A Vandenberg Village mother charged with murdering her 9-year-old daughter last year was absent from her latest court hearing.
In a Lompoc courtroom Wednesday morning, it was stated Ashlee Buzzard, 40, had filed a refusal to appear due to being sick.
It’s the second time hearings in her case have been held without her being present. She was also absent from her hearing last month for the same reason.
Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Stephen Dunkle told the court that if Buzzard does not show for her March 18 preliminary hearing setting, an “extraction order” will be issued, which would give authorities permission to remove Buzzard from jail to attend court.
In court, Buzzard’s public defender also stated she is still waiting on additional evidence from the Department of Justice.
With time for a preliminary hearing waived through April, any additional time waiver cannot be approved without Buzzard present.
She has been in custody at the Santa Barbara County Northern Branch Jail in Santa Maria since her Dec. 23 arrest. Along with first-degree murder, Buzzard is also charged with a special circumstance of lying in wait and a special allegation of discharge of a firearm causing death. The body of her daughter, Melodee, was found in a rural area of Wayne County, Utah, in early December.
Authorities say Melodee was shot in the head multiple times and that it’s believed the killing happened while the mother and daughter took a three-day road trip last October that spanned as far east as Nebraska.
During the search for Melodee, which began in mid-October and spanned multiple states, investigators said both mother and daughter wore wigs and that Ashlee also swapped out the license plate on her rental car at least once before returning home to Lompoc on Oct. 10 without her daughter.
Authorities say Buzzard and Melodee were seen at a Lompoc rental car business on Oct. 7 before taking a multi-state road trip.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown called the killing “ruthless and heartless,” adding it was “calculated, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation.”
He also said that Buzzard remained uncooperative with the investigation even after her arrest, and would not provide information to authorities during the ongoing search for Melodee as to where her daughter could be.
The defense later requested that a gag order be placed on the sheriff’s office for the remainder of the criminal proceedings against Buzzard. The judge later approved the order that prohibits authorities from releasing additional details about the investigation to the public.
Buzzard has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.
Her belongings have also been removed from her now former Mars Avenue rental.
