BREAKING UPDATE 🚨 Authorities now believe 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard’s appearance was intentionally altered before she vanished. 😢
In new footage from Oct. 7 — just hours before she disappeared — Melodee is seen in a gray hoodie and a dark wig, walking beside an unknown adult near a rental car business. 🕵️‍♀️
Detectives say the car, a silver SUV spotted on three different cameras, could hold the key to this mysterious case.

9-year-old California girl’s appearance may have been altered with wig before she disappeared

New images show Melodee Buzzard wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt “and what appears to be a wig that is darker and straighter than her natural hair.”

Detectives searching for a missing 9-year-old California girl believe her mother may have tried to alter the child’s appearance with a wig.

Security camera video taken Oct. 7 at a car rental business shows Melodee Buzzard wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, “and what appears to be a wig that is darker and straighter than her natural hair,” the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Friday.

The agency released images from the video and said detectives were focusing on the period between Oct. 7 and Oct. 10.

The sheriff’s office said that it believes the wig may have been used to “alter” Melodee’s appearance and that her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, is known to wear wigs.

“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 statement. “We remain determined to bring her home safely.”

Investigators said that Buzzard rented a white Chevrolet Malibu on Oct. 7 and took a three-day road trip before returning to her Lompoc, California, home.

Melodee was not in the rental car when Buzzard returned, the release states.

Buzzard could not be reached by NBC News at phone numbers listed for her, and her mother declined to comment on Monday.

The sheriff’s office said the “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 agency said.

Authorities began searching for the girl on Oct. 14 after a school administrator with the Lompoc Unified School District reported her extended absence. The district said Melodee enrolled in August, but law enforcement was contacted as part of a process following absences and failure to accept class assignments.

Deputies went to Buzzard’s home and made contact with her, but not her daughter. The sheriff’s office said Buzzard provided “no verifiable explanation” for her daughter’s whereabouts.

Authorities previously said that Buzzard was not cooperating with the investigation.

Corinna Meza, Melodee’s half-sister, told NBC affiliate KSBY of San Luis Obispo that their father died when Melodee was a baby and that the girl is rarely seen, even among family.

“We’re all looking for answers,” she said.

The FBI’s Los Angeles field office said it is assisting the sheriff’s office with its search.