"CHEERLEADER'S NEWBORN FOUND IN CLOSET, THE MOTHER WHO WON'T SHOW UP, AND A NURSE WHO WATCHED HER FRIEND DIE"

0:03 Caalaroga Shark Media. Good morning. I'm Garrett Fisher. It's Tuesday, March seventeenth, twenty twenty six, Happy Saint Patrick's Day, and no, I don't have anything cheerful planned. This is daily crime and justice. You know what you signed up for. Three cases today, and I want to warn you up front. All three involved people in positions of trust, a mother, another mother, and a nurse who did something that will make you genuinely question the world a little bit. First up, former University of Kentucky cheerleader lake And Snelling has been indicted by a grand jury on four charges, including first degree manslaughter in the death of her newborn infant. The baby was found in her closet wrapped in trash bags.

0:53 The medical examiner says the child was full term, alive at birth and died of asphyxia. We have been following this case since Snelling's first arrest last August, and the grand jury has now made something very official. This was not an accident. This was a crime. Second, you have heard us talk about Melody Buzzard, nine years old Lompoc, California, shot in the head by her own mother, Ashley Buzzard, on a cross country road trip last October. Her body found in a remote field in Utah in December. Ashley Buzzard is now charged with first degree murder, and she has missed two consecutive court hearings claiming she's sick. Her next court date is tomorrow. We'll walk you through exactly where this case stands. And third, Utah nurse Megan Sundwall is on trial in provo, charged with aggravated murder. Prosecutors say she spent four years convincing her friend Casey Terry she was dying and then actually killing her with insulin for a life insurance policy she thought she'd inherit. This trial started last week. We're getting into it today. I'm Garrett Fisher. Let's go. This is daily crime and Justice.

2:07 Let me walk you through this from the beginning, because you need the full picture to understand why the grand jury did what it did. Last week. August twenty seventh, twenty twenty five, Lexington, Kentucky, a group of college roommates are home when something starts happening in Lake and Snelling's bedroom. Loud noises, not just a bump against the wall, loud enough and sustained enough that the sound knocked a picture off the wall that continued for about an hour. When Snelling came out of her room, she told her roommates she had passed out from not eating, said she'd go see a doctor. She left. The roommates, understandably concerned, decided to check on a room they were looking for an explanation.

2:48 What they found instead was a blood soaked towel on the floor, a plastic bag with evidence of childbirth, and a closet. In that closet the body of a newborn infant placed inside trash bag. They called the police. When investigators found and questioned Snelling, she admitted to everything. Admitted she had given birth, said the baby fell to the floor during delivery. Said she was conscious for about thirty minutes before she passed out on top of her child. Said when she woke up, the infant was turning blue and purple. She told investigators she believed the baby was dead, so she wrapped the infant up and laid down next to the baby on the floor. She said it gave her some comfort in the moment. Then she put the baby in trash bags and hid the body in her closet.

3:37 Snelling was arrested on August thirtieth, three days after the body was found, and initially charged with concealing the birth of an infant and abuse of a corpse. At that point, the question of whether the child had been born alive was still being determined. Snelling was released on bond and went to live with her parents in Tennessee. That changed. On March tenth, a grand jury handed down an indictment on four charges, first degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant, and arrest warrant was issued. On March twelfth, Snelling turned herself in and was booked at the Fayette County Detention Center. Her arraignment is set for April tenth. Now why manslaughter and not murder? The indictment charges first degree manslaughter on the grounds that Snelling acted under what Kentucky law calls extreme emotional disturbance. That's a specific legal definition. It means she acted without reasonable self control. It doesn't mean she gets off. It means the prosecution, looking at the totality of circumstances, determined that the killing did not rise to the level of premeditated murder in the traditional sense. First degree manslaughter in Kentucky is a Class B felony that is ten to twenty years in prison. Add the other three charges, and Snelling faces potentially far more than that.

