A California woman has been charged with murder after the body of her missing 9-year-old daughter was found in Utah, authorities said Tuesday.
Ashlee Buzzard, 40, was arrested Tuesday after bullets found near her daughter’s body were linked to a spent shell casing found in her home, Santa Barbara County Sheriff and Coroner Bill Brown said. Authorities discovered the body of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard in rural Utah on Dec. 6 after a man and woman took photos on State Highway 24 and reported they found the body.
Brown said police could not immediately identify her but concluded she died from a gunshot wound to the head. The FBI conducted DNA analysis on the body and found a family DNA match for Buzzard.
Detectives also found similar ammunition in a car rented by Buzzard, authorities said.
Buzzard is being held without bail at Santa Barbara’s Northern Correctional Facility.
Online jail records did not list a court date or an attorney who could speak on Buzzard’s behalf. The public defender’s office represented her in another case in November but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On October 14, a school administrator reported Melodee Buzzard’s long-term absence. Deputies went to the family’s home in Lompoc, but Buzzard would not say where her daughter was.
According to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, Buzzard left California with his daughter on October 7, driving a rented white 2024 Chevrolet Malibu. They reached as far as Nebraska, with stops in Nevada, Arizona and Utah, and the return route included Kansas. Melodee Buzzard was last seen Oct. 9 on video surveillance near the Colorado-Utah line.
Detectives discovered that mother and daughter had changed their appearance during their travels. Video from the Lompoc rental car office showed the child wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a wig that was darker and straighter than her natural hair, police said. The video shows her mother wearing a wig with long curly hair.
Police said Buzzard changed his wig throughout the trip and changed the rental car’s license plate to avoid detection. The Sheriff’s Office said Buzzard returned home on Oct. 10, but her daughter was not with her.
Brown said the crime was “planned, cold-blooded” and premeditated, but a motive has not yet been determined.
“Today, we stand together with sadness, but also determination,” Brown said. “Melody deserved a better life than she did.”
The weapon has not been found and the case remains under investigation, officials said.
