The mother of a 9-year-old girl from California, Melody Buzzard, reportedly took a friend hostage with a box cutter after she seemed to regret disclosing her daughter’s whereabouts, as detailed in court filings.
Ashley Buzzard has been uncooperative with officials in the search for her daughter. She was arrested in California on Friday under false accusations, although law enforcement stated that her case was unrelated to her daughter’s disappearance at first.
Tyler Brewer, the individual involved, claims that when he visited Ashley’s house looking to help find Melody, she turned on him. He was told by Ashley where her daughter was left, which was, strangely enough, in Utah, many miles from his home in Lompoc, California.
Brewer noted that Ashley seemed upset after revealing this information, which he believed she regretted, as per a complaint filed on Monday that NewsNation obtained.
Brewer, who has known Ashley since 2014, recounted that she brandished a box cutter and repeatedly asked to leave the house, but he did not permit her to do so right away.
He stated that he had his eyes shut and fists clenched while using keys to lock the door to prevent her from escaping. The court documents suggested that the manner of the incident indicated some level of premeditation or complexity.
Eventually, Brewer managed to leave and reported the situation to the authorities immediately afterward.
He expressed doubt about the accuracy of the information Ashley provided regarding her daughter’s possible location, considering her apparent mental instability.
Reports indicated that Ashley, 40, faces mental health challenges and displays extreme paranoia, a concern echoed by her family. Her mother, Lori Miranda, shared that she had not seen her granddaughter in over two years, stating that Ashley’s mental health had rapidly declined since the accidental death of Melody’s father in 2016, when Melody was just six months old.
Melody was last spotted near the border of Utah and Colorado on October 9, according to police records. She was reported missing on October 14 after school officials noted that she hadn’t participated in her home-study program for more than a year.
Following her mother’s separation from Melody, Ashley has come to be viewed as a central figure in a case now involving federal authorities. On October 7, she undertook a peculiar road trip to Nebraska, returning alone just three days later.
During this lengthy journey, it’s alleged that she altered the license plates on her rental vehicle and even wore a wig to evade detection, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
Disturbing surveillance footage remains the last known sighting of the young girl prior to her disappearance. Since the search for Melody began, Ashley has been described as “uncooperative,” failing to provide detectives with any useful details regarding her daughter’s whereabouts or condition.
