Overview
- On Thursday, sheriff's detectives with FBI assistance executed follow-up search warrants at the family's Mars Avenue residence and escorted Ashlee Buzzard to an alternate location to facilitate an extended search.
- Investigators also searched a storage locker and the rental car tied to the case, and authorities said no arrests have been made as the effort remains a missing-person investigation.
- The last verified sighting of Melodee was on Oct. 7 at a Santa Barbara-area rental car business, where surveillance images show her with a hood and what appears to be a wig.
- Authorities say Ashlee Buzzard drove with Melodee from Lompoc to the Nebraska area beginning Oct. 7 and returned Oct. 10 through Kansas without the child.
- Officials describe the mother as uncooperative, classify Melodee as an at-risk missing person, and urge the public to submit factual tips rather than conduct independent searches.