see the you know, the passenger in
the car other than the purple hair, you know, it
(17:29):
could have been of any age. We just need they
need to make sure of you know what she's saying.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Straight back Ount too. Special guests joining us the Santa
Barbara Shares Pio is Raquel Zick Raquel. This sighting, what
do you make of it?
Speaker 3 (17:47):
We do have a confirmed sighting as recent as October ninth,
which would have been on the route back, and that
would have been on the Colorado side of the Colorado
Utah border. This trip was taken in a white red
vehicle from a rental agency in Longpoke, and we do
know that somewhere along the along the route, the California
(18:07):
license plate was switched out to a New York license plate. Additionally,
we know that Ashley and Melody did wear wigs along
this trip, and those two things coupled together lead us
to believe that this was done to avoid detection along
that trip.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Joining us now a special guest. It's Elizabeth Mesa. This
is Melody's aunt. Is you will recall Melody's father passed
away in a vehicle accident on a motorcycle. This is
Melody's aunt on her father's side, her paternal aunt. Elizabeth,
(18:46):
thank you for being with us tonight. I am stunned
that the mom walks out of court and no one
presses her for information on where is Melody.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, this whole thing is pretty shocking and it's very
very heartbreaking that there's no force to tell her where,
tells where Melody is. We're still in the dark, absolutely
with no information whatsoever. And she walks out so Caroly
is so nonchalant like it's not a big deal.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Like it's no big deal at all. And Elizabeth. I
also heard where her attorney was asked, well is Ashley
Buzzard concerned about Melody's welfare? And her lawyer? Buzzard's lawyer says,
I can't comment. How can you not comment on whether
(19:44):
a mom is concerned about her nine year old little girl.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I don't understand it at all. I have try to
wrap my mind around this whole thing, and you know,
try to give empathy and try to put myself in
her shoes. I just can't. There's just there's something up
there that's not right in her mind. And for her
not to have any concern for her daughter whatsoever is
(20:09):
absolutely disgusting.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
When did you learn that Ashley Buzzard had walked out
of court and nobody made her answer where is your daughter?
I mean they didn't even put the question to her.
If she needed to take the Fifth Amendment right to
remain silent, she could have, but nobody even bothered to
ask her in court.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, I was at work and I had people, My
mother in law and a family friend was there in
the court, and then many news stations were there and
I was contacted and my stomach just completely jobbed. I
felt sick. It was just where's the justice for Melody?
Where is Melody? That's just a question, And she just
(20:52):
walked right past with not even a care. Don't like,
it doesn't even bother her that we're asking.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
This crime stories with Nancy Grace aside from the disastrous
court hearing where a judge let her walk free with
an ankle monitor, I mean, this woman clearly knows how
(21:18):
to plut how to change the car tags, the license
plates on cars. You think she can't beat an ankle
monitor for Pete's sake. To me, that was an insult.
It was an insult on top of injury.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I agree, it's definitely a slap in the face an
ankle monitor. She went through travel through the Midwest, changing
license plates in disguise, but yet you're going to give
her an ankle monitor that she wasn't a flight risk.
I mean, she's concealing her daughter's identity and not let
not cooperating on the police, but letter free. It doesn't
(21:54):
make any sense.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I've got a question when you said that she went
across the country, which she did that has been documented
in disguise. I find that very odd that you put
your nine year old little girl in a series of
wigs when you go in and out of a step. Okay,
there she is right there. There is buzzard with little Melody,
(22:19):
and she's got her daughter. That's the rental car location.
She's in a wig and she's got her daughter in
a wig. Why would you do that? And I also
find it interesting that you say Melody just kind of
walking behind her. I don't like the looks of that either.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yeah, I noticed the body language between the two of
them is very off. When they're at the rental place.
They it doesn't seem like a normal nine year old.
I mean she's just standing there with her arms crossed,
just with like this, I mean, poor child. She's in
a wig with a hoodie on. Mom's in full disguise.
Like why, you know, that's the question, why why are
(22:59):
you doing this to her? She should be out plane,
she should be wearing a disguise, should be her last worry.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
You know another thing that's scaring me, Elizabeth, is that
I know Ashley Buzzard has run through a lot of money,
thousands and thousands of dollars. She owes people. She needs money,
she's broke. She takes a rental car in disguise across
the country, hours and hours and hours of driving. She
(23:27):
changes the plates on the car. Who does that? Then
she changes the plates back when she returns home without Melody.
She needs money. She went in disguise, she changed the
car plates. Have you considered the very disturbing fact that
Melody was sold or trafficked at nine years old?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Of course, that's a thought, you know, something that you
definitely don't want to think of. But yeah, I mean
that's definitely a thought because none of this makes sense,
you know. I mean that's definitely nothing that we hope for.
We hope that she's safe and that we could get
her back, but I mean it doesn't make sense. None
of this makes sense. And like you said, she owes
(24:13):
thousands of dollars to people, but yet she I mean,
she doesn't have a job, she's on a fixed income
on housing. What is she spending all this money on?
Why did she need all those credit cards? I mean,
she doesn't have a vehicle. There's just so many wonders
on what's going on.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Where is she getting money?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Best, well, she's on housing and she receives Social Security benefits.
But other than that, I mean, she doesn't have a job.
I don't know where she's getting her money to rent
cars that I mean, ranting a car to drive across
the Midwest isn't cheap. And then the food and the gas.
(24:54):
I mean, she can't get that much money on through
the government. I mean, they don't give you that much money,
so she has to be doing something else. I don't know.
I try sitting here thinking and I'm just completely mind
blown over everything. At a loss for words.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Has anyone been able to confront her about where is Melody?
Speaker 2 (25:19):
No? I mean not. We've attempted to. We went over there.
We've been trying to talk to her. We personally the
family have had no success with that. After my niece
was able to talk to her that one time, and
then no, she doesn't correspond with us whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Does she have a cell phone, Lizabeth?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I mean she has to have a cell phone because
she's ordering all these packages, so she has to have
some type of electronical device. I mean she has to.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
So here we go, we know she's got a cell phone,
which leaves me too. Has the phone been pained? That
will give me a direct route of where she's been
unless she's shut it off. But there's one thing she
cannot shut off, and that is the satellite the NAV
system on rental cars. If that rental car had a
(26:15):
NAV system, which I believe that it did, so that
is a simple matter to track where she went on
that nav system. Question. Have you or anyone within your
family been in touch with L eight law enforcement?
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I mean several phone calls trying to get a hold
of the detective. I emailed and I asked him to please,
if you're not going to call me back, please get
in touch with my mother in law because she was
very upset and she wanted to answers, and thankfully he did.
He reached out to her. I'm not sure of his name,
(26:52):
but he reached out to her about a week or
so ago, and he just let her know that they're
still working on the case. They don't have any new information,
and they would keep us updated. And I mean, we
know just as little information as y'all do. We get
the information after it hits the news, so we don't
(27:13):
know anything else. We don't know anything more than everybody
else knows. So it's pretty frustrating because they don't let
us know when they're going to be doing things, you know.
