A woman from California faces murder charges following the discovery of her missing 9-year-old daughter’s remains in the United States.
Ashlee Buzzard, aged 40, was taken into custody on December 23 after authorities linked bullet casings found near her daughter’s body to a used cartridge case found in her residence in Utah, according to Santa Barbara County’s Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown.
The body of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard was found on December 6 in a remote area of Utah after passersby taking photographs off State Route 24 reported the discovery of human remains.
Despite the inability to visually identify the body, law enforcement determined that the cause of death was gunshot wounds to the head. The FBI’s DNA analysis confirmed a familial match to Buzzard.
Investigators also discovered similar ammunition in a vehicle that Buzzard had rented.
Buzzard is currently held without bail at the Northern Branch Jail in Santa Barbara. No court date or legal representative was listed in online jail records. Although the public defender’s office represented her in a prior case, they did not respond to requests for comments.
Concerns about Melodee Buzzard’s absence were raised by a school administrator on October 14. When deputies visited the family’s home in Lompoc, Buzzard refused to disclose her daughter’s whereabouts.
On October 7, Buzzard departed California with her daughter in a rented white 2024 Chevrolet Malibu. They traveled through Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, reaching as far as Nebraska before returning through Kansas. The last sighting of Melodee Buzzard was captured on video near the Colorado-Utah border on October 9.
During their travels, the mother and daughter changed their appearances. Surveillance footage from the rental car office in Lompoc showed the child wearing a dark wig that was different from her natural hair, while Buzzard wore a long, curly wig.
Buzzard switched wigs and altered the rental car’s license plate to evade detection. Upon returning home on October 10, her daughter was not with her.
Sheriff Brown described the crime as “calculated, cold-blooded,” and premeditated, although the motive remains unknown.
Officials have not recovered the weapon, and the investigation is ongoing.
Lilly Denes, the grandmother of Melodee Buzzard, described her as a lovable, cheerful, and well-behaved child. Denes was informed by a detective that they had “found the baby and the baby is with her dad,” indicating the child’s demise.
Denes expressed her grief, indicating that she understood the detective’s message about the child’s death.
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