Born on July 2nd 1999, in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Mekayla Bali was always a shy and quiet girl. Her mother Paula, described her as a kid who did not take risks and followed the rules.
Though she struggled with bullying at school because of her acne, she was described by her friends as extremely considerate and a person who would go out of her way to make sure those around her were happy. Being the caring person she was, Mekayala had aspirations of going into child care or becoming a vet.
In 2016, 16 year old Mekayla was living in Yorkton with her aunt, mother, grandmother and 2 younger siblings and attended Sacred Heart high school.
On the morning of April 12th, Mekayla’s grandmother dropped her off for what was supposed to be another ordinary day at school, nobody could have imagined that this would be the last time that she would ever be seen by her loved ones. And what followed, is a case that still baffles investigators to this day…
When Mekayla’s grandmother arrived to the school at the end of that day to pick her up, Mekayla was not there waiting for her as normal. After asking around, her grandmother called Mekayla’s mother to tell her that something was wrong.
Mekayla’s mother soon arrived at the school to help search for her daughter, but after their frantic search turned up nothing, they made a call to the police and Mekayla was officially reported missing.
The investigation kickstarted instantly and the most helpful tool that the police had, was the CCTV footage that helped piece together the puzzle of Mekayla’s movements that day. But rather than provide answers, the footage would only provide more questions.
Arriving at school around 8:20am, in a routine that was no different to usual, CCTV captured Mekayla inside her school at her locker, but just five minutes later, she left her school through the back entrance, walking east bound on Smith Street west and gladstone north where her movements were captured by a convenience store.
At 8:51am, just over 20 minutes after leaving school, Mekayla arrived at the local TD bank, where she could be seen talking on the phone outside, waiting for the bank to open. What’s strange, is that when police later contacted Mekayla’s phone company, Telus, to get data of her phone activity, no outbound calls registered from the time that she was outside the bank. In fact, none of the calls that Mekayla could be seen making that day were registered, leading investigators to believe that Mekayla may have had a second cell phone.
At 8:55am, a worker opened up the bank’s shutters and Mekayla walked inside, approaching a teller and asking to withdraw $55 from her account. At 9am, Mekayla left the bank and once again made a phone call, but the recipient of this call is still unknown.
She then began making her way to Terry’s Pawn and bargain shop and when police later spoke to the owner, Terry Hedden, he informed them that Mekayla had tried to pawn a silver ring but unfortunately it hadn’t been worth anything so Mekayla left. Terry claimed that she didn’t seem disheartened and simply left his store, heading South.
Around 15 minutes later, Mekayla was once again captured on CCTV, this time from within Tim Hortons.
It was here that some strange things happened and Mekayla’s behaviour struck investigators as odd. Mekayla purchased a drink and sat down in one of the booths, placing her backpack next to her, with her back facing away from the entrance.
One of Mekayla’s close friends later noted that it was unusual for her to carry a backpack to school and she usually just took a purse. Mekayla had 3 close friends at school. The day before her disappearance on April 11th Mekayla and her friends went out to lunch where she talked about wanting to get out of their small town, Yorkton.
The young girls always talked about moving to a bigger city after school and didn’t take much notice. The fact that she had a backpack with her that day is a clear indication that she may have had plans to actually leave.
As the footage progressed, Mekayla could be seen turning around every now and then, peering at the entrance, almost as if she was waiting for someone to arrive. At 9:20am, Mekayla got up from her seat and left the restaurant through one of its 2 exits, before instantly returning to leave through the other exit.
At 9:49am, Mekayla returned to the restaurant, this time, talking on her cell phone and once again sat down at a booth, this time facing towards the main entrance.
After ending her call, she could be seen sending messages, browsing her phone and looking out of the window, once more as though waiting for someone’s arrival. At 10:12am, she texted her close friend Shelby with words that read “hey, I need help”.
Over the next 30 minutes she sent a second text to her that read “never mind, I figured it out”. At 10:25am whilst on another call, she left the restaurant again, only to immediately return and sit in the same booth.
At 10:43am, the footage shows her ending her call and approaching an elderly lady at a nearby table. After tracking this lady down, investigators were able to determine that Mekayla had asked for help renting a hotel room, however the lady had declined. Unfortunately the lady was not able to provide answers as to why Mekayla had wanted the room, whether she needed help with payment or just because she needed an adult to book the room for her was not known. The lady had also not known where Mekayala had wanted to rent the room either. After this, Mekayla returned to her booth, made another call and left the restaurant for the final time.
The timeframe of Mekayla’s wearabouts up until 11:55am are unknown, but during this time, Mekayla sent Shelby another text that read “I’ll see you at lunch”.
At 12pm, Mekayla returned to Sacred Heart High School, where she met with 2 students, Ali Clarkson and Joanne Buckle; it was here that she told them she was going to take a bus to the town of Regina, around 2 hours away.
Just five minutes after arriving to the school, Mekayla once again left, making her way to a bus depot, where an employee later remembered seeing her shortly thereafter. The employee was able to recall that Mekayla had wanted to know what time a bus to Regina was leaving and when she was told 5pm, she had left without buying a ticket.
She was later spotted at a nearby restaurant called Trail Shop where she purchased a meal.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of cameras in this area, Mekayla was never captured on any footage again. Just under 4 hours later at 4:40pm, her grandmother had arrived to the school to pick her up, ready to drop her off for her violin rehearsal, but she was already gone. By 6:15am the next morning, her cell phone was officially off.
Since there was no more footage, police were now relying on witnesses and people said they saw her leaving with a man that had a big red cross tattoo on the back of his arm. After releasing the sketch of the tattoo the man came forward and he said he was simply holding the door for her and his story checked out.
Being that Mekayla was very active on her social media, there was no activity after the day of her disappearance.
However, a few months later, a friend had noticed that a snapchat message that had been sent to Mekayla had been opened, providing hope that Mekayla was still out there alive and well. Unfortunately investigators are not able to say whether this was infact read by Mekayla or whether this was just a glitch with the app.
After her disappearance, it came to light that Mekayla had a habit of meeting people through online apps; the main one being KIK. Her friend Shelby said that at the time of her disappearance, she had been speaking to a boy named Josh, whilst another said she had been speaking to a boy named Christopher, but besides their names, her friends did not know anything else.
The day before her disappearance, Mekayla told her friends a number of contradicting stories, one saying that she was going on vacation with her family and the other saying that Christopher was coming to town to meet her.
That same night, Mekayla texted 3 people: her ex-boyfriend, and her friends Shelby and Amy. She texted Amy that she needed help but Amy did not respond to her, she also texted Shelby about a boy and she texted her ex-boyfriend that she was not happy and she was thinking about going to Regina for a couple of days.
It would be 10 months before investigators could access Mekayla’s social media due to privacy laws; Police discovered that Mekayla had multiple Instagram accounts and one of them had a large following but no photos which led them to believe they had been deleted. In the bio/about me section of the Instagram page, it said “goodbye”.
Mekayla’s father is not officially known, but after her disappearance, a man named Rick Breit was put forward as her possible biological father.
This was a man who lived in Regina and was later investigated, but it was concluded that he had nothing to do with Mekayla’s disappearance.
Sadly from here, the case ran cold. In 2017, a sighting went viral across the internet, when a girl matching Mekayla’s description was seen on the Skytrain in Vancouver. This lead was investigated but once again, led nowhere.
A $100,000 reward for any tip that leads to Mekayla’s whereabouts is being offered.
