The heartbreaking search for a missing nine-year-old girl has ended with a shocking arrest. Authorities in Santa Barbara County have taken the child's own mother into custody, accusing her of a premeditated and ruthless act.
A Tragic Discovery Ends a Months-Long Search
The body of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard was discovered in Utah in early December, bringing a devastating conclusion to a search that began when she vanished in October. On Tuesday, December 23, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, for murder.
Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown described the case as a rare and difficult-to-comprehend maternal filicide. He stated with disgust that the evidence shows the murder was premeditated, ruthless, calculated and heartless. Melodee died from gunshot wounds to the head.
The Bizarre Road Trip and Deliberate Evasion
The chilling saga started in mid-October when staff at the Lompoc Unified School District grew concerned about the prolonged absence of the homeschooled girl. Detectives pieced together a timeline showing that Ashlee and Melodee had embarked on a sudden road trip on October 7.
Surveillance footage from a Lompoc car rental agency that day captured a suspicious detail: both mother and daughter appeared to be wearing wigs, hinting at an effort to avoid recognition. Their trip routed through multiple states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska.
Investigators say the license plate on their rental car was temporarily switched to a New York plate. Sheriff Brown also noted that Ashlee would back her vehicle into gas stations, seemingly to evade surveillance cameras.
Evidence Links Mother to the Crime Scene
Law enforcement searched Ashlee Buzzard’s home, a storage locker, and the rented car. They recovered an expended cartridge case and a live round of similar ammunition. Later, an examination of evidence from the Utah crime scene resulted in a National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) hit, linking it to the cartridge case found at the Buzzard residence.
The final piece of the puzzle came from the FBI crime lab, which notified Santa Barbara authorities that a DNA analysis of the remains found in Utah provided a familial match to Ashlee Buzzard. Melodee was last seen on video surveillance with her mother on the Colorado side of the Colorado-Utah border on Thursday, October 9. Detectives believe she was murdered shortly after that stop.
Ashlee Buzzard was arrested on December 23 and booked for first-degree murder. She is being held without bail. Authorities have not established a motive for why a mother would allegedly commit such a horrific act against her child, and note that Ashlee has not been cooperative with the investigation.
While these developments are crucial steps toward justice, Sheriff Brown emphasized they do not diminish the profound loss of young Melodee Buzzard.
