{"id":1015953,"date":"2026-06-09T19:19:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1015953\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T19:19:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:19:24","slug":"us-woman-feared-dead-in-mexico-family-says-location-of-7-children-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1015953\/","title":{"rendered":"US woman feared dead in Mexico, family says; location of 7 children unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of a missing Indiana woman, who disappeared earlier this year while traveling in Mexico with her seven children, said they fear she is dead and the whereabouts of her children are unknown.<\/p>\n

Makala Pendley, 30, and her children were reported missing from Indianapolis on Feb. 23, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.<\/p>\n

Pendley’s sister, Maurica Lambert, told the Indianapolis Star,<\/a> part of the USA TODAY Network, that her family was working with Mexican law enforcement to identify a body found near a village of\u00a0Zinacant\u00e1n, Chiapas, in southern Mexico. Lambert said tattoos law enforcement told them were on the body has led the family to believe it is Pendley.<\/p>\n

“It’s the worst day of my life,” Lambert told the Indianapolis Star. “I feel like a part of me is dead.”<\/p>\n

In a June 9 email, the Indianapolis Metro Police Department told USA TODAY the family was located in Mexico last month, and the children were taken into custody by Mexican authorities who later released them back to Pendley. The IMPD said its detectives had not been notified about the death of anyone in the case.<\/p>\n

Pendley’s missing children have been identified as Nikola Jude Butler, 12; Joseph Jude Butler, 10; Aubrielle Oriana Butler, 8; Orion Jude Butler, 7; Earthum Jude Butler, 5; Polaris Jude Butler, 3; and Azrael Jude Butler, 1.<\/p>\n

\"Makala<\/p>\n

Makala Pendley and her children were reported missing in late February 2026.<\/p>\n

Lambert said Pendley and the father of her children had a “toxic, on-and-off relationship.”<\/p>\n

Court papers reviewed by USA TODAY show the couple had opened paternity cases relating to their children.<\/p>\n

The children’s father, identified in court records as Joseph Butler, could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

According to police reports, on Feb. 25, 2026, an Indiana Department of Child Services family case manager reported Pendley missing. When reached by phone, the department said it does not comment on specific cases.<\/p>\n

USA TODAY has reached out to the U.S. State Department for more information.<\/p>\n

Have you seen the missing Indiana children?<\/p>\n

Anyone with information about the missing persons case is asked to contact their local law enforcement agency or Indianapolis police at 317-327-3811.<\/p>\n

Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas with USA TODAY; John Tufts<\/a>, <\/a>Mia Thurow<\/a>,<\/a> Ryan Murphy<\/a> with the Indianapolis Star<\/p>\n

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Missing woman Makala Pendley feared dead in Mexico, 7 children missing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a missing Indiana woman, who disappeared earlier this year while traveling in Mexico with her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1015954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5311],"tags":[389,35063,281192,281191,281194,281190,281193,2132,49,978,659],"class_list":["post-1015953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-children","tag-indianapolis","tag-indianapolis-metro-police-department","tag-indianapolis-star","tag-joseph-butler","tag-makala-pendley","tag-maurica-lambert","tag-mexico","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116721770663859810","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1015954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}