5:00 The indictment also makes something critically clear. The medical examiner determined this infant was full term and alive at birth. This was not a still birth. This child came into the world breathing and died of asphyxia, which means suffocation. The prosecution does not need to prove exactly how the asphyxia occurred. They need to prove the infant was alive, the infant died, and Snelling's actions or inactions caused it. Now who was lackin Snelling? She was twenty two years old at the time of the arrest, a student athlete at the University of Kentucky. She majored in Interdisciplinary disability Studies. She was a member of the university's stunt cheerleading team competitive high level demanding. She was living in a house with roommates in Lexington. Nobody in that house knew she was pregnant. Let that sit for a moment. She was living with other people, going to school, competing on an athletic team, and nobody knew she was pregnant with a full term child. That raises questions that are genuinely painful to sit with. How do you hide that? What kind of fear, shame, or desperation does it take to hide an entire pregnancy? And I don't ask those questions to excuse what happened. I ask them because understanding what leads a person to this moment might might help us build systems that stop it. Because here's the thing about this case that bothers me. Somewhere in that chain of events, there was a moment where someone could have known where

6:31 a friend, a teammate, a roommate, a coach, a professor, a parent could have seen something, asked something, created enough of a safe harbor for this young woman to say, I'm in trouble, I need help. That moment didn't come, and a baby who had no name, who had never taken a breath of real air outside that bedroom, who never had a single chance at any of it, died on that closet floor. Someone should have said something. I don't know who, I don't know when, But a full term baby was born in silence and died in secret. And this story doesn't end with just Lack and Snelling going to prison. It has to end with someone asking how we got here. Lock and Snelling is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Her arraignment is April tenth in Fayette County, Kentucky.

7:21 We will be watching. We have covered the Melody Buzzer case on this show multiple times, and if you've been with us since the fall, you know the broad strokes. But let me do a quick recap for anyone who's catching up, because this case is about to move into a critical phase and you need to know where it stands. Melody Alani Buzzard was nine years old. She lived in Vandenburg Village, California, near Lompoc with her mother, Ashley Buzzard. On October seventh, Ashley rented a car and took Melody on a road trip, a multi state journey that spanned as far east as Nebraska. They wore wigs. Ashley switched the license plates on the rental car at least once she backed into gas stations to avoid surveillance cameras. Melody was last seen alive on video on October ninth, twenty twenty five, near the Colorado Utah border. She was traveling with her mother. She was alive. Ashley came home to Lompoc on October tenth without Melody. When school administrators reported Melody's prolonged absence on October fourteenth, and deputies went to the home, Ashley Buzzard would not tell them where her daughter was, would not cooperate, just stonewalled investigators for months as the search expanded across multiple states. Melody's remains were

8:52 found on December sixth, twenty twenty five, in a remote area of Wayne County, Utah. She had been shot in the head multiple times and left in a field. On December twenty second, FBI crime lab analysis confirmed the remains were a familial DNA match to Ashley Buzzard. The following day, December twenty third, Ashley Buzzard was arrested for the murder of her daughter. Ballistics match to shellcasing found at Ashley's home to casings found in Utah. Live ammunition of the same type was found in the rental car. The murder weapon has not been recovered, a motive has not been established. Ashley Buzzard pleaded not guilty at her December twenty sixth arraignment.

9:34 She's charged with first degree murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait and a special allegation of personally discharging a firearm causing death. Prosecutors are seeking life in prison without the possibility of parole. That's where we left things on January fifth. Here's what's happened since January twenty first, Buzzard appeared in court in Lompoc. The hearing was stand ending room only, family members, community members, media, Everyone showed up. The defense was granted access to sealed search warrants and affidavits. There was an outburst from someone in the audience directed at Buzzard, and the judge had to remind the courtroom that disruptions would result in contempt, charges of fines or removal from future hearings. Melody's paternal grandmother, Lily Denez, was there outside the courtroom. She said, and this is a direct quote. I don't know what to expect anymore. That's a grandmother talking about justice for her nine year old granddaughter.

10:36 Think about that. Meanwhile, the defense was still waiting on discovery, significant amounts of it forensic evidence search warrants. The defense said at one point they were missing thousands of pages of material. February tenth came and went. That was Melody's birthday. She would have turned ten years old. Family friends held memorial events. Her belongings were moved from the Mars Avenue home that same month because Ashley Buzzard, through her attorney, received a thirty day notice to vacate the property. And then we get to the part of this case that is making me genuinely frustrated. February eleventh court hearing, Ashley Buzzer doesn't show up, claimed illness, filed a refusal to appear.

