Real-life tracker says cruelty of Oklahoma woman’s murder will “stay with me forever”

The fellows on the sheriff’s workplace name her a cool dude with lengthy hair as a result of, they are saying, she’s meaner than any of them — on the gun vary and within the discipline.  Her identify is Lt. Dakota Black. She’s a skilled tracker and detective with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Workplace in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Lt. Dakota Black: I’m going out to scenes when there’s manhunts or making an attempt to find people.

Her specialty is discovering the lacking — whether or not alive or lifeless.

Lt. Dakota Black: I’ve discovered them beneath piles of leaves. … In bushes and deserted properties, sheds … I’ve discovered them just about in any space you may consider.

Usually by her facet, her accomplice, Deputy Haven, a skilled remedy canine. For teenagers and different members of the family caught within the crossfire of tragedy, Haven supplies consolation and comfort — a consoling presence she herself would depend on within the coming months as she launched into some of the heart-wrenching circumstances of her profession.

Lt. Dakota Black: This case will stick with me without end. And will probably be one which I all the time bear in mind by way of my entire life … Due to how merciless it was.

The Seek for Makayla Meave

Andria Meave: The very last thing we stated to one another, was “I like you.”

Friday, Sept. 15, 2023, started like most days for Andria Meave: with a 7 a.m. telephone name from her greatest pal and youthful sister, Makayla.

Andria Meave: I want I’d’ve identified I’d’ve stated a lot extra. … I am grateful for that. No less than I stated, “I like you.”

The following morning, Saturday the sixteenth, the telephone rang as traditional round 7 a.m. —solely this time, it wasn’t Makayla. It was Makayla’s husband, Frank Byers.

Andria Meave: He is hysterical, crying, screaming, can barely perceive what he is saying. And he says, Makayla did not come dwelling final night time. … He ended up telling me that Makayla went on a date the Friday night time earlier than with a bald man in a white truck … They left and she or he by no means got here dwelling final night time.

On the time, Makayla and Frank Byers have been headed for divorce, says Andria Meave. They have been nonetheless residing on the identical 10-acre property in Macomb, Oklahoma — however in separate properties. So, at first, Meave wasn’t anxious.

Andria Meave: My first thought is she’s single. … I hope she had enjoyable.

However Meave’s temper started to shift when her many calls to Makayla went to voicemail.

Andria Meave: By midday, I used to be anxious. One o’clock, I used to be actually anxious.

Their mom, Barbara Harper, was additionally anxious. Makayla was supposed to assist out on the household restaurant that afternoon. However she did not present and hadn’t known as — unprecedented for Makayla.

Barbara Harper: And the extra I prayed about it, the extra I spotted that one thing severe had occurred.

Frank Byers additionally reported Makayla lacking to the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Workplace that afternoon.

FRANK BYERS (to 911): … my spouse’s been lacking since late final night time … she left … at 5:30ish, roughly 5:40, and the final time that anybody has heard from her has been at 8:00 p.m.

911 OPERATOR: … And your identify?

FRANK BYERS: My identify is Frank Byers, B-Y-E-R-S.

911 OPERATOR: … What’s her identify?

FRANK BYERS: Her identify is Makayla, uh, Byers …

The deputy on obligation, Dustin Richardson, felt he wanted to place eyes on the bottom. He acquired to Macomb round 4 p.m. along with his bodycam rolling.

Deputy Dustin Richardson: … he’d given me the knowledge over the telephone, however I simply wished to see the place she was coming from and — and see extra of the main points.

Frank Byers made a degree of displaying the deputy the final Fb message he stated Makayla despatched him after she left assuring him she was “effective…” and to “again off…”

Then he instructed him the story about Makayla driving off with a bald man in a white truck.

DEPUTY RICHARDSON (bodycam): Did you see the man in any respect?

FRANK BYERS: … I’d most likely say, 6, 6’1″.

DEPUTY RICHARDSON: OK.

