Mother of Nine-Year-Old Who Disappeared on a Four-Day Road Trip Arrested on Unrelated Charges
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Melodee Buzzard, 9, of Lompoc, California, was last seen with her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, 40, in early October 2025.
The pair were on a road trip together at the time.
Melodee is described as 4'6" in height and around 60lbs in weight, with brown hair and eyes.
She was officially reported missing on October 14, 2025, by Lompoc school administrators after they realized she had not logged into her remote studying program, triggering a welfare check performed by police.
The Lompoc Unified School District would go on to inform police that they had not seen her since August 2025.
Police made their way to the Buzzard residence on the 500-block of Mars Avenue in Lompoc, where they found the missing child’s mother but no sign of Melodee.
When questioned, Ashlee Buzzard could not provide investigators with any verifiable information pertaining to the child’s whereabouts.
Investigators believe that the road trip was from Lompoc to the Nebraska area, with the return portion of the trip possibly including the state of Kansas.
The road trip started around October 7, 2025, and surveillance images captured Melodee and her mother at a car rental agency together, renting a vehicle.
Melodee was wearing leggings and a gray hoodie with the hood pulled up over what appeared to be a wig that was both straighter and darker in color than her natural hair.
They rented a Chevrolet Malibu with California plates.
The next, and final, sighting of Melodee captured on surveillance footage was two days later on October 9, near the Colorado–Utah border.
Investigators say both the mother and child were wearing wigs in the images.
The following day, on October 10, 2025, Ashlee Buzzard drove back to her residence in Lompoc alone. Melodee was nowhere to be found.
The plates were reportedly switched on October 8, and on October 9, the vehicle reportedly passed through Green River, Utah; Panguitch, Utah; Northwest Arizona; Primm, Nevada; and Rancho Cucamonga, California, with the New York license plate HCG9677.
The missing person’s report was called in by the school, days later.
Melodee's father passed away when she was just six months old after getting into a motorcycle crash. Since then, she has been in the custody of her mother.
Family and relatives said they have fallen out of contact with the child over the last few years, with Melodee’s aunt, Lizabeth Meza, stating she has not seen the girl in four years.
Further investigation, including interviews with family members, revealed that before Melodee’s disappearance, her mother had been allegedly trying to “cut her off from the world.”
Melodee's paternal grandmother, Lily Denes, has told media outlets that she was in the process of adopting Melodee before she went missing.
Denes claims Ashlee Buzzard was released from a mental health facility in 2021 and had lost a lot of weight and began wearing wigs—including the curly wig she was captured wearing in the surveillance images while on the road trip.
Denes said that Ashlee Buzzard unexpectedly picked Melodee up from school one day in 2021 and “took her away.”
She told Fox News: “We were so happy when social services called us and told us that they were gonna place the baby with us. You know, we were so happy.”
Adding: “That lady is mentally ill bad.”
She added that she believed Ashlee may have been unwell since the first day they were introduced by her son.
On November 7, 2025, Ashlee Buzzard was arrested on charges unrelated to Melodee's disappearance. The unrelated incident reportedly involved holding an individual against their will, which resulted in her arrest on a warrant for a felony charge of false imprisonment.
On November 12, 2025, ABC News reported that the victim was purportedly a legal document assistant, process server, mandated reporter, and perceived officer of the court named Tyler Brewer.
According to the outlet, Brewer extended the offer of help to Ashlee Buzzard after Melodee was officially reported missing by her school.
He claimed while he was at the Buzzard residence on November 6, he found himself being prevented from leaving the home, held back with a box-cutter, after Ashlee Buzzard allegedly shared some “information she regretted disclosing.”
Brewer said: “A box cutter was produced, and despite multiple requests to be allowed to exit the home, I was not immediately permitted to leave.”
He also reported that there were several locks on the door.
Ashlee Buzzard was released with a GPS monitor and has entered a guilty plea. She is expected back in court on November 19.
Both the FBI and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office are now working on the missing girls case.
Anyone with information is asked to directly contact:
Detectives Line: (805) 681-4150
Anonymous Tip Line: (805) 681-4171
Online Tips: Anonymous Tip – Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office