11:21 February twelveth another court hearing, Buzzard's attorney says she's ill, but proceedings move forward without her. Okay, people get sick. I'll give one. March fourth court hearing. Ashley Buzzer doesn't show up again, claimed illness again, filed a refusal to appear again two consecutive court dates, both missed, both with the same explanation. This time. The prosecutor, Jordan Lockey, was not having it. Locke told Judge Stephen Dunkle she found it hard to believe illness was quote an earnest representation of what's actually going on. Of course, she did the secutor asked for an extraction order, which would require law enforcement to physically bring Buzzard to court. The defense asked the judge not to order extraction, citing ongoing medical needs.

12:11 Judge Dunkle rescheduled the hearing to March eighteenth, tomorrow. Here's what we're looking at by law Ashley Buzzard's preliminary hearing must begin by April thirtieth. The defense is still waiting on what they describe as a significant volume of discovery, possibly thousands of pages. Buzzard has waived time through April, and there is a gag order on the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's office preventing them from releasing additional details about the investigation. So let me tell you what I'm watching for tomorrow. Does she show up. Does the judge finally put teeth on this and make clear that claiming illness twice in a row to skip preliminary hearings has consequences. Buzzard is in custody, she is not getting this time back, and the family of a nine year old girl who was shot in the head on a Utah roadside deserves a court process that actually moves. Melody Buzzard was nine years old. She would be ten right now. She should be in the fourth grade, learning to read chapter books, arguing about what to watch on TV, figuring out who her best friends are. Instead, she was found in a field in the Utah Desert and her mother can't seem to make it to her hearings. We'll have an update as this case develops. The next hearing is March eighteenth, tomorrow, Segment three. Megan Sundwall Fatal Friendship Trial eleven minutes. All right,

13:46 Utah Provo. A murder trial that started last week and is going to get very complicated, very fast. Let me walk you through it. The defendant, Megan Sundwall, forty eight years old, a registered NuRD from Santaquin, Utah, charged with aggravated murder of first degree felony and obstruction of justice. The victim, Casey Lynn Terry, thirty eight years old of Highland, Utah. She should be alive right now. She should be thirty eight years old, living her life in Highland doing whatever it is Casey Terry loved to do. Instead, she is dead, and the story of how she died is one of the more disturbing things I've had to walk through on this show. Here's the core of the prosecution's case. Megan Sundwall and Casey Terry were close friends over four years, from around twenty nineteen through twenty twenty four. The two exchanged more than twenty eight thousand text messages. In those messages, Sunwall discussed with Terry various ways a person might kill themselves, suggested methods, offered to assist. Ask Terry what she had to live for. Now here's where this story takes a turn that you have to really pay attention to. Casey Terry was not actually dying. She had no diagnosed illness.

15:03 Prosecutors say Terry fabricated an elaborate story about having cancer. She told her family she had leukemia. She ordered saline to her home and administered it through a port, claiming it was chemotherapy. She pretended to receive test results. She even sent Sunwall texts pretending to be doctors and nurses giving her bad news. Terry was lying about all of it. Why, prosecutors believe it was to get attention and sympathy, particularly from Sundwall. She wanted Sunwall emotionally invested in her survival. The cruel twist is that The lie worked too well, because while Terry was pretending to be dying, Sundwall, according to prosecutors, started to actually plan for Terry's death. And here's the part that changes everything. Sunwall believed she was the beneficiary of a one point five million dollar life insurance policy held by Terry. She wasn't. There's no confirmed policy, but she believed there was. Sundwall was in serious financial distress at the time. She had lost her job. Prosecutors say she was fired suddenly and without warning, lost her car, was drowning, and she apparently saw Terry's supposed insurance policy as a way out. In the months leading up to Terry's death, Sundwall's messages became more pointed. There's nothing left for you here. You have to let go. It's past time.

16:28 She urged Terry toward insulin, telling her it would end her suffering. August twelfth, twenty twenty four, Sunwall went to Terry's home in Highland. She was there for at least seven hours. A glucose monitor showed casey Terry's blood sugar was checked nineteen times over ten hours. The numbers start normal, then they drop to levels where a person would be confused, disoriented, then unconscious. Then they were checked ten more times after that at levels so low the machine just read low, which only happens under nineteen milligrams, which is a number that means this person is in a diabetic coma. Here's the thing, Casey Terry was not diabetic. She had no history of diabetes. She had no history of any illness, because the autopsy confirmed she had no underlying medical conditions whatsoever.

