Tracker Dakota Black On The Hunt

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1:12At first glance, when you come to this area in Oklahoma, it is very beautiful. It's serene, but we have missing people that are never found. There are homicides that are never solved. There's lots of dark secrets that live here. My name is Dakota Black. I'm a tracker and detective with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office. And I was brought into the missing persons case for Michaela Miave. And as soon as we arrived on scene, we started tracking the area and trying to locate her. We had multiple deputies and detectives in the woods looking for her. We were searching every place that we could potentially think of to try to locate Michaela.

1:54There's something strange. She might be in there. She might be. She may not be alive.

2:05I was not looking for an individual that was breathing. I was looking for my daughter's body, and I don't know why. Sometimes it's hard to not take cases personal. They tug at your heartstrings, and this one was one of those. What was it about this woman that fueled you this way? Just who she was. My sister, Mikayla, is the strongest person I know, has the biggest heart, is the most caring, wants to take care of everyone and put everyone before herself. I love you. I love you most. I love you more. Her main goal in life was to be around children, to help children, especially ones in need. Everybody that knew Michaela had nothing but love for her.

2:57We had a huge response from our community. Everybody really wanted her family. We just went out there looking for her, didn't sleep for days, didn't eat for days. It was raining cold. We were just out there for days. Was there a part of you that say, you know, there's a chance we may not find her? Yes. It seemed day after day, the chances were getting more slim of finding her alive.

3:30I just knew that she was gone. I can't imagine how scared she was. It's just sad. Sad that it ended the way it did. It didn't have to end this way. I was driven and I was not going to go home. I was not going to stop until this case was solved.

4:03The guys at the Sheriff's Office call her a cool dude with long hair because they say she's meaner than any of them. In the gun range and in the field. That fence that's hanging, I had to go underneath that, into the water. Her name is Lieutenant Dakota Black. She's a trained tracker and detective with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office in Shawnee, Oklahoma. I go out to scenes when there's manhunts or trying to locate individuals. Her specialty is finding the missing, whether alive or dead. I have found them underneath piles of leaves and trees and abandoned homes, sheds. I've found them pretty much in any area you can think of.

4:52Often by her side, her partner, Deputy Haven, a trained therapy dog. For kids and other family members caught in the crossfire of tragedy, Haven provides comfort and consolation, a consoling presence she herself would rely on in the coming months as she embarked on one of the most heart-wrenching cases of her career. This case will stay with me forever, and it will be one that I always remembered through my whole life because of how cruel it was.

5:27The last thing we said to each other was, I love you. Friday, September 15, 2023, began like most days for Andrea Mayavi, with a 7 a.m. phone call from her best friend and younger sister, Michaela. I wish I would have known. I would have said so much more. I'm grateful for that. At least I said I love you. The next morning, Saturday the 16th, the phone rang as usual around 7 a.m. Only this time, it wasn't Michaela. It was Michaela's husband, Frank Byers. He's hysterical, crying, screaming, can barely understand what he's saying. And he says, Michaela didn't come home last night. He ended up telling me that Michaela went on a date the Friday night before with a bald man in a white truck.

6:24They left and she never came home last night. At the time, Michaela and Frank were headed for divorce, says Andrea. They were still living on the same 10-acre property in Macomb, Oklahoma, but in separate homes. So at first, Andrea wasn't worried. My first thought is, she's single. I hope she had fun. But Andrea's mood began to shift when her many calls to Michaela went to voicemail. By noon, I was worried. One o 'clock, I was really worried. Their mother, Barbara Harper, was also anxious. Michaela was supposed to help out at the family restaurant that afternoon. But she didn't show and hadn't called.

7:09Unheard of for Michaela. And the more I prayed about it, the more I realized that something serious had happened. Frank also reported Michaela missing to the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office that afternoon. My wife's been missing since late last night. She left at 5.30, struggling all morning. And the last time that anyone has heard from her has been at 8 p.m. And your name? My name is Frank Byers, G-Y-E-R-S. What's her name? Her name is Michaela Byers. The deputy on duty, Dustin Richardson, felt he needed to put eyes on the ground. He got to McComb around 4 p.m., his body cam rolling. He'd given me the information over the phone, but I just wanted to see where she was coming from and see more of the details.

8:06Frank made a point of showing the deputy the last Facebook message he said Michaela sent him after she left, assuring him she was, quote, fine and to back off. Did you see the guy at all? Then he told him the story about Michaela driving off with a bald man in a white truck. So I would probably say 6-96-1. Okay. He was completely bald and he had a beard. If I had a guess away, I don't know, maybe 200. Deputy Richardson then asked if he could see the house where Michaela was temporarily living. Can I go take a look around?

8:51So she's been staying in this little thing? Yeah, yeah. But the shed-like home was locked, and Frank said he didn't have a key, but he did have something to say about their relationship. We have an open marriage where, well, that's a brand new thing. I don't like it, but I agreed upon it because I'm trying to fix our marriage. At that point, the deputy decided to take a quick drive to the school where Michaela worked as a teacher's aide. Maybe she had gone there.

