Melodee Buzzard’s Mom Arrested, But Not for Her Daughter’s Disappearance?

Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield

True Crime

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Newly released surveillance footage shows 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard and her mother, Ashlee, together for the very first time, just as police move in with a dramatic arrest. Officers swarmed Ashlee Buzzard’s California home, blocking the street and hauling out evidence bags before leading her away barefoot and in handcuffs. But investigators say the arrest isn’t connected to Melodee’s disappearance. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office confirms Ashlee is charged with false imprisonment.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Looking for a true crime podcast that goes beyond the headlines.
0:03.6	When I interviewed her 20 years on, she said that Fred told her there were hundreds of bodies buried in Gloucester.
0:11.4	It's a deeply disturbed love story.
0:14.7	Join Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt and journalist Helen Fospero on true criminals,
0:20.9	a weekly deep dive into the cases that shook the world,
0:24.1	with insights so shocking they still haunt our imagination today.
0:28.4	This is True Criminals.
0:35.1	Hey everyone, I'm Ashley Banfield, and this is Drop Dead serious. It finally happened. It finally happened. I have been waiting for this for like at least two weeks but closer to a month. The mother of Melody Buzzard has finally been arrested.
0:55.8	I know.
0:56.7	I kind of thought it was going to happen a long time ago, but finally, it happened today.
1:02.4	I'm recording this November 7th.
1:05.9	It was like a scene kind of like out of a movie.
1:09.8	Suddenly, the front yard was swarming with cops,
1:13.6	right? And they get her in cuffs, but as it turns out, it's not for the missing daughter.
1:22.2	The arrest is not because her nine-year-old girl hasn't been seen by anyone for over a month.
1:29.0	And she's stonewalling the cops.
1:31.3	It's something else entirely.
1:33.0	They blocked the road in front of her house.
1:36.2	All these FBI officers and local sheriffs and police officers show up.
1:40.7	They go into her house.
1:42.7	They search the house again. They come out of the house with
1:46.3	evidence bags again. She's barefoot. I mean, no time for shoes. But it's not for the missing
	...

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