West
Charge against Melodee Buzzard’s mom dismissed, ankle monitor removed as FBI hunts for missing 9-year-old
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A California mother once accused of using a box cutter to unlawfully imprison a man saw her felony charge dismissed Thursday as investigators search for her missing 9-year-old daughter, Melodee Buzzard.
Ashlee Buzzard appeared in a Santa Barbara County courtroom facing a felony false imprisonment charge from an alleged Nov. 6 incident. Prosecutors called Tyler Stuart Brewer, who accused Buzzard of locking him inside her Lompoc home during a volatile argument, at a preliminary hearing.
According to a felony complaint filed Nov. 10 in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, prosecutors accused Buzzard of “unlawfully violating the personal liberty” of Brewer “by violence, menace, fraud and deceit.”
The filing cited an aggravating factor, alleging that the act was carried out “with planning, sophistication, or professionalism.”
MISSING ‘AT-RISK’ GIRL MELODEE BUZZARD’S MOM APPEARS IN COURT AFTER ALLEGED BOX CUTTER STANDOFF
Ashlee Buzzard appears in court with her attorney, Adrian Galavan. (Jamie Vera/Fox News)
Brewer, a legal document assistant and freelance paralegal, testified that he met Buzzard through a mutual acquaintance years earlier and reconnected this fall after learning her daughter was missing. He said he visited Buzzard’s home five times between Nov. 1 and Nov. 6, exchanging hundreds of text messages.
On Nov. 6, Brewer said Buzzard locked multiple deadbolts after he entered and appeared “agitated and tense.” He testified that she sat across from him with a box cutter visible on a nearby tray. When he said he was uncomfortable and wanted to leave, he claimed she blocked the doorway and locked the front door, using an added locking device between the door and frame. Prosecutors entered photos of the locks and brace into evidence.
The prosecution also played a six-minute clip from a one-hour, 16-minute recording that Buzzard had made of their conversation. In it, Buzzard accused Brewer of lying and of seeking media attention, while Brewer could be heard asking to leave twice. Brewer said he felt “threatened and uncomfortable,” describing Buzzard as clenching her fists and gritting her teeth.
After Brewer’s testimony, Det. Thomas Brownlee with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office took the stand. The court then dismissed the felony charge for insufficient evidence and ended Buzzard’s pretrial supervision, according to the prosecution. She is also no longer required to wear an ankle monitor.
MELODEE BUZZARD’S MOM PLOTTED TO ‘CUT OFF’ MISSING 9-YEAR-OLD FROM ‘ENTIRE WORLD,’ GRANDMA SAYS
Ashlee Buzzard sits with her attorney at the defense table during testimony in court on Thursday. (Jamie Vera/Fox News)
Outside the courtroom, Melodee’s grandmother, Lisa (Lilly) Denes, was expected to address reporters. Denes has been outspoken since her granddaughter vanished, telling Fox News Digital previously that she noticed a chilling pattern of control in the months before Melodee disappeared.
Denes said Buzzard had “plotted to cut her daughter off from the entire world,” limiting contact with family and isolating the child from friends and school. Denes told Fox News Digital she had repeatedly begged for welfare checks and feared Buzzard was “running from everyone who could protect Melodee.”
MELODEE BUZZARD’S MOTHER ARRESTED ON CHARGE UNRELATED TO HER DAUGHTER’S DISAPPEARANCE
Defendant Ashlee Buzzard listens beside her attorney during court proceedings on Thursday as evidence is presented to the jury. (Jamie Vera/Fox News)
Officials began investigating Melodee’s disappearance Oct. 14 after a school official reported her prolonged absence. When questioned, deputies said Buzzard failed to provide a verifiable explanation for her daughter’s location and has “remained uncooperative and has not confirmed Melodee’s welfare.”
Authorities say Melodee disappeared sometime in early October during a road trip with her mother. Surveillance video released by the sheriff’s office shows Buzzard and Melodee at a Lompoc rental car counter Oct. 7, both wearing wigs.
Authorities believe the disguise was intended to avoid recognition while traveling and that the vehicle’s license plate was swapped during the trip, which stretched across several states.
MELODEE BUZZARD’S MOM RELEASED AFTER ALLEGEDLY IMPRISONING OFFICER, REVEALING MISSING DAUGHTER’S LOCATION
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office released a surveillance image, left, of Ashlee and Melodee Buzzard that it says was captured at a rental car location in Lompoc, California, at the start of the road trip Oct. 7, 2025. (Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office/FBI)
Melodee was last seen near the Utah–Colorado border, and her mother later returned to California without her. The FBI has joined the search, working with Santa Barbara County investigators to retrace the route and track any sightings of the missing child.
