WEBVTT
1
00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:11.400
Hey, everyone, and welcome back to Crime Why Are Weekly?
2
00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:14.400
And look, I know that y'all are used to get
3
00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:18.559
in your topics and I have no excuse except for
4
00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:21.199
I'm gonna. I'm just gonna tell the truth, Kelly.
5
00:00:21.239 --> 00:00:22.480
The truth is always the best part.
6
00:00:22.519 --> 00:00:25.480
I left my papers here last night and I didn't
7
00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:27.839
have time to write the topics before we got on
8
00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:31.600
air today. So we're gonna this is gonna be a
9
00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:35.600
surprise episode of Crime Are Weekly. You just do not
10
00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:37.880
know what you're gonna get. We don't, but we'll give
11
00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:41.240
you two of them because they're on top I can
12
00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:46.399
see those and two things we're definitely covering today. Of course,
13
00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:51.719
we brought you in the past a story regarding Melody Buzzard,
14
00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:55.359
the nine year old who disappeared with her mother without
15
00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:58.560
a trace. Well, there's been an update. They sadly have
16
00:00:58.679 --> 00:01:03.719
found the body of missing girl Melody Buzzard, and we're
17
00:01:03.719 --> 00:01:06.400
going to tell you all about that and what has occurred.
18
00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:11.200
And we're also going to talk about Palm Beach Gardens, Florida,
19
00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:15.599
where a woman was fatally stabbed at a Barnes and
20
00:01:15.879 --> 00:01:18.840
Noble while Christmas shopping.
21
00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:22.239
Like the most non dangerous place you would think ever,
22
00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:24.200
paper cuts.
23
00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:25.640
Would be the worst thing you could probably have.
24
00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:28.879
Yeah, and when we tell you why she was chosen you,
25
00:01:29.239 --> 00:01:31.920
it's really going to shock you. So we've got those
26
00:01:31.959 --> 00:01:35.599
stories for you, plus a ton more today on Crime
27
00:01:35.640 --> 00:01:38.040
War Weekly. I am Jim Chapman.
28
00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:39.319
And I'm Kelly Jennings and Jimothy.
29
00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:43.159
Guess what what A listener reached out to me and
30
00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:45.640
made something make total sense to me and I want
31
00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:48.159
to tell you about it. So remember when we covered
32
00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:52.319
the episode where the driver sprayed the food. The not
33
00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:56.599
uber the food delivery service, she spread the stuff and
34
00:01:56.599 --> 00:01:59.400
that made them sick. Well, a listener who is in
35
00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:03.040
a and does the door dashing or whatever, she said,
36
00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:05.719
I can tell you what probably happened, and it makes
37
00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.639
perfect sense. She said, you don't get your tip amount
38
00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:12.360
until after you submit the picture that you took the
39
00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:15.520
food and you actually deliver it. So she thinks that
40
00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:17.120
she got a bad tip or a tip that was
41
00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:19.879
less than she expected, and that's why she sprayed it
42
00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:23.520
in that moment. And of course that is note no,
43
00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:26.639
but doesn't it like make sense, Like we couldn't figure
44
00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:28.039
out why would someone randomly do that?
45
00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:31.680
Well, I guess if you were pissy. Yeah about your tip.
46
00:02:32.439 --> 00:02:34.960
Well, I mean this one thing to maybe spit on
47
00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:38.400
somebody's feet, which I wouldn't encourage either wholeother thing to
48
00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:39.120
make it.
49
00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:42.240
I'm just saying thank you so much for reaching out
50
00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:43.439
and telling me that because I did.
51
00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:45.280
Hey, different strokes, different folks.
52
00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:49.360
I guess. I guess. All right, Well, let's get into
53
00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:53.520
today's episode. And as I mentioned, the remains of nine
54
00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:57.400
year old Melody Buzzard, who vanished from her southern California home.
