INSIDE THE SEARCH FOR MELODEE

As details emerge in the missing girl's case, her relatives are frantic for answers

- By Clara Harter

CARLIN STIEHL For The Times "I'M HAVING a hard time sleeping," said Lilly Denes, paternal grandmother of Melodee Buzzard, 9. "My baby is missing."

A 9-year-old girl with a winning smile and bouncy brown curls has not been seen since her mother took her on a mysterious road trip from Southern California to Nebraska and returned home alone.

A month after Melodee Buzzard vanished, her relatives remain desperate for answers. But one person who may know what happened isn't talking.

Melodee’s mother, Ashlee Buzzard, has refused to cooperate with investigators since Oct. 14, when a school administrator reported the girl’s prolonged absence from an independent study program, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.

The mother is believed to have traveled about 3,000 miles during a four-day road trip replete with bizarre details — including switching license plates and putting her daughter in a wig.

On Friday, Buzzard was arrested on false imprisonment charges unrelated to the ongoing search for her daughter, according to the Sheriff's Office. Buzzard has not responded to The Times’ requests for comment.

“I'm having a hard time sleeping,” said Melodee’s paternal grandmother, Lilly Denes. “My baby is missing. I don’t know what to tell you. It has been very hard for all of us.”

In the corner of her living room, Denes has set up a shrine to her missing granddaughter.

There’s a framed photo of Melodee as a newborn with her late father, Denes’ son Rubiell “Pinoy” Meza. There’s a photo of Melodee smiling at her grandma as a toddler. And there’s the large black “bring her back” poster that Denes brought to a recent prayer vigil for the missing girl.

The rest of the home is already decked out for Thanksgiving with ceramic pumpkins and strings of orange and gold decorative foliage.

As a mother of six with many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Denes goes all out for the holidays.