(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) — Weeks into the “perplexing” search for missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard, California authorities said they’ve served follow-up search warrants at her mom’s home, a storage locker and the rental car Melodee was last seen in.
Local detectives and FBI agents served the warrants on Thursday. Because they expected to need access to the home of Melodee’s mom, Ashlee Buzzard, for “an extended time, detectives escorted Ashlee to an alternate location that would not interfere with their ability to conduct a thorough search,” the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said.
Ashlee Buzzard has not cooperated with the investigation, according to authorities.
Melodee is still considered an at-risk missing person and no arrests have been made, the sheriff’s office said Thursday.
Last week, the sheriff’s office said it had narrowed down the window of Melodee’s disappearance to between Oct. 7 and Oct. 10.
Surveillance images of Melodee — in which she appears to be wearing a wig — were captured at a Santa Barbara-area rental car business on Oct. 7, authorities said.
The mother and daughter then went on a three-day road trip from Lompoc, California, to the Nebraska area, the sheriff’s office said.
The return trip went through Kansas, and then Ashlee Buzzard came home to Lompoc on Oct. 10 with the car she and Melodee had rented on Oct. 7 — but Melodee was not with her, the sheriff’s office said.
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