How a backroad discovery led to the arrest of Melodee Buzzard’s mother in the child’s ‘calculated’ killing

As the December sun set over central Utah’s sandstone peaks, a couple ventured down a nondescript dirt road to snap photos against the backdrop of a red rock vista. Instead, they stumbled across a grisly discovery among smattered shrubs and parched soil: the decomposed remains of a little girl.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived in the sparsely populated stretch of Caineville, it was clear they would be investigating a homicide. The unidentifiable girl had died from gunshot wounds to her head, authorities later said.