Ashlee Buzzard, Accused of Murdering Daughter Melodee, Appears in Lompoc Court Again

Judge Stephen Dunkle Extends Gag Order That Bars Law Enforcement from Talking About Case for Duration of Trial

Ashlee Buzzard in Lompoc court on January 7, 2026 | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.

Lompoc resident Ashlee Buzzard appeared in court again on Wednesday. The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office has charged Buzzard with the murder of her 9-year-old daughter, Melodee.

On Wednesday, Judge Stephen Dunkle extended the gag order prohibiting law enforcement from speaking about the case to the public for the duration of the trial. Buzzard’s defense requested the gag order on December 24, the day after the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office held a press conference on Buzzard’s arrest. At that press conference, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said that Buzzard had committed a “heinous crime” and had done so calculatingly and in cold blood.

The defense said that law enforcement made claims but, as of January 21, had not provided the defense evidence that corroborated the claims. In a statement to the Independent, Senior Deputy Public Defender Erica Sutherland said she told the court on Wednesday that the defense was missing forensic evidence for the case.

Judge Dunkle ordered that the search warrants and affidavits in Buzzard’s case, including the warrants and affidavits to search her house, her storage locker, her electronic devices and her bank account, be made available to the defense but remain sealed for the public. Earlier this month, the defense submitted a motion to unseal that evidence, saying that the investigative circumstances that justified sealing them were no longer applicable and that unsealing them was necessary for a fair trial. On Tuesday, the prosecution submitted a request to unseal those warrants to the defense but to keep them from the public due to the crime’s seriousness and the media attention surrounding it, as well as the right to a fair trial.

The case garnered national attention as a two-month search for Melodee led up to Buzzard’s arrest. Law enforcement began investigating Melodee’s disappearance on October 14, after a school district administrator reported the child’s prolonged absence from school. On October 18, the Federal Bureau of Investigation became involved in the case.

Through the investigation, law enforcement said it uncovered evidence that Buzzard drove Melodee in a rental car to the Nebraska area and returned through Kansas and Utah. Law enforcement said that Buzzard changed the license plate on the rental car at least once and that she and Melodee appear to have worn wigs while securing the rental car. The last surveillance footage of Melodee, law enforcement said, came from somewhere on the Colorado side of the Colorado-Utah border on October 9.

On December 6, a couple outside of Caineville, a small town in Wayne County, Utah, were taking photos when they found a corpse with a bullet wound to the head. In a December 23 press conference, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said that DNA analysis had confirmed the corpse was Melodee the day before. The Sheriff’s Office said that law enforcement also found a link between the cartridge cases found at the crime scene and those found during a search of Buzzard’s home a few days earlier, on December 17. Police arrested Buzzard on December 23.

Buzzard has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail. She is scheduled to appear in court again for another preliminary hearing setting on February 11 at 8:30 a.m.