Kriti Mehrotra
When Makayla Fay Meave suddenly disappeared from her Macomb, Oklahoma, home without a trace left behind on September 15, 2023, it left all her loved ones baffled to the core. That’s because they knew she never would have left on her own accord owing to her standing as a devoted family woman, as explored in CBS’ ’48 Hours: Tracker Dakota Black,’ and they were right. Despite extensive searches, it was only the 30-year-old’s remains that were recovered from a drainage culvert 2,000 feet away from her home, which made it clear that she had been heinously murdered.
Makayla Meave Was Found Dead 5 Days After She Went Missing
It was on June 15, 1993, when Makayla Fay Meave was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Barbara Sue Ezell and Michael Kevin Downs as one of their three children. However, she primarily grew up in Lexington, where she was reportedly surrounded by care and affection at every step of the way, even after her parents sadly divorced. From what we can tell, she witnessed every aspect of her parents’ separation, amicable divorce, and remarriage with their new partners, resulting in her having 2 sets of parents and recognizing the true meaning of family – selfless support.
Therefore, by the early 2020s, Makayla had realized she wanted to have a family of her own, but she was heartbroken because she was told she could not have biological children. Instead of letting this medical truth hold her back, though, she saw this as an opportunity to do better and decided to adopt two kids out of foster care – a young girl named Adriean Vinson and a young boy called Brian Vinson. As for her dating experiences, while she hadn’t had much success in love early on in life, she found the man she believed to be her perfect match, Frank Byers, on Facebook by pure chance. The truth is that Makayla and Frank had gone to the same high school in Lexington, but they didn’t really connect until years later through direct messages on the social media platform.
Little did either of them know that one thing would lead to another, resulting in them tying the knot in June 2022 and her becoming the step-mother to his 4 daughters from a previous union – Daisy, Lily, Chloe, and Zoe. Hence, as a proud mother of 6 and a Paraeducator/Teacher’s Aide at Macomb Public Schools, it was strange when she suddenly disappeared on the evening of September 15, 2023. When she didn’t return home by the next day and was unreachable, her husband reported her missing, kickstarting an extensive search for her with the help of officials, loved ones, and volunteers alike. Sadly, only her remains were found 5 days later, on September 20 – a cousin had found her shot twice in the head, wrapped in a blanket, and then left in a drainage culvert 2,000 feet away from her home.
Makayla Meave’s Killer Was Arrested A Little More Than a Month Later
While Makayla was officially missing for 5 days before her case was classified as a homicide, investigators had already begun looking into her personal life in the hopes of finding some answers. They thus interviewed all her loved ones, and Frank revealed he had last seen his wife at around 5:30 pm in the driveway of their 100-acre property as she was leaving for a date. He claimed they were in an “open” relationship because she wanted to experiment, so she had even gone as far as connecting with somebody on Facebook for a date. This strange man, he told officials, was around 6′ tall, bald, and white, and he drove an older model pickup truck, but he didn’t know his name or his plans with Makayla because the mother of 6 allegedly wanted to keep it private.
“She told me right before she left that it is none of my business where she goes or who she sees,” Frank asserted before adding that he disappearance was “pure hell” for him and their kids. However, Makayla’s family vehemently refuted his claims, telling officials that there is no way she would have wanted an open marriage because she had recently asked him for a divorce. It turns out she had discovered he had allegedly cheated on her within a year of their marriage, so she packed her bags, moved into the shed on their property, and later asked him for a divorce.
That’s when investigators began looking deeper into Makayla and Frank’s relationship, learning that their union was far from idyllic because there had allegedly even been bruises and threats. All these details, along with the location of the discovery of her remains on September 20, enabled them to execute a search warrant on their property, which yielded a lot of evidence. Therefore, on October 25, 2023, Frank was arrested in connection with her death, later charged with first-degree murder, unauthorized removal of a dead body, and desecration of a human corpse.
Makayla Meave’s Killer Pleaded Guilty in Early 2025
While Frank had vehemently been asserting his innocence despite all the speculation on him, he went quiet following his arrest and the revelation of all the evidence against him. It turned out that during the execution of the search warrant, detectives found bloodstains in the shed, along with traces of broken glass, bleach, and ammonia, indicating an attempted clean-up. Arguably the most significant piece of evidence against Frank, though, was the recovery of the two .22-caliber bullet casings – the same kind used in he murder – and a pair of his boots with her blood on them.
Moreover, officials had found a phone with Makayla’s SIM card inside, so they hypothesized that Frank had killed her in the shed, disposed of her remains in a blanket, and taken her number to create a fake alibi for himself. According to court records, he had allegedly used her number to create fake conversations between them in the hopes of clearing his name if suspicion ever fell on him, but to no avail. In the end, on January 31, 2025, Frank pleaded guilty to a single charge of first-degree murder in order to avoid the death penalty, so he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
