Missing California girl Melodee Buzzard, 9, was found dead in a rural part of Utah\u2019s Wayne County from multiple gunshot wounds to the head, authorities said. Her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder.<\/p>\n
Cartridge cases found at the Utah crime scene in December were linked to a cartridge case that was found at Buzzard\u2019s Vandenberg Village home during a search on Oct. 30, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at a Tuesday news conference.<\/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 Brown said. \u201cWe have recovered a significant amount of evidence that clearly indicates that this heinous crime was committed by Ashlee Buzzard, Melodee\u2019s mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Melodee Buzzard, pictured two years ago, went missing after going on a trip this year with her mother, <\/p>\n
(Santa Barbara County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n
Melodee vanished during an unusual road trip with her mother this year, sparking a months-long investigation.<\/p>\n
During the trip, Buzzard changed out the license plates on her rental car, backed the vehicle into gas stations and wore wigs in what detectives described as possible attempts to avoid detection, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Melodee was last seen on a surveillance camera near the Utah-Colorado border on Oct. 9. Detectives believe she was killed shortly thereafter, Brown said. <\/p>\n
On Dec. 6, a couple found a decomposed body while taking photos off East State Route 24 outside Caineville, Utah. On Monday, DNA analysis of the remains confirmed a familial connection to Buzzard, who is now being held without bail at Santa Barbara County Northern Branch Jail, Brown said. <\/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 Melodee\u2019s paternal grandmother, Lilly Denes, told The Times on Tuesday. \u201cI knew he was telling me that the baby is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melodee\u2019s father, Rubiell \u201cPinoy\u201d Meza, died in a motorcycle accident in 2016.<\/p>\n
The girl\u2019s disappearance<\/a> had captivated and confounded true-crime watchers around the nation for months as FBI investigators and armchair detectives alike tried to solve the puzzle of what happened. Here is what we know about the events that led up to Tuesday\u2019s tragic announcement. <\/p>\n Ashlee Buzzard\u2019s \u2018hard knock\u2019 childhood<\/p>\n When Ashlee Buzzard was just 9 years old \u2014 the same age as Melodee when she went missing \u2014 she and her mother, Lori Miranda, became homeless after fleeing Buzzard\u2019s abusive father, Miranda told the Santa Maria Times in 1995. <\/p>\n When Melodee\u2019s mother Ashlee Buzzard was 9-years-old she was interviewed in the Santa Maria Times about her participation in a program for students experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n (Santa Maria Times)<\/p>\n The article, titled \u201cLessons From the School of Hard Knocks,\u201d describes how Miranda and her daughter arrived on the streets of Santa Maria with no job, home or car and only $40 to support them. <\/p>\n They had previously moved from place to place to get away from Miranda\u2019s husband, who she said struggled with substance use and episodes of violence. In June 1994, Miranda decided to take her daughter from Orange County to the Central Coast to be farther away from him, and they briefly lived at the Good Samaritan Shelter in Santa Maria before moving into an apartment.<\/p>\n \u201cI was so scared,\u201d Ashlee told the paper, describing her early days in Santa Maria. \u201cI knew no one [here]. I felt very uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Melodee\u2019s paternal relatives, Buzzard had a contentious relationship with her mother.<\/p>\n When Buzzard was in the 11th grade at Santa Maria High School, she filed a petition to be emancipated from Miranda, according to court records. The judge rejected the petition, noting that Buzzard was still living with her mother and had not submitted adequate information pertaining to her income and expenses. <\/p>\n A birth and a sudden death<\/p>\n Melodee was born Feb. 10, 2016, to Buzzard and Meza. Six months later, Meza died.<\/p>\n In Melodee\u2019s early years, Meza\u2019s family continued to have a relationship with the girl, according to Denes. She was a lovable child, always smiling and well-behaved, Denes said. <\/p>\n Lilly Denes, the paternal grandmother of missing California girl Melodee Buzzard, in her home in Orcutt on Nov. 6.<\/p>\n (Carlin Stiehl \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n In 2021, another of Denes\u2019 sons took care of Melodee while Buzzard was hospitalized for several weeks, she said.<\/p>\n During this period, Denes said, she was working with social services to gain custody of Melodee as she was concerned about Buzzard\u2019s ability to care for the child. But before Denes had finished the background check process, Buzzard was discharged from the hospital, picked up her daughter from school and left Santa Maria, Denes said. <\/p>\n After that, Buzzard relocated to the nearby neighborhood of Vandenberg Village and refused to let the girl\u2019s paternal relatives see her. She did, however, occasionally visit Denes to ask for money over the years, Denes said. <\/p>\n Federal court records show that Buzzard filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2017. She\u2019s also had five collections and one small claims lawsuit for alleged unpaid debts filed against her in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, the most recent of which was filed by Capital One Bank in May.<\/p>\n In August, Buzzard enrolled Melodee in an independent study program at the Lompoc Unified School District. Sheriff\u2019s detectives believe that she had previously been homeschooling the girl for several years, but the California Department of Education has no record of her submitting the required paperwork to do so, according to a department spokesperson.<\/p>\n A strange cross-country road trip Melodee Buzzard was captured on surveillance camera apparently wearing a wig at a car rental location in Lompoc on Oct. 7.<\/p>\n (Santa Barbara County Sheriff)<\/p>\n On Oct. 7, Buzzard and Melodee left their Vandenberg Village home and traveled to Nebraska, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office. During the trip, Buzzard switched out the California license plates (9MNG101) on the car with New York plates (HCG9677). When she returned home Oct. 10, the original plates were reaffixed, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n Melodee and Buzzard were apparently wearing wigs during the journey, and the mother reportedly changed wigs throughout, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n The investigation<\/p>\n On Oct. 14, school administrators reported Melodee\u2019s prolonged absence from her independent study program to the Sheriff\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n Investigators then visited Buzzard\u2019s home, where the mother refused to answer questions about her daughter\u2019s whereabouts, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n On Oct. 30, the FBI joined the case and assisted the Sheriff\u2019s Office in serving search warrants for Buzzard\u2019s home, the rental car and a storage locker.<\/p>\n Detectives then mapped out Buzzard\u2019s road trip route and focused on the return route, from where Melodee was last seen in Utah to Vandenberg Village.<\/p>\n Investigators believe that Buzzard traveled through the following areas on or around Oct. 9: Green River, Utah; Panguitch, Utah; Northwest Arizona; Primm, Nev.; Rancho Cucamonga.<\/p>\n (Santa Barbara County Sheriff)<\/p>\n During October, relatives and concerned community members often gathered around Buzzard\u2019s home, chanting, \u201cWhere is Melodee?\u201d and leaving posters with messages such as \u201cBring her home.\u201d The investigation became a national sensation, with videos produced by true-crime sleuths racking up thousands of views on TikTok<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Buzzard arrested following accusations of false imprisonment<\/p>\n Buzzard was arrested Nov. 7 in an incident unrelated to the investigation into her daughter\u2019s disappearance, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n She was accused of unlawfully violating the personal liberty of Tyler S. Brewer after disclosing sensitive information to him.<\/p>\n Brewer, a paralegal and acquaintance of Buzzard\u2019s, said in a statement that he visited Buzzard at her home to offer assistance in the search for the missing girl, and that the situation quickly escalated.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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