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Caalaroga Shark Media. Good morning. I'm Garrett Fisher. It's Tuesday,
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March seventeenth, twenty twenty six, Happy Saint Patrick's Day, and no,
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I don't have anything cheerful planned. This is daily crime
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and justice. You know what you signed up for. Three
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cases today, and I want to warn you up front.
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All three involved people in positions of trust, a mother,
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another mother, and a nurse who did something that will
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make you genuinely question the world a little bit. First up,
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former University of Kentucky cheerleader lake And Snelling has been
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indicted by a grand jury on four charges, including first
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degree manslaughter in the death of her newborn infant. The
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baby was found in her closet wrapped in trash bags.
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The medical examiner says the child was full term, alive
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at birth and died of asphyxia. We have been following
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this case since Snelling's first arrest last August, and the
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grand jury has now made something very official. This was
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not an accident. This was a crime. Second, you have
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heard us talk about Melody Buzzard, nine years old Lompoc, California,
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shot in the head by her own mother, Ashley Buzzard,
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on a cross country road trip last October. Her body
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found in a remote field in Utah in December. Ashley
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Buzzard is now charged with first degree murder, and she
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has missed two consecutive court hearings claiming she's sick. Her
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next court date is tomorrow. We'll walk you through exactly
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where this case stands. And third, Utah nurse Megan Sundwall
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is on trial in provo, charged with aggravated murder. Prosecutors
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say she spent four years convincing her friend Casey Terry
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she was dying and then actually killing her with insulin
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for a life insurance policy she thought she'd inherit. This
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trial started last week. We're getting into it today. I'm
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Garrett Fisher. Let's go. This is daily crime and Justice.
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Let me walk you through this from the beginning, because
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you need the full picture to understand why the grand
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jury did what it did. Last week. August twenty seventh,
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twenty twenty five, Lexington, Kentucky, a group of college roommates
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are home when something starts happening in Lake and Snelling's bedroom.
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Loud noises, not just a bump against the wall, loud
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enough and sustained enough that the sound knocked a picture
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off the wall that continued for about an hour. When
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Snelling came out of her room, she told her roommates
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she had passed out from not eating, said she'd go
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see a doctor. She left. The roommates, understandably concerned, decided
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to check on a room they were looking for an explanation.
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What they found instead was a blood soaked towel on
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the floor, a plastic bag with evidence of childbirth, and
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a closet. In that closet the body of a newborn
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infant placed inside trash bag. They called the police. When
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investigators found and questioned Snelling, she admitted to everything. Admitted
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she had given birth, said the baby fell to the
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floor during delivery. Said she was conscious for about thirty
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minutes before she passed out on top of her child.
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Said when she woke up, the infant was turning blue
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and purple. She told investigators she believed the baby was dead,
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so she wrapped the infant up and laid down next
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to the baby on the floor. She said it gave
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her some comfort in the moment. Then she put the
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baby in trash bags and hid the body in her closet.
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Snelling was arrested on August thirtieth, three days after the
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body was found, and initially charged with concealing the birth
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of an infant and abuse of a corpse. At that point,
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the question of whether the child had been born alive
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was still being determined. Snelling was released on bond and
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went to live with her parents in Tennessee. That changed.
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On March tenth, a grand jury handed down an indictment
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on four charges, first degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse,
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tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant,
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and arrest warrant was issued. On March twelfth, Snelling turned
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herself in and was booked at the Fayette County Detention Center.
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Her arraignment is set for April tenth. Now why manslaughter
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and not murder? The indictment charges first degree manslaughter on
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the grounds that Snelling acted under what Kentucky law calls
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extreme emotional disturbance. That's a specific legal definition. It means
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she acted without reasonable self control. It doesn't mean she
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gets off. It means the prosecution, looking at the totality
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of circumstances, determined that the killing did not rise to
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the level of premeditated murder in the traditional sense. First
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degree manslaughter in Kentucky is a Class B felony that
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is ten to twenty years in prison. Add the other
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three charges, and Snelling faces potentially far more than that.
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The indictment also makes something critically clear. The medical examiner
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determined this infant was full term and alive at birth.
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This was not a still birth. This child came into
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the world breathing and died of asphyxia, which means suffocation.
