The mother of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard, who vanished during a road trip last month, was arrested Friday on a charge unrelated to the disappearance of the California girl, authorities said.
Ashlee Buzzard, 40, is accused of holding a person against their will and was taken into custody on suspicion of false imprisonment, a felony, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Additional details about the allegations would not be made available for now, it said.
“Detectives learned of a recent incident where Ashlee prevented a victim from leaving a location, against their will which constitutes false imprisonment,” the sheriff’s office said. “This crime is not connected to the ongoing search for Melodee, however, detectives are unable to fully outline the crime as it would impede their ongoing investigation.”
Her bail was expected to be set at $100,000, according to the sheriff’s office.
Investigators are sharing additional surveillance images of Ashlee and Melodee Buzzard that were captured at a rental car location in Lompoc, Calif., at the start of the road trip on Oct. 7.Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
It wasn’t clear if Buzzard has a lawyer to speak on her behalf. The Santa Barbara County Public Defender’s Office did not immediately respond when asked if it was involved.
Jennifer Karapetian, the district attorney’s chief deputy, said late Friday that prosecutors didn’t yet have the sheriff’s information necessary to make a decision on whether to file charges.
Authorities have previously said that Buzzard has not cooperated with investigators searching for Melodee.
Sheriff’s officials previously said Melodee was seen on a security camera at a car rental business on Oct. 7, at the start of what they said was a road trip to Nebraska. She appears to have been wearing a wig at the time, according to the sheriff’s office.
On Thursday, the sheriff’s office released some of the security video from the car rental location that day as it continued to ask the public for help, including for witness accounts, video, or photos of Melodee amid her travels Oct. 9 in Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California.
The girl was last seen on surveillance video on Oct. 9 in an area between the Colorado-Utah border, according to the sheriff’s office.
Melodee Buzzard.Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
During the road trip, the rental car’s license plate was switched with a New York plate in an apparent effort to avoid detection, the sheriff’s office has said.
Buzzard returned to her home in Lompoc, on California’s Central Coast, on Oct. 10, driving the same white Chevrolet Malibu she rented three days before, the sheriff’s office said.
Melodee was not with her at the time, authorities said.
Sheriff’s investigators began searching for the girl after a school administrator reported her prolonged absence on Oct. 14.
Melodee’s half sister told NBC affiliate KSBY of San Luis Obispo that their father died when Melodee was a baby. She was rarely seen, even among family, said the sibling, Corrina Meza.
Erick Mendoza contributed.
