Tuesday marks three weeks since Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s detectives began investigating the disappearance of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard of Vandenberg Village.
KSBY News reporter Crystal Bermudez sat down with Melodee’s maternal grandmother, Lori Miranda.
“I was totally numb and in shock,” Miranda said, reacting to the most recent photo of Melodee and her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, released by authorities. “This is just so shocking to me that my granddaughter is dressed in a disguise… This is just so overwhelming. It’s just so really scary.”
Sheriff’s officials say the image was captured at a rental car business in Lompoc on October 7, just before the two headed out on a multi-state road trip. It’s one of several surveillance photos released by the sheriff’s office as detectives piece together the family’s route and timeline.
“We know that Melodee was still with Ashlee on that return trip as close as the Colorado-Utah border on the Colorado side on October 9, so this does very much shorten our timeline, our search timeline, as well as the area of search,” said Raquel Zick, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.
Zick says an out-of-state license plate was added to the rental car at some point during the trip.
“We originally were looking for a Chevy Malibu with California plates. Now we’re looking for a Chevy Malibu with California or New York plates or possibly something else,” she said.
Zick adds that investigators have reached out to law enforcement in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Southern California to help locate Melodee.
Meanwhile, Miranda believes her daughter and granddaughter may have crossed paths with people she and Ashlee’s father once knew in those states.
“When you start getting past Utah, coming back, that’s when you’re running into his friends,” Miranda said.
Lompoc school officials reported Melodee missing in mid-October.
Authorities say Ashlee has been uncooperative with investigators and has not provided any information on her daughter’s whereabouts.
Last week, the FBI executed a search warrant at Ashlee’s home as part of ongoing evidence gathering.
Miranda believes Ashlee knows where Melodee is and is pleading for her to speak up.
“You need to tell them where the baby is,” Miranda said, crying. “You need to tell them who’s setting all these things up for you. I know you’re not doing it.”
Anyone with information about Melodee’s whereabouts is urged to call the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office at (805) 681-4150 or (805) 681-4171 to leave an anonymous tip.
