The mother of a missing 9-year-old California girl has been arrested on first-degree murder charges after her daughter’s body was found in rural southern Utah, Santa Barbara County Sheriff and Coroner Bill Brown said Tuesday.
Brown said members of the Sheriff’s Office and the FBI arrested 40-year-old Ashlee Buzzard Tuesday morning. Authorities said her mother deliberately hid her steps, such as backing her rental car into a gas station, to avoid detection by surveillance cameras.
“We have uncovered substantial evidence that clearly demonstrates this heinous crime was committed by Ashley Buzzard, Melody’s mother and the person she relied on and trusted most in the world,” Brown said at a news conference.
CNN is trying to determine whether Buzzard has an attorney.
Earlier Tuesday, Melody’s grandmother told CNN affiliates KEYT and KSBY that Melody’s body had been found. Grandmother Lilly Denes was notified by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office that her granddaughter’s body had been found, KEYT reported.
CNN has reached out to the grandmother, but she declined to comment because she was on her way to a press conference.
On Tuesday, Brown laid out a timeline explaining how investigators found Melody’s body.
Melodee was last seen on October 9
Buzzard was taking her 9-year-old daughter on a road trip on Oct. 7 when surveillance video captured the girl from a local car rental agency appearing to be in disguise, authorities said.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said Melody was wearing a hoodie that was pulled over her head and “looked like a wig that was darker and straighter than her natural hair.” “Investigators believe the wig may have been used to alter her appearance.”
Over the next three days, the rental car traveled through Nebraska, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and Kansas before returning to Lompoc, about 55 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, authorities said.
The Sheriff’s Office previously said, “Investigators have confirmed that Ashley was seen returning to the Lompoc residence on October 10, driving the same rental vehicle that she left on October 7, but Melody was not in the vehicle.”
The child was last seen on Oct. 9 on video surveillance in the Colorado-Utah border area.
A few days later, on October 14, Melody was reported missing—not by her family, but by school administrators concerned about her prolonged absence.
The FBI joined the search for Melodee, and the case attracted widespread attention beyond Southern California.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN’s Danya Gainor, Sophia Peyser and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
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