Tracker Dakota Black On The Hunt

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 Pottaulautomy County Sheriff's Office. And I was brought into the missing person's case for Michaela Miabe.

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 something strange that she might be in there. She might be easy, may not be alive. [Music]

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 took it 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 Michaela is the strongest person I know. Has the biggest heart is the most caring. wants to take care of everyone and put everyone in for herself. I love you.

I love you most. I love you more.

Or a 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 sound. We just went out there looking for her, didn't sleep for days, didn't eat for days. 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 that day after day the chances were getting more slim and finding her alive. Damn. 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 the 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. On 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 manhands 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 train therapy dog. Four 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 15th, 2023, began like most days for Andrea Mayave. With a 7am 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 7am. Only this time, it wasn't Michaela.

He used hysterical, crying, screaming,

“Kimberly Anderson would be 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 Maccomo, 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, on herd 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 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 the comb around 4 p.m.

The deputy on duty, Dustin Richardson, felt he needed to put eyes on the ground. He got to the comb around 4 p.m. His body cam rolling. He'd give 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. A sureing him, she was, quote, "find and to back off." Then he told him the story about Michaela driving off with a bald man in a white truck. I was 8, 6, 6, 1, 10.

He was completely bald, and he had a beard. Find a beard, find how to guess away, I don't know. Maybe 200. Deputy Richardson then asked if he could see the house where Michaela was temporarily living. So he's been staying in this little thing.

Yeah, yeah. A lot of that. 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 that's brand new thing. I don't like it, but I read fondant 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 aid. Maybe she had gone there. Man, this Frank buyers called Anne, saying his wife was missing.

He called his son, also a deputy from the car. This guy has squirrely man, this Frank guy is squirrely. The sensation was that there is nothing about the 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 at and the pastor. 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 him to showcase things from what appeared to be 22 caliber. He told me that she sits in there and shoots out at animals, the coyotes and stuff. As a few times I part of her shoe. 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 had pulled it from where it wasn't in it. And put it in my vehicle.

It was pretty reasonable.

You know?

“I made phone calls to get our criminal investigation team out there because it was off.”

There was something that needed to be looked into more. Hey, I'm on that missing person. Thanks, too. This is suspicious. Investigators ushered family and friends off the property and blocked the driveway.

I remember walking back to my car. Just screaming at God. I was kidding. Why did you do this? Let this happen.

Just take me. Take me. Did 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. As soon as Lieutenant Dakota Black got the call that Michaela Mayave was missing, she jumped in her vehicle and sped to Michaela. What was your immediate mission? To locate Michaela.

We needed a locator. We didn't know where she was. There was 13, 66. 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 can pouring in.

Every white pickup truck with Lieutenant Windows was getting called into the sheriff's office. None of the sightings paned out, but the search took on a life of its own. Fliers were posted everywhere. Social media ads were everywhere. Michaela Mayave was beloved by everybody.

They were demanding every resource possible to go to 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 into 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 Bier's 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 Makoam, population 24. It's just contrary, it's 100% contrary.

The kids are 100% contrary. Makoila 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.

“I think that was her biggest thing in life was to help grow innocent kids that needed adult help.”

She always felt responsible to do that.

County wide 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.

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 Makoila. 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 Buyers?

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're always suspected, Frank. Three days after Makoila was reported missing, Frank Buyers agreed to be questioned by detective Black at the sheriff's office.

The interview was audio-only. That 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, I think you're at you.”

I'm sure it doesn't make it any better. Yeah. I feel like I didn't depict myself until everyone that know what 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 day before she left? 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 Makoila continued.

Barbara remembers crawling through brush, wearing snake protectors when she says she had a premonition. I heard Makoila tell me, "Mama, I'm in a tent horn."

“I said, "Oh my God, she just told me she's in a tent horn."”

Barbara frantically started looking for tin horns. Pipes or culverts used to divert water under roads. But there was no sign of Makoila. Then came the call to 911 on day five

that would prove her mother's intuition was right.

"Mama, I don't know what that's the way I'm at, but I'm on Hamilton Road. I was searching with my friend for my cousin, that's just being Makoila me all day. And I think that we just found her."

The chatter of Locus permeated the air, and eerie sense of foreboding. Makoila Mayave had been missing for five days. I got a phone call from my friend. I got a phone call from my friend.

I got a phone call from my friend. I got a phone call from my friend. I got a phone call from my friend. I got a phone call from my friend. 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 Makoila'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 hand. But I was searching with my friend for my cousin that's missing Makoila Mayave. 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, Makoila was in a large drainage pipe beneath the road.

She had been drugged 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 Makoila'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 Makoila. I have a history also.

You know, 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, Makoila's family gathered just up the road.

You could hear, hear them crying out there,

But the crime scene was blocked off.

I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there.

I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there.

I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there. I could hear them crying out there.

“I just needed to be with her, and they wouldn't let me.”

