Holding candles and reciting prayers, family members, friends and strangers gathered in front of the Mars Avenue home of missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard on a cold Friday evening united in concern for the girl’s whereabouts.
Approximately 35 people stood in the quiet neighborhood street for the vigil, saying prayers mentioning Melodee, her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, and investigators. One person who attended sported a sweatshirt with the words, “Never give up.”
“Please send your angels to protect her and bring her home Lord,” family friend Annette Diaz said.
“Please give the family strength, my Lord, to continue searching for her. Please give wisdom and discernment to the detectives, to the people searching for her, give them strength to turn over every rock. … Please don’t let them miss anything. Please bring her home.”
The vigil occurred hours after the newest update on the missing girl from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office. Detectives have narrowed the critical timeline to a three-day period in October and believe the out-of-state trip may have included Kansas.
“Aye, it’s the hardest thing you can go through,” Melodee’s paternal grandmother, Lilly Denes, a Santa Maria Valley resident, told Noozhawk. “We don’t know if the baby’s OK. That’s the hardest thing because it’s been so long. It’s too many days.”
Melodee’s father, Ronaldo Rubiell Meza, 40, died in a Santa Maria motorcycle crash in 2016, and his family has had limited involvement with Melodee, the grandmother said, contending that Ashlee Buzzard contacted them only when she needed money.
“We were always praying that the baby was OK, and every time she reached out to me, I always said yes because I was hoping with God in my heart that she would let us see the baby,” Denes said. “I don’t know. She just took the baby away from us.”
The grandmother said she hadn’t seen Melodee for a few years, the last time being when Melodee’s father’s family gained temporary custody after Ashlee Buzzard allegedly lost custody for a couple of months.
However, Ashlee Buzzard, who reportedly has been hospitalized for mental health issues in the past, regained custody.
“I don’t know how the system works,” Denes said, adding that the family previously talked to a lawyer about trying to get custody of Melodee.
This month, Denes received a late-night call from social workers asking when the grandmother last saw Melodee.
In recent days, family members of the girl’s father have fielded multiple media calls about the missing girl.
“Anything we can do for my grandbaby,” Denes said, eager to share the story in hopes of finding Melodee.
Melodee’s aunt, San Luis Obispo resident Victoria Shade, said she wanted to get together as many people as possible to pray for the girl’s safe return.
“I just felt it was important to do that, to show her we are here for her. We want her to come home, and whoever has her, please bring her back,” Shade said.
Santa Maria resident Michele Hernandez, who was Rubiell’s girlfriend when he died, said she has remained close to his family in the years since and expressed concern for Melodee’s mom.
“I pray that she gets the help that she needs. I truly do pray that she comes forward with some information,” Hernandez said. “There are a lot of people that are here to help her. We’re not here to be against her. We’re here for her.”
The investigation into Melodee’s whereabouts pinpointed Oct. 7 to Oct. 10 as the critical time frame in the case as the mother remains “uncooperative,” according to the Sheriff’s Office. Authorities listed Ashlee Buzzard’s age as 35; court records for past cases show she recently turned 40.
“Investigators have confirmed that Ashlee was seen returning to her Lompoc residence on Oct. 10, driving the same rental vehicle she departed with on Oct. 7 — but Melodee was not in the car,” said Raquel Zick, public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office.
“Investigators understand that this three-day road trip went from Lompoc to the Nebraska area, with the return trip including the state of Kansas. Detectives are now focused on determining where Melodee was during those three days and where she may be now.”
The search for Melodee began Oct. 14, when sheriff’s deputies were alerted by educators to conduct a welfare check on the girl.
Deputies showed up at the home where the girl lived with her mother on the 500 block of Mars Avenue in Vandenberg Village, an unincorporated community between Lompoc and Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Friday’s update included newly released surveillance images of Melodee captured at a local car rental business on Oct. 7.
The photo shows Melodee wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and what appears to be a wig that is darker and straighter than her natural hair, Zick said.
“Investigators believe the wig may have been used to alter her appearance. Detectives also note that Ashlee is known to wear wigs,” Zick added.
Since first asking the public Oct. 16 for help locating the missing girl, details have trickled out and people have converged on the quiet neighborhood.
Speculation and theories about the missing girl and mother have quickly spread online, with one Facebook group “In Search of Melodee,” growing to 2,000 members.
A neighbor’s video posted to social media that included speculation about a 72-hour warning presented to the mother quickly spread with an unofficial countdown for the unverified deadline.
Authorities remained mum about what actions they’ve taken, noting that Social Services matters remain confidential.
“Our detectives are following every lead in this case. We continue to seek information from the public that could help us find Melodee,” Sheriff Bill Brown said in a written statement. “We remain determined to bring her home safely.”
