CA CA - Melodee Buzzard, 9, Vandenberg Village, 14 Oct 2025

[Knox]

Ksby

 

[truthfinder2019]

WTH is Ashlee doing? Wearing a wig, switching plates on a rental car? Where did the New York plate come from, did she steal it along the way? The only car rental agency in Lompoc is Enterprise., FWIW.

This begs the question of WHY she went all the way to Nebraska? Melodee was with her on the return trip as far back as Colorado-Utah. This is beginning to look very bad.

View attachment 623199

Least we know she has another pair of boots that aren't black.

IMO she alo changed wigs along the way. And clothes/shoes. White boots are too distinctive and noticeable

 

[truthfinder2019]

Missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard last seen near Colorado-Utah border​

Sheriff: Missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard last seen near Colorado-Utah border

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office has released new, detailed information about the investigation into missing Vandenberg Village girl, Melodee Buzzard.

www.ksby.com

 

[Unalienable Rights]

This has to be one of the strangest cases we have seen (and that is saying something.)

 

[Lucy6226]

Okay this is starting to look even more sinister now. However, could the disguises and number plate switching be down to some delusion of being watched or followed?

I'm guessing the rental car had a tracker which has helped LE pick up on the plate switches.

Regardless of the reasons, I don't think this ends well

 

[OddOneOut]

JMO: New York plates when she didn't go anywhere within a thousand miles or so of New York. That would be really odd to happen upon a car with New York plates to steal as far west as Nebraska or further west. Out of state plates are really noticeable to police and other drivers. It seems more likely that someone else is involved and she borrowed or bought them. Now that LE has those plates, they can or probably have checked flock cameras for them.

 

[Hexe]

View attachment 623195I’m sorry what? She switched the license plate??

https://twitter.com/x/status/1985485986500136999

WTF is going on and who is this person in the brown wig? Ashlee has round face with full cheeks, nit very prominent bone structure and thin lips. So who is this lady with angular face, strong jaw and full lips? What the heck is going on?

 

[Sjöberg]

could the disguises and number plate switching be down to some delusion of being watched or followed?

With mental health issues being reported and the story not making any sense whatsoever, I am beginning to think that this might be exactly the cause.

The problem is, this might be very risky for Melodee. Ranging from "stay in this forest and the Clan will feed you" all the way to "the demons caught her and she had to go" with everything else in between. She is only 9 and has been realtively isolated. She will believe her mum on most things and if her mum is unwell, that might put her in extreme danger.

It is also possible that there is something else going on. But honestly, mabe it is not making sense because it is not making sense. The simplest explanation, IMO.

 

[Knox]

JMO: New York plates when she didn't go anywhere within a thousand miles or so of New York. That would be really odd to happen upon a car with New York plates to steal as far west as Nebraska or further west. Out of state plates are really noticeable to police and other drivers. It seems more likely that someone else is involved and she borrowed or bought them. Now that LE has those plates, they can or probably have checked flock cameras for them.

She’s traveling on a major cross country route. Many places along the way she could easily have grabbed a plate off a truck, U-Haul, or car. It wouldn’t be that odd to find a NY Plate. For that matter, she could have stolen a plate in her own local area prior to leaving on the trip. Lompoc is near Vandenberg AFB, people from all over the country rotate in and out of there. New York requires a front and back plate, FWIW, as does California. Also a possibility the plate is paper and she created it herself?

The car data and LPR gave them locational data. Spot checking locations gave them video. LE knows who the plates belong too and likely have a good idea of when and where they were taken. If she didn’t create a paper plate.

Interestingly, I found a civil court record where the credit card company tried to serve Ashlee at an address on base back in September. Service couldn’t be completed, no such resident?

 

[Tealgrove]

Well, this has taken an ominous turn, not that it wasn’t ominous previously.

Wearing wigs, renting a car, changing license plates, a big road trip and returning home without Melodee. Why the subterfuge? Who is she trying to hide from and why? How did she rent that vehicle with her credit issues?

Did they stay in motels? Sleep in the car?

This is getting stranger and stranger.

 

[Serononin]

Well, this has taken an ominous turn, not that it wasn’t ominous previously.

Wearing wigs, renting a car, changing license plates, a big road trip and returning home without Melodee. Why the subterfuge? Who is she trying to hide from and why? How did she rent that vehicle with her credit issues?

Did they stay in motels? Sleep in the car?

This is getting stranger and stranger.

All the while police are taking samples from the house, suggesting they think something might have happened there. Every update in this case makes it make even less sense

 

[TMich6811]

I don’t understand why they don’t release the photos with Ashlee in the beginning. She is way more memorable looking that Melodee would be imo

 

[tlcya]

WTF is going on and who is this person in the brown wig? Ashlee has round face with full cheeks, nit very prominent bone structure and thin lips. So who is this lady with angular face, strong jaw and full lips? What the heck is going on?

