Ashley Buzzard was arraigned Friday on a charge of first-degree murder with special charges The body of their 9-year-old daughter, Melody, 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 has pleaded not guilty. He was ordered to be detained without bail.
Prosecutors said they were seeking life in prison without parole.
Melody’s grandmother Lily Danes told reporters outside court that she was angry at Buzzard’s not guilty plea.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at a news conference Tuesday that a man and woman found Melody’s body while taking photos in Wayne County, Utah, on Dec. 6. He said it was clear that he “died from a gunshot wound to the head.”
Brown said that FBI analysis of DNA confirmed that the body was Melody’s.
“Maternal infanticide is rare and always difficult to understand,” Brown said. “This level of criminal activity is particularly shocking because it was planned with deliberate, cold-blooded and criminally sophisticated premeditation and heartlessness.”
He said investigators uncovered a “significant amount of evidence” that indicated Buzzard murdered his daughter.
Detectives searched Buzzard’s home, a rental car and a rental storage locker and found a spent cartridge case and a live round of the same ammunition, authorities said. Officials said the murder weapon has not yet been located.
The Sheriff’s Office previously said Buzzard was uncooperative during a search of Melody, who was seen on security video on October 7 wearing a wig at a car rental business where Buzzard had purchased a Chevrolet Malibu.
Detectives said they believed Buzzard had tried to alter her daughter’s appearance with wigs and was known to wear them herself.
The sheriff’s office said the pair took a three-day road trip from Lompoc to the Nebraska area, which also included the state of Kansas.
Melody was last seen on the return leg of the journey on October 9 near the Utah-Colorado border, officials said. The sheriff’s office said she was not with Buzzard when she returned home on Oct. 10.
