The body of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard was found out of state more than two months after she went missing in Southern California, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told NBC News on Tuesday.
Melodee's body was found earlier this month, according to the source.
Her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, was taken back into custody, according to video shared with NBC News affiliate KSBY. The neighbors said they saw her being taken by deputies from her home in Vandenberg Village early Tuesday morning. It is not immediately clear why Buzzard was taken into custody.
The Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News. In a post on its X account, the sheriff’s office said it would share "major developments" in the case at a press conference scheduled for this afternoon.
Ashlee Buzzard, 40, has been uncooperative during the search and investigation into Melodee's disappearance, sheriff's officials have said.
Lompoc Unified School District said in a statement in October that Buzzard brought Melodee to an independent study program in August to enroll, but the girl did not attend through early October, prompting a series of responses to truancy that culminated in notifying law enforcement.
Investigators have focused their attention on a road trip the mother and daughter took from Oct. 7 to Oct. 10 from Southern California to Nebraska.
Security video showed Melodee wearing a wig Oct. 7 at the rental car business where they picked up a Chevrolet Malibu, the sheriff’s office said. Detectives believe the wig was used to throw off attempts to track or find her, and they said her mother was known to wear them.
At some point during the trip, the rental car's license plate was temporarily switched to a New York plate, allegedly to avoid detection, the sheriff's office said.
Authorities said Melodee was last seen on the return leg of the trip on Oct. 9, near the Utah-Colorado border, but was not with Ashlee Buzzard when she returned home with the rental vehicle on Oct. 10, detectives said in a series of updates.
Sheriff's deputies arrested Ashlee Buzzard on suspicion of felony false imprisonment on Nov. 7 in a separate case. A man testified that she held him against his will at her home and had a box cutter, NBC affiliate KSBY of San Luis Obispo reported. The charge was dismissed Nov. 20, with prosecutors later citing contradictory information and insufficient evidence, a spokesperson for the regional district attorney said.
Attempts to reach Ashlee Buzzard since late October have been unsuccessful, and her mother, reached by phone, declined to comment.
Melodee's disappearance stirred concern among some in her community of Vandenberg Village, about 160 miles northwest of Los Angeles. People have sometimes gathered outside her home and shouted questions about the girl’s whereabouts.
Corinna Meza, Melodee’s half-sister, said, "We’re all looking for answers,” KSBY reported. She said Melodee's father died when her little sister was a baby, and that the girl had rarely been seen, even among family.
