Ashley Buzzard, the mom of the once-missing 9-year-old California child Melodee Buzzard, is now accused of her murder.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown announced on December 23 that "the remains of Melodee Elani Buzzard, a 9-year-old child reported missing from the Lompoc area in October 2025, have been located in a rural area outside of Caineville, Utah, and that her mother, Ashlee Lynn Buzzard, has been arrested for her murder."
The child's cause of death is horrific. According to the release, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office in Utah "responded to a report of a decomposed body discovered off the roadway." The body was Melodee's. She "had died from gunshot wounds to the head," the release says, adding that authorities found a match between cartridge cases recovered in Utah and a cartridge case at the Buzzard home.
On December 23, 2025, at approximately 7:51 a.m., members of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, "served search and arrest warrants at the Buzzard residence in Lompoc. Ashlee Buzzard was taken into custody without incident and booked at the Santa Barbara County Northern Branch Jail for first-degree murder. She is currently being held without bail," the sheriff wrote.
“This is an extraordinarily tragic case involving the murder of a child by the very person she relied upon and trusted the most,” Sheriff Brown said. “While maternal filicide is rare and difficult to comprehend, the evidence in this case clearly indicates a calculated, deliberate, and ruthless act.”
Authorities had previously arrested Ashley Buzzard on an unrelated charge.
Authorities previously released a timeline after Melodee disappeared.
"The investigation began on October 14, 2025, when a school administrator reported Melodee’s extended absence," the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office wrote in October.
"Deputies responded to her residence in the 500-block of Mars Avenue in Lompoc, where they contacted Melodee’s mother, 35-year-old Ashlee Buzzard. Melodee was not at the home, and no verifiable explanation for her whereabouts was provided," the release says.
Detectives subsequently "narrowed the critical timeline to between October 7 and October 10, 2025. Investigators have confirmed that Ashlee was seen returning to her Lompoc residence on October 10, driving the same rental vehicle she departed with on October 7—but Melodee was not in the car."
Investigators "understand that this three-day road trip went from Lompoc to the Nebraska area, with the return trip including the state of Kansas," the release adds. "Detectives are now focused on determining where Melodee was during those three days and where she may be now."
In one bizarre detail, authorities also said the child wore wigs.
They shared surveillance images of Melodee "captured at a local car rental business on October 7. In the photo, Melodee is wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and what appears to be a wig that is darker and straighter than her natural hair," the release says. "Investigators believe the wig may have been used to alter her appearance. Detectives also note that Ashlee is known to wear wigs."
The Sheriff's Department alleged that Ashlee "switched license plates and backed into gas stations to avoid surveillance cameras. Melodee was last seen on video with Ashlee on October 9, 2025, near the Colorado-Utah border. Investigators now believe Melodee was murdered shortly after that point."
"Sheriff’s detectives and the FBI Evidence Response Team served additional search warrants at the Mars Avenue residence, at a storage unit, and upon the rental vehicle," authorities added. "An expended cartridge case was recovered from the residence, and a live round of similar ammunition was located in the vehicle. The cartridge case was submitted to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives for entry into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, a firearms-related evidence database."
The motive is not clear.