The mother of missing nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard has been taken into custody after the child’s body was found months after her disappearance, according to investigators.
Ashlee Buzzard, of Lompoc, California, was taken into custody following the results of a completed DNA test for the “calculated, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated” slaying of her daughter.
Human remains were found in early December in Utah in an area where it was known the youngster had traveled with her mother. The results have now confirmed that the remains belong to Melodee.
“I am deeply saddened to report to you that the body of Melodee Buzzard, the nine-year-old child who went missing from the Lompoc area in October of this year, has been found in a rural area outside of Caineville in Wayne County, Utah,” said Santa Barbara County Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown on Tuesday afternoon.
“Maternal filicide is rare and always difficult to comprehend, but 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.
“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.”
Brown said that Melodee was last seen on video surveillance on Thursday, October 9 2025 with her mother on the Colorado side of the Colorado-Utah border.
“Detectives now believe that Melodee was murdered shortly after that,” he added.
The body of an unidentified female was found by a man and a woman on December 8 with a gunshot wound to the head in Wayne County, Utah.
Ashlee Buzzard is being held without bond on first-degree murder charges.
Melodee was first reported missing on October 14 when the Lompoc Unified School District reported her prolonged absence.
Deputies who went to the family’s home following the reports of her disappearance said they spoke with Ashlee Buzzard, but “no verifiable explanation for [Melodee’s] whereabouts was provided,” according to the sheriff’s office. Buzzard had not cooperated with the investigation, they added.
In early November, the sheriff’s office announced that they’d narrowed their investigation to the timeframe between October 9 and October 10, while the pair were on a multi-state road trip to Nebraska, which also included several stops in Utah.
They shared a map of the vehicle’s stops along Buzzard’s route back to California, which they believe took her through Green River, Utah; Panguitch, Utah; northwest Arizona; Primm, Nevada; and Rancho Cucamonga, California.
Surveillance images shared by authorities also show Melodee, in what appeared to be a wig, alongside her mother at a Lompoc rental car company on October 7. The last confirmed sighting of Melodee came two days later, on October 9, near the Colorado-Utah border.
Deputies revealed they believed that Buzzard removed the California plate 9MNG101 from the white 2024 Chevrolet Malibu rental car and replaced it with a New York plate HCG9677 either on or before October 8 in order “to avoid detection.”
When she returned the car, the California plate was back in place. It is unknown when the plate was installed or whether additional plates were used at other times during travel.
When her mother returned home to California on October 10, Melodee was nowhere to be found.
Ashlee Buzzard was also arrested on November 7 on a charge of false imprisonment, which is unrelated to the missing person investigation into her daughter.
Detectives said in a press release at the time that Buzzard had prevented a victim from leaving a location against their will.
