Authorities say they have located the remains of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard roughly two months after she was reported missing — and her mother is now in custody.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown said during a press conference on Tuesday, Dec. 23, that Melodee’s decomposing body was found on Dec. 6 along the side of a road in Wayne County, Utah. Brown said the remains were discovered by a man and woman who had stopped to take photos.
Investigators later determined the child had suffered gunshot wounds to the head. Identification came on Dec. 22, Brown said, after the FBI notified the Santa Barbara County Sheriff that DNA from the remains matched Melodee’s mother, Ashlee Buzzard.
Ashlee Buzzard, 40, was arrested on murder charges on Dec. 23, Brown said.
“This level of criminal activity is particularly shocking given the calculated, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation and heartlessness that went into planning it and the ruthlessness that went into actually committing the crime,” Brown said.
“We have recovered a significant amount of evidence that clearly indicates that this heinous crime was committed by Ashlee Buzzard, Melodee’s mother, and the very person upon who she relied upon and trusted the most in this world,” he added.
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Brown said investigators matched an expended cartridge recovered from Ashlee’s home to casings found at the Utah crime scene.
Melodee was last seen in video surveillance footage with her mother on Oct. 9 at a rest stop near the Utah-Colorado border, Brown said, and investigators believe the girl was killed shortly afterward.
According to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, Melodee was reported missing on Oct. 14 after a school official raised concerns about her “prolonged absence.” Authorities also said at the time that Ashlee was refusing to cooperate with investigators.
The sheriff’s office previously announced that Ashlee was arrested on Friday, Nov. 7, on false imprisonment charges in an unrelated case.
In November, the sheriff’s department released security camera footage showing Melodee with Ashlee on Oct. 7, around the time the child disappeared.
Earlier, investigators also released CCTV stills from a California car rental business where Melodee was seen wearing a wig — something authorities alleged may have been an attempt by Ashlee to disguise her. In a statement on Thursday, Nov. 6, the sheriff’s office said it also determined Ashlee wore a wig in the Oct. 7 video, alleging she “swapped” wigs several times during the trip that followed.