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The prosecution does not need to prove exactly how the
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asphyxia occurred. They need to prove the infant was alive,
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the infant died, and Snelling's actions or inactions caused it.
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Now who was lackin Snelling? She was twenty two years
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old at the time of the arrest, a student athlete
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at the University of Kentucky. She majored in Interdisciplinary disability Studies.
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She was a member of the university's stunt cheerleading team
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competitive high level demanding. She was living in a house
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with roommates in Lexington. Nobody in that house knew she
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was pregnant. Let that sit for a moment. She was
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living with other people, going to school, competing on an
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athletic team, and nobody knew she was pregnant with a
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full term child. That raises questions that are genuinely painful
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to sit with. How do you hide that? What kind
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of fear, shame, or desperation does it take to hide
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an entire pregnancy? And I don't ask those questions to
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excuse what happened. I ask them because understanding what leads
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a person to this moment might might help us build
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systems that stop it. Because here's the thing about this
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case that bothers me. Somewhere in that chain of events,
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there was a moment where someone could have known where
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a friend, a teammate, a roommate, a coach, a professor,
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a parent could have seen something, asked something, created enough
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of a safe harbor for this young woman to say,
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I'm in trouble, I need help. That moment didn't come,
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and a baby who had no name, who had never
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taken a breath of real air outside that bedroom, who
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never had a single chance at any of it, died
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on that closet floor. Someone should have said something. I
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don't know who, I don't know when, But a full
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term baby was born in silence and died in secret.
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And this story doesn't end with just Lack and Snelling
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going to prison. It has to end with someone asking
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how we got here. Lock and Snelling is presumed innocent
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until proven guilty. Her arraignment is April tenth in Fayette County, Kentucky.
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We will be watching. We have covered the Melody Buzzer
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case on this show multiple times, and if you've been
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with us since the fall, you know the broad strokes.
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But let me do a quick recap for anyone who's
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catching up, because this case is about to move into
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a critical phase and you need to know where it stands.
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Melody Alani Buzzard was nine years old. She lived in
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Vandenburg Village, California, near Lompoc with her mother, Ashley Buzzard.
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On October seventh, Ashley rented a car and took Melody
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on a road trip, a multi state journey that spanned
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as far east as Nebraska. They wore wigs. Ashley switched
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the license plates on the rental car at least once
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she backed into gas stations to avoid surveillance cameras. Melody
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was last seen alive on video on October ninth, twenty
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twenty five, near the Colorado Utah border. She was traveling
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with her mother. She was alive. Ashley came home to
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Lompoc on October tenth without Melody. When school administrators reported
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Melody's prolonged absence on October fourteenth, and deputies went to
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the home, Ashley Buzzard would not tell them where her
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daughter was, would not cooperate, just stonewalled investigators for months
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as the search expanded across multiple states. Melody's remains were
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found on December sixth, twenty twenty five, in a remote
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area of Wayne County, Utah. She had been shot in
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the head multiple times and left in a field. On
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December twenty second, FBI crime lab analysis confirmed the remains
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were a familial DNA match to Ashley Buzzard. The following day,
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December twenty third, Ashley Buzzard was arrested for the murder
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of her daughter. Ballistics match to shellcasing found at Ashley's
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home to casings found in Utah. Live ammunition of the
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same type was found in the rental car. The murder
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weapon has not been recovered, a motive has not been established.
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Ashley Buzzard pleaded not guilty at her December twenty sixth arraignment.
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She's charged with first degree murder with the special circumstance
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of lying in wait and a special allegation of personally
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discharging a firearm causing death. Prosecutors are seeking life in
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prison without the possibility of parole. That's where we left
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things on January fifth. Here's what's happened since January twenty first,
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Buzzard appeared in court in Lompoc. The hearing was stand
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ending room only, family members, community members, media, Everyone showed up.
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The defense was granted access to sealed search warrants and affidavits.
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There was an outburst from someone in the audience directed
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at Buzzard, and the judge had to remind the courtroom
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that disruptions would result in contempt, charges of fines or
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removal from future hearings. Melody's paternal grandmother, Lily Denez, was
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there outside the courtroom. She said, and this is a
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direct quote. I don't know what to expect anymore. That's
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a grandmother talking about justice for her nine year old granddaughter.