55
00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:02.080
This was in early October. They remains were discovered earlier
56
00:03:02.199 --> 00:03:06.479
this month in a remote area of Utah. Her mother,
57
00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:10.960
Ashley Buzzard, who is forty, has been arrested on suspicion
58
00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:14.360
of first degree murder in connection with the girl's death,
59
00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:20.120
which investigators described as premeditated and cold blooded act of
60
00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:24.199
maternal philicide is what they call that. I thought it
61
00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:29.719
was familiar side, but it's philicide is a ternament. Melody
62
00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:34.280
is a residence of Vanderberg Village, and she was reported
63
00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:39.080
missing on October fourteenth, after officials from the school district
64
00:03:39.159 --> 00:03:43.919
flagged her prolonged absence from an independent study program. Surveillance
65
00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:47.319
footage later revealed if you'll remember that we talked about
66
00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:50.360
this that Melody and her mother embarked on a road
67
00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:54.879
trup from California to Nebraska in a rented Chevrolet Malibu
68
00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:58.479
that was in October, and the girl was lasting alive
69
00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:01.439
on October ninth at a rod rest stop near the
70
00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:05.879
Utah Colorado border. She was unaccompanied by her mother in
71
00:04:05.960 --> 00:04:10.360
the footage. Ashley returned home alone on October tenth, and
72
00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:14.479
she had been uncooperative with law enforcement throughout the investigation,
73
00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:19.439
which I found very telling. Why would you not cooperate right?
74
00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.279
Melody's decomposing body, sadly was found by a man and
75
00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:29.560
a woman taking photographs along a roadside in rural Wayne County, Utah.
76
00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:34.879
An autopsy revealed she died from gunshot wounds to the head,
77
00:04:35.079 --> 00:04:39.000
with investigators estimating the time of death shortly after her
78
00:04:39.079 --> 00:04:43.800
last sighting on October ninth. The remains were positively identified
79
00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:49.639
on December twenty second through FBIDNA analysis that match samples
80
00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:54.240
to Ashley Buzzard. Ashley Buzzard was taken into custody at
81
00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:57.519
her home on the morning of December twenty third and
82
00:04:57.759 --> 00:05:01.160
is being held without bail. This is not her first
83
00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:03.959
brush with the law. She was arrested in November. If
84
00:05:03.959 --> 00:05:08.439
you'll remember, for felony false imprisonment in an unrelated case
85
00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:12.000
involving a man held against his will at her residence.
86
00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:14.120
How about that. You don't hear about that every day?
87
00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:19.319
Those charges were dismissed on November twentieth due to insufficient evidence.
88
00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:23.360
Search warrants were executed on Ashley's home, a storage locker,
89
00:05:23.480 --> 00:05:29.199
and the rental car. Uncovered key evidence, including an expended
90
00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:34.040
cartridge case in live AMMO. The matched items found near
91
00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:37.279
the body. The murder weapon has not yet been recovered,
92
00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:41.879
but authority say evidence points to a calculated, criminally sophisticated,
93
00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:46.079
premeditated crime. At a press conference, Santa Barbara County Sheriff
94
00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:51.079
corner Bill Brown expressed shock over the case. He said,
95
00:05:51.240 --> 00:05:55.720
maternal filicide is rare and difficult to comprehend, but this
96
00:05:55.920 --> 00:06:00.439
level of criminal activity is particularly shocking given the delated,
97
00:06:00.439 --> 00:06:05.120
cold blooded and premeditation that went into it. He added
98
00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:08.319
that Melanie had relied and trusted on her mother the most,
99
00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:12.560
making the betrayal even more heinous. And littles known about
100
00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:16.199
Melody's family life. Her father died when she was a baby,
101
00:06:16.279 --> 00:06:20.079
She was rarely seen by extended family members. Her half
102
00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:23.480
sister told reporters were all looking for answers, and her
103
00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:26.920
mother declined to comment when she was contacted. I'm sure
104
00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:31.800
she's absolutely mortified. The investigation remains, of course ongoing, and
105
00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:35.959
we will keep you updated. But sad ending not surprising
106
00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:36.600
ending for me.
107
00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:39.319
Yeah, And that's what's really frustrating about it is that
108
00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:41.279
I think we all knew the writing was on the wall,
109
00:06:41.959 --> 00:06:42.399
just had.
110
00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:43.879
To find the poor little girl.
111
00:06:44.279 --> 00:06:47.160
But shout out to the schools for being the ones
112
00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:51.040
to first alert that she's not on the radar anywhere
113
00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:52.759
and that she's missing. If it weren't for that, I
114
00:06:52.759 --> 00:06:55.279
don't know that this would have ever even been really
115
00:06:55.399 --> 00:06:59.600
followed up one. Yeah, so many missing children even today
116
00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:02.079
in the world we live in, that have never been located,
117
00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:04.040
that have gone missing. So that's a I guess that's
118
00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:06.439
a positive in some in some fashion, but.
