melira, the living cure and kitesail larcenist

Had this intersection come up in a game, someone turned a creature into a treasure with kitesail larcenist. The player with the creature now turned treasure tried to use Melira's effect on said treasure then use the treasure to have the creature it originally was come back to the battlefield. The Kitesail player said you can't do that cause it wasn't the same permanent it was when it first left (treasure) when it was targeted by Melira's effect. Is this true?