So it's just frustrating. The whole thing is frustrating. It
doesn't make any sense to me. I just keep, you know, wondering,
is Melody okay? Does she need anything? You know? I mean,
(27:35):
I just think of my own kids and knowing that
they're in school and they're playing with their friends and
Thanksgivings coming up, and it's just heartbreaking. It's absolutely heartbreaking.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I've got such a bad feeling in the pit of
my stomach was beeth. We're in a catch twenty two.
Law enforcement is because they're trying to find Melody, just
like you are, but they don't have any proof of
any wrongdoing, so they cannot arrest Buzzard until they get
(28:06):
some kind of proof. And every minute counts. If Melody
is still alive and there is a strong possibility she is,
how long will she be alive and how long until
she is lost in some web of trafficking? You know,
children are sold, then they're sold, then they're moved, Then
they're moved, they go to place to place to place
(28:26):
to place to where you can't find them. That could
be happening right now tonight as we're talking. She could
be in some person's car, in the back of the
car getting taken across the country to some other location,
to some other person that wants a little girl her
age for nothing good. That could be happening right now
(28:51):
and the mom's not talking. I have another question for you, Elizabeth.
Did you ever know Buzzard to dress up in all
of these wigs or to dress her child up in wigs?
Or is that specifically for this road trip.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
No, I've never seen her in so much makeup or
dressed the way she was. Never she was always just
in like jeans and a T shirt, you know, I mean,
never in full makeup like this ever. Never seen her
in a wig. She always had her natural hair which
(29:27):
was shoulder like, mid back, maybe very curly. But this
whole costume to Sky, this is all new. I mean
I wouldn't have recognized her if I've seen her on
the street. I mean, this is just a total new character.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, I mean she is decked out with a full
on wig, fall eyelashes, either a leather or pleathan jacket,
tis matching boots, the works. She's put a lot of
time into that look she's got going on right there, Lizabeth,
Is she hold back up in her home now?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yes, she returns last night.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
This is just killing me that we can't get anything
out of her, and under our constitution we can't make
her answer questions. Lizabeth, what is your message to Melody
tonight if she can hear you.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I just want to let Melodie know that she has
a lot of family that loves her. She has her
grandma or her sister, aunt's uncles, cousins. We're all here
for her and we love her very much and we
just want her home safe.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Joining us tonight. Melody's paternal aunt who has been trying
and trying for weeks on end to find nine year
old Melody. Where is Melody? How could she be gone
a year and just reported missing.
Speaker 6 (30:59):
Or was she without getting some kind of direct indication
promocially of where Melody should be? It's going to be
much more difficult.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Mommy. Just in court on another serious criminal charge, and
that would be false imprisonment by use of a box
cutter on a guy that shows up offering to help
find Melody, not a stranger, someone she knows, a guy
named Tyler Brewer, and apparently law enforcement believe him because
they issue a formal charge and Nobody asks Ashley Buzzard,
(31:33):
where's Melody, bringing up the chilling possibility that this little
girl has been sold or trafficked Straight back out to
Santa Barbara Sheriff's Pio over kel Zick. What happened to
the renal vehicle and the changing of plates?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Yeah, so we know that the vehicle left the rental
agency bearying a California plate that was assigned to that vehicle.
We know that somewhere along the along the route that
was switched out to a New York plate that did
not belong to Ashley, and it does not belonged to
the vehicle. And then before it was returned back to
the rental agency of Lompoque, the California plate was replaced.
(32:14):
So it's a little challenging. It's more challenging to track
that vehicle as it goes through states because we're not
sure what license plate we're looking as looking at associated
with this white sedan. And additionally, it's hard to tell
how many times or if that plate was switched back
and forth.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace joining me now a veteran
defense attorney. You know him well, Greg Morse, criminal defense
attorney out of Palm Beach, founder of Morse Legal and
author of They Untested on Amazon. Greg, when you have
(32:58):
a client that changes the car tags on her car,
I mean when you go on a road trip, do
you take time to change the tags? And think about it?
In California, you have a front and a back tag.
That's a lot of work.
Speaker 10 (33:14):
Why well, Nancy, you're looking at these innocuous actions of
the mom and trying to impute that she sold her daughter,
she got rid of her into sex, slavery. But these
are just unconnected actions by someone. They don't prove anything.
They're clearly not enough to arrest, so they're meaningless in
(33:35):
and of themselves. And she's doing the right thing by
not talking to the police, because they manipulate and they
change statements and they put more meaning on things than
maybe the information cause for to lead to a conclusion
that she did something wrong. They're now releasing her on
house arrest for which seems like a nonsense charge or
false imprisonment unrelated. You know, they're leveraging the law enforcement
(33:58):
and unrelated to keep her close for this investigation into
her daughter. She may be distraught. She is broken down
and very emotional, so she's probably not thinking right anyway,
cause her daughter's missing and the information that's out there
now doesn't prove anything.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Her daughter's missing because she took her on her bizarre
road trip and made her we wear wigs the whole
way along. And now suddenly she's gone to Doctor Bethany
Marshall joining US psychoanalyst, author of deal Breakers. You can
see here now on Peacock and you can find her
at Dodor Bethany Marshall dot com. Doctor Bethany Marshall in
all of your travels, which are extensive. Her parents are
(34:36):
missionaries all over the world, and she went along. Have
you ever seen or seen a video of a snake charmer?
The snake charmer plays the musical instrument and goes back
and forth, and suddenly the very poisonous snake. They're both
going symbiotically like this, and you start falling under each
(34:57):
other's trance, right, and as the music stops, the snake bite. Somebody, Okay,
that is what Greg Morris just did. Did you hear
what he said? The mother's distraught? Really, I didn't see
her crying. Let's see a shot of that court TV
video of mommy in court. She's standing there just as
(35:18):
cold as a block of ice. And oh, by the way, Bethany,
after this this wee on court TV. Somebody asked the lawyer, hey,
is your client worried about melody? The lawyer said, quote,
I can't comment. I'm worried about melody. Why isn't the
mother worried about melody? You know what? You're the shrink
(35:41):
hit me, Well.
Speaker 11 (35:42):
The mother's more worried about about kittens than about melody. Apparently,
here's what concerns me. The mother is end quite a
bit of debt. She and her daughter look so sexualized
in terms of their appearance. The mother is sexualizing the daughter.
Does somebody at a convenience store actually thinks a nine
year old is between twenty and thirty years of age?
(36:03):
That means the mother is putting makeup, the purple wig.
All of that with this tells me. And also all
the changing of the tags and the license plates. This mother,
I do not believe is sophisticated enough to do that
on her own.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
But this is not a.
Speaker 11 (36:19):
Highly functioning mother. So it tells me somebody might be
coaching her, telling her.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
How because you plase put Bethany up.
