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 dwelling alone.
A month after Melodee Buzzard vanished, her relations 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 impartial examine program, in keeping with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Workplace.
-
Share through
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 prices unrelated to the continued seek for her daughter, in keeping with the sheriff’s workplace. Buzzard has not responded to The Instances’ 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 inform you. It has been very onerous for all of us.”
Within the nook of her lounge, 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 big black “convey her again” poster that Denes dropped at a latest prayer vigil for the lacking lady.
Images of lacking California lady Melodee Buzzard and her late father, Rubiell Meza, are displayed in Lilly Denes’ dwelling in Orcutt, Calif.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Instances)
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.
“Once 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 can 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 dwelling in a rented white 2024 Chevrolet Malibu on Oct. 7 and drove to Nebraska and Kansas. Buzzard returned dwelling solo on Oct. 10, authorities stated.
Oct. 7 surveillance photos from a automotive rental enterprise present 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard carrying a wig that investigators consider might have been used to change her look.
(Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Workplace)
Each Melodee and Buzzard had been apparently carrying wigs throughout the journey and the mom reportedly modified wigs all through, in keeping with the sheriff’s workplace.
“This alteration 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 keeping with the sheriff’s workplace.
“I simply hope to God that she doesn’t do one thing to the newborn,” Denes stated. “Why did she change the license plates? What’s the purpose she is doing all this?”
Melodee was final seen on an Oct. 9 surveillance digicam recording in Colorado close to the Utah border, in keeping with Raquel Zick, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s workplace.
“We’ve honed down our investigative focus to October 9 via October 10 from that location on the Colorado-Utah border all the best way again to Lompoc,” Zick stated.
Investigators consider the Chevrolet Malibu traveled via the next areas on or round Oct. 9: Inexperienced River, Utah; Panguitch, Utah; northwest Arizona; Primm, Nev.; Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
(Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Workplace)
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 searching for the place Melodee was on the ninth and tenth, what’s most essential — and what we’re actually searching for — is the place Melodee is now,” Zick stated.
Sheriff’s detectives and the FBI served search warrants at Buzzard’s Vandenberg Village dwelling, the rental automotive and a storage locker on Oct. 30.
The state of affairs took one other weird activate Friday when Buzzard was taken into custody after she allegedly prevented a sufferer from leaving a location, in keeping with the sheriff’s workplace.
Officers emphasised that the incident just isn’t related to the seek for Melodee, however stated they might not elaborate on what occurred as a result of it may impede their ongoing investigation.
Except for pixelated surveillance digicam photographs, the newest high-quality picture the sheriff’s workplace has of Melodee is a portrait taken two years in the past.
The lady’s paternal relations stated Buzzard has refused to allow them to see Melodee since 2021 — one thing that weighs heavy on Denes’ coronary heart.
An indication saying “Deliver her dwelling” is posted exterior the house of Ashlee Buzzard, the mom of lacking lady Melodee Buzzard, on Thursday in Vandenberg Village, Calif.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Instances)
Melodee was born on Feb. 10, 2016, Denes stated. Six months later, the lady’s father was killed in a motorbike accident.
For the following few years Buzzard and Melodee lived close to household in Santa Maria, the place Buzzard labored as a particular schooling aide at an area college, in keeping with Denes.
Denes stated that in 2021 one other of her sons briefly 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 take care of 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 minimize off bodily contact with the lady’s father’s household.
The grandmother has little clue what Melodee’s life has seemed like since then, however stated Buzzard had often requested her for cash over time.
Federal court docket data 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 Courtroom, data present. This contains instances filed towards her by Capital One Financial institution in Might and December and by Crown Asset Administration in November 2024.
Investigators say they consider Buzzard homeschooled Melodee for a number of years, in keeping with the sheriff’s workplace. Nevertheless, the California Division of Training has no file of Buzzard submitting a non-public college affidavit, which is a requirement for homeschooling, in keeping with division spokesperson Scott Roark.
In accordance with a press release 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 select up assignments, prompting the varsity to succeed in out to her mom, and, finally, legislation enforcement.
Anybody with info on Melodee’s disappearance is requested to contact the sheriff’s workplace at (805) 681-4150. Ideas will also be left anonymously at (805) 681-4171 or at SBSheriff.org.
