Newly released photos show 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard right before she vanished
Authorities on Friday released new surveillance images of missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard, taken just before she mysteriously vanished.
These surveillance images of Melodee were captured at a Santa Barbara-area rental car business on Oct. 7, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.
"In the photo, Melodee is wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and what appears to be a wig that is darker and straighter than her natural hair," the sheriff's office said. "Investigators believe the wig may have been used to alter her appearance."
Melodee's mom, Ashlee Buzzard, who authorities said has not cooperated with the missing persons investigation, is known to wear wigs, the sheriff's office said.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office said Friday it's narrowed down the window of Melodee's "perplexing" disappearance to between Oct. 7 and Oct. 10.
Ashlee Buzzard was seen returning to her Lompoc, California, home on Oct. 10 with the car she and Melodee had rented on Oct. 7 -- but Melodee was not with her on Oct. 10, the sheriff's office said.
The mother and daughter went on a "three-day road trip ... from Lompoc to the Nebraska area, with the return trip including the state of Kansas," the sheriff's office said in a new statement. "Detectives are now focused on determining where Melodee was during those three days and where she may be now."
"We remain determined to bring her home safely," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.
The sheriff's office asks anyone with information to call its detectives line at (805) 681-4150 or the anonymous tip line at (805) 681-4171.
