Tracker Dakota Black On The Hunt

[Music] At 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 Potawatomi County Sheriff's Office. And I was brought into the missing person's case for Michaela Miyabe. 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. There's nothing strange. She might be in there. She might be. She may not be alive. I 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 tell you your heart strings, and this one was one of those. What was it about this woman that fueled you this way? Just who she was. My sister Michaela 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. We 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 and finding her alive. I 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. The guys at the sheriff's office call her a cool dude with long hair because they say she's meaner than any of them. 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 train tracker and detective with the Potawatomi 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. Often 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 there will be one that I always remember through my whole life because of how cruel it was. The 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 was hysterical, crying, screaming, can barely understand what he's saying and he says Michaela didn't come home last night. The ended up telling me that Michaela went on a date the Friday night before with a bald man and a white truck. They 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. And 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 on her to 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 Potawatomi County Sheriff's office that afternoon. 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. Frank 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. Then he told him the story about Michaela driving off with a bold man in a white truck. Deputy Richardson then asked if he could see the house where Michaela was temporarily living. 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. 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. His wife was missing. He called his son, also a deputy, from the car. 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 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. Frank 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 of a shoot. By then, more deputies had arrived. I had asked him where she kept that gun and he said it was in his house. I had him walk me to his house and he walked inside and he pointed at it. I 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. - Let's put it recently, yeah. - I made phone calls to get our criminal investigation team out there because I just, it was off there. There was something it needed to be looked into more. - Hey, I'm on that missing person things too. This is suspicious as (bleep) (upbeat music) - Investigators ushered family and friends off the property and blocked the driveway. - I remember walking back to my car. Just screaming at God, asking Him, "Wow." "Why did you do this, let this happen." Just take me, take me and let us find her and just take me. - The missing person's 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. (dramatic music) (suspenseful music) - As soon as Lieutenant Dakota Black got the call that Michaela Meyavi was missing, she jumped in her vehicle and sped to McComb. - What was your immediate mission? - To locate Michaela, we needed a locator, we didn't know where she was. - So it was 1366. - Detective Black and her partner on the case, Detective Marcus May, now the under sheriff, put out a Bolo alert. Be on the lookout. - It was being a lookout for a white male with a beard, bald head, driving a white truck. We wanted all of the local law enforcement 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. - Every white pickup truck with 10 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. - Michaela Meyavi was beloved by everybody. They were demanding every resource possible to go find Michaela. - And Dakota, this was a woman with enormous heart, right? - Absolutely. She loved her family. She loved her friends. She loved children. Michaela fell in love with children when she herself was still a child. Her mom Barbara ran a daycare. - We weren't just a daycare, we 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 to, 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. So 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 McComb, 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 taking care of, she would take it to the principal and bring awareness to it. - I 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 thick infested woods in search of their beloved teacher. But one person at the heart of this mystery can specuously 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 like concerned about that. He 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. - That's this one, 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. And when everybody's pointing a finger at you, I'm sure it doesn't make it any better. - Yeah, I feel like I'm dipped in myself and tell everyone that no, this is what happened. This was a truth. - She pressed him, but not enough to make him stop talking. - Did you ask her about the date before she left? - 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. This search for Michaela continued. Barbara remembers crawling through brush, wearing snake protectors, when she says she had a premonition. - I heard Michaela tell me, "Mom, 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 am now, but I'm on Hamilton Road. I was searching with my friend from my cousin, that's missing Michaela Viabe and I think that we just found her. (gentle music) - It was the air and eerie sense of foreboding. Michaela Viabe 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, "If she did, or alive." - Earlier that day, a cousin and her friend had been out searching about half a mile from Michaela'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 from my cousin, that's missing Michaela Viabe and I think that we just found her. - It 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. I 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 detective is not here. were working the scene, McHaleis 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 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. Mary, can you tell them we're here? Of 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 