FRANK BYERS: He was utterly bald and he had a beard. If I — If I needed to guess a weight, I do not know, possibly 200.

Richardson then requested if he may see the home the place Makayla was briefly residing.

DEPUTY RICHARDSON (bodycam): Can I’m going have a look round?

FRANK BYERS: Yeah.

DEPUTY RICHARDSON: … So she’s been staying on this little outdated factor?

FRANK BYERS: Yeah … Yeah, so —

DEPUTY RICHARDSON: All locked up.

However the shed-like dwelling was locked and Byers stated he did not have a key. However he did have one thing to say about their relationship.

FRANK BYERS (bodycam video): … we’ve an open marriage the place — nicely, that is — that is a brand-new factor I do not prefer it, however um, I agreed upon it trigger I am making an attempt to repair our marriage …

At that time, the deputy determined to take a fast drive to the college the place Makayla labored as a trainer’s aide. Possibly she had gone there.

ANOTHER DEPUTY (on telephone): What’s up? 

DEPUTY RICHARDSON: Man. This uh Frank Byers known as in saying his uh spouse was lacking …

He known as his son, additionally a deputy, from the automotive.

DEPUTY RICHARDSON (bodycam): … this man is squirrelly man, this Frank man is squirrelly …

Deputy Dustin Richardson: The feeling was that there’s nothing concerning the story that’s actually true.

Whereas the deputy was on the faculty, family and friends began displaying up on the property,  together with Makayla’s mother, Barbara Harper.

Barbara Harper: After I first acquired there … I did not even converse to anybody.

Barbara Harper: I used to be on my arms and knees crawling by way of brush out within the pasture. … we have to search out the place she’s at.

Along with his physique digicam rolling, Richardson returned to the property late that afternoon. Byers had smashed open the lock to Makayla’s place with a hammer.

Deputy Dustin Richardson: I regarded and I … I instantly noticed empty, uh, shell casings from what gave the impression to be 22 caliber …

Deputy Dustin Richardson: … he instructed me that she sits in there and shoots out at animals … the coyotes and stuff.

FRANK BYERS (bodycam): There’s a couple of occasions I’ve heard her shoot …

By then, extra deputies had arrived.

Deputy Dustin Richardson: I had requested him the place she … saved that gun. And he stated it was in his home.

DEPUTY RICHARDSON (bodycam): Is it in there now?

Deputy Dustin Richardson: I had him stroll me to his home and he walked inside … and he pointed at it … I had, uh, pulled it from the place it was in there … and put it in my car.

FRANK BYERS (bodycam): … deal with it like all the time.

The gun, in response to the deputy, appeared to have been not too long ago fired.

Deputy Dustin Richardson: I, uh, made telephone calls to, uh, get our prison investigation crew on the market as a result of I simply — it was off that there was one thing that wanted to be regarded into extra.

DEPUTY RICHARDSON (bodycam): Hey, I am on that – I am on that lacking particular person factor nonetheless… That is suspicious as f***.

Investigators ushered household and pals off the property and blocked the driveway.

Barbara Harper (crying): I bear in mind strolling again to my automotive and simply screaming at God, asking him, “why, why did you do that, let this occur? Simply take me, take me, and allow us to discover her and simply take me.”

The lacking particular person’s investigation was now a attainable prison investigation, and that is when the decision went out to guide detective Lieutenant Dakota Black.

Lt. Dakota Black: We undoubtedly wanted … to determine what was occurring.

A Mom’s Instinct

As quickly as Lt. Dakota Black acquired the decision that Makayla Meave was lacking, she jumped in her car and sped to Macomb.

Peter Van Sant: What was your instant mission?

Lt. Dakota Black: To find Makayla. We — we wanted to find her. We did not know the place she was.

Detective Black and her accomplice on the case – Detective Marcus Could—now the undersheriff—put out a BOLO alert:  be looking out.

