LOS ANGELES — Missing California girl Melodee Buzzard, 9, was found dead in a rural part of Utah's Wayne County from multiple gunshot wounds to the head, authorities said. Her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder.

Cartridge cases found at the Utah crime scene in December were linked to a cartridge case that was found at Buzzard's Vandenberg Village home during a search on Oct. 30, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at a Tuesday news conference.

"This level of criminal activity is particularly shocking given the calculated, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation and heartlessness that went into planning it," Brown said. "We have recovered a significant amount of evidence that clearly indicates that this heinous crime was committed by Ashlee Buzzard, Melodee's mother."

Melodee vanished during an unusual road trip with her mother this year, sparking a months-long investigation.

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's Office.

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.

On Dec. 6, a couple found a deceased 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.

"The detective called me this morning to let me know that they found the baby and the baby is with her dad," Melodee's paternal grandmother, Lilly Denes, told The Times on Tuesday. "I knew he was telling me that the baby is dead."

Melodee's father, Rubiell "Pinoy" Meza, died in a motorcycle accident in 2016.

The girl's disappearance 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's tragic announcement.

Ashlee Buzzard's 'hard knock' childhood

When Ashlee Buzzard was just 9 years old — the same age as Melodee when she went missing — she and her mother, Lori Miranda, became homeless after fleeing Buzzard's abusive father, Miranda told the Santa Maria Times in 1995.

The article, titled "Lessons From the School of Hard Knocks," 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.

They had previously moved from place to place to get away from Miranda's 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.

"I was so scared," Ashlee told the paper, describing her early days in Santa Maria. "I knew no one (here). I felt very uncomfortable."

According to Melodee's paternal relatives, Buzzard had a contentious relationship with her mother.

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.

A birth and a sudden death

Melodee was born Feb. 10, 2016, to Buzzard and Meza. Six months later, Meza died.

In Melodee's early years, Meza's family continued to have a relationship with the girl, according to Denes. She was a lovable child, always smiling and well-behaved, Denes said.

In 2021, another of Denes' sons took care of Melodee while Buzzard was hospitalized for several weeks, she said.

During this period, Denes said, she was working with social services to gain custody of Melodee as she was concerned about Buzzard's 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.

After that, Buzzard relocated to the nearby neighborhood of Vandenberg Village and refused to let the girl's paternal relatives see her. She did, however, occasionally visit Denes to ask for money over the years, Denes said.

Federal court records show that Buzzard filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2017. She's 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.

In August, Buzzard enrolled Melodee in an independent study program at the Lompoc Unified School District. Sheriff's 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.

A strange cross-country road trip

On Oct. 7, Buzzard and Melodee left their Vandenberg Village home and traveled to Nebraska, according to the Sheriff's 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's Office.

Melodee and Buzzard were apparently wearing wigs during the journey, and the mother reportedly changed wigs throughout, according to the Sheriff's Office.

The investigation

On Oct. 14, school administrators reported Melodee's prolonged absence from her independent study program to the Sheriff's Office.

Investigators then visited Buzzard's home, where the mother refused to answer questions about her daughter's whereabouts, according to the Sheriff's Office.

On Oct. 30, the FBI joined the case and assisted the Sheriff's Office in serving search warrants for Buzzard's home, the rental car and a storage locker.

Detectives then mapped out Buzzard's road trip route and focused on the return route, from where Melodee was last seen in Utah to Vandenberg Village.

During October, relatives and concerned community members often gathered around Buzzard's home, chanting, "Where is Melodee?" and leaving posters with messages such as "Bring her home." The investigation became a national sensation, with videos produced by true-crime sleuths racking up thousands of views on TikTok and Instagram.

Buzzard arrested following accusations of false imprisonment

Buzzard was arrested Nov. 7 in an incident unrelated to the investigation into her daughter's disappearance, according to the Sheriff's Office.

She was accused of unlawfully violating the personal liberty of Tyler S. Brewer after disclosing sensitive information to him.

Brewer, a paralegal and acquaintance of Buzzard's, 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.

But at a hearing in November, a Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge dismissed the case after new evidence came to light that called his version of events into question.

"After the initial report to law enforcement and the filing of the complaint, further investigation yielded additional evidence that was contradictory to the information that was initially provided to detectives," said Amber Frost, a spokesperson for the Santa Barbara district attorney's office.

"That evidence was brought out at the hearing and inconsistencies were examined by both sides. Ultimately, it was determined that the evidence was not sufficient to move this case forward to trial," Frost said.

A body found and an arrest made

A decomposing body with multiple gunshot wounds to the head was found by a couple in rural Utah on Dec. 6. Examination of cartridge cases found at the scene were linked to a cartridge case that was previously found at Buzzard's residence.

On Monday, DNA testing confirmed a linked between the corpse and Buzzard, leading authorities to arrest the mother at her Vandenberg Village home Tuesday and book her on suspicion of first-degree murder.

"We were hoping against hope that she (Melodee) would be safely found," Brown said. "This outcome is deeply tragic, and on behalf of the entire Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, I want to extend our deepest condolences to those who knew and loved Melodee."

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(Times staff writer Terry Castleman contributed to this report.)

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