Charge against Melodee Buzzard’s mom dismissed, ankle monitor removed as FBI hunts for missing 9-year-old

Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office releases footage of Melodee Buzzard and Ashlee Buzzard, her mother, at a rental car location in Lompoc, Calif., on Oct. 7, 2025. (Credit: Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office)

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 stemming 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

Video evidence plays for the judge showing a transcript that reads, "I’m not threatening you, but I’m saying, like I’m not threatening you at all," during testimony Thursday. (Bryan M. Allman/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 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 relocked 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, sixteen-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.