Det. Marcus Could: It was “be looking out for a … white male with a beard, bald head, driving a white truck” … we wished … the entire native legislation enforcement and surrounding companies conscious that, that we do have a state of affairs growing over right here.

The ideas from this rural space, the place everybody appears to know all people, got here pouring in.

Lt. Dakota Black: Each white pickup truck with tinted home windows was getting known as in to the sheriff’s workplace.

Not one of the sightings panned out however the search took on a lifetime of its personal.

Lt. Dakota Black: Flyers have been posted all over the place. Social media adverts have been all over the place.

Det. Marcus Could: Makayla Meave was beloved by all people. … they have been demanding each useful resource attainable … to go discover Makayla.

Peter Van Sant: Dakota, this was a, uh, a girl with monumental coronary heart. Proper?

Lt. Dakota Black: Completely. … She liked her household. She liked her pals. … she liked youngsters. 

Makayla fell in love with youngsters when she herself was nonetheless a toddler. Her mother ran a daycare.

Barbara Harper: We weren’t only a daycare. We have been the household, and she or he liked these youngsters, particularly the infants (laughs).

Sadly, Makayla was unable to have youngsters of her personal. However that did not cease her. In her 20s, Makayla fostered and would ultimately undertake two youngsters — a brother and sister.

Andria Meave: She dropped what she was doing, went took — and took courses, acquired licensed to ensure that she may give these youngsters a house. … She did.

Round that point, an outdated highschool classmate named Frank Byers contacted her out of the blue by way of Fb. Byers, who was divorced, had major custody of 4 younger daughters.

Andria Meave: Frank was telling her a narrative that the present girlfriend he was residing with was abusing his 4 daughters … so my sister took him and all 4 ladies in and simply began principally caring for them.

Barbara Harper: She felt like the youngsters wanted her and she or he certain wanted them. … most likely the happiest I would seen her in a very long time with these ladies.

Frank and Makayla acquired married in 2022. They constructed their lives collectively in Macomb – inhabitants 24.

Barbara Harper: It is simply nation. It is 100% nation. The youngsters are 100% nation.

Makayla was going to varsity to get her instructing diploma whereas working on the native elementary faculty.

Barbara Harper: And he or she would rise up for the youngsters. And — and if she noticed a toddler that was soiled or wasn’t taken care of, she would take it to the principal and, you understand, convey consciousness to it.

Andria Meave: I believe that was her greatest factor in life was to assist little harmless youngsters that wanted grownup assist. She all the time felt accountable to do this.

Countywide, dozens of individuals turned out within the chilly and pouring rain to slog by way of mud and tick-infested woods seeking their beloved trainer. However one particular person on the coronary heart of this thriller conspicuously appeared not to look: Makayla’s husband, Frank Byers.

Lt. Dakota Black: He by no means participated in a single search. He by no means volunteered to exit with any of the search events, to exit and attempt to discover Makayla.

Andria Meave: It wasn’t like, oh, my God, my spouse is lacking. He by no means appeared like involved about that. He appeared extra involved about himself.

Peter Van Sant: What have been you noticing about Frank Byers?

Det. Marcus Could: The — the shortage of any … human emotion … I imply he — he didn’t appear scared. … He simply wished to know what we knew. He – he simply did not appear human in any respect.

Investigators have been already zeroing in on Frank Byers.

Det. Marcus Could: We strongly suspected Frank.

Three days after Makayla was reported lacking, Frank Byers agreed to be questioned by Black on the sheriff’s workplace. The interview was audio solely.

FRANK BYERS (interview with detectives): Presently I simply need her discovered …

The detective tried to win his belief by enjoying the nice cop.

DET. BLACK: Once more, I could not think about. I imply it is exhausting not understanding, you understand. And when all people’s pointing a finger at you I am certain it does not make it any higher.

FRANK BYERS: Yeah.

FRANK BYERS: … I really feel like I acquired to defend myself and inform everybody that no, that is what occurred, that is the reality.

