sudden road trip to Nebraska<\/a> on Oct. 7 and then returning home alone, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office. During the trip, Buzzard switched license plates on her rental car and wore wigs in what investigators described as possible attempts to avoid detection. <\/p>\nMelodee was last confirmed seen on surveillance camera near the Utah-Colorado border on Oct. 9, according the the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762892651_254_\")
<\/p>\n
Investigators are sharing surveillance images of Melodee Buzzard that were captured at a rental car location in Lompoc on Oct. 7.<\/p>\n
(Santa Barbara County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n
Buzzard was arrested Thursday on false imprisonment charges unrelated to the investigation into Melodee\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n
Brewer said in a statement that he came to visit Buzzard at her Vandenberg Village home to offer assistance in the search for the missing girl, and that the situation quickly escalated.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs. Buzzard became visibly distressed after sharing information she appeared to regret disclosing,\u201d said Brewer. \u201cA box cutter was produced, and despite multiple requests to be allowed to exit the home, I was not immediately permitted to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that Buzzard used several locks to secure the door and that this temporarily prevented him from leaving.<\/p>\n
Brewer, who works as a paralegal in the Central Coast area, said that he is a mandated reporter and contacted the authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that capacity, I immediately reported all concerning communication and inconsistencies directly to law enforcement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also told NewsNation\u2019s \u201cBanfield\u201d that Buzzard had told him where and with whom she dropped Melodee off, although he is not sure whether this information is true. He told the program he has known Buzzard since 2014 and has been coming to check on her since news of her daughter\u2019s disappearance became public, noting that she has been acting extremely paranoid and he is worried for her well-being. <\/p>\n
Melodee\u2019s paternal family said that Buzzard has not permitted them to contact the girl since 2021 and that they are extremely concerned for her. Melodee\u2019s father, Rubiell \u201cPinoy\u201d Meza, was killed in a motorcycle accident shortly after the girl was born in 2016.<\/p>\n
The girl\u2019s paternal grandmother, Lilly Denes, said she had initiated the process to try and gain custody of Melodee several years ago due to concerns over Buzzard\u2019s well-being and ability to care for her. Denes still lovingly refers to Melodee as her baby, despite the fact that the girl has grown considerably since she saw her last.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s such a cute girl and I\u2019m just dying to see her,\u201d said Denes. \u201cI just know that she\u2019s going to need a lot of therapy, a lot of help when they get the baby.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mother of a missing Southern California girl \u2014 who authorities say has refused to answer questions about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7493,6577,2136,7,9,8,9342,27117,9514,1776,348,1555,10021,10022,2612,346,2637,2429],"class_list":["post-48569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ashlee-buzzard","tag-authority","tag-brewer","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-daughter","tag-false-imprisonment","tag-girl","tag-information","tag-investigation","tag-man","tag-melodee","tag-melodee-buzzard","tag-oct","tag-office","tag-sheriff","tag-thursday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}