119
00:07:07.879 --> 00:07:10.240
Senseless. There's got to be a mental illness component to this.
120
00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:14.040
Yeah, and got your daughter in shooting shoes.
121
00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:16.639
You shoot a child. Have you looked at the photos
122
00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:17.000
of mom?
123
00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:20.360
I know you have, like the still shots with that long, long, curly,
124
00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:20.959
curly hair.
125
00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:22.240
I thought it was a wig.
126
00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:24.720
Oh, it's a real hair, and I thought her hair
127
00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:25.759
was pretty, yeah.
128
00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:28.600
But then when she appeared in court, it's like chopped off.
129
00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:31.279
She looks like Annie. Yeah, it's like really really short,
130
00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:33.360
like a little helmet of curls around her head.
131
00:07:33.399 --> 00:07:35.439
And I'm wondering, like what was.
132
00:07:35.399 --> 00:07:38.439
That some sort of disguise maybe she was going to
133
00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:41.120
do after she committed.
134
00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:44.000
The martyr Yeah, like trying to change her appearance. Because
135
00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:46.079
the photos that they show of.
136
00:07:45.959 --> 00:07:48.959
Her prior to this arrest.
137
00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:51.399
And that footage in the in the bank or whatever
138
00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:56.240
it was, she actually the mother looks just like the daughter,
139
00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:00.439
just just they're identical. But for this photo of her
140
00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:03.879
post arrest, Like the face doesn't even look the same, right,
141
00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:06.879
There's something going on there. It's like a complete change
142
00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:10.519
in persona. That's why I'm screaming. There's got to be
143
00:08:10.519 --> 00:08:11.600
a mental illness.
144
00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:17.000
Yeah, in that hair was so unique. Yeah, that if
145
00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:18.959
you're trying to go on the run, that's the first
146
00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:20.199
thing you need to get rid of it. I mean,
147
00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:22.160
it stood out. It would be like having a tattoo
148
00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:22.680
on your face.
149
00:08:22.920 --> 00:08:24.839
And it's lighter too. After she cut it. It's like
150
00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:26.240
she died at wond or something.
151
00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:26.839
It's weird.
152
00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:30.120
So I'm with you all right now, this is just unbelievable.
153
00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:33.039
You're sixty five years old, You're going to do some
154
00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:37.960
Christmas shopping when the unimaginable happens. A sixty five year
155
00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:40.360
old woman was stabbed to death inside a Barnes and
156
00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:43.639
Noble bookstore in Palm Beach Gardens on Monday evening and
157
00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:46.679
what authorities are investigating as a random act of violence.
158
00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:49.679
This was just before Christmas Day. The victim was identified
159
00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:52.600
as Rita locker Rich or Launcher Rich. I've heard it
160
00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:55.799
said both ways. She was shopping for Christmas presents and
161
00:08:55.840 --> 00:08:57.960
she was just sitting there reading a magazine when she
162
00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.559
was attacked shortly before eight pm at the which was
163
00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:03.960
on Legacy Avenue. Police responded to reports of a stabbing
164
00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:06.480
and they found her suffering from a stab wound to
165
00:09:06.519 --> 00:09:09.720
the back, and the officers did provide immediate aid and
166
00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:12.000
then she was transported to the Palm Beach Gardens Fire
167
00:09:12.039 --> 00:09:15.279
Rescue or by the fire rescue to a nearby hospital,
168
00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:18.960
but she later died from her injuries. Lockerich managed to
169
00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:21.120
call her husband on her cell phone moments after the
170
00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:23.600
attack and tell him that she had been stabbed. Her
171
00:09:23.639 --> 00:09:26.519
husband later told local media that police described the suspect
172
00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:29.440
as a homeless man from Alabama who may have been
173
00:09:29.480 --> 00:09:33.519
mentally ill you think, and only had been in Florida
174
00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:36.879
for about a week, but they had not confirmed those
175
00:09:36.919 --> 00:09:39.200
details when this article was first written, but now that
176
00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:42.480
seems to have been confirmed. The suspect was forty year
177
00:09:42.519 --> 00:09:45.879
old Antonio Moore, and he allegedly fled the store after
178
00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:48.159
the stabbing, but he was quickly located in the nearby
179
00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:50.720
woods and he was taken into custody. Now, according to
180
00:09:50.759 --> 00:09:53.799
the arrest report, More confessed to the crime, stating he
181
00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:57.559
had no prior interaction with loncker Rich and no clear motive.
