Melodee Buzzard’s mother arrested in connection with 9-year-old’s killing after her body is found

By Josh Campbell, Michelle Watson, CNN

(CNN) — The multi-state hunt for Melodee Buzzard, a missing 9-year-old California girl, came to a close when her remains were discovered in a rural area of southern Utah, authorities announced Tuesday.

Members of the sheriff’s office and the FBI arrested Ashlee Buzzard, Melodee’s mother, Tuesday morning on a charge of first-degree murder, Santa Barbara County Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown said Tuesday.

Authorities say she deliberately tried to hide her steps, such as backing a rental car into gas stations in an attempt to avoid detection by their surveillance cameras.

The body was discovered by a couple who were taking photos in a remote part of Wayne County, Utah, Brown said. Wayne County authorities say the body was near a road with pieces of evidence nearby.

The remains couldn’t be immediately identified, he said, but “it was apparent that the decedent was a female who had died from gunshot wounds to the head.”

But DNA analysis found it was a familial DNA match to Melodee’s mother, he added.

It took less than 24 hours for a Utah crime lab to connect the body to Melodee’s disappearance, Wayne County Sheriff Micah Gulley said.

“We have recovered a significant amount of evidence that clearly indicates that this heinous crime was committed by Ashlee Buzzard, Melodee’s mother, and the very person upon who she relied upon and trusted the most in this world,” Brown said at a news conference.

CNN is attempting to determine whether Buzzard has an attorney.

Investigators do not have the murder weapon and have not established a motive, adding Buzzard is “uncooperative,” authorities said Tuesday.

Melodee’s paternal grandmother, Lilly Denes, told CNN affiliates KEYT and KSBY earlier Tuesday the sheriff’s office informed her Melodee’s body had been discovered.

“It’s really sad for us, especially that tomorrow is Christmas Eve and, you know, I have the rest of the grandkids coming home,” Denes told KEYT Tuesday.

She said she was the first person notified by police that her “baby was gone.”

“She’s over there with her dad now,” Denes said. Melodee’s father, who is Denes’ son, died in a motorcycle crash when Melodee was an infant.

CNN has reached out to Denes for comment.

Brown went through a timeline Tuesday that explained what led investigators to Melodee’s body.

Melodee was last seen October 9

Buzzard went on a road trip with her 9-year-old daughter on October 7, when surveillance footage captured the girl at a local car rental agency dressed in what seemed to be a disguise, authorities said.

Melodee was wearing a hoodie pulled over her head and “what appears to be a wig that is darker and straighter than her natural hair,” the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office previously said. “Investigators believe the wig may have been used to alter her appearance.”

The rental car traveled through Nebraska, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and Kansas before returning home to Lompoc, about 55 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, authorities said.

At some point along the trip, Buzzard switched the license plates on the vehicle she had rented to a New York plate, Brown said Tuesday.

“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,” the sheriff’s office previously said.

The young girl was last seen on video surveillance with her mother on the Colorado side of the Colorado-Utah border on October 9, according to Brown.

Detectives, Brown said, now believe Melodee was killed shortly after that stop.

Melodee was reported missing days later, on October 14 – not by a family member, but by a school administrator concerned about her long absence.

The next day, October 15, detectives served a search warrant at Buzzard’s home, according to a release from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.

On October 30, sheriff’s detectives, along with the FBI Evidence Response Team, served follow-up search warrants at Buzzard’s home as well as for a storage locker and car she had recently rented, investigators said.

An expended cartridge case was recovered during the search of the home, Brown said, and during the search of the rental car a live round of similar ammunition was located, Brown said.

On December 17, the ATF found that cartridge cases from the Utah crime scene linked to a single cartridge case found at the Buzzard residence, authorities said.

“Cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation and heartlessness … went into planning” the crime, Brown said.

The “ruthlessness” that went into committing it, he added, was shocking.

“It’s unbelievable just to know that a mother could do this to their child,” Melodee’s aunt Lizabeth Meza said to CNN affiliate KSBY.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Danya Gainor, Sophia Peyser and Holly Yan contributed to this report.