The case of missing nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard has taken a troubling turn as allegations surface against her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, suggesting she left Melodee with strangers she encountered at a zoo. This unsettling detail comes from Tyler Brewer, an acquaintance of Ashlee, who spoke with NewsNation about the situation.

According to Brewer, Ashlee left her daughter with a couple she had just met while visiting Utah. The bizarre circumstances surrounding Melodee’s disappearance have drawn significant attention, especially after Brewer reported a harrowing incident involving Ashlee.

Brewer claims that Ashlee, aged 40, held him captive inside her home using a boxcutter. This incident reportedly occurred shortly after Ashlee revealed information linked to Melodee’s disappearance. However, the legal system has seen some shifts in Ashlee’s case.

On November 6, Ashlee Buzzard faced arrest on a felony charge of false imprisonment. Yet, this charge was dropped merely two weeks later during a court proceeding, leaving many questions unanswered.

The gravity of the situation is compounded by the fact that Melodee had been living with her mother, who failed to report her missing. It was only after school officials noted Melodee’s continuous absences and reported her missing on October 14 that the case came to light.

Despite the growing concerns, Ashlee Buzzard remains uncooperative with the investigation, offering no clarity on her daughter’s current whereabouts or well-being. The search for Melodee continues, with many hoping for a safe resolution to this distressing case.

Brewer visited Buzzard several times at her home in Lompoc, where he questioned her about Melodee.

He wasn’t able to confirm if the information Buzzard gave him was true because he said she began to fake cry when he asked if her daughter was trafficked or killed.

Melodee Buzzard, 9, was barely seen since she stopped going to school a year ago, and is now a missing person

Her mother Ashlee refused to cooperate or even tell investigators anything about her daughter’s disappearance, so they have no idea where she is or if she is safe 

‘I don’t want to believe that she could have hurt Melodee at all, because I think that she does love Melodee in her own way, but the fact that she won’t give me a clear yes or no answer makes me extremely uncomfortable,’ Brewer said to the outlet.

He went on to say that Buzzard was instructed by individuals she didn’t really know, but who had a daughter of a similar age to Melodee.

‘In efforts to drop Melodee off with them, apparently at some location in Utah. She had said it was a couple she met at the zoo,’ he told the outlet.

Brewer said the mother told her she wanted her daughter to play with the unknown couple’s child.

He continued to reinforce the fact that Buzzard didn’t know these people’s names, their address, phone numbers, or location.

Brewer added that Buzzard was scheduled for a minor surgery, but she felt that it was something that Melodee needed to be away from for at least a month or two.

Buzzard allegedly told Brewer she believed her house was bugged and would limit what information she could share.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office detectives said Melodee was with her mother as recently as October 7 and may have been driven all the way to Nebraska

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office detectives said Melodee was with her mother as recently as October 7 and may have been driven all the way to Nebraska 

However, he claimed the long trip was due to the drop-off location changing with the unidentified couple.

‘They kept changing it because this couple or individual was paranoid of the government and being followed and spied on,’ he said. ‘They wanted to make sure that if Ashlee were being tracked, it would be harder for them to be tracked, changing all these different locations.’

He mentioned that he was only relying on what Buzzard said to him and noted that it sounded ‘crazy’.

Lilly Denes, Buzzard’s grandmother, was in the process of adopting the Melodee when Buzzard ‘took her away from us’ after being released from the mental hospital in 2021, she told Fox News Digital.

‘That lady is mentally ill bad,’ she told the outlet.

Denes said she had been ‘so happy’ when social services had called her to take in Melodee, as she had gotten a weird feeling about Buzzard from the first time they met.

‘When I met her, my son brought her to the house. She looked so quiet and she was following me with her eyes back and forth,’ she told the outlet.

Police earlier searched their home (pictured) on Mars Avenue in Lompoc, about 60 miles north of Santa Barbara, but didn’t find Melodee 

‘I told my son: “Son, is this girl okay? She doesn’t look like she’s normal. Something’s wrong with this lady.”‘

Since Buzzard took her daughter back, Denes said she had not seen the girl and that she believed it was a deliberate move by Buzzard as she wanted to ‘cut off’ the girl ‘from the entire world.’

‘I know that maybe somebody out there in the world knows where my baby is. Somebody has to know,’ Denes begged.

The only confirmed sighting of Melodee since her last school was in August, but police on Monday said they discovered the unexplained road trip.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office detectives said Melodee was with her mother as recently as October 7 and may have been driven all the way to Nebraska.

They were spotted making several stops in a rented white Chevrolet Malibu along the way, before Buzzard returned to Santa Barbara and gave the car back.

‘Ashlee Buzzard remains uncooperative and has not provided detectives with any information about Melodee’s current location or condition,’ police said.

‘The primary goal of this investigation is to verify the location and welfare of Melodee Buzzard and ensure that she is safe.’

The Daily Mail uncovered an eerie Google Maps image last week of Melodee staring into the street while standing on her doorstep in May 2023

Sheriff’s investigators released information on the possible route the mother and daughter took from their Lompoc home and traveled more than 1,500 miles away to Nebraska in a rented white Chevy Malibu.

Detectives believe the pair then started their trip back the next day, but the Malibu was spotted with a New York license plate, which authorities said did not belong to the rental or to Buzzard.

Investigators now believe the Malibu traveled through various small towns on October 9, including Green River, Utah; Panguitch, Utah; northwest Arizona; Primm, Nevada and Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Lizabeth Meza, Melodee’s aunt, previously told the Daily Mail that Buzzard had lost custody of Melodee in the past because of mental health woes and allegedly admitted psychological issues run in her family.

Buzzard at one point in time declared bankruptcy after amassing debts totaling $23,000.

‘There were so many hurdles, just so much going on within the family,’ Meza said in tears.

‘And it just saddens me that there was so much going on at that time that we weren’t able to keep in contact with Melodee, and nobody had a relationship with her.

‘The system failed her by giving her back to a mother time and time again when she was unstable. There is just so many emotions that go through my mind when I think of that little girl.’

Officials describe Melodee as four feet to four feet, six inches tall, 60 to 100 pounds, with brown curly hair and brown eyes.