Speaker 11 (36:28):
And I think she's being coached.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I'm sorry, I just I'm hearing static right now, you
said this is not a highly functioning mother. Pause. Right,
This mother knows enough to get a rental car to
change out the tags throughout her cross country road trip
with her little girl, who goes missing to change outfits,
(36:51):
put on disguises, and come back without her and fend
off authorities who are questioning her about where is Melody?
And you say she's not high functioning. I disagree.
Speaker 11 (37:04):
I Nancy. I do not think she is high functioning.
I think she's being coached.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Let me remind everyone that the mother that just sticks
in my mouth, the mother in this case, Ashley Buzzard,
has not been charged and has not been named as
a person of interest in Melody's disappearance. She just happens RNDA,
the care founder of Missing an American network. She just
(37:30):
happens to be the last one known to be with
Melody on a hundreds and hundreds of miles road trip,
just the two of them, a mommy and me moment,
and she comes back without her daughter. I won't tell
anybody where she is. How disturbed are you? RNDA? Of
course just came to the forefront during the Chandra Levy case.
(37:51):
If you remember that where Chandra Levy went missing from
her high rise in DC and the Ritzy high Rise
would video would tape over their surveillance. So we don't
really know what time Shandra left her home. We don't
know if she was dressed to go out to a
dinner party or to go jogging, or to go back
(38:12):
to work to the office, no idea. We don't know
who was with her. We know nothing because every seventy two,
they tape over it, just like the gas station. I
considering pushing legislation to disallow that. But therefore we don't
have the video of that gas station. At least we
(38:34):
have the eyewitness accounts. But I want to hear your take, Rhonda.
Speaker 12 (38:39):
Well, look, I believe that we would be in a
much better place if we had a better photograph of Melody,
and the gas station would have been able to provide
that if she was in that vehicle with her mom.
I feel like the whole communities along that route could
be looking out or could be looking through all of
(39:00):
their videos to see where else that vehicle was seen.
And I hope that the investigators are out there speaking
with every single establishment along that road to see what
they can find out, and hopefully they will come up
with more videos so that we can actually see who
we're supposed to be looking for.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Two. IRV Brandt, author of Solo Shot, Curse of the Bluestone,
and much more on Amazon. But for my purposes, IRV
Brandt has been with the US government going all around
the country hunting down tracking down bad guys and missing people. IRV,
what do we do.
Speaker 9 (39:40):
Now, Well, Nancy, it's a complex investigation in the sense
it covers so much territory between California and Nebraska than
the route back. But having said that, it's not comp
lux and what they're looking for, and they will have
(40:03):
the manpower. The FBI is assisting California, all the other
states will join in, and any other federal agencies that
they deem necessary. They will track that route as best
they can. They will interview all the witnesses that they
can find. Uh for the last time that.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Child was seen to Greg Morri's veteran trial lawyer joining
us out of Palm Beach, why didn't anybody ask her
in court? Where's Melody?
Speaker 10 (40:41):
Well, she has a lawyer, so she's not going to
She can't compel her to testify against herself. So rightfully,
so regardless of what's going on around her fault. No,
I don't know if she would be or not. But again,
you're going to tell someone that's being looked at for
a crime. You're going to tell someone that was charged
(41:03):
with an unrelated crime, do not speak with anyone or
the police. That's good sound advice. That's criminal defense law
one oh one. She has a Fifth Amendment right and
she's exercising it. There's nothing wrong with that, you know yourself.
It can't be used against her in court if she
is ultimately arrested in the future for something involving her daughter.
(41:23):
But right now there's not much other than the police
began an investigation. Here's the last point of the daughter.
They use this nonsense, false imprisonment to get her into
custody to see if that would provide leverage. But the
only thing that did probably was get her a lawyer,
probably court appointed, since she doesn't seem to have much money,
and he or she's going to tell her, Hey, don't
(41:44):
talk to anybody, no matter what they asked, even if
you want to help. She may want to help, you
may want to talk, but she's not. And that's sound
advice right now.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
That's right, doctor Bethany. She wants to help so much.
She stood there in court and didn't say a word
and is being un cooperative and not helping police find melody.
That's how much she wants to help, doctor Bethany Marshall.
What do you think.
Speaker 11 (42:10):
I think that the fact that she took her daughter
out of school and was homeschooling her was red flag
number one, cutting the daughter off from relatives, a loving grandmother, aunts, uncles,
red flag number two, running up debt, dressing her daughter
up in this manner and taking her across the country.
(42:30):
But most notably Nancy. When you interview somebody and you
wonder if there's homicide or sex trafficking or something like that,
what you really look for is whether or not there
is empathy towards the lost child. There's no empathy. She's not,
you know, Nancy. According to one report, she was taking
down missing children missing Melody Buzzard photos. That's not lack
(42:56):
of empathy. Even that's malice, that's destruction, that's getting in
the way of the investigation. This mother, I think, does
not want this daughter to be found for some reason,
because if the daughter's found and the daughter talks about
what happened, there's a lot of hell that could rain
down on this mother.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
And Emerson, is that true? And seeing your investigative reporter
criminally obsessed? Is the mom Ashley Buzzard accused of tearing
down missing persons posters?
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Absolutely, We've got it on video, like she was seen
by a ser like actually like a little surveillance camera.
It's out there of her going in her front yard
and These are community members who have been extremely concerned.
There are plenty of neighbors who have been speaking out
about this, and they've been watching this house for a
(43:47):
while and they watched her go in the front yard,
see these signs and start pulling them up out of
her yard because for whatever reason, she didn't feel like
they needed to have those signs in front of her yard.
Another thing about these neighbors is that they have been
watching strange behavior. I mean, I asked, have you seen her?
(44:13):
Have you ever seen Melody in a in a in
a wig or in a disguise before? And they were like, well,
I don't know about the wig, but I do know
every time she goes out she keeps her covered up
with a hoodie. What so this has been this behavior
has for whatever reason, if there's a mental health issue,
which we've heard a lot about of course, or some
(44:34):
reason that she would feel like she needs to keep
her hidden, there are there are definitely signs that have
been going on, according to the neighbors, for more than
a minute.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
To Rhonda Decayr joining us Missing an American Network. What now, Well, we.
Speaker 12 (44:50):
Are sponsoring six billboards throughout California, Nevada, and Utah, in
order to help the public know who to look for
and who.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
To call if they see her.
Speaker 12 (45:00):
I have been asking everybody in those communities to print
out posters and hang them up so people that aren't
watching TV or on social media, so that they know
that there is this little girl missing and she possibly
was in their communities, and if they saw anything, to
contact the authorities. And I have also put it out
(45:21):
there that if any businesses want me to send them
flyers that they can hand out, that I will mail
flyers to anybody along that route or anywhere where they
were to locate her.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
The search for nine year old Melody is happening now.
