Updated March 8, 2025
With Ashlee Buzzard twice claiming illness as an excuse for missing her scheduled preliminary hearing on charges of murdering her nine-year-old daughter Melodee, a baffling question remains unanswered: What would possess a mother to commit such a heinous crime against her own offspring?
Even when Ashlee does face a preliminary hearing, her attorney will assert her right to remain silent, and the state’s evidence against will probably focus on what she did, not why she did it. But perhaps clues can be found in Ashlee’s background of homelessness, domestic violence, and antisocial behavior.
Ashlee’s next preliminary hearing date is March 18th. Judge Stephen Dunkle said that if Ashlee fails to appear in court for a third time, he will issue an extraction order, forcing her to come to court. Meanwhile, Ashlee is being held without bail.
Abusive father
Ashlee’s parents, Richard Lee Buzzard, Jr. and Lori Jean Miranda, were both aged 22 when they wed in 1984. It was not a blessed union.
In 1985, when Ashlee was born, the family lived in a suburban home in Huntington Beach. Richard worked at Acro-Trace Corporation, a machine shop.
But Richard started abusing drugs and, by the end of 1988, the family was shattered and Lori was on welfare.
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Three-year-old Ashlee was exposed to terrifying domestic violence. “He would follow us everywhere,” Lori later told a newspaper reporter. “He would smash our windows and harass us.”
Harrowing escape
To get away from Richard’s abuse, Lori and Ashlee fled Orange County. At one point they stayed at a relative’s house in Grover Beach, a small city on the coast of Central California.
Then mother and daughter moved 20 miles south to Santa Maria, where they sought refuge at the Good Samaritan homeless shelter.
“I was scared,” Ashlee told a reporter in 1995, when asked about her experiences in being homeless. “I knew no one. I felt very uncomfortable.”
Called a “success story”
In Santa Maria, Lori worked to rebuild her life. She got her GED and began vocational training.
Lori enrolled Ashlee at Miller Elementary School, and the preteen began taking lessons at a dance studio.
In 1995, the Santa Maria Times profiled Ashlee and her mom as a homelessness success story. Lori told a reporter that Ashlee was “very responsible” and said she was getting “excellent grades.”
More domestic violence
But the problems faced by Ashlee and her mother weren’t over.
1997, at Lori’s request, a judge in Santa Barbara County issued a domestic violence restraining order against Richard.
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A few months later, Richard was charged with disorderly conduct related to drug and alcohol abuse. He died soon after.
At some point after Richard’s death a rift formed between Ashlee and her mother, evidenced by the fact that in March 2002, at age 16, Ashlee unsuccessfully filed a petition for emancipation.
Even so, Ashlee continued going to school and graduated in the Santa Maria HS Class of 2003.
“Is she okay?”
A high point in Ashlee’s life came when she met Rubiell Meza, an affable trucker and volunteer firefighter nine years her senior.
Rubiell, nicknamed “Pinoy” for his mixed Filipino heritage, came from a close-knit family. Yet from the moment the family met Ashlee, they had concerns about her mental health.
Rubiell’s mother Lily Denes told me: “When my son brought her to the house the first time, I asked, ‘Is she okay?’ She kept staring at me, following me with her eyes.”
Rubiell dead at age 30
The family rejoiced when Ashlee gave birth to Melodee Elani Meza on February 10, 2016.
Melodee proved to be a cheerful baby who was adored by everyone in the family, especially her dad.
But when Melodee was six months old, tragedy struck. Rubiell died in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash.
Suddenly, Ashlee went from having a stable, employed father-figure to help support her child to being a single mother.
“She’s disturbed”
Following Rubiell’s death, Ashlee kept Melodee isolated from the family. Said Lily Denes: “She took Melodee away from us.”
Ashlee’s mother Lori Miranda filed a lawsuit against Ashlee in 2017, seeking guardianship over Melodee. But Ashlee was able to retain custody.
In 2019, Ashlee obtained a court order changing Melodee’s last name from Meza to Buzzard.
Financial strain
Ashlee worked part time as a special education assistant, but her earnings were low.
Even before Rubiell died, Ashlee ran up credit card charges – buying nonessentials like bracelets and rings. Multiple creditors filed lawsuits against her.
Ashlee also committed a series of traffic violations – speeding, making an illegal turn, running a stop sign, and driving with a cell phone in her hand.
“She’s disturbed,” Denes said about Ashlee. “She only called when she needed money.”
A body by the road
None of these unfortunate circumstances provide a rationale for what happened next, but perhaps they provide context.
In October 2025, Ashlee rented a car and took a frenetic road trip across the West, covering thousands of miles in only a few days.
Along the way, authorities allege, on State Route 24 in the canyonlands of Utah, came Ashlee’s meltdown into madness.
Ashlee, they say, shot Melodee in the head and left the child’s lifeless body in the brush beside the road.