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Think about that. Meanwhile, the defense was still waiting on discovery,
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significant amounts of it forensic evidence search warrants. The defense
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said at one point they were missing thousands of pages
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of material. February tenth came and went. That was Melody's birthday.
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She would have turned ten years old. Family friends held
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memorial events. Her belongings were moved from the Mars Avenue
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home that same month because Ashley Buzzard, through her attorney,
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received a thirty day notice to vacate the property. And
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then we get to the part of this case that
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is making me genuinely frustrated. February eleventh court hearing, Ashley
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Buzzer doesn't show up, claimed illness, filed a refusal to appear.
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February twelveth another court hearing, Buzzard's attorney says she's ill,
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but proceedings move forward without her. Okay, people get sick.
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I'll give one. March fourth court hearing. Ashley Buzzer doesn't
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show up again, claimed illness again, filed a refusal to
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appear again two consecutive court dates, both missed, both with
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the same explanation. This time. The prosecutor, Jordan Lockey, was
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not having it. Locke told Judge Stephen Dunkle she found
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it hard to believe illness was quote an earnest representation
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of what's actually going on. Of course, she did the
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secutor asked for an extraction order, which would require law
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enforcement to physically bring Buzzard to court. The defense asked
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the judge not to order extraction, citing ongoing medical needs.
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Judge Dunkle rescheduled the hearing to March eighteenth, tomorrow. Here's
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what we're looking at by law Ashley Buzzard's preliminary hearing
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must begin by April thirtieth. The defense is still waiting
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on what they describe as a significant volume of discovery,
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possibly thousands of pages. Buzzard has waived time through April,
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and there is a gag order on the Santa Barbara
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County Sheriff's office preventing them from releasing additional details about
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the investigation. So let me tell you what I'm watching
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for tomorrow. Does she show up. Does the judge finally
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put teeth on this and make clear that claiming illness
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twice in a row to skip preliminary hearings has consequences.
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Buzzard is in custody, she is not getting this time back,
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and the family of a nine year old girl who
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was shot in the head on a Utah roadside deserves
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a court process that actually moves. Melody Buzzard was nine
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years old. She would be ten right now. She should
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be in the fourth grade, learning to read chapter books,
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arguing about what to watch on TV, figuring out who
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her best friends are. Instead, she was found in a
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field in the Utah Desert and her mother can't seem
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to make it to her hearings. We'll have an update
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as this case develops. The next hearing is March eighteenth, tomorrow,
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Segment three. Megan Sundwall Fatal Friendship Trial eleven minutes. All right,
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Utah Provo. A murder trial that started last week and
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is going to get very complicated, very fast. Let me
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walk you through it. The defendant, Megan Sundwall, forty eight
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years old, a registered NuRD from Santaquin, Utah, charged with
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aggravated murder of first degree felony and obstruction of justice.
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The victim, Casey Lynn Terry, thirty eight years old of Highland, Utah.
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She should be alive right now. She should be thirty
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eight years old, living her life in Highland doing whatever
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it is Casey Terry loved to do. Instead, she is dead,
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and the story of how she died is one of
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the more disturbing things I've had to walk through on
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this show. Here's the core of the prosecution's case. Megan
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Sundwall and Casey Terry were close friends over four years,
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from around twenty nineteen through twenty twenty four. The two
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exchanged more than twenty eight thousand text messages. In those messages,
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Sunwall discussed with Terry various ways a person might kill themselves,
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suggested methods, offered to assist. Ask Terry what she had
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to live for. Now here's where this story takes a
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turn that you have to really pay attention to. Casey
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Terry was not actually dying. She had no diagnosed illness.
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Prosecutors say Terry fabricated an elaborate story about having cancer.
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She told her family she had leukemia. She ordered saline
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to her home and administered it through a port, claiming
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it was chemotherapy. She pretended to receive test results. She
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even sent Sunwall texts pretending to be doctors and nurses
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giving her bad news. Terry was lying about all of it. Why,
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prosecutors believe it was to get attention and sympathy, particularly
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from Sundwall. She wanted Sunwall emotionally invested in her survival.