Ashlee Buzzard was arraigned Friday on a cost of first-degree homicide with particular allegation after the physique of her 9-year-old daughter, Melodee, was present in a rural space of Utah greater than two months after she went lacking.
An legal professional for Buzzard, 40, of Lompoc, California, mentioned she pleaded not responsible. She was ordered to be held with out bail.
The prosecution mentioned it’s searching for life in jail with out parole.
Lilly Denes, Melodee’s paternal grandmother, advised reporters outdoors the courthouse in Santa Barbara County, California, that she was outraged by Buzzard’s not-guilty plea.
A person and girl found Melodee’s physique on Dec. 6 whereas taking footage in Wayne County, Utah, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Invoice Brown mentioned at a Tuesday information convention. He mentioned it was clear that she “died from gunshot wounds to the top.”
Brown mentioned an FBI evaluation of DNA confirmed the physique was Melodee’s.
“Maternal filicide is uncommon and all the time troublesome to understand,” Brown mentioned. “This degree of legal exercise is especially surprising given the calculated, cold-blooded and criminally refined premeditation and heartlessness that went into planning it.”
He mentioned investigators have uncovered a “important quantity of proof” that signifies Buzzard killed her daughter.
Detectives searched Buzzard’s house, a rental automotive and a rented storage locker and located an expended cartridge case and a reside spherical of comparable ammunition, officers mentioned. The homicide weapon has not but been situated, officers mentioned.
The sheriff’s workplace beforehand mentioned that Buzzard had been uncooperative throughout the seek for Melodee, who was seen on safety video on Oct. 7 carrying a wig at a automotive rental enterprise the place Buzzard picked up a Chevrolet Malibu.
Detectives mentioned they believed Buzzard tried to change her daughter’s look with the wig and was recognized to put on them herself.
The pair took a three-day street journey from Lompoc to the Nebraska space, with the return journey together with the state of Kansas, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.
Melodee was final seen on the return leg of the journey on Oct. 9, close to the Utah-Colorado border, officers mentioned. She wasn’t with Buzzard when she returned house on Oct. 10, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.
[/gpt3]
