(NewsNation) — Ashlee Buzzard, the California mother at the center of the search for her missing 9-year-old daughter Melodee, allegedly cut Melodee’s face out of her own missing-child posters.

That’s according to private investigator Bill Garcia, who told NewsNation a witness inside her home saw it happen.

Garcia spoke exclusively to NewsNation senior correspondent Brian Entin in a discussion about Ashlee Buzzard’s ostensibly erratic behavior and the possible whereabouts of Melodee Buzzard.

“I understand that she had cut these photographs off the poster … she placed them on the table in her home,” Garcia said.

“To me, it represents an altar, not saying that she’s deceased, but it’s something that she can have some memory of,” he added.

Garcia, who has been hired by Melodee’s paternal aunt, believes there is a distinct possibility that Melodee is both alive and close to her home in Lompoc, California.

“My personal belief after doing this for over 30 years, I don’t believe it. I don’t believe she left Melodee,” Garcia said.

“I think it’s kind of a smoke screen to throw people off. I don’t see her leaving her out anywhere with anyone, or leaving her out in the brush or in the woods.

“I see her bringing her all the way home if something happened to her. I think, regardless if something happened, she would have brought her at least close to home.”

Garcia said he believes Ashlee has made these cross-country trips before on that route and that Melodee is not in Utah, but rather the Lompoc area.

Once again appearing in court Wednesday, regarding a false imprisonment charge not related to her daughtger, Ashlee ignored questions from Entin outside the courthouse about the whereabouts of Melodee. Ashlee will be in court again Thursday.