VANDENBERG VILLAGE, Calif. (Scripps News San Luis Obispo/Court TV) — Police in California have arrested the mother of missing child Melodee Buzzard for a second time after the 9-year-old’s body was found in Utah.
Video taken by neighbors and obtained by Scripps News San Luis Obispo shows Ashlee Buzzard, 40, being led away from her Mars Avenue home in Vandenberg Village by Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s officials on Tuesday morning.
One neighbor described the incident as quiet and quick, starting shortly before 7:45 a.m. The neighbor says authorities banged on the door with a metal tool and eventually used it to pry open the door and gain access to the home.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown confirmed the body of Melodee Buzzard was found in a rural area outside Caineville, Utah, on Dec. 6. Sheriff Brown said evidence clearly indicates the 9-year-old’s mother, Ashlee, is responsible for the “heinous crime.” “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,” the sheriff said.
“It was just heartbreaking and devastating for the whole family,” Melodee’s aunt, Lizabeth Meza, told Scripps News San Luis Obispo following a sheriff’s press conference Tuesday afternoon. “She [Melodee] had a sweet personality, just so charismatic and happy.”
The screen door on the front of the Mars Avenue home now sits slightly ajar, unable to close after the arrest. Melodee’s paternal grandmother told Scripps News San Luis Obispo that detectives notified her that the child’s body had been found.
When sharing an updated timeline, Sheriff Brown says Melodee was last seen with her mother at a stop on the Colorado side of the Colorado-Utah border on Oct. 9 during a multi-day road trip, adding they believe the girl died shortly after that Oct. 9 stop.
“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.”
Melodee’s body was discovered on Dec. 6 by two people taking pictures in the area of East State Route 24 in Wayne County. The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene and notified the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office of the discovery two days later.
Due to the state of decomposition, DNA confirmation was required to identify the remains positively.
Sheriff Brown says Melodee died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head, adding that cartridge cases found at the crime scene were positively linked to an expended cartridge case that was found at Ashlee’s Mars Avenue home during a search on Oct. 30 and also “a live round of similar ammunition” located inside the rented car.
Melodee’s remains were positively identified on Monday, Dec. 22, leading to the arrest of Ashlee on Tuesday.
Sheriff Brown says they do not have possession of the murder weapon and they have yet to establish a motive for the killing.
Authorities say it’s believed Ashlee acted alone and no one else was involved.
She is being held in the Santa Barbara County Jail without bail on suspicion of first-degree murder.
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office states that a review of the filing of charges will be conducted once the sheriff’s office reports are received.