She pressed him however not sufficient to make him cease speaking.

DET. BLACK: Did you ask her concerning the date earlier than she left?

FRANK BYERS: Sure, I did. And uh, she instructed me it was none of my enterprise. Identical factor as if I went on a date, it is none of her enterprise.

DET. BLACK: OK, so she by no means stated a reputation or something?

FRANK BYERS: No. She —

DET. BLACK: How she met him, how she knew him?

FRANK BYERS: No…

After answering questions for two-and-a-half hours, Black let him go dwelling. The seek for Makayla continued. Harper remembers crawling by way of brush sporting snake protectors when she says she had a premonition.

Barbara Harper: I heard Makayla inform me, mama I am in a tin horn. … I stated, oh my God, she simply instructed me she’s in a tinhorn.

Harper frantically began in search of tinhorns — pipes or culverts used to divert water below roads — however there was no signal of Makayla. Then got here the decision to 911 on day 5 that may show her mom’s instinct was proper.

911 CALLER: … ma’am I do not know precisely the place I am at, however I am on Hamilton Highway. I used to be looking with my pal for my cousin that is lacking, Makayla Meave.

DISPATCHER: Mm-hmm.

911 CALLER: And I believe that we simply discovered her.

A Devastating Discovery

The chatter of locusts permeated the air, an eerie sense of foreboding. Makayla Meave had been lacking for 5 days.

Andria Meave: I acquired a telephone name from my pal, and she or he stated, I would like you to sit down down … And he or she stated they discovered somebody and it is a feminine … And I am like, is she lifeless or alive?

Earlier that day, a cousin and her pal had been out looking about half a mile from Makayla’s home after they have been stopped of their tracks by a robust, sickening odor. The pal adopted the extraordinary odor down a ditch to a tinhorn. He noticed one thing protruding. It was a hand.

911 CALLER: … I used to be looking with my pal for my cousin that is lacking, Makayla Meave.

DISPATCHER: Mm-hmm.

911 CALLER: And I believe that we simply discovered her.

It was the decision Detective Dakota Black had been dreading.

Lt. Dakota Black: It was devastating to all people I imply it was completely horrible.  

Simply as Barbara Harper had imagined, Makayla was in a big drainage pipe beneath the highway.

Lt. Dakota Black: She had been drug into the center space and she or he was wrapped in a carpet. … Uh, she had one sock on her foot that had teddy bears on it and her shirt was really pulled up over her face to cowl it. .. I imply it was exhausting. It was actually exhausting.

Detective Black would not depart Makayla’s facet. The 2 ladies had been born at some point aside in the identical 12 months. However that wasn’t their solely bond.

Lt. Dakota Black: I did really feel a reference to Makayla… I’ve a historical past additionally. … you understand I have been in dangerous relationships … It may have been me. (emotional) … On multiple event. … I simply acquired fortunate …

Whereas the detectives have been working the scene, Makayla’s household gathered simply up the highway.

Lt. Dakota Black: You can hear, hear them crying up there and so they have been making an attempt to return down right here the place she was.

However the crime scene was blocked off.

BARBARA HARPER (bodycam): Can we see her? I can confirm. Please?

Barbara Harper: I by no means as soon as doubted that it was her.

OFFICER (bodycam): … if anybody goes by way of the tape with out permission, they instantly go to jail, I – I do not know what to inform you I am sorry.

BARBARA HARPER: Are you able to inform them we’re right here?

OFFICER: In fact. In fact.

Barbara Harper: I felt like I wanted to see her as a result of she had been on the market for 5 days with out me. And I simply wanted to be along with her and so they would not let me.” (crying) … she wanted me and I wasn’t there.

Makayla’s stays have been positioned within the coroner’s van for the journey to the Medical Examiner’s Workplace.

