321. The Murder of Makayla Maeve

Our sources for this episode are Oxygen, CBS News, coco.com, ktul.com, okcfox.com, medium.com, newyorkpost.com, people.com, kfor.com, mamamia.com, news9.com, thecinemaholic, and wilsonlittle.com.

I think one of the most powerful extrasensory skills that I've ever seen is a mother's blind intuition.

Everyone talks about it.

It's like moms have this divine spiritual entanglement to their children.

They always seem to know when something is off, when your energy has shifted.

Sometimes they call right at the second you need them most.

Other times it's like they can predict when something is about to go wrong.

And I know that's not the case for every mother, but it is enough case that it has become a stereotype.

But it's also not every day that a mother's intuition solves a disappearance.

After Makayla Maeave went missing in 2023, her mother decided she wasn't gonna sleep until she found her daughter.

And thanks to that motherly intuition or her divine connection to her daughter Makayla, she knew exactly where to find her.

And not only was she right, she helped bring justice to a case that might have otherwise gone cold.

I'm sure many of our listeners come from small towns, so you understand what it's like when everyone knows everyone, where gossip spreads faster than a virus, and everybody's in each other's business.

But I think the location of today's case might have most places beat because we are headed to McComb, Oklahoma, where in the year 2023, when our case takes place, the population is about 24 people.

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

And 30-year-old Makayla Maeave is one of them.

Makayla was a teacher's assistant at McComb Public Schools and was working towards getting her teaching degree at the time.

She was also very actively involved with the school's aftercare program, but Makayla always knew she wanted this to be her path.

Her mother actually ran a daycare when she was growing up.

She understood the power of education and nurturing, and it was what she wanted to do with her life.

So it must have been devastating when Makayla learned back in her 20s that she couldn't have children of her own.So instead, as she got older, she fostered and then adopted two teenage kids, a brother and a sister.

And she did everything she could to give these kids a loving upbringing.

Plus, she shared with them all of the things that always brought her joy: music, singing, religion, her passion for animals.

Michaela treated her students with the same kind of love and compassion that she treated her two adopted kids.