Authorities release photo of child in disguise as hunt enters second week.
A newly released photo may hold a crucial clue in the desperate search for 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard, missing from Santa Barbara County for more than two weeks.
Investigators say surveillance footage shows the child in disguise… her hood pulled tight and a dark wig covering her hair… at a Lompoc car rental business on October 7, days before her disappearance.
Detectives believe Melodee’s mother, 35-year-old Ashlee Buzzard, took her on a multi-state road trip from California to Nebraska and Kansas between October 7 and October 10 in a rented white Chevrolet Malibu.
The FBI and Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office are now urgently piecing together where Melodee may have been during that critical timeline.
Authorities say Ashlee has refused to cooperate with investigators and has not given any information on her daughter’s whereabouts. Officials also noted that both mother and daughter may have used wigs to hide their identities.
Sheriff Bill Brown urged the public to help bring the girl home: “We remain determined to find Melodee and reunite her with her loved ones.”
Melodee is considered at-risk due to her age and length of absence. Anyone with information is urged to contact law enforcement immediately.