would let me. She needed me, but it wasn't there. McHaleis 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. Detective 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 McHaleis 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 ask McHaleis family about this open relationship, what they say? Absolutely not. They said there was absolutely no possible way that McHaleis would have ever done that. Investigators learned 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 McHaleis and hide it from her. He was communicating with females the day McHaleis 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, McHaleis 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 too. But McHaleis' 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 more." McHaleis went back to the Tenaker property, but not to Frank. She 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 McHaleis told Frank she was done. "I've never once been dead set for divorce until today." McHaleis 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." "And you have nobody to blame but yourself for doing it." That Friday, September 15, McHaleis 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 McHaleis in this picture?" "This is Frank's home and she's coming through the front door." McHaleis stayed for 14 minutes. The detective believes they were arguing. "Here's McHaleis again. She's leaving." This is the last picture of the series, Frank standing at the door of his home. "And what do you believe happened after this last photograph was taken?" "I think this is when he exited his home and went to her home and killed her. I think this is when he killed McHaleis within minutes." McHaleis was shot in the head. McHaleis had a gunshot wound right here in the front. She had one on the left side and then she had a grays wound on the same side. The last image she may have seen on this earth was her own husband holding her rifle and then the shot fired. "Yes." I'm Jennifer Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey and we're the office ladies. We're still talking about all the hilarious behind-the-scenes details from the office with icons from the show like Rain Wilson, Greg Daniels, Malora Harden, and so many more. And we can't forget our two conversations with office ladies superfan Billy Eilish. Hello! So join us for brand new episodes every Wednesday. And revisit the office rewatch every Monday. Follow and listen to office ladies wherever you get your podcasts. It started as a simmering anger. "And I just got to say this because I'm pretty angry." And grew into a raging fury. People wanted to know why Frank was still walking free. "I'm sorry." The most difficult part was knowing that we were accumulating evidence to Frank's guilt and McCabe's murder. But we were unable to release that or share that with the public. We knew Frank was guilty, we knew Frank was not a good husband, we knew Frank was lying, we knew lots of things, but we couldn't prove everything. And I wanted to prove everything to make sure he stayed in jail. Detective Black spent 18-hour days at the office with her sidekick Haven. The therapy dog now there for her. Give me a sense emotionally how tough this was for you. It was tough mentally. I was drained, I was mentally exhausted, I had lost weight, I was tired, but I was not going to go home until this case was solved. Frank used the time to defend himself on social media. I am innocent and everything will come out. He also appeared on local news. Even today, I call her, I mean, I know she's not here, but it's just the fact that I have her number still in her phone still on, somewheres. And it would have been nice to stay here, boys. Many in the community tuned in to watch Frank Byer's interview, including Lieutenant Dakota Black. Did it make you angry? It did make me angry. It was sickening to see that a beautiful woman was gone from the world, and that while he's on TV, professing his innocence, he's still in communication with other women, trying to have intimate relationships with them. Detective Black tracked down scores of these women. Crystal Cantrell was Frank's girlfriend before he met Michaela. He's very good at making you believe him, and then he's kind of like a snake once he gets you in there, he bites you. Detective Black learned Frank Wooed Crystal the same way he wooed Michaela, with a false story that his daughters were being mistreated by his current girlfriend. And like Michaela, Crystal had a soft heart. I love kids, you know, I have kids of mom, so I just felt really bad for them. Shortly after they moved in together, Crystal says Frank started to show his true colors. He isolated her from friends and family, and controlled her every move. They fought. One night, she woke up to see him looming over her, clutching a pair of handcuffs. I closed him so he couldn't use them on me, and then after that he just got on my back and was choking me. He had wrapped his arms around me and had his hand on my throat, and he just didn't let go. Crystal was able to get away, but was too afraid to report the incident to the police. She left Frank for good, but says. It could have been her in that ditch. He would have killed me. If Frank ever harmed Michaela, she never told her mom and sister. Sometimes they saw bruises, but Michaela always said they were just from roughhousing with the kids. I think if I think about it too much, it's where I will go down and dark hole and not come out, because I did see the bruises, and I just chose to believe in not question. And it may be if I would have questioned it would come out differently. Bit by Bit, Detective Black and her team built a profile of a murderer. So this photo was taken at Walmart. Using the date on a Walmart receipt found on Frank's property, the detective was able to track down this security camera photo. What's in the cart? There is bleach, ammonia, and a mop. And mop, ammonia, and bleach equals what in your mind as an investigator. Crimes can clean up. They were also able to match the carpet in the ditch. To one, a neighbor had given Frank and Michaela for their dogs. You gave them that carpet about eight or nine months ago? Yes. Frank took the carpet that was given to him by the neighbor and used that to roll Michaela's body in. They believe Frank killed Michaela around four pm and left her body in her home. He then picked up his girls after school and drove them around. Returning home about 8 pm, that's