Melodee Buzzard’s Mom Pleads Not Guilty to Murder, 2 Months After 9-Year-Old Went Missing

Ashlee Buzzard, the mother of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard, whose October disappearance sparked a weeks-long search spanning several states, pleaded not guilty to her daughter’s murder on Friday, Dec. 26.

According to reports from NBC News, ABC News and NBC Los Angeles, an attorney for Buzzard, 40, of Lompoc, Calif., said she pleaded not guilty and was ordered to be held without bail.

Court documents obtained by ABC claim that Buzzard personally and intentionally discharged a firearm causing death and committed the murder by means of lying in wait.

Buzzard was in court on Friday morning when her attorney entered the not guilty plea, according to NBC LA. Her next hearing was set for Jan. 7.

Lilly Denes, Melodee’s paternal grandmother, told reporters outside the courthouse in Santa Barbara County that she was outraged by the plea.

The outlets reported that the prosecutors are seeking life in prison without parole for Buzzard.

Melodee was last seen on Oct. 9 with her mother at the Colorado-Utah border, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.

The 9-year-old’s body was discovered on the side of a road on Dec. 6 in Wayne County, Utah, by a man and women taking photos, Santa Barbara County Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown said at a press conference on Tuesday, Dec. 23. Ashlee was arrested three weeks later.

The child’s body was decomposed, per the Sheriff’s Office. Authorities said she died from gunshot wounds to the head and had likely been killed in October. They were only able to identify her on Dec. 22, when the FBI notified the Sheriff’s Office that the remains’ DNA matched Melodee’s mother.

“This level of criminal activity is particularly shocking given the calculated, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation and heartlessness that went into planning it and the ruthlessness that went into actually committing the crime,” said Brown.

“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,” he continued.

Brown added that investigators had matched an expended cartridge found in Ashlee’s home with casings found at the crime scene in Utah.

Melodee’s disappearance was first reported on Oct. 14, when a local school told police about her “prolonged” absence.

Police statements said that Ashlee, 40, was allegedly uncooperative with authorities from early on in the investigation. During the investigation, authorities found that she had traveled across several states from California to Nebraska with Melodee, beginning on Oct. 7, and returned home on Oct. 10 without her daughter.

During their travels, authorities have alleged, Ashlee changed Melodee’s appearance with a wig, which may have been used to “alter her appearance.”

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Security camera footage from a California car rental business on Oct. 7 shows Melodee wearing a hoodie, with short, wavy hair, in contrast to her long hair seen in missing persons posters.

During the investigation, Ashlee was arrested on unrelated charges of false imprisonment in November.

The alleged victim in that case told police Ashlee brandished a box cutter and stopped him from leaving her home, having become “visibly distressed after sharing information she appeared to regret disclosing,” KTLA and ABC News reported at the time, citing officials.

Those charges were dropped after an audio recording played in court disputed the man’s claims, showing that Ashlee had opened the door for him to leave, KEYT reported at the time.