She needed me. But it wasn't there. Makoila'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.

And there.

And that we would never be able to hold her

and hug her again. I want to start into chasing the van. I just followed it. Down the road just as fast as I could. And somebody hauled it.

But he asked me what I was doing. And I said, "My baby's in it, be it." Detective Black was so angry. She had to hold herself back. I wanted to leave that night and go in a restaurant.

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 Bier's.”

The bullet casings in her home. His unlikely story that Makoila 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 hope.

And then they got in the truck and left. And when you asked Makoila's family about this open relationship, what did they say? Absolutely not. They said there was absolutely no possible way

that Makoila 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 Bier's 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 Makoila and hide it from her. He was communicating with females. Makoila was murdered and immediately afterwards. He was sending pictures to women the day of her funeral.

Asking, how do I look in my tucks? Frank's cheating got so bad. Makoila 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 what I do. But Makoila's love for the little girls kept drawing her back, says Andrea. I love you.

I love you most. I love you more. Makoila went back to the ten acre 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. The Kota Black would discover this conversation in which Makoila told Frank she was done.

I've never once been dead set for divorce until day.

Makoila 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 standing 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 for yourself. For doing that. That Friday, September 15, Makoila returned from work to pick up her things and leave for good.

But Frank had 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 Makoila in this picture?

This is Frank's home and she's coming through the front door. Makoila stayed for 14 minutes that detective believes they were arguing.

She's leaving.

This is the last picture of the series

Frank standing at the door of his home.

“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 Makoila. Within minutes. Makoila was shot in the head. Makoila had a gunshot wound right here in the front.

She had one on the left side and then she had a graze wound on the same side. Next image she may have seen on this earth was her own husband holding her rifle. And then the shot fired. Yes.

I'm Jenna 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 Hardin, 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, everyone's staying.”

And revisit the office rewatch every Monday. Follow and listen to office ladies wherever you get your podcasts. It started as a simmering anchor. And I'm just going to say this because I'm pretty anchored. 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. Makoila'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 Blackspend 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 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'd call her.

I mean, I don't see her. It's just a fact that I have a number still in her phone still on somewhere. And it would have been nice to stay here at boys. Many in the community tuned in to watch Frank Bier'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 and trying to have intimate relationships with them. Detective Black tracked down scores of these women.

Crystal Can Trill 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. You bite too. Detective Black learned Frank Wood Crystal, the same way he would 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, have kids amount, 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 on 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 wouldn't have killed me.

If Frank ever harmed Michaela, she never told her mom and sister.

I think if I think about it too much, that'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 a question.”

And maybe 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 that 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. Crime single enough.

They were also able to match the carpet in the ditch.

Oh, I got it. To one a neighbor had given Frank and Michaela for their dogs. You gave him 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 4pm and left her body in her home. He then picked up his girls after school and drove them around. Returning home about 8pm. That's when the detective's believed he started to move her body. The kids reported an interviews 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 believed 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.

When he was trying to understand how, if she left with her phone and was communicating with you through her phone face book, how that phone was in your video. Okay, I understand that. I mean, I don't have an explanation honestly. But investigators did have an explanation.

Michaela had two phones and 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 just pushed in the whole pops of the tree out. Frank knew how to get into that old phone. So there's the 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 account.

“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? What do we have here? Is the projector recovered from the two by four in a time of case of 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 person's report from his bedroom. And what did you spot on these boots that was of interest?

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 man.

We had our guys. We were waiting for that arrest. So it 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, an special ops team moved in to arrest Frank Buyers. We got what the SWAT team organized, the take down and went in and got him.

So we don't have to make something. This isn't even tough to be. So we were in arrest.

“He thought he was smarter than everyone,”

but he was outsmarted, right? Yes, I think he was surprised. That's where I ended up.

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 hallelujah 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. They know Frank. And they confronted him with the hard evidence they'd taken weeks together. Now's opportunity.

So let us know what happened. I didn't do the thing. I was here boiling this. I mean, I can't streaming. I don't know, I 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 helping. I'll go to my grave, believe in that. I think he had to have had an accomplice. I don't think 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 non-reasonable. If the evidence is presented to us one day, that suggests that we'll take it and we'll run with it to this fullest extent. I can sit and I'll look at that place down there.

I went down and hung all kinds of crosses and different things. It didn't just take from us. He took from his own children. Someone that loved it. 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,

tracker her painful work continues. Michaela would want her life to mean something. Barbara is starting Michaela's purple butterfly foundation

That was her goal, her mission in life

was when you see someone that need help them.

“When I think of Michaela, I think of some flowers.”

I think of Joy. She wouldn't have that now.

You know, she would with all the sunflies.

I sure miss her smile. Her laugh. All that laugh was something else. She was in 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. Like she's watching over us every day. If you were someone you know as 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”

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We want him off, and give him off! Marblehant, new season hits September 18th, Marblehant Plus.