Body of missing Oklahoma mom found wrapped in carpet days after date with mystery man
A mother of six from Oklahoma was found dead and wrapped in an old carpet wedged into a ditch days after going on a date with an unknown man, officials said.
Makayla Meave-Byers, a 30-year-old teacher’s assistant, went missing on September 15 after getting into a Chevrolet pickup truck driven by a tall, balding man sporting a dark beard and sunglasses, according to a Facebook post by the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office.
The woman, who was married but in an open relationship, left her home in Macomb with the man voluntarily, after “supposedly” agreeing to go out on a date with him, Pottawatomie County Undersheriff Travis Dinwiddie told People magazine.
When Meave-Byers failed to return from her outing, law enforcement officials launched a search for her involving drones and K-9 dogs.
The woman’s family members also went on a desperate search to find her.
On Wednesday, Meave-Byers’ cousin discovered her body in a nearly 4-foot-deep culvert by a creek running under a road a few miles from her house.
The 30-year-old victim was wrapped in what Dinwiddie described as waterlogged “old pieces of carpet.”
On Friday, the medical examiner’s office confirmed that the body found in the culvert was Meave-Byers.
Although the woman’s body did not display any obvious signs of trauma and her cause of death has not yet been determined, Dinwiddie said foul play was “absolutely” suspected.
Meave-Byers worked as a kindergarten teacher’s aide at Macomb Public Schools while raising her four stepdaughters and two adopted children.
“She’s a great mother,” Andria Meave, Meave-Byers’ older sister, told the station KFOR before the woman was found dead. “It’s all she cares about.”
The missing mom’s husband, Frank Byers, previously begged for help with finding her, writing in a Facebook post: “She means the world to me. She literally is the backbone of our family. I love her deeply. She’s a good woman a great mom.”
The 6-foot-tall mystery man who was last seen with Meave-Byers so far has not been identified — and investigators said they had no suspects.
