Ashlee Buzzard has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of her 9-year-old daughter, Melodee.
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office filed the felony charge against Buzzard, 40, on Wednesday, along with enhancements of “personally and intentionally discharging a firearm causing death and committing the murder by means of lying in wait.”
Buzzard was arrested at her Vandenberg Village home on Tuesday, a day after Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said DNA analysis proved a female body discovered on Dec. 6 in Wayne County, Utah, was a familial match to Ashlee.
She is set to be arraigned in a Santa Maria courtroom on Friday morning.
Sheriff Brown called the killing “ruthless and heartless,” adding it was “calculated, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation.”
He said Melodee died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head. It’s believed she was killed on Oct. 9 during a multi-day road trip she took with her mother as far east as Nebraska.
Authorities say during the trip, Ashlee and Melodee wore wigs and 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.
The search for Melodee began on Oct. 14 when school administrators in Lompoc notified authorities of the girl’s prolonged absence.
From the start, the sheriff’s office stated Ashlee was uncooperative with the investigation, providing no information as to her daughter’s whereabouts.
Sheriff Brown says cartridge cases found at the crime scene in Utah were positively linked to an expended cartridge case that was found at Ashlee's Mars Avenue home during one of the searches and also "a live round of similar ammunition" located inside her rental car.
Ashlee appeared to show no emotion when escorted out of her home by detectives following her arrest on Wednesday morning.
Sheriff Brown says Ashlee has continued to be uncooperative, adding her demeanor has not changed during the course of the investigation.
Flowers, candles and a balloon now sit outside the family’s home where a new front door has also been installed.
Neighbors say detectives forced their way into the home Wednesday to make the arrest after Ashlee would not answer the door. Sheriff Brown says they have yet to recover the murder weapon, described in the criminal complaint as a 9mm firearm, and says a motive for the killing has not been determined.
Ashlee is currently being held without bail at the Northern Branch Jail in Santa Maria.
