In a chilling new twist to the disappearance of 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard, investigators now believe her mother swapped out license plates on her rental car during a multi-state road trip in an attempt to avoid detection as her daughter vanished without a trace.
Melodee and her mother, 35-year-old Ashlee Buzzard, left their Lompoc, California home on October 7 to embark on the three-day trip, going as far as Nebraska, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.