A 9-year-old girl with a winning smile and brown curls was not seen as her mother took her on a mysterious trip from Southern California to Nebraska and returned home alone.
A month after the disappearance of Melodele Buzzloe, her relatives still want answers. But the one person who might know what’s going on isn’t talking.
Melodee’s mother, Ashlee Buzzard, has refused to cooperate with investigators since Oct. 14, when the principal reported an extended absence from the independent study program, according to the Honta Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
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The mother is believed to have traveled nearly 3,000 kilometers on the four-day road trip and responded with incredible detail – including changing license plates and putting her daughter in a wig.
On Friday, Buzzzz was arrested on felony charges unrelated to the ongoing search for his daughter, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Buzzard did not respond to requests for comment.
“I have a hard time sleeping,” said Paternal grandmother Lilly in denial. “My child is missing. I don’t know what to tell you. It’s been very difficult for all of us.”
In the corner of his living room, he turns to support a shrine to his lost grandson.
There is a photo of Melodee as a newborn baby with her next father, her son Rubiell “Pinoy” Meza. There is a picture of Melodee smiling at her grandmother as a small child. And there’s a big black “bring her” poster “who gave up on the latest idea of a missing girl.
Photos of missing california melodee melodee melodee buzzard and her late father, Rubiel Meza, are on display at Lilly Denies Home in Orcutt, Calif.
(Carlin Stiehl / for the times)
The whole house is already decorated with ceramic pumpkins and strips of orange and gold leaves. As a mother of six with many grandchildren and great grandchildren, the release comes every holiday.
“When you don’t have one grandchild, and we get together for Thanksgiving or Christmas, it’s not the same,” she said, wiping away tears with a tissue.
He always hopes that she will be found safely, and tries to ignore the online trolls and Internet criminals who want the girl to be dead already.
The Sheriff’s Office, in cooperation with the FBI, determined that Ashlee Buzzard and Melodee left their Vandenberg home in a white 2024 Chevrolet Malibu on Oct. 7 and drove to Nebraska and Kansas. The Buzzard returned home on Oct. 10, authorities said.
Oct. 7 Surveillance footage from a car rental business shows 9-year-old Melodee wearing a wig that investigators believe may have been used to disguise her appearance.
(Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office)
Both Melodee and the buzzard apparently wore wigs during the trip and the mother reportedly changed wigs throughout, according to the sheriff’s office.
“This alteration is believed to have been intended to avoid detection while traveling,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Investigators also suspect that Buzzard may have tried to avoid detection by replacing the California license plate (9MNG01) on the car he rented with a New York Plate (HCG9677). When he returned the car on Oct. 10 The original plates were reassembled, according to the Sheriff’s office.
“I just hope to God that he doesn’t do something to the child,” he said. “Why did they change the license plates? What is the reason for doing all this?”
Melodee was last seen on Oct. 9 Surveillance camera surveillance in Colorado near the Utah border, according to Raquel Zick, Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.
“We narrowed our search focus from October 9 to October 10 in that area on the Colorado-Utah border all the way back to Longoc,” Zick said.
Investigators believe the Chevrolet Malibu was driven to the following locations on or around Oct. 9: Green River, Utah; Panguitch, Utah; Northwest Arizona; Primm, NEV.; Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
(Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office)
Investigators are now asking anyone who may have seen Melodee since Oct. 9 – possibly with stops at Green River or Panguitch, Utah; Northwest Arizona; Primm, NEV.; or rancho Cucamonga, Calif. – Liaison with the Sheriff’s office.
“While we’re looking for where Melodee was on the 9th and 10th, what’s most important — and what we’re really looking for — is where Melodee is now,” Zick said. “
Sheriff’s and FBI investigators served a search warrant at Buzzard’s Vandenberg Village Home, Rental Car and Storage Locker on Oct. 30.
The situation took another bizarre turn on Friday when the buzzard was arrested after preventing the victim from leaving the area, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities stressed that the incident was not connected to the search for Melodee, but said they could not comment on what happened because it would interfere with their ongoing investigation.
Aside from pixelated surveillance camera footage, the Sheriff’s Office’s highest-quality footage is a Melodee photo taken two years ago.
The girl’s relatives said that the buzzard refused to allow them to see the melody from 2021 – something that weighed heavily on the wing’s heart.
A “Bring Her Home” sign was posted outside the home of Ashlee Buzzard, the mother of missing girl Melodene Buzz Buzz, on Thursday in Vandenberg Village, Calif.
(Carlin Stiehl / for the times)
Melodee was born on February 10, 2016, she said. Six months later, the girl’s father was killed in a motorcycle accident.
For the next few years, Buzzard and Melodee lived near family in Santa Maria, where Buzzard worked as a special education chair at a local school, according to the department.
Dope said that in 2021 one of his sons took care of a moment of oral while Buzzz. At this time he denies that he started the process of adopting Melodee out of concern for her mental health and ability to care for the girl.
But before the legal proceedings, BuzzzArd was released from the hospital, he took the melody from the school on the left Santa Maria, said Des.
He denies Buzzard legally changed Melodee’s last name to match his own and decides to contact the girl’s father’s family.
Grandma has little clue of what Melodee’s life has looked like since then, but she tells BuzzzzArd from time to time to get money later.
Federal Court records show that Buzzard filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2017. He had five collections and some minor charges of illegal debt in the Santa Barbara County Roughter Count, records show. These include charges filed against Capital One Bank in May and December and the management of crown property in November 2024.
Investigators say they believe the buzzard has been ringing at the home for several years, according to the Sheriff’s Office. However, the California Department of Education has no record of filing a private school affidavit, which is a requirement for housing, according to department spokesman Scott Rook.
According to a statement from the LoMPoc Unified School District, Melodee and her mother visited Palloy Independent Study School to begin her enrollment in August. But Melodee failed to choose assignments, which made the school reach her mother, and, finally, the law in force.
Anyone with information about Melodee’s disappearance is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office at (805) 681-4150. Tips can also be left anonymously at (805) 681-4171 or at SBSERERIFF.ORG.