I have no doubt that is indeed Ashlee in the car rental image with the brown wig. It IMO is the same wig in which she was seen entering her home in this image:

https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com.../82/dc14aaae4ad6bbd80ee99e9f68d9/image-42.jpg

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Investigators believe car carrying missing California girl had license plate swapped to avoid detection

Santa Barbara County, California, investigators say a New York state license plate was temporarily put on the California-registered rental car that Melodee Buzzard was last seen in.

www.nbcnews.com

Investigators believe the rental car a missing California girl was in while on a road trip with her mother had its license plate swapped to avoid detection, police said Monday, as they zero in on that October trip to Nebraska.

Investigators looking for 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard said previously that security video from Oct. 7, the day they say mother Ashlee Buzzard rented a white Chevrolet Malibu for the three-day road trip, showed Melodee wearing a wig in an apparent effort to disguise her appearance. The mother is also known to wear wigs, authorities said.

The following day, the car was seen with a New York state license plate in an apparent effort to make it more difficult to track, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office said in an update Monday.

“The New York plate seen on the car does not belong to the vehicle or to Ashlee,” the office said. “Investigators believe it was used as a false or switched plate to avoid detection. When the vehicle was returned to the rental agency in Lompoc California, the assigned California plate was on the vehicle.”...

 

[Lebowski]

She’s traveling on a major cross country route. Many places along the way she could easily have grabbed a plate off a truck, U-Haul, or car. It wouldn’t be that odd to find a NY Plate. For that matter, she could have stolen a plate in her own local area prior to leaving on the trip. Lompoc is near Vandenberg AFB, people from all over the country rotate in and out of there. New York requires a front and back plate, FWIW, as does California. Also a possibility the plate is paper and she created it herself?

yeah. nitpick: u-haul's entire fleet is registered in arizona. but, yes, you'll see plates from all over on an interstate highway. especially from populous states like NY. we went on a road trip a few months ago and played the license plate game, so i feel like i should get registered with WS as a recognized expert or whatever. still looking for *expletive* hawaii.

assuming they were on the interstate, ashlee would have had plenty of opportunities to steal a NY plate at a rest stop, etc. that would be my guess for where she got it. i tend to think a paper license plate would either have trouble staying on or need so much tape it would look weird.

The car data and LPR gave them locational data. Spot checking locations gave them video. LE knows who the plates belong too and likely have a good idea of when and where they were taken. If she didn’t create a paper plate.

Interestingly, I found a civil court record where the credit card company tried to serve Ashlee at an address on base back in September. Service couldn’t be completed, no such resident?

yup. if she stole it, she gave LE a hard data point telling them she was at a particular place at a particular time.

 

[scapa]

With mental health issues being reported and the story not making any sense whatsoever, I am beginning to think that this might be exactly the cause.

The problem is, this might be very risky for Melodee. Ranging from "stay in this forest and the Clan will feed you" all the way to "the demons caught her and she had to go" with everything else in between. She is only 9 and has been realtively isolated. She will believe her mum on most things and if her mum is unwell, that might put her in extreme danger.

It is also possible that there is something else going on. But honestly, mabe it is not making sense because it is not making sense. The simplest explanation, IMO.

Excellent analysis. I agree that some of what look like bizarre and even sinister machinations may spring from beliefs AB holds directed at avoiding harm to herself and possibly MB -- the problem remains that AB's actions risk exposing MB to real and lasting harm.

Still hopeful that someone in AB's orbit is safeguarding MB and is able to get through somehow to the mother, who I hope has not fallen into Lori Vallow-level murderous delusions (and is hopefully minus a Chad).

But this is undoubtedly disturbing.

 

[PNW]

JMO: New York plates when she didn't go anywhere within a thousand miles or so of New York. That would be really odd to happen upon a car with New York plates to steal as far west as Nebraska or further west. Out of state plates are really noticeable to police and other drivers. It seems more likely that someone else is involved and she borrowed or bought them. Now that LE has those plates, they can or probably have checked flock cameras for them.

I see NY plates all the time in Seattle Random that she would choose those to switch with, though.

 

[sunspun]

I see NY plates all the time in Seattle Random that she would choose those to switch with, though.

Maybe she looked for a car matching the make and model of the car she rented, and it happened to have a NY tag.

 

[sunspun]

i tend to think a paper license plate would either have trouble staying on or need so much tape it would look weird.

I figured paper tag meant one like you get when you buy a car off a car lot, and those are placed in the window INSIDE the vehicle, so no worries about it blowing off!

 

[bajaflash]

I figured paper tag meant one like you get when you buy a car off a car lot, and those are placed in the window INSIDE the vehicle, so no worries about it blowing off!

At least in CA, at the dealership I worked for and did this at, temporary plates were printed on special paper and placed where the eventual actual license plate would go. But I've also seen some that look like they are regular paper, affixed in the same spot.

Actually once we did run out and had to print on regular paper.