9:28What's up? Man, this Frank Byers called in saying his wife was missing. He called his son, also a deputy, from the car. This guy is squirrely, man. This Frank guy is squirrely. The sensation was that there is nothing about this story that is really true. While the deputy was at the school, friends and family started showing up at the property, including Michaela's mom, Barbara. When I first got there, I didn't even speak to anyone. I was on my hands and knees crawling through brush out in the pasture. We've got to find where she's at. How are you? This is Deputy Richardson with his body camera rolling as he returned to the property late that afternoon.

10:21Frank had smashed open the lock to Michaela's place with a hammer. I looked, and I immediately saw empty shell casings from what appeared to be.22 caliber. He told me that she sits in there and shoots out at animals, the coyotes and stuff. There's a few times I've heard her shoot. By then, more deputies had arrived. I had asked him where she kept that gun, and he said it was in his house. Is it in there now? I had him walk me to his house, and he walked inside, and he pointed at it. I had pulled it from where it wasn't there. And put it in my vehicle. The gun, according to the deputy, appeared to have been recently fired.

11:07That's pretty recent. I made phone calls to get our criminal investigation team out there because I just, it was off. There was something that needed to be looked into more. Hey, I'm on that missing person thing still. It's suspicious as s***. Investigators ushered family and friends off the property and blocked the driveway. I remember walking back to my car and just screaming at God, asking him why.

11:43Why did you do this? Let this happen. Just take me. Take me and let us find her. Just take me. The missing persons investigation was now a possible criminal investigation. And that's when the call went out to lead detective Lieutenant Dakota Black. We definitely needed to figure out what was going on.

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14:47As soon as Lieutenant Dakota Black got the call that Michaela Mayavi was missing, she jumped in her vehicle and sped to Macomb. What was your immediate mission? To locate Michaela. We needed to locate her. We didn't know where she was. It was 1366. Detective Black and her partner on the case, Detective Marcus May, now the undersheriff, put out a BOLO alert. Be on the lookout. It was be on the lookout for a white male with a beard, bald head, driving a white truck. We wanted all of the local law enforcement and surrounding agencies aware that we do have a situation developing over here. The tips from this rural area, where everyone seems to know everybody, came pouring in.

15:36Every white pickup truck with tinted windows was getting called into the sheriff's office. None of the sightings panned out, but the search took on a life of its own. Flyers were posted everywhere. Social media ads were everywhere. Mikayla Miave was beloved by everybody. They were demanding every resource possible to go find Mikayla. And Dakota, this was a woman with enormous heart, right? Absolutely. She loved her family. She loved her friends. She loved children. Mikayla fell in love with children when she herself was still a child. Her mom, Barbara, ran a daycare. We weren't just a daycare.

16:23We were the family. And she loved those kids, especially the babies. Sadly, Michaela was unable to have children of her own. But that didn't stop her. In her 20s, Michaela fostered and would eventually adopt these two kids, a brother and sister. She dropped what she was doing, went and took classes, got certified to make sure that she could give those kids a home. She did. Around that time, an old high school classmate named Frank Byers contacted her out of the blue through Facebook. Frank, who was divorced, had primary custody of four young daughters. Frank was telling her a story that the current girlfriend he was living with was abusing his four daughters.

17:11So my sister took him and all four girls in and just started basically taking care of them. She felt like the kids needed her, and she sure needed them. Probably the happiest I'd seen her in a long time with those girls. Frank and Michaela got married in 2022. They built their lives together in Macomb, population 24. It's just country. It's 100 % country. The kids are 100 % country. Michaela was going to college to get her teaching degree while working at the local elementary school. And she would stand up for the kids. And if she saw a child that was dirty or wasn't taken care of, she would take it to the principal and, you know, bring awareness to it.

18:01I think that was her biggest thing in life was to help little innocent kids that needed adult help. She always felt responsible to do that. Countywide, dozens of people turned out in the cold and pouring rain to slog through mud and tick-infested woods in search of their beloved teacher. But one person at the heart of this mystery conspicuously appeared not to search. Michaela's husband, Frank Byers. He never participated in a single search. He never volunteered to go out with any of the search parties to go out and try to find Michaela. It wasn't like, oh my God, my wife is missing. He never seemed concerned about that.

18:48He seemed more concerned about himself. What were you noticing about Frank Byers? The lack of any human emotion. I mean, he did not seem scared. He just wanted to know what we knew. He just didn't seem human at all. Investigators were already zeroing in on Frank. We strongly suspected Frank. Three days after Michaela was reported missing, Frank Byers agreed to be questioned by Detective Black at the sheriff's office. The interview was audio only. Not this time, I just want her found. The detective tried to win his trust by playing the good cop. Again, I couldn't imagine. I mean, it's hard not knowing, you know.

19:35And when everybody's pointing a finger at you, I'm sure it doesn't make it any better. Yeah. I feel like I got to defend myself and tell everyone that knows this is what happened, this is the truth. She pressed him, but not enough to make him stop talking. Did you ask her about the date before she left? Yes, I did. And she told me it was none of my business. Same thing as if I went on a date, it's none of her business. Okay. So she never said a name or anything? How she met him, how she knew him? No. After answering questions for two and a half hours, Detective Black let him go home. The search for Michaela continued.