The state is trying desperately to find her. Law enforcement
across multiple jurisdictions are working night and day to find
this little girl and hopefully bring her home. If you
know or think you know anything at all about missing Melody,
age nine, please call Santa Barbara County Sheriffs eight and
(45:58):
zero five six eight one four one five zero repeat
eight zero five six eight one four one five zero. Tonight,
we remember an American hero, Officer Michael Chandler, big Stone Gap, PD, Virginia,
just twenty nine shot and killed in the line of duty,
(46:20):
leaving behind a grieving wife Natasha, and daughter Cameron, American
hero Officer Michael Candler, Nancy Gray signing off goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Mommy disguises, missing Melody just
nine years old, and a bizarre series of wigs on
a very odd cross country road trip. Mommy comes home,
(00:21):
No Melody. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I
want to thank you for being with us. Where is
this little girl?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Timeline was very sketchy and mom is not giving any
information at all.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Where is Melody? Please help us find this girl. Mommy
being completely uncooperative in the search for Melody. Why is
there any good reason Mommy can't tell us where her
nine year old little girl is before I bring you
(00:57):
up today on this bizarre cross country road trip and
the changing of the wigs and the outfits and the disguises.
Mommy changing the license plates on a rental car during
that cross country trip with her child. Who does that?
I want to take you straight into a court room.
(01:17):
In the last hours this has gone down. Mommy Ashley
Buzzard in court on criminal charges this round friends at
Court TV, but they were not charges in relation to
her missing little girl. And yes, Melody nine years old
(01:39):
is missing. Straight out to Anne Emerson, senior investigative reporter,
criminally obsessed on YouTube and star of Unsolved South Carolina,
The murdog murders, money and mystery, and thank you for
being with us. Why isn't mommy charged with her disappearing child?
Why is she charged on some other false imprisonment? What happened.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Right now?
Speaker 4 (02:07):
We were so surprised when that false imprisonment charge came in.
It looks like somebody had gone to the house to
try and talk to her. From what he's told us
that we now know the man who says he was
the one that filed this criminal complaint.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well, Anne Emerson, you're absolutely correct. His name is Tyler Brewer.
And apparently he goes over to Buzzard that's actually Buzzard
Melody's mother's home, to offer to help look for Melody,
and they get into it, and apparently Ashley Buzzer tells
(02:43):
him some story about where Melody is, then thinks better
of it and holds him in her home, locks the doors,
and holds him with a box cutter. Listen.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
After weeks of refusing to give any information about her
daughter's whereabouts, Ashley Buzzard is taken into custody, but the
arrest on a charge of false imprisonment isn't related.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
To Melody.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
A friend of Buzzard's, Tyler Brewer, stopped by Buzzard's home
to offer help locating Melody. Brewer claims Buzzard told him
exactly where and with whom she left Melody in Utah.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
Brewer tells police he doesn't trust the information Buzzard gave
him about Melody. Brewer says Buzzard is visibly distressed after
divulging Melody's location, screws her eyes shut and makes fists
over and over. Buzzard allegedly produced a box cutter and
secured her front door with four locks standing in front
of it to prevent Brewer from leaving. When Brewer does
(03:36):
manage to escape, he goes straight to police.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Who does that to a guy, this guy, Tyler Brewer,
who's coming to try to help find Melody? And what
did she tell him about Melody's location? Of course, now
he thinks she could have been lying, And why lie
about your daughter's whereabouts? This as a specter, was Melo sold?
(04:01):
We know she actually Buzzared is in a lot of debt,
thousands and thousands of dollars a debt. We know she
needs money, she doesn't have a job. She's in debt.
She takes Melody on a cross country bizarre road trip
and comes back without her. Has Melody been sold? Has
Melody a nine year old little girl been trafficked? Is
(04:25):
Melody still alive? Why let's take a look at her
in court again? Because when you see her in court,
there's Ashley Buzzer standing with her lawyer and that's a
friend friends at court TV. Why didn't anybody ask her
where's Melody? And why does she look like that? Let's
(04:46):
see how she looked at a rental a car rental
business where she was renting a car. Hey, is that her? Yes?
It is? And she is done up. Let me tell
you look at that head full of fake hair, Okay,
the false eyelashes, the makeup, the outfit completely uncharacteristic of
(05:12):
Ashley Buzzard. Why the change in appearance? And why there
you go? Can you do you see those go go
boots she's got going on right there? Why is her
daughter following recalcitrantly behind her wearing a wig? It's just
it's too much for me. Straight out to Lauren Johnson Norris,
(05:34):
joining US high profile defense attorney specializing in juvenile and
CPS cases. You can find her. She's the founder of
the Johnson Criminal Law Group. Lauren, she's in court, she's
in the clutches of law enforcement, she's in front of
a judge. Did nobody say, hey, where's Melody?
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Well?
Speaker 7 (05:57):
I'm sure absolutely, and understand the frustration about wanting to
ask that question. But when a defendant is in court,
they won't be speaking. Your attorney speaks for them, and
her attorney would have asserted the Fifth Amendment privilege against
self incrimination to protect her rights so that she doesn't
say something that could land her in jail.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You know, I really appreciate what you're saying, Lauren Johnson Norris.
But if you notice, there's not a jury there, so
her asserting. As we all know, trial lawyers know, if
you know the defendant is going to assert the Fifth
Amendment right to remain silent. If you know they're going
to do that, you cannot continue to ask them that
in front of a jury. You can't do it if
(06:38):
they's already advanced their Fifth Amendment right. But there's not
a jury, So why didn't the prosecutor ask why didn't
the judge ask? Am I the only one that wants
to know where is Melody? You're so concerned that by
asserting her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, it could
somehow prejudice a jury. There is no jury, Lauren, Well, of.
Speaker 7 (07:00):
Course there's no jury at her raiment, but we know
that anything that she can say can incriminate her, and potentially,
if she's placed under oath, anything that she says, of course,
could be used in a case. So well, everyone may
want to ask if the fifth sure, But if she
searts the fifth, we know she's not going to be
speaking right, so she wouldn't be saying anything at all.
(07:23):
A judge would rather, a prosecutor would have to give
immunity to her to get that information. Now, we don't
know if that has been discussed between the prosecution and
the defense about just locating Melody and seeing where she
is to get that information. But I am sure that
the law enforcement investigation is going on behind the scenes.
We just don't see it on TV.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Okay, guys, So she's there in court. You see Actley
Buzzard in court with a defense lawyer there. That means
there's a prosecutor, that means there's a judge, there's law
enforcement standing right, they're staring at her shooting diggers right
at or this is from our friends at Court TV.
And nobody says, hey, where's Melody. Maybe she'll answer, maybe
(08:08):
she won't, Maybe she'll assert her Fifth Amendment right to
remain silent. But nobody even asked, guys, where was Melody
taken on that road trip? Joining us tonight a special guest.
It is the Santa Barbara Sheriff's PIO Public Information Officer
Raquel Zick. Raquel a three day road trip? What have
(08:32):
you learned?
