The remains of young Melodee Buzzard, who vanished under mysterious circumstances nearly three months ago, have been discovered.
Footage taken by a neighbor captured the moment Melodee’s mother, Ashlee Buzzard, aged 40, was led away in handcuffs from her residence in Lompoc by deputies from the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department at approximately 7:40 a.m. on Tuesday.
Ashlee, sporting short blonde hair, was dressed in jeans, a white t-shirt, and black heeled boots as she was escorted to the police vehicle.
Though the connection between her arrest and her nine-year-old daughter’s disappearance in October remains uncertain, the neighbor who recorded the video stated that law enforcement forced entry into her home after she failed to respond to their presence.
The Sheriff’s office is scheduled to provide an update at 5 p.m. EST to disclose more information about this significant development in the case.
Melodee was officially reported missing by a school official on October 14, although surveillance footage last captured her with her mother on October 9.
Family members say that haven’t seen Melodee for over a year and expressed major concerns over her mother’s mental health.
Her mother Ashlee has 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.
Melodee Buzzard, 9, was barely seen since she stopped going to school a year ago. Her body has now been found
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
‘Ashlee Buzzard remains uncooperative and has not provided detectives with any information about Melodee’s current location or condition,’ police said in October.
‘The primary goal of this investigation is to verify the location and welfare of Melodee Buzzard and ensure that she is safe.’
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, wearing wigs, in a rented white Chevrolet Malibu along the way, before Buzzard returned to Santa Barbara and gave the car back.
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.
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.
Sheriff’s investigators said the mother and daughter traveled more than 1,500 miles away to Nebraska on October 7
Ashlee Buzzard is seen leaving her Lompoc, CA home and getting picked up by a friend who then drives her to Santa Maria where she tries two different locations to rent a vehicle
The Daily Mail uncovered an eerie Google Maps image of Melodee staring into the street while standing on her doorstep in May 2023
Police searched their home (pictured) on Mars Avenue in Lompoc, about 60 miles north of Santa Barbara, but didn’t find Melodee
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.’
Melodee’s grandmother, Lilly Denes, also claimed the child’s mentally ill mother wanted to ‘cut’ her off from the ‘entire world.’
Denes was in the process of adopting the nine-year-old when Ashlee ‘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.
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
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 Ashlee 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.
‘I told my son: “Son, is this girl okay? She doesn’t look like she’s normal. Something’s wrong with this lady.”‘
Since Ashlee took her daughter back, Denes said she had not seen the girl and that she believed it was a deliberate move by Ashlee as she wanted to ‘cut off’ the girl ‘from the entire world.’
This is a breaking news story.