Private investigator Bill Garcia, who is working with Criminally Obsessed, told ARC Salt Lake that new information places Melodee back in Ventura County, California, near her home, according to KUTV. However, there have been no confirmed sightings of her in the area, and her safety remains unknown.
Garcia noted that the route Buzzard traveled passes a significant landmark, Melodee’s father’s gravesite at the Santa Maria Cemetery, which investigators say could help narrow down the timeline of their movements.
Officials stressed that Thursday’s dismissed case is not connected to Melodee’s disappearance. Anyone with information about the girl’s whereabouts is urged to contact the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office or the FBI tip line.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office and Buzzard’s lawyer for comment.
Fox News’ Jamie Vera and Adam Sabes contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
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This month’s West Seattle Art Walk on Thursday will feature a type of art that’s not often seen during the monthly event – quilt art! We received the photos and announcement this afternoon from Jill Boone:
The Contemporary QuiltArt Association is featured at Windermere in the Junction this Thursday for the Art Walk. We are doing a big inventory reduction sale and handmade, creative fiber art pieces will be available in a huge price range. We will have handmade cards for $5/ each and matted art that are 5×7 and 12 x 12 pieces from $10 to $200. In addition, four of our member artists will have their art quilts for sale and they are stunning! We hope people will come shop and also stop in to talk with some of our members about CQA, as we are a vibrant and welcoming group of artists – beginners to world renowned!
Windermere is at 4526 California SW; this show is set for 5-8 pm Thursday (January 8). See the full list/map of this month’s Art Walk venues by going here!
San Diego, CA
Proposed fuel pipeline draws interest from investors. Can it give San Diego drivers a break?
Plenty of financial and regulatory hurdles still need to be cleared, but a fuels pipeline project that may lead to lower gas prices in San Diego and Southern California has received a healthy amount of interest from other companies.
Phillips 66 and Kinder Morgan have proposed building what they’ve dubbed the Western Gateway Pipeline that would use a combination of existing infrastructure plus new construction to establish a corridor for refined products that would stretch 1,300 miles from St. Louis to California.
If completed, one leg of the pipeline would be the first to deliver motor fuels into California, a state often described as a fuel island that is disconnected from refining hubs in the U.S.
The two companies recently announced the project “has received significant interest” from shippers and investors from what’s called an “open season” that wrapped up on Dec. 19 — so much so that a second round will be held this month for remaining capacity.
“That’s a strong indicator that people would be willing to commit to put volume on that pipeline to bring it west long enough for them to be able to pay off their investment and provide a return for their investors,” said David Hackett, president of Stillwater Associates, a transportation energy consulting company in Irvine. “They won’t build this thing on spec. They’ll need commitments from shippers to do this.”
The plans for the Western Gateway Pipeline include constructing a new line from the Texas Panhandle town of Borger to Phoenix. Meanwhile, the flow on an existing pipeline that currently runs from the San Bernardino County community of Colton to Arizona would be reversed, allowing more fuel to remain in California.
The entire pipeline system would link refinery supply from the Midwest to Phoenix and California, while also providing a connection into Las Vegas.
A spokesperson for Kinder Morgan told the Union-Tribune in October that there are no plans for the project to construct any new pipelines in California and the proposal “should put downward pressure” on prices at the pump.
“With no new builds in California and using pipelines currently in place, it’s an all-around win-win — good for the state and consumers,” Kinder Morgan’s director of corporate communications, Melissa D. Ruiz, said in an email.
The second round of “open season” will include offerings of new destinations west of Colton that would allow Western Gateway shippers access to markets in Los Angeles.
Even with sufficient investor support, the project would still have to go through an extensive regulatory and permitting process that would undoubtedly receive pushback from environmental groups.
Should the pipeline get built, Hackett said it’s hard to predict what it would mean at the pump for Southern California drivers. But he said the project could ensure more fuel inventory remains inside California, thus reducing reliance on foreign imports, especially given potential political tensions in the South China Sea.
“I’d much rather have our gas come from Texas or Missouri than from Asia, at least from a geopolitical strategic standpoint,” Hackett said.
This past summer, Reuters reported that California’s fuel imports hit their highest levels in four years.
About 70% of the imports — roughly 187,000 barrels per day — came from South Korea and other Asian countries that have long been top trading partners for California and other states along the West Coast, according to Kpler, an international firm that tracks global shipping and trade.