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Detectives learned that there was a three day road trip
that began on October seventh, and it went as far
out as Nebraska down into Kansas before it before the
return trip that ended in Lompope. We do know on
that return trip that Ashley did come back to Lompope
without Melody.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
To Sidney Sumner Crime Stories investigative reporter, Raquel will be
right back with you, Sidney, Lompope. Where is Lompoke.
Speaker 8 (09:03):
Southwest of Vandenburg Village where Ashley and Melody lived together
at that home on Mars Avenue, So that's the main
city center. Vandenburg Village is very small, so you would
head into Lompoke for shopping things of that nature.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So sid where exactly did she go?
Speaker 8 (09:23):
Well, from Mompoke, it looks like she made a really
big loop, driving east all the way to Nebraska, then
driving south into Kansas, and then coming back to California
back to Lompoke through Utah and Colorado.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Wow, a circuitous route. Take a look at that. Now?
Can we establish was Melody with her the entire time?
We now know that she stopped at a gas station,
the Junction gas Station. Listen, it was really really freaking weird.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
She just like opened the door at the store and
then said, did you guys know you have a whole
bunch of kittens out here?
Speaker 6 (10:05):
So gas stations in Panguage and Circleville could not provide
surveillance footage, finding it taped over two days prior. An
employee at the pit stop in Junction, Utah is convinced
she had a brief interaction with Ashley Buzzard. Employees say
Ashley did not purchase anything, but told her about cats
hanging around the store. The employee says Buzzard left with
(10:26):
a woman in her late twenties to mid thirties with
purple hair, driving in a white car with California plates.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
From our friends at KUTV and there's more. I kind
of walked towards the door, going what the crap was that?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
When they left and noticed that they had a California
license plate.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
There's a lot of nature, a lot of woods around here,
so it's like, if this is where she was the
day before she got home, Like, who knows? You know there,
anything could happen. KUTV straight out to IRV Brandt. You
know him well, former Senior Inspector US Marshall Service International
Investigations Branch. What is that He's gone all around the
(11:08):
world looking for missing people and bad guys. IRV Brandt
is also the author of a series of books about
Jack Solo g I wonder who that could be patterned after?
IRV Brandt? Did you hear what the gas station attendants
are saying. They're convinced they saw Ashley Buzzard. They are
(11:31):
convinced she had melody with her. They state that she
had poked her head in and when she about kittens,
and when she left, it was so odd, her behavior
was so odd. They actually said, what the crawd was that?
And they even looked out and saw she had a
(11:52):
California car tag? What could have happened that made them curious,
curious enough to go. I mean, you know, how many
times have you seen something you thought was odd and
you look to check the tag.
Speaker 9 (12:08):
Well, the gas station attendance, and I agree with you, Nancy,
that it is very odd. But when you're talking about
that area of the country where you're going into Utah
and Colorado, I'm pretty familiar with it. There's not a
lot out there, and there's not a lot of people
coming through, and the people that tend to live and
work there look at people they don't know hard and
(12:33):
something about that struck those people as unusual.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Straight out to Anne Emerson, senior investigative reporter, criminally obsessed.
And what I find significant, and I'm circling back in
a moment to Sydney regarding the timeline, is when this
gas station attendant saw and they're convinced they saw the
mom Ashley buzzard, they did not see Melody. What do
you know about this interaction? Well, it was so bizarre.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I think that that's why this gas station attendant remembered
what she thought she saw. First of all, remember Ashley's
wearing a wig and it looks weird, So I think
there was a part of it that was like, why
is this woman coming in with this wig talking about
these kittens outside? So she kind of leans out and
she was actually on the phone, I think right after
(13:23):
or d during this interaction with her husband, and that's
why she could recollect it. She looks out and she
sees in the car someone with purple hair, is what
she said. Now, we asked very specifically. Our partners at
KUTV were sent down to this area to talk to
them about this, and she said she thought the woman
in the car was in her twenties or thirties, and
(13:47):
that was a huge red flag to all of us
that something had possibly happened between that Colorado Utah border
and now we're just down the road on Route eighty nine.
What's going on? And that really was very concerning, But
we don't know for sure, right we don't know for
sure if Melody looked older for some reason, but a
(14:09):
nine year old looking like a twenty to thirty year old,
it was just too much for me to believe.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
To Sidney Sumner, Crime Stories investigative reporter Anne Emerson is
spot on and she's identified a very critical moment in
this road trip. So the mom, we believe Ashley Buzzard
goes to this gas station and where is the gas station?
Quickly Sydney Junction, Utah Junction, Utah. They see who they
(14:38):
believe to be this woman, the mother Ashley Buzzard. She
comes in, she doesn't buy anything, but she asked them
about kittens cats outside the gas station. It sticks in
the attendant's memory. She was on the phone with her
husband and must have recounted what just happened. They look
(15:01):
out for some reason, their suspicion is roused. They look out,
they see the white rental car, They see that it
now has California plates, and they see what they believe
to be a woman in her twenties to thirties with
purple hair in the car with the mom. Do I
(15:26):
understand it correctly, Sidney?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yes, That is the.
Speaker 8 (15:29):
Gas station attendant's account of what happened. And she didn't
really get a good look at that passenger in the car,
so she claimed that this woman with the purple hair
looked to be in her late twenties to maybe her
early thirties, but she didn't have an interaction with anyone
outside of Ashley, and this was weird. Ashley poked her
head in the door, said hey, do you know there's
(15:51):
a bunch of kittens out here, and walked off, got
back in her car and took off. So it was
kind of a weird interaction. But yeah, she didn't get
a good look at that pass in the car, and
the car did have California plates, which matches what she rented.
So that car, that rental car, was assigned a California
plate when she left. We know at some point during
(16:12):
the drive she switched to a New York license plate,
but by the time that she was back in Junction, Utah,
that car had California plates.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Again, was that melody in the car wearing another bizarre
wig courtesy of mommy? Or was that truly an adult female?
And you got to look at it, IRV Brandt from
the perspective of the gas station attendant. If the gas
station attendant saw the California tags, I originally thought that
(16:44):
means she sees the car leaving. But in California you
have to have a tag on the front and the
back of your car, so she could have seen the
car coming toward her. So we've got to get a description,
a good description as best as she can give of
the woman or child with a purple wig on.
Speaker 9 (17:07):
That's correct, Nancy, I mean, this is a This is
a very important piece of the investigation and it needs
to be locked down as closely as it can. If
she didn't actually see the you know, the passenger in
the car other than the purple hair, you know, it
(17:29):
could have been of any age. We just need they
need to make sure of you know what she's saying.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Straight back Ount too. Special guests joining us the Santa
Barbara Shares Pio is Raquel Zick Raquel. This sighting, what
do you make of it?
