Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office Investigates Body Found and Missing Persons Case

Two cases in Pottawatomie County, the discovery of a woman’s body and a missing persons case. Currently, the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office is investigating both, but so far, are not connecting the two cases.

The woman’s body was found Wednesday night in a rural area of the county along Hamilton Road off Oklahoma Highway 59A.

“Absolutely suspicious,” said Pottawatomie County Undersheriff Travis Dinwiddie. “You know the area of the body was in, you could not see from the road.”

Pottawatomie County Undersheriff Travis Dinwiddie says the location of the body and the fact it was wrapped in carpet, points to foul play.

“It was definitely placed there by someone, it couldn't just end up there on its own,” Dinwiddie said.

At the same time, the Sheriff’s Office has been working on missing persons case since Friday.

“The information we were given is that she had left to go on a date and never returned home,” Dinwiddie said. 

According to the Sheriff’s Office, Makayla Fay Meave-Byers was last seen on Friday, September 15 at her home in Macomb.

“It was she got picked up in a white pickup, they didn't have a make or model or anything,” he said.

Investigators say the mother and teacher with the Macomb Public School District never came home and on Saturday, deputies searched the area around her home.

“We spent all night out there checking the area and searching the area trying to locate her,” he said. “We brought out drones with infrared to check the area, we brought out search dogs to check just to make sure she hadn't you know maybe walked off into the woods and got lost.”

Investigators say currently, they are not connecting the cases until they receive an autopsy report from the state medical examiner’s office, positively identifying the body and the cause of death.