Fuel supplies and gasoline prices have received greater focus in the wake of a pair of refinery closures in California.
Phillips 66 planned to shutter operations at its twin refinery in the Los Angeles area by the close of 2025, and Valero is scheduled to close down its 145,000-barrel-per-day facility in the Northern California city of Benicia in April. The Valero and Phillips 66 facilities combine to account for about 18% of the state’s crude oil capacity.
The average price for a gallon of gasoline is higher in California than in any other state in the continental U.S., according to AAA.
On Tuesday, the average price in the Golden State was $4.254 while the national average came to $2.815. Hawaii had the highest average in the country, at $4.423 per gallon.
Apache Stronghold leader’s propane lines severed
Apache Stronghold leader Wendsler Nosie’s propane tank lines were severed. Nosie claims it is related to the controversy surrounding Oak Flat mine.
Three lawsuits aiming to keep the U.S. Forest Service from turning over Oak Flat to a mining company for a massive copper mine go in front of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for arguments Jan. 7.
The British-Australian firm Resolution Copper has long sought the exchange to build a mine that bodes to obliterate a site Apaches and other Native peoples hold sacred. It also is one of Arizona’s few functional wetlands.
Two lawsuits filed by the San Carlos Apache Tribe and a coalition of environmentalists and the Inter Tribal Association of Arizona challenged the land exchange, authorized by a last-minute amendment to a “must-pass” defense bill in December 2014. The arguments in the lawsuits are based on the tribe’s religious beliefs and on environmental concerns, including disputes over water usage and possible damage of one of central Arizona’s key aquifers.
In the third suit, the latest to be filed, a group of Apache women who have spiritual and cultural connections to the site argue that the exchange would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the First Amendment’s religious rights protections and two environmental laws.
Their lawsuit also brought two new factors into play: a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that affirms parental rights to direct their children’s religious education and references to Justice Neil Gorsuch’s blistering dissent to the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear another case related to the land exchange.
A three-judge panel will hear the cases at the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix.
Religious rights advocates and First Amendment experts have said the ability of Native peoples to exercise their religious rights is at stake.
Oak Flat story: As an Apache girl enters womanhood, lawsuits and tariffs cast shadows
The struggle over Oak Flat nears 30-year mark
For more than two decades, Oak Flat Campground, known to Apaches as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, “the place where the Emory oak grows,” has been ground zero in a battle over Native religious rights on public lands as well as environmental preservation for a scarce Arizona ecosystem.
The 2,200-acre primitive campground and riparian zone, within the Tonto National Forest about 60 miles east of Phoenix, also lies over one of the nation’s largest remaining bodies of copper ore.
To obtain the copper, Resolution, which is owned by multinational firms Rio Tinto and BHP, plans to use a method known as block cave mining in which tunnels are drilled beneath the ore body, and then collapsed, leaving the ore to be moved to a crushing facility.
Eventually, the ground would subside, leaving behind a crater about 1,000 feet deep and nearly 2 miles across, obliterating Oak Flat.
Resolution Copper, a British-Australian mining firm, sought Congressional approval to exchange other parcels of land it had purchased with the U.S. Forest Service for nearly 10 years when the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other officials engineered a late-night rider to a must-pass defense bill in December 2014. Then-President Barack Obama signed the bill and ever since, tribes, environmentalists and their allies have fought to stop the exchange.
Resolution has said that the mine would bring much-needed jobs and revenues to the economically challenged Copper Triangle to the tune of about $1 billion a year. The company has provided funding to support recovery from the floods that devastated downtown Globe in October and has supported other community organizations.
In November, Resolution announced it had completed rehabilitation of the historic No. 9 shaft at the Magma minehead, including deepening it to nearly 6,900 feet and connecting it to the No. 10 shaft, which plunges about 6,940 feet below the surface.
Vicky Peacey, president and general manager of Resolution, said the shaft project was a huge milestone, employing homegrown talent from surrounding communities to get the job done.
Despite the ongoing litigation, she said, “We are ready to advance this important copper project, enabling thousands of high-paying jobs, billions in economic development for rural Arizona, and access to a domestic supply of copper essential to American security and modern infrastructure.”
Grassroots group Apache Stronghold, led by former San Carlos Apache Tribal Chairman Wendsler Nosie, filed the first lawsuit to stop the exchange. That litigation was declined twice by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2025, but Apache Stronghold continues to fight the land exchange as the group supports the other three lawsuits.
Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Reach Krol at debra.krol@azcentral.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @debkrol and on Bluesky at @debkrol.bsky.social.
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