The mother of missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard has been charged with a felony in a case unrelated to the California girl's disappearance, authorities said Monday.
Ashlee Buzzard, 40, has been charged with felony false imprisonment, Santa Barbara County District Attorney John T. Savrnoch announced in a statement from his office.
She was accused of holding a person against their will and was taken into custody Friday, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said that day.
The chief deputy executive officer of Santa Barbara Superior Court, Angela Braun, said arrest documents will remain hidden. "The arrest warrant has been ordered sealed and not available for release," she said by email Monday.
The sheriff's office also said Friday that additional details about the false imprisonment allegation would not be made available.
"Detectives learned of a recent incident where Ashlee prevented a victim from leaving a location, against their will which constitutes false imprisonment," the sheriff's office said Friday. "This crime is not connected to the ongoing search for Melodee, however, detectives are unable to fully outline the crime as it would impede their ongoing investigation."
The DA’s office on Monday said the felony charge stemmed from an incident that happened Thursday in Lompoc, but it did not provide further details. The office also reiterated that the incident is unrelated to Melodee's disappearance.
Buzzard is listed as being in custody at Santa Barbara County Northern Branch Jail with initial bail of $100,000. The DA's office said she's scheduled to appear in court in Santa Maria on Wednesday morning.
It wasn’t clear if Buzzard has a lawyer to speak on her behalf. The Santa Barbara County Public Defender's Office did not respond when asked if it was involved. Attempts to reach Buzzard through a relative on Monday were unsuccessful.
Authorities have previously said that Buzzard has not cooperated with investigators searching for Melodee.
Sheriff's officials previously said Melodee was seen on a security camera at a car rental business on Oct. 7, at the start of what they said was a road trip to Nebraska. She appears to have been wearing a wig at the time, according to the sheriff’s office.
On Thursday, the sheriff's office released some of the security video from the car rental location that day as it continued to ask the public for help, including for witness accounts, video, or photos of Melodee amid her travels Oct. 9 in Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California.
The girl was last seen on surveillance video on Oct. 9 in an area between the Colorado-Utah border, according to the sheriff’s office.
During the road trip, the rental car’s license plate was switched with a New York plate in an apparent effort to avoid detection, the sheriff’s office has said.
Buzzard returned to her home in Lompoc, on California’s Central Coast, on Oct. 10, driving the same white Chevrolet Malibu she rented three days before, the sheriff’s office said.
Melodee was not with her at the time, authorities said.
Sheriff's investigators began searching for the girl after a school administrator reported her prolonged absence on Oct. 14.
Melodee’s half sister told NBC affiliate KSBY of San Luis Obispo that their father died when Melodee was a baby. She was rarely seen, even among family, said the sibling, Corrina Meza.
