When nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard vanished in early October, few could have predicted how fast her mother’s behavior would spiral. Now, new court documents and witness statements reveal a terrifying encounter — one that prosecutors call false imprisonment by violence, menace, fraud, and deceit.

According to the sworn statement of Tyler Brewer, a legal document assistant and mandated reporter, he went to meet Ashlee Buzzard on November 6, 2025, to discuss helping locate Melodee. What happened inside her Lompoc home instead sounded like something out of a psychological thriller. Brewer says Ashlee became “visibly distressed,” produced a box cutter, and locked him inside with multiple locks while refusing to let him leave. He eventually escaped and reported the incident.



Now, Buzzard sits in the Santa Barbara County Jail on a felony charge — her bail set at $100,000 with a 1275 hold, meaning even if she posts it, she must prove the funds are clean. Authorities insist this charge is not directly connected to Melodee’s disappearance, but it exposes what looks like a mental health emergency spiraling into criminal territory.



In this episode of Hidden Killers with Tony Brueski, Tony dissects the full chain of events — from the wigs and swapped license plates to the psychological breakdown that ended in a locked door. How did a mother this unstable still retain custody? How did the system miss every red flag until someone else got trapped behind that door? And what does this tell us about how America handles mental health crises inside families — especially when a child’s life is at stake?



This is not just a case of one missing girl. It’s a portrait of a system that keeps giving unstable parents second chances until it runs out of children to protect.



If you know anything about the whereabouts of Melodee Buzzard, contact the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office immediately.



#AshleeBuzzard #MelodeeBuzzard #HiddenKillers #TonyBrueski #TrueCrime #MissingChild #MentalHealthCrisis #FalseImprisonment #SantaBarbara #Lompoc #ChildProtectionFail #ParentalRights #SystemFailure





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