Andria Meave: My mother and I each realized that it was most likely her in there and that we might by no means be capable of, like, maintain her and hug her once more, my mother began to chase the van. (crying)

Barbara Harper: I simply adopted it down the highway, simply as quick as I may … And anyone hollered at me and requested me what I used to be doing and I stated, “my — my child is in that van.” (crying)

Detective Black was so offended, she needed to maintain herself again.

Lt. Dakota Black: I wished to depart that night time and go and arrest Frank. However I knew … um … it is higher to maneuver totally than to behave fast.

The 2 investigators had already begun constructing a robust circumstantial case towards Frank Byers — the bullet casings in her dwelling, his unlikely story that Makayla agreed to an open marriage and left with a bald man in a white truck.

FRANK BYERS (bodycam): Uh, she embraced the man in a hug, after which they acquired within the truck and left …

Peter Van Sant: While you ask Makayla’s household about this open relationship … what’d they are saying?

Lt. Dakota Black: Completely not. They stated there was completely no attainable means that Makayla would’ve ever finished that …

Investigators discovered from interviews and from Frank Byers’ personal social media accounts that he was the one who was dishonest. 

Andria Meave: Frank Byers is the most important cheater. … He was dishonest on her as quickly as he moved in … Each time he would exit of city, he was creating relationship profiles.

Frank Byers labored for an environmental cleanup firm cleansing up hazardous supplies. He spent a whole lot of time on the highway.  

Lt. Dakota Black: He would meet ladies at fuel stations, he would meet up with them at resort rooms … He would textual content them whereas he was dwelling with Makayla and conceal it from her.

Det. Marcus Could: He was speaking … with females … the day Maykala was murdered … and instantly afterwards.

Andria Meave: He was sending footage to ladies the day of her funeral asking, how do I look in my tux?

Byers’ dishonest acquired so dangerous, Makayla moved out about three months earlier than her homicide.

Andria Meave: She packed a bag and she or he got here and stayed with me for every week. … I held her the place she cried each night time. … She felt like a failure.

However Makayla’s love for the little ladies saved drawing her again, says Andria Meave.

Makayla went again to the 10-acre property, however to not Byers. She briefly moved into that little construction behind his to remain near the ladies. Byers tried to win her again, promising to vary. However the dishonest continued. Detective Black would later uncover this dialog by which Makayla instructed Byers she was finished:

MAKAYLA MEAVE: I’ve by no means as soon as been lifeless set for divorce till immediately.

FRANK BYERS: You …

MAKAYLA MEAVE: … I am simply saying you might have formally misplaced me …

Makayla recorded it two days earlier than her homicide.

Black believes she recorded it to show Byers’ infidelity.

MAKAYLA MEAVE: … I am stating to you proper now that you’ve formally broke the final string that was holding me to you. 

FRANK BYERS: OK.

MAKAYLA MEAVE: And you’ve got no person in charge however your self for doing it. 

That Friday, September 15, Makayla returned from work to select up her issues and depart for good. However Frank Byers, it appeared, had different plans. Detectives would later recuperate these pictures captured on a house safety digicam on his telephone.

Detective Black believes he thought he had deleted them.

Peter Van Sant: The place is Makayla on this image?

Lt. Dakota Black: That is Frank’s dwelling and she or he’s coming by way of the entrance door.

Makayla stayed for 14 minutes. The detective believes they have been arguing.

Lt. Dakota Black: This is Makayla once more. She’s leaving.

The final image of the collection is Frank Byers standing on the door of his dwelling. 

Peter Van Sant:  What do you consider occurred after this final {photograph} was taken?

Lt. Dakota Black: I believe that is when he exited his dwelling and went to her dwelling and killed her. I believe that is when he killed Makayla, inside minutes.

Makayla was shot within the head.

Lt. Dakota Black: Makayla had a gunshot wound proper right here within the entrance. She had one on the left facet after which she had a graze wound on the identical facet.

Peter Van Sant: The final picture she could have seen on this earth was her personal husband holding a rifle, after which the shot fired.