20:15Barbara remembers crawling through brush, wearing snake protectors, when she says she had a premonition. I heard Michaela tell me, Mama, I'm in a tin horn. I said, oh my God, she just told me she's in a tin horn. Barbara frantically started looking for tin horns, pipes or culverts used to divert water under roads. But there was no sign of Michaela. Then came the call to 911 on day five that would prove her mother's intuition was right. Ma 'am, I don't know exactly where I'm at, but I'm on Hamilton Road. I was searching with my friend for my cousin that's missing, Michaela Miabe. And I think that we just found her.

21:03meter.

21:31The Chatter of Locusts permeated the air, an eerie sense of foreboding. Mikayla Meavi had been missing for five days. I got a phone call from my friend and she said, I need you to sit down. And she said, they found someone. And it's a female. And I'm like, is she dead or alive? Earlier that day, a cousin and her friend had been out searching about half a mile from Mikayla's house when they were stopped in their tracks by a strong sickening odor the friend followed the intense smell down a ditch to a tin horn he saw something sticking out it was a hat i was searching with my friend for my cousin that's missing michael and i think that we just found her

22:24it was the call detective dakota black had been dreading it was devastating to everybody I mean, it was absolutely terrible. Just as Barbara had imagined, Michaela was in a large drainage pipe beneath the road. She had been drug into the middle area, and she was wrapped in the carpet. She had one sock on her foot that had teddy bears on it, and her shirt was actually pulled up over her face to cover it. I mean, it was hard. It was really hard. Detective Black wouldn't leave Michaela's side. The two women had been born one day apart in the same year. But that wasn't their only bond. I did feel a connection with Michaela.

23:09I have a history also. I've been in bad relationships. It could have been me. On more than one occasion, I just got lucky. While the detectives were working the scene, Michaela's family gathered just up the road. You could hear them crying up there, and they were trying to come down here where she was. But the crime scene was blocked off. I can't see her. We can't let you do the tape. I'm central. I can verify. Please. I never once doubted that it was her. If anyone goes to the tape without permission, they immediately go to jail. I don't know what to say. I'm sorry. Can you tell them we're here?

23:52Of course, of course. I felt like I needed to see her. because she had been out there for five days without me. And I just needed to be with her, and they wouldn't let me. She needed me, but I wasn't there. Michaela's remains were placed in the coroner's van for the journey to the medical examiner's office. My mom and I both realized that it was probably her. in there. And that we would never be able to hold her and hug her again. My mom started to chase the van. I just followed it down the road just as fast as I could. And somebody hollered at me and asked me what I was doing. And I said, my baby's in that van.

24:51Detective Black was so angry she had to hold herself back. I wanted to leave that night and go and arrest Frank, but I knew it's better to move thoroughly than to act quick. The two investigators had already begun building a strong circumstantial case against Frank Byers, the bullet casings in her home. His unlikely story that Michaela agreed to an open marriage. She wanted to start dating other people. and left with a bald man in a white truck. She embraced the guy in a hug, and then they got in the truck and left. When you asked Michaela's family about this open relationship, what'd they say?

25:34Absolutely not. They said there was absolutely no possible way that Michaela would have ever done that. Investigators learn from interviews and from Frank's own social media accounts that he was the one who was cheating. Frank Byers is the biggest cheater. He was cheating on her as soon as he moved in. Every time he would go out of town, he was creating dating profiles. Frank worked for an environmental cleanup company, cleaning up hazardous materials. He spent a lot of time on the road. He would meet women at gas stations. He would meet up with them at hotel rooms. He would text them while he was home with Michaela and hide it from her.

26:21He was communicating with females the day Mikayla was murdered and immediately afterwards. He was sending pictures to women the day of her funeral, asking, how do I look in my tux? Frank's cheating got so bad, Mikayla moved out about three months before her murder. She packed a bag and she came and stayed with me for a week. I held her where she cried every night. She felt like a failure. But I am worried to. But Mikayla's love for the little girls kept drawing her back, says Andrea. I love you. I love you most. I love you more. I love you most. Mikayla went back to the 10-acre property, but not to Frank.

27:07She temporarily moved into that little structure behind his to stay close to the girls. Frank tried to win her back, promising to change, but the cheating continued. Detective Dakota Black would later discover this conversation in which Michaela told Frank she was done. I've never once been dead set for divorce until today. Michaela recorded it two days before her murder. I'm just saying you have officially lost me. Detective Black believes she recorded it to expose Frank's infidelity. I'm stating to you right now that you have officially broke the last string that was holding me to you. Okay.

27:51And you have nobody to blame but yourself for doing it. That Friday, September 15th, Michaela returned from work to pick up her things and leave for good. But Frank, it seemed, had other plans. Detectives would later recover these images captured on a home security camera on his phone. Detective Black believes he thought he had deleted them. Where is Michaela in this picture? This is Frank's home, and she's coming through the front door. Michaela stayed for 14 minutes. The detective believes they were arguing. Here's Michaela again. She's leaving. This is the last picture of the series, Frank standing at the door of his home.