California woman charged with murder in her 9-year-old daughter’s death

The mother of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard found shot in the head two months after she disappeared has been arrested for murder.

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A California woman has been charged with murder after the remains of her missing 9-year-old daughter were found in Utah, authorities said Tuesday.

Ashlee Buzzard, 40, was arrested Tuesday after bullet cartridges found near her daughter’s body were linked to a used cartridge case found in her home, said Santa Barbara County’s Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown. Authorities found 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard’s body Dec. 6 in a rural area of Utah after a man and woman taking photos off of State Route 24 reported they had discovered remains.

Officers could not immediately identify her but concluded she died from gunshot wounds to the head, Brown said. The FBI’s DNA analysis of the body found a familial DNA match to Buzzard.

Detectives also found similar ammunition in a car Buzzard had rented, authorities said.

Buzzard is being held without bail at the Northern Branch Jail in Santa Barbara, Brown said.

Online jail records did not list a court date or 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.

A school administrator reported Melodee Buzzard’s prolonged absence Oct. 14. Deputies went to the family’s residence in Lompoc, but Buzzard would not say where her daughter was.

Buzzard left California with her daughter on Oct. 7, driving a rented white 2024 Chevrolet Malibu, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office. They traveled as far as Nebraska with stops in Nevada, Arizona and Utah, and a return route included Kansas. Melodee Buzzard was last seen Oct. 9 on video surveillance near the Colorado-Utah line.

Detectives learned the mother and daughter changed their appearance during travel. Video from the rental car office in Lompoc shows 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 long, curly haired wig.

Buzzard swapped wigs throughout the trip and changed the license plate of the rental car to avoid detection, police said. Buzzard returned home on Oct. 10 but her daughter was not with her, the sheriff’s office said.

Brown said the crime was “calculated, cold-blooded” and premeditated, though a motive has not been determined.

“Today, we stand together in grief, but also with resolve,” Brown said. “Melodee deserved a far better life than she had.”

Officials said the weapon has not been found, and the case remains under investigation.

Lilly Denes told the Los Angeles Times that her granddaughter was loveable, always smiling and well-behaved. Denes’ son, the child’s father, died when she was 6 months old. A detective told Denes on the phone Tuesday that authorities had “found the baby and the baby is with her dad,” Denes said.

“I knew he was telling me that the baby is dead,” Denes said.

Jessica Hill, The Associated Press