Melodee Buzzard's Grandma Says Missing 9-Year-Old's Mom Wanted to Cut Her Off from the 'Entire World' By Charlotte Phillipp

As Ashlee Buzzard’s 9-year-old daughter, Melodee Buzzard, remains missing, the girl’s grandmother is sharing some insight about Ashlee’s relationship with her child.

Melodee was reported missing more than a month ago by a school official in Lompoc, Calif., the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office (SBCSO) said.

Investigators soon determined that Ashlee had taken Melodee on a days-long road trip spanning different states — going as far as Nebraska. However, when police went to Ashlee’s home to inquire about Melodee following the school’s report, the child was nowhere to be seen.

In a new interview with Fox News, Melodee’s paternal grandmother, Lilly Denes, opened up about Ashlee’s mental health, sharing that social services previously asked her to take care of Melodee while her mother was in a mental hospital so they could avoid placing her in foster care.

Denes told the outlet she took Melodee in and started the process of adopting the 9-year-old. However, in 2021, Ashlee came back into her daughter’s life after her release from the mental hospital.

“We were so happy when social services called us and told us that they were gonna place the baby with us. You know, we were so happy,” Denes said.

According to the girl’s grandmother, Ashlee “cut off” Melodee “from the entire world” — including her family.

“When I met her, my son brought her to the house. She looked so quiet and she was following me with her eyes back and forth, and I told my son. ‘Son, is this girl OK? She doesn’t look like she’s normal. Something’s wrong with this lady,’ ” Denes told Fox News, recalling the first time she met Ashlee.

Denes described her granddaughter as a “very happy baby, always smiling, very smart.”

“I know that maybe somebody out there in the world knows where my baby is. Somebody has to know,” she said.

PEOPLE reached out to Ashlee’s attorney for comment.

Ashlee has reportedly been uncooperative with authorities and was unable to provide an explanation about Melodee’s whereabouts, but has not been charged or named a person of interest in the 9-year-old’s disappearance.

Melodee’s father, Rubiell Meza, died in a vehicle accident in 2016 when Melodee was a baby, the family previously said.

The sheriff’s office began investigating Melodee’s disappearance on Oct. 14, when a school administrator reported her prolonged absence.

Investigators previously said the “at-risk” girl hadn’t been seen in a year, PEOPLE previously reported. According to the sheriff’s office, Melodee was homeschooled and had not checked in since October 2024.

The 9-year-old was last captured on video surveillance on Oct. 9 in the region between the Colorado–Utah border, two days after a security camera showed her and mom Ashlee at a rental car location in Lompoc on Oct. 7, the SBCSO said in a news release.

“Detectives believe that Ashlee and Melodee [traveled] as far as Nebraska, with a return trip that included Kansas,” the sheriff’s office added.

Authorities have said that both Ashlee and Melodee appeared to be wearing wigs in the surveillance footage captured at the rental car location, with Melodee’s hair “appearing darker and straighter than her natural hair,” per the release.

Most recently, Ashlee was arrested in a case unrelated to the girl’s disappearance and has been released from jail.

She was arrested on a false imprisonment charge based on accusations that she prevented a victim from leaving a location without disclosing further details about the investigation, the SBCSO said.

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The victim alleged that Ashlee brandished a box cutter and stopped him from leaving her home after becoming “visibly distressed after sharing information she appeared to regret disclosing,” KTLA and ABC News reported, citing officials.

The man, a local paralegal, told KSBY he knew Ashlee from years prior and had reached out to her to assist with the search for Melodee on Nov. 6. Ashlee has pleaded not guilty to false imprisonment.

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Melodee is described as being around “4 feet 6 inches tall, 60 pounds, with brown curly hair and brown eyes,” according to the SBCSO.

The FBI is now involved in the case, and the sheriff’s office is urging anyone with information to contact investigators through any of the following options:

• Call the Detectives Line at (805) 681-4150
• Leave anonymous tips at (805) 681-4171
• Leave online tips at www.sbsheriff.org/home/anonymous-tip/