A mother from California has been apprehended and is facing charges of first-degree murder following the discovery of her nine-year-old daughter’s body in a secluded part of Utah. The child’s death marks a sorrowful conclusion to the extensive search that was initiated when she was reported missing by school authorities.
40-year-old Ashlee Buzzard was arrested on December 23 in Vandenberg Village, California, following the confirmation by investigators that the body found earlier in Wayne County, Utah, was her daughter, Melodee Buzzard. She is currently being held without bail, as announced by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
The investigation was initiated on October 14 after Melodee’s extended absence from school was reported by officials from the Lompoc Unified School District. Melodee had been unaccounted for since early October, which led to the launch of a missing person investigation involving multiple states and the FBI.
During a press briefing, Sheriff Bill Brown described the crime as involving “calculated, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation and heartlessness.” He conveyed the community’s sorrow over the unfortunate outcome of the search, which many had hoped would result in Melodee being found alive.
The probe revealed that Melodee and her mother departed from their Lompoc, California home on October 7 for a reported four-day road trip. The trip took them through several states, including Nevada, Colorado, Nebraska, and Utah. During the journey, they donned wigs and at some point, they replaced the license plate on their rented vehicle with out-of-state plates.
The mother-daughter pair was seen traveling in a rented 2024 white Chevy Malibu from a Lompoc rental agency. Surveillance footage captured images of Ashlee and Melodee at different points during their travels, both seemingly in disguises.
Melodee was last seen alive on October 9 near the border of Colorado and Utah. Ashlee Buzzard returned home solo on October 10, arriving back in Lompoc without her daughter. It is believed that Melodee’s death occurred shortly after the last sighting near the border.
A significant breakthrough in the case occurred on December 6 when a couple photographing in a remote area near Caineville, Utah, discovered a body off East State Route 24. Responding authorities found the remains of a young girl who had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head.
Due to the highly decomposed state of the body, a DNA analysis was required to confirm the identity of the remains. On December 22, the FBI used DNA samples to confirm that the remains were indeed those of Melodee, confirming a familial connection with Ashlee Buzzard.
Crucial forensic evidence linked Ashlee Buzzard to the Utah crime scene. On October 30, the family’s home on Mars Avenue in Vandenberg Village and the rented vehicle were searched under warrants. Forensic analysis matched a shell casing from the Utah crime scene with a cartridge case found at Ashlee Buzzard’s residence. This forensic link was key in connecting the residence to the location where Melodee’s body was found.
Ashlee Buzzard offered no cooperation to investigators throughout the probe, failing to provide any confirmed information about her daughter’s location. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office noted that detectives received no help from the mother during their efforts to locate the missing child.
In November, Ashlee Buzzard was briefly taken into custody on an unrelated charge of felony false imprisonment. A man claimed that she had detained him against his will at her residence and brandished a box cutter. However, the charge was dismissed on November 20 by a judge who cited a lack of sufficient probable cause, pointing to conflicting evidence between the man’s testimony and an audio recording of the incident.
“The loss of Melodee Buzzard is heartbreaking,” stated Sheriff Brown during the arrest announcement. “We hoped against hope that she would be found alive. This outcome is devastating.”
The sheriff highlighted the perplexing nature and rarity of maternal filicide while acknowledging the strength of the evidence collected by investigators. Sheriff Brown commended the school district for initially sensing something was amiss and for their constant help throughout the investigation.
The investigators from the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division lauded the Lompoc Unified School District for their diligence in reporting Melodee’s absence. The school’s intervention offered investigators a vital starting point in piecing together the sequence of events that led to the child’s disappearance. A clear motive for the murder has yet to be established by the authorities.
Ashlee Buzzard has been formally charged with first-degree murder. A criminal complaint was filed on December 25, which includes special allegations such as the use of a 9mm gun, exceptional cruelty, victim vulnerability, and abuse of a position of trust.
Sheriff Brown underlined that the investigation will not cease with the arrest. “We remain committed to working closely with prosecutors to ensure justice is pursued with integrity, care, and compassion,” he said. “Melodee deserved a far better life, and she will never be forgotten.”
The case has profoundly impacted the communities of Lompoc and Vandenberg Village, where Melodee resided with her mother.
