Authorities seek public’s help in search for missing 9-year-old girl

Law enforcement authorities are asking people and businesses in Primm to look for surveillance footage that could help in the search for missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard.

Sheriff’s detectives in Santa Barbara County, California, believe that a white Chevrolet Malibu driven by Melodee’s mother, 40-year-old Ashlee Buzzard, may have stopped in Primm on Oct. 9 on a return trip to her home in Lompoc, California.

They are asking gas stations, hotels, and other businesses and people in Primm with surveillance systems to check for footage of the car.

Frenetic road trip

A series of news posts by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office offer chilling details about the circumstances surrounding Melodee’s disappearance.

Public Affairs Officer Raquel Zick confirmed on Friday that these posts are the latest available information about the troubling case, which has attracted nationwide attention.

According to the most recent post, issued on Nov. 6, Ashlee Buzzard returned home without Melodee after a frenetic road trip that began on Oct. 7 when the mother, wearing a wig, rented the Malibu in Lompoc.

Surveillance footage from the car rental agency revealed that Melodee, who was also wearing a wig and had a hoodie pulled over her head, accompanied her mother.

The mother and daughter then embarked on a journey covering thousands of miles and crossing through parts of Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

“Ashlee swapped wigs throughout the trip, changing to a darker wig that is similar in color and style to the one Melodee was seen wearing,” said the Nov. 6 post. “This change in appearance is believed to have been intentional to avoid recognition during travel.”

The post also reported that for part of the journey, the Malibu displayed its original California license plate (9MNG101). But beginning on Oct. 8, the Malibu was seen with a New York license plate (HCG9677) that “does not belong to the vehicle or Ashlee and is believed to have been used as a false or switched plate to avoid detection.”

According to the post, sheriff’s detectives “believe Ashlee and Melodee traveled as far as Nebraska, with a return route that included Kansas.”

Melodee was last spotted on Oct. 9 on video surveillance “in the region between the Colorado–Utah border.”

Later that same day, the Malibu reached Primm, as shown on a route map of the trip released by the Sheriff’s Office. Primm is a Nevada town at the California border, about 40 miles south of Las Vegas.

On Thursday, Las Vegas police said they had not been asked to assist in the case.

According to Santa Barbara County detectives, Ashlee Buzzard arrived in Lompoc on Oct. 10 without Melodee and returned the Malibu, bearing the original California license plate, to the car rental agency.

Four days later, local school district officials, concerned about Melodee’s prolonged absence, alerted the Sheriff’s Office.

Mother not cooperating

A search of the suburban home where Ashlee Buzzard lives with Melodee turned up no sign of the missing child.

Since returning without her daughter, “Ashlee has continued to refuse cooperation and has not confirmed Melodee’s location or welfare,” said the Nov. 6 post.

“Hopefully they can get her to talk,” Melodee’s paternal grandmother, Lilly Denes, said in a phone interview. “It’s just killing me.”

Melodee’s father died in a motorcycle accident in 2016. According to Denes, since then Ashlee Buzzard has been keeping Melodee away from the father’s family.

“We were trying to get custody of her,” Denes said. “The last time I saw her was four years ago.”

The grandmother lives in Orcutt, California, an unincorporated town in Santa Barbara County.

Melodee is 4 feet 6 inches tall, weighs about 60 pounds, and has brown eyes and brown hair.

Anyone with information about the missing child may call sheriff’s detectives at 805-681-4150 or an anonymous tip line at 805-681-4171.

Doug Kari is a freelance journalist and attorney in Henderson.