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OAN Staff Cory Hawkins
2:00 PM – Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Ashlee Buzzard has been taken into custody on suspicion of murdering her 9-year-old daughter, Melodee Buzzard, who had been missing for more than two months before her body was found with multiple gunshot wounds to the head.
Ashlee was charged with first-degree murder on Tuesday and is being held without bail, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
The arrest follows a two-month investigation after the little girl was reported missing on October 14th, when a school district administrator alerted authorities of her “extended absence” from school.
Melodee’s body was found on December 6th in Wayne County, Utah, in a location where Melodee and Ashlee traveled to together back in October. The sheriff’s office reported the girl’s remains were discovered by a man and woman who found the decomposed body while taking photos in a rural area.
DNA results linked Ashlee to the recovered remains as they determined empty bullet casings at the Utah crime scene matched shell casings found in Buzzard’s car.
Investigators believe Melodee was shot and killed in October, prior to being reported absent from school.
The sheriff reported that Ashlee made extensive efforts to prevent anyone from finding Melodee.
Investigators determined that Ashlee and Melodee both wore wigs, switched the rental cars license plates, and backed into gas stations to obscure their license plates in order to avoid cameras.
Authorities state Melodee and Ashlee Buzzard left their home in Lompoc, California on October 7th for a three-day road trip to the Nebraska area. Melodee was last seen alive on October 9th near the Colorado-Utah border.
Ashlee returned home to Lompoc on October 10th with the car she and Melodee rented on October 7th, but Melodee was not present.
No motive for the murder has been publicly established, but the trip appears to have been premeditated to facilitate and conceal the crime, based on the calculated steps taken.
“Today we stand together in grief, but also with resolve. Melodee deserved a far better life than she had,” Sheriff Bill Brown said at a news conference. “May God bless the innocent soul of Melodee Buzzard who we will never forget.”
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