A Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge in Santa Maria denied a pair of defense motions seeking to toss evidence found during the execution of search warrants at the home of Ashlee Buzzard, the mother of a missing 9-year-old Vandenberg Village girl found dead in Utah.

The Wednesday afternoon hearing occurred before Judge Denise Hippach because she had signed the warrant authorizing Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office detectives to search the Mars Avenue home in October as they tried to locate Melodee Buzzard’s whereabouts.

After months of searches, Melodee’s remains were found in rural Utah in December and authorities said she had been shot.

Sheriff’s deputies tried to locate Melodee after being notified the girl was not enrolled in a Lompoc Unified School District campus or a home-school program with educators checking across California to see if the 9-year-old was enrolled elsewhere, according to information revealed in court Wednesday.

Defense attorney Erica Sutherland had filed a motion to quash contending that the search of the Buzzards’ home on Mars Avenue in Vandenberg Village exceeded the scope of the warrant since detectives collected items not in plain view. 

She contended that the warrant came just 24 hours into the search for the missing girl, arguing that the fact the girl hadn’t talked to family or neighbors did not indicate anything sinister happened.

“The fact law enforcement did not seize boxes and boxes of items does not make this warrant valid,” Sutherland said. 

Since the case involved a missing 9-year-old girl, 24 hours shouldn’t be considered a short time, Senior Deputy District Attorney Jordan Lockey said. 

“Nine-year-olds just don’t disappear and end up somewhere good,” Lockey said in noting the urgency investigators felt in trying to locate the girl. 

Buzzard wouldn’t tell deputies the girl’s location, claiming the mother gave the girl away to someone else.

The tidy home also was deemed suspicious as it lacked limited signs that a child lived there. 

“It’s the people’s position the warrant itself is not deficient,” Lockey said. 

Buzzard isolated the girl from family, and neighbors weren’t sure a child lived at the home. 

Lockey also contended that the search warrant wasn’t too broad. 

“This wasn’t a general rummaging,” she said of the detectives’ search. 

The warrant led to the seizure of several items of evidence, including a shell casing and a key fob.

While ruling to deny the motion, Judge Hippach noted that the last known sighting of Melodee occurred in February 2024. 

The judge rejected the defense characterization of the warrant’s assurance as too quick and that detectives lacked probable cause to justify it.

“The court disagrees. I can assure everybody it was not done in haste,” Hippach said, adding that she takes great care to read affidavits and determined that the totality of the circumstances proved probable cause.

After educators could not locate the girl enrolled anywhere in the state, Child Welfare Services employees checked the home. Investigators did not find a toothbrush, toothpaste or toiletries for a child while noting spider webs in the bedroom window. 

Hippach added that the issue wasn’t that investigators deemed the home tidy. 

“The issue is a child’s room that didn’t appear lived in for a long time,” she said. 

Additionally, Buzzard did not provide any signs that the mother gave legal custody of the girl to anyone else, the judge added.

In the motion to traverse, the defense argued that the investigator’s affidavit justifying the warrant has errors and false statements, leading Sutherland to ask for an evidentiary hearing.

In denying the motion, the judge echoed her earlier ruling and noted that the defense has a high burden of proof, not a low threshold, before mandating an evidentiary hearing. 

The case against Buzzard is scheduled to return to Lompoc on Thursday afternoon, when Judge Stephen Dunkle is expected to further consider a defense motion to compel the prosecuting attorney to provide evidence.