Lt. Dakota Black: Sure.

Profile of a Assassin

It began as a simmering anger and grew right into a raging fury. Individuals wished to know why Frank Byers was nonetheless strolling free. 

Det. Marcus Could: Probably the most troublesome half was understanding that we have been accumulating proof to Frank’s guilt and Makayla’s homicide, however we have been unable to launch that or share that with the general public …

Lt. Dakota Black: We knew Frank was responsible. We knew Frank was not a superb husband. We knew Frank was mendacity. … We knew a lot of issues, however we could not show every part, and I wished to show every part to ensure he stayed in jail.

Detective Black spent 18-hour days on the workplace along with her sidekick Haven – the remedy canine now there for her. 

Peter Van Sant: Give me a way, emotionally, how robust this was for you?

Lt. Dakota Black: It was robust mentally. I used to be drained. I used to be mentally exhausted. … I had misplaced weight. I used to be drained, however I used to be not gonna to go dwelling … till this case was solved.

Byers used the time to defend himself on social media. “… I’m harmless, And every part will come out.”

He additionally appeared on native information.

FRANK BYERS (native information report): Even immediately, I known as her. I imply, I do know she’s not right here, nevertheless it’s simply the truth that I’ve her quantity nonetheless and her telephone’s nonetheless on somewheres. And, uh, it simply, it might’ve been good to listen to her voice …

Many locally tuned in to look at Byers’ interview, together with Lt. Dakota Black.

Peter Van Sant: Did it make you offended?

Lt. Dakota Black: It did make me offended. It was sickening to see that an exquisite lady was gone from the world, and that whereas he is on TV, professing his innocence, he is … nonetheless in communication with different ladies, making an attempt to have intimate relationships with them.

Black tracked down scores of those ladies. Crystal Cantrell was Byers’ girlfriend earlier than he met Makayla.

Crystal Cantrell: He is superb at making you consider him … After which he is sort of like a snake. As soon as he will get you in there, he bites you.

Black discovered Byers wooed Cantrell the identical means he wooed Makayla — with a false story that his daughters have been being mistreated by his present girlfriend. And like Makayla, Cantrell had a smooth coronary heart.

Crystal Cantrell: I like youngsters. You understand, I’ve youngsters of my very own. So, I simply felt actually dangerous for them.

Shortly after they moved in collectively, Cantrell says Byers began to indicate his true colours. He remoted her from family and friends and managed her each transfer. They fought. One night time, she woke as much as see him looming over her clutching a pair of handcuffs.

Crystal Cantrell: I closed them so he could not use them on me. After which … after that he simply acquired on my again and was choking me. He had wrapped his arms round me and had his hand on my throat and he simply did not let go.

Cantrell was capable of get away however was too afraid to report the incident to the police.  She left Byers for good however says it may have been her in that ditch.

Crystal Cantrell: He would’ve killed me.

If Byers ever harmed Makayla, she by no means instructed her mother and sister.  Generally they noticed bruises, however Makayla all the time stated they have been simply from tough housing with the youngsters.

Andria Meave: I believe if I give it some thought an excessive amount of is the place I’ll go down a darkish gap and never come out as a result of I did see the bruises and I simply selected to consider and never query. After which possibly if I’d’ve questioned, it might come out in another way.

Little by little, Black and her crew constructed a profile of a assassin.

Lt. Dakota Black: So, this photograph was taken at Walmart …

Utilizing the date on a Walmart receipt discovered on Frank’s property, the detective was capable of monitor down a safety digicam photograph.

Peter Van Sant: What’s within the cart?

Lt. Dakota Black: There may be bleach, ammonia, and a mop.

Peter Van Sant: And mop, ammonia, and bleach equals what in your thoughts as an investigator?

Lt. Dakota Black: Crime scene cleanup.

They have been additionally capable of match the carpet within the ditch to 1 a neighbor had given Byers and Makayla for his or her canine.