when the detectives believe he started to move her body. The kids reported an interview so I once they returned home that Frank was outside most of the night. He wasn't in his bed. Detective Black says there were fresh tire tracks leading to Michaela's little house. We believe that the tire tracks actually came from a vehicle backing up to load her body, to take it to where she was located. The detectives believe Frank drove Michaela's body to the edge of the ditch, pulled her out, and then let her body topple the 12 to 15 feet to the creek bed. They believe Frank then climbed down and dragged her into that pipe underneath the roadway. Once Frank got rid of the body, he concocted a plan to cover up his crime. Remember, he told the deputy that Michaela had messaged him from her phone that evening, telling him back off. But investigators would later find Michaela's phone in Frank's bedroom. Detective May confronted Frank in a second interview. So I'm just trying to understand how if she left her phone and was communicating with you through her phone on Facebook, how that phone was in your bedroom. I mean, I don't have an explanation honestly. But investigators did have an explanation. Michaela had two phones, an iPhone and a Moto G phone. Frank had both of them. The Moto G phone was an old phone of Michaela's that she hadn't been using for quite some time. She can just push in that hole, it pops the tray out. Frank knew how to get into that old phone. So there's a SIM card for those who don't know that's what it looks like. So he switched the SIM card from her iPhone. Why does he do that? To gain full access to all of her accounts. That's how he was texting himself for tending to be Michaela. And in fact, it was him the entire time. The evidence was mounting, but they were still waiting on two key pieces of evidence. They had sent to the forensic lab for testing. I needed a smoking gun that I knew was not going to let him out. I knew it was going to keep him there. What have you just unwrapped here? This, what do we have here is the projectile recovered from the 2x4 inside Michaela's bedroom. In addition to the shell casings found on the floor in Michaela's home, they later found this bullet wrapped in what they believed was Michaela's hair embedded in the wall. They hoped it would test positive for Michaela's DNA. And then there were these boots. So these are Frank's work boots. They were recovered on the night of the missing persons report from his bedroom. And what did you spot on these boots that was of interest? So we had found a substance that we believed could be blood, but he also works with lots of chemicals. So we were unsure if that would be something that got on there while he was at work. 38 days after Michaela went missing, they finally got the results. They weren't able to get a genetic confirmation on the hair, but the boots were a different story. The substance on Frank's boots was blood. Michaela's blood. As soon as we got that, we were like, we're going right now. You had your move. We had our eyes. We were waiting for that arrest. So we moved fast after that. It was close to midnight. Flashing police lights lit up the darkness. 38 days after Michaela was reported missing, Detective Black, Deputy Richardson, and a special ops team moved in to arrest Frank buyers. I got with the SWAT team, organized the takedown and went in and got him. This was the way that we have the main suspect. This isn't the way that we have the main suspect. This is the way that we have the main suspect. He thought he was smarter than everyone, but he was outsmarted, right? Yes, I think he was surprised. Lieutenant Black finally had Frank in her grasp, and right where she wanted him, in handcuffs, headed to jail. Detective May called Michaela's family with the news. That was a hell of a new year moment. That was about time moment. We couldn't get her back, but we knew he wasn't walking free anymore. Detective May says they were done with Frank's lies. And they confronted him with the hard evidence they'd taken weeks to gather. Now it's the opportunity to let us know what happened. I didn't do anything. Why was your blood on your nerves? I can't, I mean, I don't know me honestly. Frank buyers was charged with first-degree murder. The DA was seeking the death penalty, but the defense requested a deal to save his life. 15 months after buyers arrest, he agreed to plead guilty and serve life without parole. Michaela's mom was bitterly disappointed. I feel that the plea deal was a cop out. The moment, the second that she took her last breath, he chose that. And he got to choose what he got for punishment too. And that's not okay. It's not okay. The plea deal isn't the only thing upsetting Barbara. She doesn't think Frank acted alone. You're absolutely convinced that Frank had somebody help him. I'll go to my grave believe in that. I think he had to have had an accomplice. I don't think that he could have moved her body on his own at all. Physically, he could not have done it. No, I don't believe so. I think we all agree that it would absolutely be difficult to move her, but people are scared they can do amazing things. What they're saying is not unreasonable. If the evidence is presented to us one day, that that that suggests that, we'll take it and we'll run with it to its fullest extent. I can sit and I look at that place down there. I went down and hung all kinds of crosses and different things. He didn't just take from us, he took from his own children. Someone that loved them, that put them first. It didn't have to in this way. He could have let her leave. But he didn't. There's cold justice for Michaela. For Detective Dakota Black, try Mikaela would want her life to mean something. Barbara is starting Mikaela's Purple Butterfly Foundation to fight against domestic violence. That was her goal, her mission in life was when you see someone in need help them. When I think of Mikaela, I think of sunflowers, I think of joy. She would love that though, you know she would with all those sunflowers. I sure miss her smell, her laugh, all that laugh with some nails. She was my best friend. I strived for her to be proud of me because I looked up to her even though she was the little sister. I still lay in bed and talk to her like she's still right there. I feel like she's watching over us every day. If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. This family is on the brink of civil war.