Ashlee Buzzard, the Vandenberg Village woman accused of murdering her 9-year-old daughter, Melodee, did not appear for her scheduled preliminary hearing setting on Wednesday morning in Lompoc. Wednesday marks the second preliminary hearing setting that Buzzard has missed, with the first occurring on February 11; both times, she filed a refusal to go to court due to illness.
Jordan Lockey, the prosecution’s lead attorney, requested that Judge Stephen Dunkle, the presiding judge, make an extraction order, which would require Buzzard to appear in court. Lockey said she found it hard to believe that illness is “an earnest representation of what’s actually going on.”
Buzzard’s public defender, Erica Sutherland, said that Buzzard had ongoing medical needs and asked Judge Dunkle not to order her extraction.
Ultimately, Judge Dunkle rescheduled the hearing to March 18. He said that should Buzzard fail to appear in court for a third time, he would issue the extraction order.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office arrested Buzzard on December 22, 2025. The following day, the Sheriff’s Office held a press conference where they said the arrest came after law enforcement received DNA evidence that a corpse found outside of Caineville, Utah, was a familial match to Buzzard.
The investigation into Melodee’s disappearance, which involved both the Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, began two months prior, on October 14, 2025. Law enforcement said that Buzzard and Melodee left Lompoc on a road trip to the Nebraska area in a rental car on October 7. The last surveillance footage of Melodee was gathered near the Colorado-Utah border on October 9. At the December 23 press conference, law enforcement said they believed Melodee died that day or shortly after. Buzzard did not cooperate throughout the investigation, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Buzzard was arraigned on December 26 and pleaded not guilty. At her arraignment, Judge John McGregor ordered a protective gag order on law enforcement, preventing them from speaking about the case to the public.
Judge Dunkle extended that gag order when Buzzard appeared in court on January 21. Additionally, Judge Dunkle ordered that the search warrants and affidavits in Buzzard’s case be made available to the defense, after the defense said they had not received the evidence corroborating the Sheriff Office’s claims At the end of that hearing, a spectator from the courtroom shouted expletives near the defense table. On February 11, Judge Dunkle granted the defense’s motion to admonish spectators that did not stay quiet during court proceedings.
By law, Buzzard’s preliminary hearing must start by April 30. Public Defender Sutherland said the defense was still waiting for some of the evidence relevant to Buzzard’s case.
