In a chilling twist, the mother of nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard now sits behind bars after investigators made a heartbreaking discovery months into the desperate search: her child’s remains have been identified.
The shocking arrest of Ashlee Buzzard, a resident of Lompoc, California, follows conclusive DNA evidence linking human remains found in rural Utah last December to the missing schoolgirl, ABC News dropped Tuesday.
The grim find was located in a remote Utah area that Melodee and her mother had reportedly passed through during a mysterious multi-state adventure. Law enforcement in Santa Barbara County has kept its lips sealed on specifics, promising to spill more details at a highly anticipated press conference slated for Monday afternoon.
Melodee’s unexplained vanishing act first triggered alarms on October 14 when local educators noticed she hadn’t shown up to Lompoc Unified School District for days. Deputies racing to her family’s doorstep encountered Ashlee Buzzard, but walked away unsatisfied—no credible story about Melodee’s whereabouts was offered. Authorities allege Ashlee stonewalled their probe from the outset.
As the calendar flipped to November, investigators zeroed in on a crucial 48-hour window: October 9 to 10. That’s when mother and daughter set off on what has now become an infamous road trip—stretching from California and winding through Utah, Arizona, and Nevada on a supposed jaunt to Nebraska.
Detectives later released a breadcrumb trail: a map charting Buzzard’s suspected route as she crossed Green River and Panguitch, Utah, then into northwest Arizona, past Primm, Nevada, and all the way back to Rancho Cucamonga, California. Surveillance footage captured just days before the disappearance shows Melodee—strikingly, possibly in disguise wearing a wig—accompanying her mother at a Lompoc car rental on October 7. The last confirmed glimpse of Melodee took place on October 9, near the Colorado-Utah line.
Cops allege Ashlee Buzzard attempted to cover her tracks, swapping out the original California license plate 9MNG101 on their white 2024 Chevrolet Malibu for a New York tag, HCG9677, just before or on October 8—presumably to dodge detection. By the time the car was returned, the California plate had reappeared. Authorities remain unclear on exactly when the plate switch happened or if more plates were swapped out during the trip.
When Ashlee made her way back to California on October 10, Melodee, heartbreakingly, was no longer with her—and hasn’t been seen alive since.