Speaker 3 (17:47):
We do have a confirmed sighting as recent as October ninth,
which would have been on the route back, and that
would have been on the Colorado side of the Colorado
Utah border. This trip was taken in a white red
vehicle from a rental agency in Longpoke, and we do
know that somewhere along the along the route, the California
(18:07):
license plate was switched out to a New York license plate. Additionally,
we know that Ashley and Melody did wear wigs along
this trip, and those two things coupled together lead us
to believe that this was done to avoid detection along
that trip.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Joining us now a special guest. It's Elizabeth Mesa. This
is Melody's aunt. Is you will recall Melody's father passed
away in a vehicle accident on a motorcycle. This is
Melody's aunt on her father's side, her paternal aunt. Elizabeth,
(18:46):
thank you for being with us tonight. I am stunned
that the mom walks out of court and no one
presses her for information on where is Melody.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, this whole thing is pretty shocking and it's very
very heartbreaking that there's no force to tell her where,
tells where Melody is. We're still in the dark, absolutely
with no information whatsoever. And she walks out so Caroly
is so nonchalant like it's not a big deal.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Like it's no big deal at all. And Elizabeth. I
also heard where her attorney was asked, well is Ashley
Buzzard concerned about Melody's welfare? And her lawyer? Buzzard's lawyer says,
I can't comment. How can you not comment on whether
(19:44):
a mom is concerned about her nine year old little girl.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I don't understand it at all. I have try to
wrap my mind around this whole thing, and you know,
try to give empathy and try to put myself in
her shoes. I just can't. There's just there's something up
there that's not right in her mind. And for her
not to have any concern for her daughter whatsoever is
(20:09):
absolutely disgusting.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
When did you learn that Ashley Buzzard had walked out
of court and nobody made her answer where is your daughter?
I mean they didn't even put the question to her.
If she needed to take the Fifth Amendment right to
remain silent, she could have, but nobody even bothered to
ask her in court.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, I was at work and I had people, My
mother in law and a family friend was there in
the court, and then many news stations were there and
I was contacted and my stomach just completely jobbed. I
felt sick. It was just where's the justice for Melody?
Where is Melody? That's just a question, And she just
(20:52):
walked right past with not even a care. Don't like,
it doesn't even bother her that we're asking.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
This crime stories with Nancy Grace aside from the disastrous
court hearing where a judge let her walk free with
an ankle monitor, I mean, this woman clearly knows how
(21:18):
to plut how to change the car tags, the license
plates on cars. You think she can't beat an ankle
monitor for Pete's sake. To me, that was an insult.
It was an insult on top of injury.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I agree, it's definitely a slap in the face an
ankle monitor. She went through travel through the Midwest, changing
license plates in disguise, but yet you're going to give
her an ankle monitor that she wasn't a flight risk.
I mean, she's concealing her daughter's identity and not let
not cooperating on the police, but letter free. It doesn't
(21:54):
make any sense.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I've got a question when you said that she went
across the country, which she did that has been documented
in disguise. I find that very odd that you put
your nine year old little girl in a series of
wigs when you go in and out of a step. Okay,
there she is right there. There is buzzard with little Melody,
(22:19):
and she's got her daughter. That's the rental car location.
She's in a wig and she's got her daughter in
a wig. Why would you do that? And I also
find it interesting that you say Melody just kind of
walking behind her. I don't like the looks of that either.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yeah, I noticed the body language between the two of
them is very off. When they're at the rental place.
They it doesn't seem like a normal nine year old.
I mean she's just standing there with her arms crossed,
just with like this, I mean, poor child. She's in
a wig with a hoodie on. Mom's in full disguise.
Like why, you know, that's the question, why why are
(22:59):
you doing this to her? She should be out plane,
she should be wearing a disguise, should be her last worry.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
You know another thing that's scaring me, Elizabeth, is that
I know Ashley Buzzard has run through a lot of money,
thousands and thousands of dollars. She owes people. She needs money,
she's broke. She takes a rental car in disguise across
the country, hours and hours and hours of driving. She
(23:27):
changes the plates on the car. Who does that? Then
she changes the plates back when she returns home without Melody.
She needs money. She went in disguise, she changed the
car plates. Have you considered the very disturbing fact that
Melody was sold or trafficked at nine years old?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Of course, that's a thought, you know, something that you
definitely don't want to think of. But yeah, I mean
that's definitely a thought because none of this makes sense,
you know. I mean that's definitely nothing that we hope for.
We hope that she's safe and that we could get
her back, but I mean it doesn't make sense. None
of this makes sense. And like you said, she owes
(24:13):
thousands of dollars to people, but yet she I mean,
she doesn't have a job, she's on a fixed income
on housing. What is she spending all this money on?
Why did she need all those credit cards? I mean,
she doesn't have a vehicle. There's just so many wonders
on what's going on.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Where is she getting money?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Best, well, she's on housing and she receives Social Security benefits.
But other than that, I mean, she doesn't have a job.
I don't know where she's getting her money to rent
cars that I mean, ranting a car to drive across
the Midwest isn't cheap. And then the food and the gas.
(24:54):
I mean, she can't get that much money on through
the government. I mean, they don't give you that much money,
so she has to be doing something else. I don't know.
I try sitting here thinking and I'm just completely mind
blown over everything. At a loss for words.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Has anyone been able to confront her about where is Melody?
Speaker 2 (25:19):
No? I mean not. We've attempted to. We went over there.
We've been trying to talk to her. We personally the
family have had no success with that. After my niece
was able to talk to her that one time, and
then no, she doesn't correspond with us whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Does she have a cell phone, Lizabeth?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I mean she has to have a cell phone because
she's ordering all these packages, so she has to have
some type of electronical device. I mean she has to.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
So here we go, we know she's got a cell phone,
which leaves me too. Has the phone been pained? That
will give me a direct route of where she's been
unless she's shut it off. But there's one thing she
cannot shut off, and that is the satellite the NAV
system on rental cars. If that rental car had a
(26:15):
NAV system, which I believe that it did, so that
is a simple matter to track where she went on
that nav system. Question. Have you or anyone within your
family been in touch with L eight law enforcement?
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I mean several phone calls trying to get a hold
of the detective. I emailed and I asked him to please,
if you're not going to call me back, please get
in touch with my mother in law because she was
very upset and she wanted to answers, and thankfully he did.
He reached out to her. I'm not sure of his name,
(26:52):
but he reached out to her about a week or
so ago, and he just let her know that they're
still working on the case. They don't have any new information,
and they would keep us updated. And I mean, we
know just as little information as y'all do. We get
the information after it hits the news, so we don't
(27:13):
know anything else. We don't know anything more than everybody
else knows. So it's pretty frustrating because they don't let
us know when they're going to be doing things, you know.
So it's just frustrating. The whole thing is frustrating. It
doesn't make any sense to me. I just keep, you know, wondering,
is Melody okay? Does she need anything? You know? I mean,
(27:35):
I just think of my own kids and knowing that
they're in school and they're playing with their friends and
Thanksgivings coming up, and it's just heartbreaking. It's absolutely heartbreaking.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I've got such a bad feeling in the pit of
my stomach was beeth. We're in a catch twenty two.
