He described Buzzard as \u201cunco-operative\u201d throughout the investigation and said she remained so after her arrest.<\/p>\n
The investigation into Melodee\u2019s disappearance was closely tracked by online true-crime sleuths, as well as by worried relatives and community members. <\/p>\n
Some gathered outside Buzzard\u2019s home after her daughter went missing, placing posters along the kerb that featured the girl\u2019s photo and read \u201cWhere is Melodee?\u201d<\/p>\n
Melodee\u2019s father was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2016. Melodee\u2019s paternal grandmother, Lilly Denes, told the Los Angeles Times yesterday that Ashlee Lynn Buzzard had not allowed the girl\u2019s paternal relatives to see her since 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe detective called me this morning to let me know that they found the baby and the baby is with her dad,\u201d Denes said in that interview. \u201cI knew he was telling me that the baby is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities\u2019 search began on October 14, when a school administrator reported Melodee\u2019s \u201cprolonged absence\u201d from an independent study programme, according to a timeline provided by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n
Deputies went to the family residence in Lompoc and contacted Buzzard, who failed to provide verifiable information about her daughter\u2019s whereabouts, authorities said.<\/p>\n
The following day, detectives served a search warrant, and investigators found that Buzzard had recently rented a car. <\/p>\n
Surveillance footage showed mother and daughter at the rental office \u2013 both wearing wigs in an apparent bid to conceal their identities, Brown said. The images were released publicly on October 22.<\/p>\n
Buzzard swapped licence plates on the vehicle, replacing its California tag for a New York one, and she backed the car into service stations to deliberately avoid surveillance cameras during the pair\u2019s three-day road trip through eight states, Brown said.<\/p>\n
Melodee was last seen on video footage with her mother on October 9, on the Colorado side of the Colorado-Utah border. Detectives believe she was killed shortly after that stop, Brown said.<\/p>\n
On October 30, a spent casing was found during another search of the family residence, and a live round of similar ammunition was located in the rental vehicle, authorities said. <\/p>\n
Federal authorities\u2019 examination of cartridges found at the crime scene were later linked to the cartridge casing found at Buzzard\u2019s home in Lompoc, Brown said.<\/p>\n
The authorities\u2019 break came on the evening of December 6, when two members of the public stopped to take photos on a roadside near the town of Caineville, in a remote area of Wayne County, Utah. <\/p>\n
There, they discovered the decomposed body of a female who had been shot in the head.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Wayne County Sheriff\u2019s Office said it had previously communicated with Santa Barbara authorities and the FBI about the Buzzard case but found no evidence \u201cto indicate any further action\u201d in the area. <\/p>\n
Less than 24 hours after the body was found, the Utah State Crime Lab had connected it to the Santa Barbara case, and on Tuesday, the FBI linked the remains to the familial DNA of Buzzard.<\/p>\n
Investigators were met with \u201cdeliberate efforts\u201d to prevent them from finding Melodee and uncovering the truth, Brown said as he praised their tenacity.<\/p>\n
Buzzard is being held at a Santa Barbara County jail without bail. Brown said authorities plan to prosecute Buzzard in Santa Barbara County, because \u201cthe intent was believed to have been formed here\u201d.<\/p>\n
Michael Winn, the Wayne County lawyer told the news site KSL that he had not ruled out the possibility of criminal charges also being filed in Utah. <\/p>\n
Winn did not respond to a request for comment. The Wayne County Sheriff\u2019s Office said he is reviewing the case.<\/p>\n
Authorities are continuing to look for the murder weapon, Brown said, and they do not believe anyone else was involved in the killing. They have yet to determine a motive, he added.<\/p>\n
Buzzard appeared in court on an unrelated charge in November, after Santa Barbara prosecutors alleged she falsely imprisoned an acquaintance at her home by dead-bolting the door after allowing him inside. A judge dismissed the charge.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He described Buzzard as \u201cunco-operative\u201d throughout the investigation and said she remained so after her arrest. The investigation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[123311,1117,95,123308,1558,7800,123309,73814,179,1559,13239,14238,14032,2026,31533,5504,13838,42,1364,78,185,11156,23300,62831,4275,43,1118,10715,3175,123310,7819,40,38,41,39,4205,6923,102,1354],"class_list":["post-200815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-9yearold","tag-accused","tag-and","tag-ashlee","tag-been","tag-body","tag-buzzard","tag-calculated","tag-california","tag-called","tag-charged","tag-coldblooded","tag-daughter","tag-discovery","tag-dumping","tag-following","tag-girls","tag-headlines","tag-her","tag-in","tag-is","tag-killing","tag-lynn","tag-melodee","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-of","tag-remains","tag-rural","tag-sheriff","tag-shooting","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-utah","tag-what","tag-with","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}