Mother of 9-year-old California girl who vanished during road trip is arrested on unrelated charges

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/melodee-buzzard-ashlee-california-
missing-rcna242661

The mother of missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard has been charged with a 
felony in a case unrelated to the California girl's disappearance, 
authorities said Monday.

Ashlee Buzzard, 40, has been charged with felony false imprisonment, Santa 
Barbara County District Attorney John T. Savrnoch announced in a statement 
from his office.

She was accused of holding a person against their will and was taken into 
custody Friday, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said that day.

The chief deputy executive officer of Santa Barbara Superior Court, Angela 
Braun, said arrest documents will remain hidden. "The arrest warrant has 
been ordered sealed and not available for release," she said by email 
Monday.

The sheriff's office also said Friday that additional details about the 
false imprisonment allegation would not be made available.

"Detectives learned of a recent incident where Ashlee prevented a victim 
from leaving a location, against their will which constitutes false 
imprisonment," the sheriff's office said Friday. "This crime is not 
connected to the ongoing search for Melodee, however, detectives are 
unable to fully outline the crime as it would impede their ongoing 
investigation."

The DA’s office on Monday said the felony charge stemmed from an incident 
that happened Thursday in Lompoc, but it did not provide further details. 
The office also reiterated that the incident is unrelated to Melodee's 
disappearance.

Buzzard is listed as being in custody at Santa Barbara County Northern 
Branch Jail with initial bail of $100,000. The DA's office said she's 
scheduled to appear in court in Santa Maria on Wednesday morning.

It wasn’t clear if Buzzard has a lawyer to speak on her behalf. The Santa 
Barbara County Public Defender's Office did not respond when asked if it 
was involved. Attempts to reach Buzzard through a relative on Monday were 
unsuccessful.

Authorities have previously said that Buzzard has not cooperated with 
investigators searching for Melodee.

Sheriff's officials previously said Melodee was seen on a security camera 
at a car rental business on Oct. 7, at the start of what they said was a 
road trip to Nebraska. She appears to have been wearing a wig at the time, 
according to the sheriff’s office.

On Thursday, the sheriff's office released some of the security video from 
the car rental location that day as it continued to ask the public for 
help, including for witness accounts, video, or photos of Melodee amid her 
travels Oct. 9 in Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California.

The girl was last seen on surveillance video on Oct. 9 in an area between 
the Colorado-Utah border, according to the sheriff’s office.

During the road trip, the rental car’s license plate was switched with a 
New York plate in an apparent effort to avoid detection, the sheriff’s 
office has said.

Buzzard returned to her home in Lompoc, on California’s Central Coast, on 
Oct. 10, driving the same white Chevrolet Malibu she rented three days 
before, the sheriff’s office said.

Melodee was not with her at the time, authorities said.

Sheriff's investigators began searching for the girl after a school 
administrator reported her prolonged absence on Oct. 14.

Melodee’s half sister told NBC affiliate KSBY of San Luis Obispo that 
their father died when Melodee was a baby. She was rarely seen, even among 
family, said the sibling, Corrina Meza.


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
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/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.