Law enforcement is because they're trying to find Melody, just
like you are, but they don't have any proof of
any wrongdoing, so they cannot arrest Buzzard until they get
(28:06):
some kind of proof. And every minute counts. If Melody
is still alive and there is a strong possibility she is,
how long will she be alive and how long until
she is lost in some web of trafficking? You know,
children are sold, then they're sold, then they're moved, Then
they're moved, they go to place to place to place
(28:26):
to place to where you can't find them. That could
be happening right now tonight as we're talking. She could
be in some person's car, in the back of the
car getting taken across the country to some other location,
to some other person that wants a little girl her
age for nothing good. That could be happening right now
(28:51):
and the mom's not talking. I have another question for you, Elizabeth.
Did you ever know Buzzard to dress up in all
of these wigs or to dress her child up in wigs?
Or is that specifically for this road trip.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
No, I've never seen her in so much makeup or
dressed the way she was. Never she was always just
in like jeans and a T shirt, you know, I mean,
never in full makeup like this ever. Never seen her
in a wig. She always had her natural hair which
(29:27):
was shoulder like, mid back, maybe very curly. But this
whole costume to Sky, this is all new. I mean
I wouldn't have recognized her if I've seen her on
the street. I mean, this is just a total new character.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, I mean she is decked out with a full
on wig, fall eyelashes, either a leather or pleathan jacket,
tis matching boots, the works. She's put a lot of
time into that look she's got going on right there, Lizabeth,
Is she hold back up in her home now?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yes, she returns last night.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
This is just killing me that we can't get anything
out of her, and under our constitution we can't make
her answer questions. Lizabeth, what is your message to Melody
tonight if she can hear you.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I just want to let Melodie know that she has
a lot of family that loves her. She has her
grandma or her sister, aunt's uncles, cousins. We're all here
for her and we love her very much and we
just want her home safe.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Joining us tonight. Melody's paternal aunt who has been trying
and trying for weeks on end to find nine year
old Melody. Where is Melody? How could she be gone
a year and just reported missing.
Speaker 6 (30:59):
Or was she without getting some kind of direct indication
promocially of where Melody should be? It's going to be
much more difficult.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Mommy. Just in court on another serious criminal charge, and
that would be false imprisonment by use of a box
cutter on a guy that shows up offering to help
find Melody, not a stranger, someone she knows, a guy
named Tyler Brewer, and apparently law enforcement believe him because
they issue a formal charge and Nobody asks Ashley Buzzard,
(31:33):
where's Melody, bringing up the chilling possibility that this little
girl has been sold or trafficked Straight back out to
Santa Barbara Sheriff's Pio over kel Zick. What happened to
the renal vehicle and the changing of plates?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Yeah, so we know that the vehicle left the rental
agency bearying a California plate that was assigned to that vehicle.
We know that somewhere along the along the route that
was switched out to a New York plate that did
not belong to Ashley, and it does not belonged to
the vehicle. And then before it was returned back to
the rental agency of Lompoque, the California plate was replaced.
(32:14):
So it's a little challenging. It's more challenging to track
that vehicle as it goes through states because we're not
sure what license plate we're looking as looking at associated
with this white sedan. And additionally, it's hard to tell
how many times or if that plate was switched back
and forth.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace joining me now a veteran
defense attorney. You know him well, Greg Morse, criminal defense
attorney out of Palm Beach, founder of Morse Legal and
author of They Untested on Amazon. Greg, when you have
(32:58):
a client that changes the car tags on her car,
I mean when you go on a road trip, do
you take time to change the tags? And think about it?
In California, you have a front and a back tag.
That's a lot of work.
Speaker 10 (33:14):
Why well, Nancy, you're looking at these innocuous actions of
the mom and trying to impute that she sold her daughter,
she got rid of her into sex, slavery. But these
are just unconnected actions by someone. They don't prove anything.
They're clearly not enough to arrest, so they're meaningless in
(33:35):
and of themselves. And she's doing the right thing by
not talking to the police, because they manipulate and they
change statements and they put more meaning on things than
maybe the information cause for to lead to a conclusion
that she did something wrong. They're now releasing her on
house arrest for which seems like a nonsense charge or
false imprisonment unrelated. You know, they're leveraging the law enforcement
(33:58):
and unrelated to keep her close for this investigation into
her daughter. She may be distraught. She is broken down
and very emotional, so she's probably not thinking right anyway,
cause her daughter's missing and the information that's out there
now doesn't prove anything.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Her daughter's missing because she took her on her bizarre
road trip and made her we wear wigs the whole
way along. And now suddenly she's gone to Doctor Bethany
Marshall joining US psychoanalyst, author of deal Breakers. You can
see here now on Peacock and you can find her
at Dodor Bethany Marshall dot com. Doctor Bethany Marshall in
all of your travels, which are extensive. Her parents are
(34:36):
missionaries all over the world, and she went along. Have
you ever seen or seen a video of a snake charmer?
The snake charmer plays the musical instrument and goes back
and forth, and suddenly the very poisonous snake. They're both
going symbiotically like this, and you start falling under each
(34:57):
other's trance, right, and as the music stops, the snake bite. Somebody, Okay,
that is what Greg Morris just did. Did you hear
what he said? The mother's distraught? Really, I didn't see
her crying. Let's see a shot of that court TV
video of mommy in court. She's standing there just as
(35:18):
cold as a block of ice. And oh, by the way, Bethany,
after this this wee on court TV. Somebody asked the lawyer, hey,
is your client worried about melody? The lawyer said, quote,
I can't comment. I'm worried about melody. Why isn't the
mother worried about melody? You know what? You're the shrink
(35:41):
hit me, Well.
Speaker 11 (35:42):
The mother's more worried about about kittens than about melody. Apparently,
here's what concerns me. The mother is end quite a
bit of debt. She and her daughter look so sexualized
in terms of their appearance. The mother is sexualizing the daughter.
Does somebody at a convenience store actually thinks a nine
year old is between twenty and thirty years of age?
(36:03):
That means the mother is putting makeup, the purple wig.
All of that with this tells me. And also all
the changing of the tags and the license plates. This mother,
I do not believe is sophisticated enough to do that
on her own.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
But this is not a.
Speaker 11 (36:19):
Highly functioning mother. So it tells me somebody might be
coaching her, telling her.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
How because you plase put Bethany up.
Speaker 11 (36:28):
And I think she's being coached.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I'm sorry, I just I'm hearing static right now, you
said this is not a highly functioning mother. Pause. Right,
This mother knows enough to get a rental car to
change out the tags throughout her cross country road trip
with her little girl, who goes missing to change outfits,
(36:51):
put on disguises, and come back without her and fend
off authorities who are questioning her about where is Melody?
And you say she's not high functioning. I disagree.
Speaker 11 (37:04):
I Nancy. I do not think she is high functioning.
