Ashlee Buzzard shot her child multiple times, left her body in Utah

December 23, 2025

Melodee Buzzard

By KAREN VELIE

Investigators believe the mother of missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard shot her daughter in the head multiple times before leaving the child’s body in a remote area in Utah. Deputies arrested 40-year-old Ashlee Buzzard for first degree murder on Tuesday morning.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office released a timeline describing the alleged brutal murder of a child by her mother.

On Oct. 7: Ashlee Buzzard  rented a vehicle and began a multi-state road trip. Surveillance images showed her and Melodee at the rental office wearing wigs, apparently to conceal their identities.

Melodee and Ashlee Buzzard

On Oct. 8: Ashlee Buzzard swapped the plate on the Malibu she rented to a New York license plate.

On Oct. 9: Melodee was last seen along the return route via video surveillance near the border between Colorado and Utah. A short time afterwards, Ashlee Buzzard allegedly shot and killed her daughter.

On Oct, 10: Ashlee Buzzard returned home to Lompoc, without her daughter.

On Oct. 14: A school administrator reported Melodee’s prolonged absence. Deputies responded to the family’s home in Lompoc and contacted her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, who provided no verifiable explanation for Melodee’s whereabouts.

On Oct. 15: Detectives served a search warrant at the Lompoc residence.

On Oct. 24: Detectives released a detailed travel timeline documenting a multi-state round-trip travel route that included California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska with a return route including Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California.

On Oct. 30: Sheriff’s detectives and the FBI Evidence Response Team served additional search warrants at the Buzzard residence, at a storage unit, and upon the rental vehicle.

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.

On Dec. 6: A couple spotted a decomposed body off the roadway near the 3300-block of East State Route 24 in a remote area of Wayne County in Utah. The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office then opened an investigation.

On Dec. 8: Wayne County authorities notified the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office of the unidentified remains. The decedent was determined to be female and had died from gunshot wounds to the head.

On Dec. 17: Cartridge cases recovered in Utah were compared by the ATF database and determined to be linked to the cartridge case recovered from the Buzzard residence.

On Dec. 22: FBI Crime Lab analysis confirmed that the remains discovered in Utah were a familial DNA match to Ashlee Buzzard.

On Dec. 23: Deputies arrested Ashlee Buzzard for the murder of daughter, Melodee. Deputies booked Ashlee Buzzard in the Santa Barbara Main Jail where she is being held without bail.

“This is an extraordinarily tragic case involving the murder of a child by the very person she relied upon and trusted the most,” said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown. “While maternal filicide is rare and difficult to comprehend, the evidence in this case clearly indicates a calculated, deliberate, and ruthless act.”