Video above: Ashley Banfield of NewsNation joins the KTLA 5 News to discuss the Melodee Buzzard investigation on Oct. 30, 2025.

California authorities investigating the disappearance of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard revealed bombshell new information in the search for her, including that license plates were switched on a rental car driven by her mother some time after leaving on a cross-country road trip.

Melodee was first reported missing on Oct. 14 when faculty at her elementary school noticed she had been absent for a long period of time. The young girl was homeschooled at her home located in Vandenberg Village, near the Space Force Base that shares the same name in Lompoc, in Santa Barbara County.

When Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office officials began their investigation, they ques

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