I think she's being coached.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Let me remind everyone that the mother that just sticks
in my mouth, the mother in this case, Ashley Buzzard,
has not been charged and has not been named as
a person of interest in Melody's disappearance. She just happens RNDA,
the care founder of Missing an American network. She just
(37:30):
happens to be the last one known to be with
Melody on a hundreds and hundreds of miles road trip,
just the two of them, a mommy and me moment,
and she comes back without her daughter. I won't tell
anybody where she is. How disturbed are you? RNDA? Of
course just came to the forefront during the Chandra Levy case.
(37:51):
If you remember that where Chandra Levy went missing from
her high rise in DC and the Ritzy high Rise
would video would tape over their surveillance. So we don't
really know what time Shandra left her home. We don't
know if she was dressed to go out to a
dinner party or to go jogging, or to go back
(38:12):
to work to the office, no idea. We don't know
who was with her. We know nothing because every seventy two,
they tape over it, just like the gas station. I
considering pushing legislation to disallow that. But therefore we don't
have the video of that gas station. At least we
(38:34):
have the eyewitness accounts. But I want to hear your take, Rhonda.
Speaker 12 (38:39):
Well, look, I believe that we would be in a
much better place if we had a better photograph of Melody,
and the gas station would have been able to provide
that if she was in that vehicle with her mom.
I feel like the whole communities along that route could
be looking out or could be looking through all of
(39:00):
their videos to see where else that vehicle was seen.
And I hope that the investigators are out there speaking
with every single establishment along that road to see what
they can find out, and hopefully they will come up
with more videos so that we can actually see who
we're supposed to be looking for.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Two. IRV Brandt, author of Solo Shot, Curse of the Bluestone,
and much more on Amazon. But for my purposes, IRV
Brandt has been with the US government going all around
the country hunting down tracking down bad guys and missing people. IRV,
what do we do.
Speaker 9 (39:40):
Now, Well, Nancy, it's a complex investigation in the sense
it covers so much territory between California and Nebraska than
the route back. But having said that, it's not comp
lux and what they're looking for, and they will have
(40:03):
the manpower. The FBI is assisting California, all the other
states will join in, and any other federal agencies that
they deem necessary. They will track that route as best
they can. They will interview all the witnesses that they
can find. Uh for the last time that.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Child was seen to Greg Morri's veteran trial lawyer joining
us out of Palm Beach, why didn't anybody ask her
in court? Where's Melody?
Speaker 10 (40:41):
Well, she has a lawyer, so she's not going to
She can't compel her to testify against herself. So rightfully,
so regardless of what's going on around her fault. No,
I don't know if she would be or not. But again,
you're going to tell someone that's being looked at for
a crime. You're going to tell someone that was charged
(41:03):
with an unrelated crime, do not speak with anyone or
the police. That's good sound advice. That's criminal defense law
one oh one. She has a Fifth Amendment right and
she's exercising it. There's nothing wrong with that, you know yourself.
It can't be used against her in court if she
is ultimately arrested in the future for something involving her daughter.
(41:23):
But right now there's not much other than the police
began an investigation. Here's the last point of the daughter.
They use this nonsense, false imprisonment to get her into
custody to see if that would provide leverage. But the
only thing that did probably was get her a lawyer,
probably court appointed, since she doesn't seem to have much money,
and he or she's going to tell her, Hey, don't
(41:44):
talk to anybody, no matter what they asked, even if
you want to help. She may want to help, you
may want to talk, but she's not. And that's sound
advice right now.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
That's right, doctor Bethany. She wants to help so much.
She stood there in court and didn't say a word
and is being un cooperative and not helping police find melody.
That's how much she wants to help, doctor Bethany Marshall.
What do you think.
Speaker 11 (42:10):
I think that the fact that she took her daughter
out of school and was homeschooling her was red flag
number one, cutting the daughter off from relatives, a loving grandmother, aunts, uncles,
red flag number two, running up debt, dressing her daughter
up in this manner and taking her across the country.
(42:30):
But most notably Nancy. When you interview somebody and you
wonder if there's homicide or sex trafficking or something like that,
what you really look for is whether or not there
is empathy towards the lost child. There's no empathy. She's not,
you know, Nancy. According to one report, she was taking
down missing children missing Melody Buzzard photos. That's not lack
(42:56):
of empathy. Even that's malice, that's destruction, that's getting in
the way of the investigation. This mother, I think, does
not want this daughter to be found for some reason,
because if the daughter's found and the daughter talks about
what happened, there's a lot of hell that could rain
down on this mother.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
And Emerson, is that true? And seeing your investigative reporter
criminally obsessed? Is the mom Ashley Buzzard accused of tearing
down missing persons posters?
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Absolutely, We've got it on video, like she was seen
by a ser like actually like a little surveillance camera.
It's out there of her going in her front yard
and These are community members who have been extremely concerned.
There are plenty of neighbors who have been speaking out
about this, and they've been watching this house for a
(43:47):
while and they watched her go in the front yard,
see these signs and start pulling them up out of
her yard because for whatever reason, she didn't feel like
they needed to have those signs in front of her yard.
Another thing about these neighbors is that they have been
watching strange behavior. I mean, I asked, have you seen her?
(44:13):
Have you ever seen Melody in a in a in
a wig or in a disguise before? And they were like, well,
I don't know about the wig, but I do know
every time she goes out she keeps her covered up
with a hoodie. What so this has been this behavior
has for whatever reason, if there's a mental health issue,
which we've heard a lot about of course, or some
(44:34):
reason that she would feel like she needs to keep
her hidden, there are there are definitely signs that have
been going on, according to the neighbors, for more than
a minute.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
To Rhonda Decayr joining us Missing an American Network. What now, Well, we.
Speaker 12 (44:50):
Are sponsoring six billboards throughout California, Nevada, and Utah, in
order to help the public know who to look for
and who.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
To call if they see her.
Speaker 12 (45:00):
I have been asking everybody in those communities to print
out posters and hang them up so people that aren't
watching TV or on social media, so that they know
that there is this little girl missing and she possibly
was in their communities, and if they saw anything, to
contact the authorities. And I have also put it out
(45:21):
there that if any businesses want me to send them
flyers that they can hand out, that I will mail
flyers to anybody along that route or anywhere where they
were to locate her.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
The search for nine year old Melody is happening now.
The state is trying desperately to find her. Law enforcement
across multiple jurisdictions are working night and day to find
this little girl and hopefully bring her home. If you
know or think you know anything at all about missing Melody,
age nine, please call Santa Barbara County Sheriffs eight and
(45:58):
zero five six eight one four one five zero repeat
eight zero five six eight one four one five zero. Tonight,
we remember an American hero, Officer Michael Chandler, big Stone Gap, PD, Virginia,
just twenty nine shot and killed in the line of duty,
(46:20):
leaving behind a grieving wife Natasha, and daughter Cameron, American
hero Officer Michael Candler, Nancy Gray signing off goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.