DET MARCUS MAY (bodycam): … you, you gave them that carpet about eight or 9 months in the past? Was that…

NEIGHBOR: Sure…

Lt. Dakota Black: Frank took the carpet that was given to him by the neighbor and used that to roll Makayla’s physique in.

They consider Byers killed Makayla round 4 p.m. and left her physique in her dwelling. He then picked up his ladies after faculty and drove them round, returning dwelling about 8 p.m. That is when, the detectives consider, he began to maneuver her physique.

Det. Marcus Could: The youngsters reported in interviews that after they returned dwelling, that, that Frank … was outdoors many of the night time. He — he wasn’t in his mattress.

Black says there have been recent tire tracks resulting in Makayla’s little home.

Lt. Dakota Black: We consider that the tire tracks really got here from a car backing as much as load her physique, to take it to the place she was situated.

The detectives consider Byers drove Makayla’s physique to the sting of the ditch, pulled her out, after which let her physique topple the 12 to fifteen ft to the creek mattress. They consider Byers then climbed down and dragged her into that pipe beneath the roadway.

As soon as Byers removed the physique, he concocted a plan to cowl up his crime.

 

MAN (bodycam): So she took her telephone along with her?

FRANK BYERS: Yeah so far as I do know she took her telephone along with her…

Keep in mind, he instructed the deputy that Makayla had messaged him from her telephone that night, telling him “again off …”  However investigators would later discover Makayla’s telephone in Frank’s bed room.

Detective Could confronted Frank in a second interview. 

DETECTIVE MAY (interview): … So, I am simply making an attempt to grasp how, if she left along with her telephone and was speaking with you thru her telephone on Fb, how that telephone was in your bed room? …

FRANK BYERS: I perceive. Um, I imply, I — I do not — I imply, I — I haven’t got a proof, truthfully …

However investigators did have a proof. Makayla had two telephones – an iPhone and a Moto G telephone. Byers had each of them.

Lt. Dakota Black: The Moto G telephone was an outdated telephone of Makayla’s that she hadn’t been utilizing for fairly a while.

Byers knew get into that outdated telephone. so he switched the SIM card from her iPhone.

Peter Van Sant: Why does he try this?

Det. Marcus Could: To achieve full entry to … all of her accounts.

Det. Marcus Could: That is how he was texting himself … pretending to be Makayla …And actually, it was him all the time.

The proof was mounting however they have been nonetheless ready on two key items of proof that they had despatched to the forensic lab for testing.

Lt. Dakota Black: I wanted a smoking gun that I knew was not gonna let him out. I knew it was going to maintain him there.

Peter Van Sant: What have you ever simply unwrapped right here?

Det. Marcus Could: … what do we’ve right here is the projectile recovered from the two-by-four inside Makayla’s bed room.

Along with the shell casings discovered on the ground in Makayla’s dwelling, they later discovered a bullet – wrapped in what they believed was Makayla’s hair – embedded within the wall. They hoped it might check optimistic for Makayla’s DNA.

After which there have been the boots.

Lt. Dakota Black: So these are Frank’s work boots. They have been recovered … on the night time of the lacking particular person’s report, uh, from his bed room.

Peter Van Sant: And what did you see on these boots that was of curiosity?

Lt. Dakota Black: So we had discovered a substance that we believed could possibly be blood, however he additionally works with a lot of chemical substances. So we have been uncertain if that may be one thing that acquired on there whereas he was at work.  

Thirty-eight days after Makayla went lacking, they lastly acquired the outcomes. They weren’t capable of get a genetic affirmation on the hair, however the boots have been a special story. The substance on Byers’ boots was blood — Makayla’s blood.

Lt. Dakota Black: As quickly as we acquired that … we have been like, we’re going proper now.

Peter Van Sant: You had your man.

Det. Marcus Could: We had our man, sure.

Plea Deal was  Cop Out, Says Sufferer’s Mom  

Lt. Dakota Black: We have been ready for that arrest. … So it moved quick after that.

