Ashlee Buzzard was arraigned Friday on a charge of first-degree murder with special allegation after the body of her 9-year-old daughter, Melodee, was found in a rural area of Utah more than two months after she went missing.
An attorney for Buzzard, 40, of Lompoc, California, said she pleaded not guilty. She was ordered to be held without bail.
The prosecution said it is seeking life in prison without parole.
Lilly Denes, Melodee’s paternal grandmother, told reporters outside the courthouse in Santa Barbara County, California, that she was outraged by Buzzard’s not-guilty plea.
A man and woman discovered Melodee’s body on Dec. 6 while taking pictures in Wayne County, Utah, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at a Tuesday news conference. He said it was clear that she “died from gunshot wounds to the head.”
Brown said an FBI analysis of DNA confirmed the body was Melodee’s.
“Maternal filicide is rare and always difficult to comprehend,” Brown said. “This level of criminal activity is particularly shocking given the calculated, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation and heartlessness that went into planning it.”
He said investigators have uncovered a “significant amount of evidence” that indicates Buzzard killed her daughter.
Detectives searched Buzzard’s home, a rental car and a rented storage locker and found an expended cartridge case and a live round of similar ammunition, officials said. The murder weapon has not yet been located, officials said.
The sheriff’s office previously said that Buzzard had been uncooperative during the search for Melodee, who was seen on security video on Oct. 7 wearing a wig at a car rental business where Buzzard picked up a Chevrolet Malibu.
Detectives said they believed Buzzard tried to alter her daughter’s appearance with the wig and was known to wear them herself.
The pair took a three-day road trip from Lompoc to the Nebraska area, with the return trip including the state of Kansas, the sheriff’s office said.
Melodee was last seen on the return leg of the trip on Oct. 9, near the Utah-Colorado border, officials said. She wasn’t with Buzzard when she returned home on Oct. 10, the sheriff’s office said.
