Preliminary Hearing Set for Ashlee Buzzard in Daughter’s Murder Case
The Sept. 16 full-day hearing will let a judge weigh prosecutors’ multi-state travel and ballistic evidence to decide whether the charges move toward trial.
Overview
- A Santa Barbara County judge and attorneys agreed to a full-day preliminary hearing on Sept. 16, 2026 to determine if there is enough evidence to hold Ashlee Buzzard for trial.
- Buzzard has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and related special allegations that include discharge of a firearm causing death and murder by lying in wait.
- Prosecutors allege Buzzard took a multi-day road trip with her 9-year-old daughter and then killed her, and investigators say the child was reported missing after school officials raised concerns in October and her body was found in rural Wayne County, Utah in December.
- Law enforcement officials say ballistic testing linked cartridge cases at the Utah scene to an expended case found at Buzzard’s home and that a similar live round was found in a rental car; Buzzard was arrested Dec. 23 and has been held without bail.
- Defense attorney Erica Sutherland plans to file an Americans with Disabilities Act accommodation request for Buzzard that the court is expected to consider at a July procedural hearing before the September preliminary hearing.