Contained in the investigation into Melodee Buzzard's disappearance

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A 9-year-old lady with a profitable smile and bouncy brown curls has not been seen since her mom took her on a mysterious street journey from Southern California to Nebraska and returned house alone.

A month after Melodee Buzzard vanished, her family members stay determined for solutions. However one one that might know what occurred isn’t speaking.

Melodee’s mom, Ashlee Buzzard, has refused to cooperate with investigators since Oct. 14, when a faculty administrator reported the lady’s extended absence from an unbiased research program, in accordance with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Workplace.

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The mom is believed to have traveled round 3,000 miles throughout a four-day street journey replete with weird particulars — together with switching license plates and placing her daughter in a wig.

On Friday, Buzzard was arrested on false imprisonment expenses unrelated to the continued seek for her daughter, in accordance with the sheriff’s workplace. Buzzard has not responded to The Occasions’ requests for remark.

“I’m having a tough time sleeping,” stated Melodee’s paternal grandmother Lilly Denes. “My child is lacking. I don’t know what to let you know. It has been very exhausting for all of us.”

Within the nook of her front room, Denes has arrange a shrine to her lacking granddaughter.

There’s a framed photograph of Melodee as a new child along with her late father, Denes’ son Rubiell “Pinoy” Meza. There’s a photograph of Melodee smiling at her grandma as a toddler. And there’s the massive black “deliver her again” poster that Denes dropped at a current prayer vigil for the lacking lady.

The remainder of the house is already decked out for Thanksgiving with ceramic pumpkins and strings of orange and gold ornamental foliage. As a mom of six with many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Denes goes all out for the vacations.

“While you don’t have one grandkid, and we get collectively for Thanksgiving or Christmas, it’s not the identical,” she stated, wiping away tears with a tissue.

She stays hopeful Melodee might be discovered safely, and tries to disregard the net trolls and web crime sleuths who declare the lady is already lifeless.

The Sheriff’s Workplace, in partnership with the FBI, has decided that Ashlee Buzzard and Melodee left their Vandenberg Village house in a rented white 2024 Chevrolet Malibu on Oct. 7 and drove to Nebraska and Kansas. Buzzard returned house solo on Oct. 10, authorities stated.

Surveillance image of a girl wearing a hoodie.

Each Melodee and Buzzard had been apparently sporting wigs throughout the journey and the mom reportedly modified wigs all through, in accordance with the sheriff’s workplace.

“This transformation in look is believed to have been intentional to keep away from recognition throughout journey,” the sheriff’s workplace stated in a information launch.

Investigators additionally suspect Buzzard might have tried to keep away from detection by changing the California license plate (9MNG101) on the automotive she rented with a New York plate (HCG9677). When she returned the automotive on Oct. 10 the unique plates had been re-affixed, in accordance with the sheriff’s workplace.

“I simply hope to God that she doesn’t do one thing to the infant,” Denes stated. “Why did she change the license plates? What’s the motive she is doing all this?”

Melodee was final seen on an Oct. 9 surveillance digicam recording in Colorado close to the Utah border, in accordance with Raquel Zick, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s workplace.

“We’ve honed down our investigative focus to October 9 by October 10 from that location on the Colorado-Utah border all the best way again to Lompoc,” Zick stated.

Investigators are actually asking anybody who might have seen Melodee since Oct. 9 — probably at stops in Inexperienced River or Panguitch, Utah; northwest Arizona; Primm, Nev.; or Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. — to contact the sheriff’s workplace.

“Whereas we’re on the lookout for the place Melodee was on the ninth and tenth, what’s most essential — and what we’re actually on the lookout for — is the place Melodee is now,” Zick stated.

Sheriff’s detectives and the FBI served search warrants at Buzzard’s Vandenberg Village house, the rental automotive and a storage locker on Oct. 30.

The scenario took one other weird activate Friday when Buzzard was taken into custody after she allegedly prevented a sufferer from leaving a location, in accordance with the sheriff’s workplace.

Officers emphasised that the incident is just not linked to the seek for Melodee, however stated they might not elaborate on what occurred as a result of it may impede their ongoing investigation.

Other than pixelated surveillance digicam photographs, the latest high-quality picture the sheriff’s workplace has of Melodee is a portrait taken two years in the past.

The lady’s paternal family members stated Buzzard has refused to allow them to see Melodee since 2021 — one thing that weighs heavy on Denes’ coronary heart.

A sign saying "Bring her home" is posted outside a house in Vandenberg Village, Calif.

Melodee was born on Feb. 10, 2016, Denes stated. Six months later, the lady’s father was killed in a bike accident.

For the subsequent few years Buzzard and Melodee lived close to household in Santa Maria, the place Buzzard labored as a particular schooling aide at a neighborhood college, in accordance with Denes.

Denes stated that in 2021 one other of her sons quickly took care of Melodee whereas Buzzard was hospitalized for a number of weeks. Throughout this time Denes stated she initiated the method to undertake Melodee due to considerations she had over Buzzard’s psychological well being and skill to look after the lady.

However earlier than authorized proceedings started, Buzzard was discharged from the hospital, picked up Melodee from college and left Santa Maria, Denes stated.

Denes stated Buzzard legally modified Melodee’s final title to match her personal and reduce off bodily contact with the lady’s father’s household.

The grandmother has little clue what Melodee’s life has regarded like since then, however stated Buzzard had often requested her for cash through the years.

Federal courtroom information present that Buzzard filed for Chapter 7 chapter in 2017. She’s additionally had 5 collections and one small claims lawsuit for alleged unpaid money owed filed towards her in Santa Barbara County Superior Court docket, information present. This consists of circumstances filed towards her by Capital One Financial institution in Could and December and by Crown Asset Administration in November 2024.

Investigators say they imagine Buzzard homeschooled Melodee for a number of years, in accordance with the sheriff’s workplace. Nevertheless, the California Division of Schooling has no report of Buzzard submitting a personal college affidavit, which is a requirement for homeschooling, in accordance with division spokesperson Scott Roark.

In line with an announcement from the Lompoc Unified Faculty District, Melodee and her mom visited Mission Valley Unbiased Research Faculty to provoke her registration in August. However Melodee failed to choose up assignments, prompting the college to achieve out to her mom, and, in the end, legislation enforcement.

Anybody with data on Melodee’s disappearance is requested to contact the sheriff’s workplace at (805) 681-4150. Suggestions can be left anonymously at (805) 681-4171 or at SBSheriff.org.

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