The case of a missing Central Coast girl is puzzling investigators, even as they continue to gather leads.
Nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard of Vandenberg Village was last seen on surveillance video nearly a month ago.
She was reported missing by Lompoc Unified School District officials when she repeatedly failed to show up for school. Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s officials visited her home and talked to her mother, Ashlee.
They say she didn’t have an explanation as to the girl’s whereabouts and was uncooperative.
Investigators are focusing on a road trip to Nebraska that Ashlee and Melodee took in a rental car. Surveillance video showed both of them wearing disguises as they picked up the car.
The girl was last seen in a video on the return trip, near the Colorado-Utah border.
Investigators are now stating that at one point during the trip, the rental car’s license plates were allegedly changed, apparently to evade detection. But the original plates were later reinstalled.
Melodee was not with her mother when the car was returned.
