Body of Missing 9-Year-Old Melodee Buzzard Found After 2-Month Search

The body of a missing 9-year-old girl Melodee Buzzard was found missing two months after he went missing in Southern California, a police source confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday, December 23.

The source said that Melodee’s body was found in early December, although other details about its discovery have not yet been disclosed.

After her body was found, Melodee’s mother, Ashley Buzzardhe was reportedly taken into custody, according to a video shared by NBC News affiliate KSBY. Neighbors of this family said they saw Ashlee being taken by deputies from her home in the morning of December 23. However, it is not yet clear why she was detained.

The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office has not yet confirmed that Melodee’s body has been found, although they did share that they have an update on the case at X post. “The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office has made significant progress in the missing person investigation of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard. Members of the media are invited to a press conference: Tuesday, December 23, 2025, at 2:00 p.m.,” the post read.

Melodee’s disappearance in October left many people in her community in Vandenberg Village feeling uneasy, and the case has drawn national attention.

Officials previously said Ashlee, 40, had been “uncooperative and had not provided detectives with any information about Melodee’s location or condition” during the investigation into Melodee’s disappearance, according to NBC News.

In October, the Lompoc Unified School District said in a statement that Ashlee brought Melodee to an independent study program in August to enroll her as a student. However, he did not show up in early October, and the district eventually notified law enforcement about his absence.

During the investigation, authorities looked into a road trip the mother and daughter took from Southern California to Nebraska that took place between October 7 and October 10.

The sheriff’s office said another surveillance video taken on Oct. 7 shows Melodee wearing a wig at a rental car business, where the two got into a Chevrolet Malibu. Detectives speculated that she was wearing a wig to throw off attempts to track or find her, noting that Ashlee was known to sport wigs.

At one point during the trip, the rental car’s license plate was temporarily changed to a New York plate in an alleged attempt to avoid detection.

Melodee was last seen on the return leg on October 9 when she and Ashlee were near the Utah-Colorado border. The little girl was not with her mother when she returned a rental car or returned home on Oct. 10, detectives previously confirmed.

Ashlee was previously arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment on November 7 in another case unrelated to Melodee’s disappearance. A man testified that Ashlee held him against his will at his home and threatened to cut the boxes, according to KSBY of San Luis Obispo. The case was eventually dismissed on November 20, with prosecutors citing conflicting information and insufficient evidence.