True crime victim Colby Ryan weighed in on the disappearance of Melodee Buzzard, 9. As a victim and a father, he gave his thoughts on the inexplicable missing child case. Read on to hear what he had to say about it.
Who Is Colby Ryan?
Colby should not be confused with an actor of the same name who appeared in the 39 and a Half movie. Rather, he had an unfortunate younger life because his mom is the convicted murderer Lori Vallow Daybell. Until 2019, Ryan had two siblings, who were later killed.
Additionally, he claimed abuse at the hands of his stepfather. During his mother’s trial, Ryan confronted her, saying she had “ripped his heart out.” He has lost almost his entire family. In the case dubbed the “Doomsday Murders,” Lori was sentenced to life, with additional cases involving relatives adding to her list of grisly crimes.
Discussing The Melodee Case
Recently, news arrived that Melodee Buzzard might have been seen in Nebraska, far from her California home. The child was kept rather isolated by her mom, Ashlee, who strangely did not report her daughter missing. In fact, that report came from a school administrator who oversaw Melodee’s homeschooling assignments.
Many folks have a bad feeling about Melodee’s case, as do Ashleigh Banfield from NewsNation and Colby Ryan. When Ryan appeared on Ashleigh’s show on YouTube on Monday, she asked him his thoughts on Melodee. In part, he said:
Well, first of all, it’s heartbreaking. And we see things like this now when it comes to children always, actually scary. And, you know, the similarities immediately bring to me where parents should be able to show you their child within a couple of seconds or know where they are at all times.
The Similarities Are Scary
Colby Ryan also talked about how scary the case of Melodee Buzzard seems. He added, “The fearful thing is seeing them for a short amount of time and then disappearing and all the families wondering.”
“You know,” he added, “just the similarities are scary… so, I hope that is not the case.” Of course, he doesn’t want to “ever see what happened to my family repeated.”
The mysterious disappearance was on his mind. When asked if he had any “gut instincts” about Melodee’s case, Ryan couldn’t say, but he did note that the similarities made him feel “uneasy.”
The Melodee Case Lacks Urgency?
Ashleigh then stepped in, opining, “It doesn’t feel to me at least that it’s being considered an emergency by the police.” She then asked Ryan if he had also thought that back when he was a victim. He’d tried “desperately to get the police to pay attention to Lori Vallow, his mom, and find out where his siblings were.”
In hi reply, Ryan noted, “I think with the police, it was hard for our case because we had so many new departments involved, right? It’s Arizona. It’s Idaho. It’s all over the place and they’re looking for Lori and Chad. So, yeah, there is urgency.”
Now, he feels that Melodee’s case needs more urgency. However, he also spoke about how the police could be held back in some ways. Nevertheless, he also believes that “when it comes to children, I think the priority goes to a very high level. It has to because their safety is important.”
Next, he said something rather intriguing: “You know, the police are…just tired and they can’t do something about it.” Was he talking about crime fatigue?
The Red Flags
Then the conversation turned to how Melodee disappeared, and it wasn’t her mom who reported it, or her family. The family hardly ever saw Melodee, so it wasn’t like a physical school where a teacher would quickly notice a child’s absence.
Notably, his biggest worry seems to be why Ashlee never reported her child missing. And that raises red flags not just for him, but also for their audience.
As usual with these true crime cases, even if they’re not yet treated as such, people felt frustrated. Actually, they also feel frustrated with the Celeste Rivas case and the connection to singer D4vd.
Viewers Discuss The Case
One follower wrote, “There are just way too many times that this is happening, they disappear like the two little brothers in California did, that they finally found their bodies, like the one that’s just a few months old and the parents are being tried…but no body’s been found.”
Here are a few more responses from the discussion area:
- My heart breaks for Colby. I sure hope melodee is found asap.
- On another channel, I said, this case reminds me of lori vallow.I hope this beautiful little girl is found alive.
What are your thoughts? If a victim of disappearing children and a killer mom feels uneasy about Melodee, do you agree there might not be a happy outcome for the new case? Let us know in the comments below, and remember to come back here often for all our true crime news and updates.