182
00:09:57.639 --> 00:10:00.519
He reportedly told the investigators that he was charging his
183
00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:03.559
phone inside the store when an internal this is a
184
00:10:03.559 --> 00:10:07.039
direct quote an internal build up led to a fight
185
00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:10.240
or flight response, prompting him to pull a fixed blade
186
00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:12.879
knife from his jacket and stab the victim.
187
00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:14.120
He's been I know.
188
00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:17.399
He's been charged with first degree premeditated murder and is
189
00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:19.919
being held without bond at the Palm Beach County Jail.
190
00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:23.000
He was scheduled to make his first appearance in court
191
00:10:23.080 --> 00:10:26.159
on Tuesday, and they have described the incident as isolated
192
00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:29.480
and their investigation to the motive is ongoing. Authorities say
193
00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:31.919
if you have any information, please reach out to the
194
00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:35.559
Palm Beach Garden's Police department. And I also in a
195
00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:37.519
follow up to that, found out too she has a daughter,
196
00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:39.480
This sixty five year old woman has a husband. Thank
197
00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:42.120
god she was able to call him, yeah and just
198
00:10:42.120 --> 00:10:44.759
have some final words out with him.
199
00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:48.399
You know, but they never even spoke, Jim, No.
200
00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:51.399
They never spoke. And there was actually a short follow
201
00:10:51.480 --> 00:10:55.440
up that I came across somewhere on that article, and
202
00:10:56.200 --> 00:10:59.240
the guy was pressed a little further about why you
203
00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:02.600
know why this lady and he literally said because she
204
00:11:02.759 --> 00:11:06.720
was the closest one to the door, so he wanted
205
00:11:06.759 --> 00:11:09.000
to be able to make a quick getaway, but he
206
00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:11.679
couldn't help it. He had to kill somebody, and she
207
00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.559
just so happened to be sitting in the chair closest
208
00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:16.879
to the door where he could get away. It could
209
00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:18.840
have been anyone. It sounds to me like me could
210
00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:21.200
have been you could have been a kid. Yeah, he
211
00:11:21.399 --> 00:11:23.600
was going to kill someone in that barn's a noble
212
00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:26.360
that day, and you know he kneled it at the beginning.
213
00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:29.480
That's not the place you think any of that's going
214
00:11:29.559 --> 00:11:33.159
to go down. And I mean, look, I'm not tellingybody
215
00:11:33.159 --> 00:11:36.000
don't get to Barnes and Noble. It may I'm sure
216
00:11:36.039 --> 00:11:39.039
this is a once in a million, thank God incident,
217
00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:40.120
but just terrible.
218
00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:41.720
Yeah, you just.
219
00:11:41.799 --> 00:11:45.080
It's got schizophrenia written all over it. To me that
220
00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:49.039
you would somehow think that when he says the build
221
00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:50.960
up that he had to try to get out, well
222
00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:53.559
maybe in his psychotic mind, which I'm not justifying it,
223
00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:55.440
but maybe in his mind he thought she was blocking
224
00:11:55.480 --> 00:11:57.440
the door, or she was between him and his exit,
225
00:11:57.799 --> 00:12:00.799
and so he panicked because of his which is not
226
00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:03.799
an excuse. But again we say this over and over again.
227
00:12:04.039 --> 00:12:06.759
Mental illness is a problem in this society. You know,
228
00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:09.559
we see people if what has happened? I am curious
229
00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:11.600
what has happened that we now live in a world
230
00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:15.519
where we see people some voluntarily, some because they can't
231
00:12:15.559 --> 00:12:18.240
make better choices due to mental illness. But just walking
232
00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:20.799
around we have people living in tents.
233
00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:21.080
We have.
234
00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:25.320
You know, like and we we just go, oh, well,
235
00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:27.159
it's it is what it is, and then things like
236
00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:27.720
this happen.
237
00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:29.519
Yeah.
238
00:12:29.639 --> 00:12:31.240
Yeah, it makes.
239
00:12:31.080 --> 00:12:34.120
You wonder where where do we draw the line? You know,
240
00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:35.679
in a free country. Where do we draw the line.
241
00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:37.960
You're allowed to walk and live in a tent, I guess.
242
00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.240
But when you now have a knife and you're stabbing
243
00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:41.799
grandma's you know?