Home / Crime and Justice / Desperate Search Continues for Missing 9-Year-Old Melodee Buzzard
Desperate Search Continues for Missing 9-Year-Old Melodee Buzzard
15 Nov
Summary
- 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard missing since October road trip with mother
- Mother accused of holding man captive, switching rental car's license plates
- Grandmother says she was in process of adopting Melodee before mother took her away
The desperate search for 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard continues as authorities work to locate the missing girl. Melodee disappeared last month during a road trip with her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, who police allege held a man captive and switched license plates on a rental car.
Melodee's paternal grandmother, Lilly Denes, reveals that she was in the process of adopting the child when Ashlee "took her away" shortly after being released from a mental hospital in 2021. Denes says she was thrilled when social services contacted her to take in Melodee, but Ashlee later picked the girl up from school and cut her off from the entire family.
Investigators believe Ashlee left California with Melodee on October 7th, traveling as far as Nebraska in a Chevrolet Malibu with a California license plate. However, the car was later seen with a New York plate, which authorities believe was used to "avoid detection" during the return trip through Kansas. Detectives think the Malibu traveled through several states, including Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, around October 9th, and that's when Ashlee was no longer with Melodee.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office has opened an investigation into Melodee's whereabouts and is receiving assistance from the FBI to locate the missing and "at-risk" 9-year-old.