17:20 Responders found a diabetic needle at the scene. Nobody called nine to one one, Not Sunwall, not Sundwall's parents, who arrived at the home while Casey Terry was still alive and struggling to breathe. Sundwall's own father described on the stand last week hearing what he called a death rattle from Terry, and still nobody called nine one one. Sunwall did text her mother while Terry was dying, the message, I think she's going to pass. Not call an ambulance, not I'm scared, Just a clinical update to mom that her friend was on her way out. Of course she did. When responders finally arrived, Sundwall told paramedics Try was diabetic and had cancer, both false and autopsy confirmed. Terry had insulin, a sedative, and other substances in her system. The medical examiner classified the official cause of death as undetermined, but the circumstances are what they are. Terry was removed from life support and died three days after first responders reached her, and then investigators found that Sundwall deleted two hundred and eighty three messages from her phone after Terry's death. Of course she did. Now here's the defense argument and credit where it's due. It's not nothing, Sundwall's attorney says. Casey Terry killed herself. Says Terry was suicidal for years, told Sundwall repeatedly she wanted to die, and that Sundwall was an overwhelmed friend trying to cope with a relentlessly suicidal

18:51 companion who had been bombarding her for years. The defense argues the police went in with confirmation bias and says that there is DNA evidence that Sunwall's DNA was excluded from the syringes recovered at the scene. The defense also argues that Terry, who apparently had experience with insulin through diabetic family members, had the means of knowledge to inject herself. And here's the genuinely complicated part. Prosecutors, in their own opening statement conceded that Casey Terry was not actually sick, that she lied to Sundwall, that she faked everything. So what the jury is being asked to decide is this, did Megan Sunwall kill her friend, a friend she knew was lying about being sick, a friend she believed was insured for one point five million dollars to solve her financial problems. Or did she stand by helplessly while a suicidal friend she could not control finally did what she'd been threatening to do for years. Prosecutors have a mountain of texts, a deleted message trail, a glucose monitor log, and a nurse who sat in that house for seven hours without calling nine to one one. The defense has the DNA argument, the suicide narrative, and the uncomfortable truth that the victim spent years manipulating everyone around her. The judge has told jurors they may consider assisted suicide as a lesser included charge when they deliberate, so the jury could decide this isn't murder in the first degree sense,

20:22 but still find Sunwall criminally responsible for being there, actively present, and not calling for help. I'll tell you what I keep coming back to. Casey Terry was thirty eight years old. She was not actually dying. Whatever complicated psychological place she was in, whatever need for attention or connection drove her to fake a terminal illness for years. She did not want to die that day. The prosecution laid that out clearly. She manipulated Sunwall into staying invested in her survival. She wasn't suicidal. She was performing suicidality as a bonding mechanism, and prosecutors believe Meghan's Sunwall figured that out and decided to take advantage of it. We don't know Casey Terry's name well enough yet we should. Casey Lynn Terry, thirty eight years old, Highland, Utah. She should be here. The Megan Sunwall trial is underway in provo. We will be covering it as testimony continues. This one is going to be a long one. That's Daily Crime and Justice for Tuesday, March seventeenth, twenty twenty six. Locke and Snelling twenty two indicted on first degree manslaughter in the death of her newborn infant in Lexington, Kentucky. Arraignment. April tenth, Ashley Buzzard, charged with the first degree murder of her nine year old daughter. Melody, has now missed two consecutive court hearings claiming illness. Her next hearing is tomorrow, March eighteenth, in Lompoc, California.

21:55 The preliminary hearing must begin by April thirtieth. We're watching and Megan Sundwall forty eight, a Utah nurse, on trial in provo for the death of her friend, Casey Lin Terry, thirty eight, killed with an insulin overdose for a life insurance payout that Sundwall wasn't even actually entitled to. Trial is ongoing. Three cases, three victims who trusted the wrong person at the wrong time. I'm Garrett Fisher. We'll see you tomorrow. This is Daily Crime and Justice. Daily Crime and Justice is an entertainment podcast. We research our stories using publicly available sources, news outlets, court records, tabloids, and yes, the Internet, which is occasionally wrong. We also use AI assisted research tools, which means we work fast, but we are not infallible. We try hard to get things right, sometimes we won't. If we make an error, we'll correct it.

22:57 We are not lawyers, investigators, or the court of record, We're storytellers covering cases that matter. Nothing on this show should be taken as legal fact or used in your own legal proceedings. Treat it like what it is. Quality entertainment about real events, consumed responsibly.