The search for nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard intensified this week as investigators revealed a chilling detail: her mother deliberately swapped the license plates on their rental car during a cross-country road trip. The alteration, police believe, was a calculated attempt to evade detection, deepening the mystery surrounding Melodee’s disappearance.
Melodee was last definitively seen on October 9th, 2025, captured on video surveillance somewhere along the border between Colorado and Utah. Her mother, 35-year-old Ashlee Buzzard, has offered no cooperation, refusing to confirm her daughter’s location or well-being, adding to the growing concern for Melodee’s safety.
The journey began on October 7th, 2025, with a white 2024 Chevrolet Malibu initially registered in California with plate 9MNG101. Detectives have traced the vehicle as far as Nebraska and back, through Kansas, but the trail quickly became obscured by a deliberate act of deception.
By October 8th, the Malibu was observed sporting New York license plates – HCG9677. This plate, investigators confirmed, doesn’t belong to the vehicle or to Ashlee Buzzard, solidifying the belief that it was a false plate intentionally used to throw off pursuers. Remarkably, the original California plate was back on the car when it was returned to the rental agency.
The rental car’s path, as pieced together from fragmented sightings, included stops in Utah towns like Green River and Panguitch, as well as stretches through northwest Arizona, Primm, Nevada, and Rancho Cucamonga, California, around October 9th. Each location represents a potential lead, a possible witness.
Authorities are now urgently seeking anyone who may have encountered Ashlee or Melodee between October 9th and 10th, 2025, or who possesses any video footage from along their route. Even seemingly insignificant details could prove crucial in locating the missing girl.
Adding another layer of complexity, surveillance images from the Lompoc rental car location on October 7th show both Ashlee and Melodee wearing wigs. Melodee’s wig was a stark contrast to her natural hair – darker and straighter – suggesting a deliberate attempt to alter their appearances.
The investigation began on October 14th, triggered by a school administrator reporting Melodee’s prolonged absence. A visit to the Buzzard home revealed Melodee was not present, and Ashlee offered no credible explanation for her daughter’s whereabouts, immediately raising red flags.
Melodee is described as approximately 4 feet, 6 inches tall, weighing around 60 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. The FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office is actively assisting the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office in this increasingly urgent search, recognizing the gravity of the situation.