It was near midnight, flashing police lights lit up the darkness. 38 days after Makayla Meave was reported lacking, Lt. Black, Deputy Richardson and a particular operations crew moved in to arrest Frank Byers.

Lt. Dakota Black: Acquired with the SWAT crew, organized the takedown and went in and acquired him.

Peter Van Sant: He thought he was smarter than everybody, however he was outsmarted, proper?

Lt. Dakota Black: Sure. I believe he was shocked.

FRANK BYERS (bodycam): I swear I did not do it.

Black lastly had Byers in her grasp and proper the place she wished him — in handcuffs headed to jail. Detective Could known as Makayla’s household with the information.

Barbara Harper: That was a hallelujah second, that was about time second. … We could not get her again, however we knew he wasn’t strolling free anymore.

Could says they have been finished with Byers’ lies and so they confronted him with the exhausting proof they’d taken weeks to assemble.

DETECTIVE MAY (interrogation): Now’s the chance to tell us what occurred.

FRANK BYERS: I — I did not do it. I imply –

DETECTIVE MAY: Why was her blood in your boots?

FRANK BYERS: I imply, I am unable to reply I imply, I — I — I do not — I do not know I imply, truthfully.

Frank Byers was charged with first-degree homicide. The D.A. was searching for the dying penalty, however the protection requested a deal to avoid wasting his life. 15 months after Byers’ arrest, he agreed to plead responsible and serve life with out parole.

Makayla’s mother was bitterly disillusioned.

Barbara Harper: I really feel that the plea deal was a cop out. … The second, the second that she took her final breath, he selected that and he acquired to decide on what he acquired for punishment too, and that is not OK. It isn’t OK.”

The plea deal is not the one factor upsetting Harper. She does not assume Byers acted alone.

Peter Van Sant: You are completely satisfied that Frank had anyone assist him.

Barbara Harper: I will go to my grave believing that.

Andria Meave: I believe he needed to have had an confederate. … I do not assume that he may have moved her physique on his personal in any respect.

Peter Van Sant: Bodily he couldn’t have finished it.

Andria Meave: No, I do not consider so.

Lt. Dakota Black: I believe all of us agree that it might completely be troublesome to maneuver her, however persons are scared, they will do superb issues.

Det. Marcus Could: What they’re saying isn’t unreasonable. … If the proof is offered to us at some point that, that — uh — that implies that … we’ll take it and we’ll run with it to its fullest extent.

Barbara Harper: I come and I sit and I take a look at that place down there … I went down and hung every kind of crosses and various things.

Barbara Harper: He did not simply take from us, he took from his personal youngsters somebody that liked them, that put them first.

Lt. Dakota Black: It did not have to finish this manner. He may have let her depart. However he did not.

There’s chilly justice for Makayla. For Detective Dakota Black, tracker, her painful work continues.

Barbara Harper: Makayla would need her life to imply one thing.

Harper is beginning “Makayla’s Purple Butterfly” basis to battle towards home violence.

Andria Meave: … that was her purpose, her mission in life, was while you see somebody in need assistance them.

Andria Meave (at Makayla’s grave along with her mom): After I consider Makayla, I consider sunflowers. I consider pleasure.

Barbara Harper: She would love that although, you understand, she would with all these sunflowers. I certain miss her smile, her snicker, oh that snicker was one thing else.

Andria Meave: She was my greatest pal. … I strived for her to be happy with me as a result of I regarded as much as her, although she was the little sister.

Andria Meave:  I nonetheless lay in mattress and speak to her like she’s nonetheless proper there. … I really feel like she’s watching over us on daily basis.

When you or somebody you understand is a sufferer of home violence, contact the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233

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Produced by Liza Finley and Hannah Vair. David Dow is the event producer. Marlon Disla, Marcus Balsam, George Baluzy and Michael Baluzy are the editors. Megan Brown is the affiliate producer. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.