Buzzard fatally shot Melodee<\/a> during a multistate road trip in October before returning alone to Santa Barbara County.<\/p>\nInvestigators believe the killing occurred on or around Oct. 9, shortly after the pair were last seen together on surveillance video near the Utah-Colorado border.<\/p>\n
Melodee had been reported missing weeks earlier after failing to return home from what investigators described as an \u201cunusual\u201d cross-country trip with her mother. According to sheriff\u2019s officials, Buzzard rented a vehicle for the trip and took deliberate steps to avoid detection, including wearing wigs and clumsy disguises. Buzzard was also captured on surveillance swapping license plates and backing into gas stations so cameras would not capture identifying information, investigators allege.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 6, a couple discovered Melodee\u2019s decomposed body along a remote stretch of State Route 24 near Caineville, Utah.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors alleged Buzzard carried out the murder with a high degree of \u201cplanning, sophistication, or professionalism.\u201d A criminal complaint described the murder as thoroughly planned and \u201cprofessional,\u201d alleging Buzzard carried out the killing with a \u201chigh degree of cruelty, viciousness, or callousness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis level of criminal activity is particularly shocking given the calculated, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation and heartlessness that went into planning it,\u201d Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at a Tuesday news conference.<\/p>\n
Ballistics evidence played a key role in the case, investigators said. Cartridge casings recovered near the Utah crime scene were matched through a federal database to an expended casing previously found during a search of Buzzard\u2019s home in Vandenberg Village.<\/p>\n
A live round of similar ammunition was also recovered from the rental car Buzzard used during the trip, according to law enforcement officials. DNA testing later confirmed a familial match between Buzzard and the remains found in Utah.<\/p>\n
Buzzard was arrested at her Santa Barbara County residence Dec. 23.<\/p>\n
Investigators relied on physical, digital and forensic evidence when cooperation from the suspect was not forthcoming. Authorities have not identified a motive and do not believe anyone else was involved.<\/p>\n
Authorities were made aware of Melodee\u2019s disappearance when her prolonged absence was first reported by a school administrator, triggering the initial welfare check that launched the investigation.<\/p>\n
Investigators said Buzzard was \u201cuncooperative\u201d throughout the investigation and declined to provide a verifiable explanation for her daughter\u2019s whereabouts when deputies first contacted her in October. Detectives later obtained search warrants for Buzzard\u2019s home, a storage unit and the rental vehicle tied to the road trip.<\/p>\n
Melodee\u2019s disappearance drew widespread attention, with family members and community members organizing searches as authorities tracked the mother\u2019s movements through California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all hoping to find Melodee alive, as you undoubtedly were as well,\u201d FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick Grandy said at the Tuesday news conference. \u201cOur collective hearts are broken as a result of this senseless outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Court records show Buzzard has faced financial instability in recent years, including a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing and multiple civil collections cases.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors allege Buzzard\u2019s intent to kill was formed in Santa Barbara County, which is why the case will be tried locally despite the killing occurring out of state, sheriff\u2019s officials said.<\/p>\n
Buzzard\u2019s next court appearance is set for Jan. 7, when a judge will determine whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ashlee Buzzard, the California mother accused of killing her 9-year-old daughter, Melodee Buzzard, pleaded not guilty Friday morning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-372410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}