Mekayla Bali is a missing child of Canada, who has been missing from Yorkton, SK since April 12, 2016. As per the reports, she mysteriously disappeared after leaving her high school. It is believed that she may have been abducted by someone she had contacted and met through a social media instant messaging platform such as Kik or Snapchat.
As per her high school teachers, Mekayla Bali was a mousy student but she always presented herself as a quiet, good student and a violin player although it seemed she belonged from a broken home and her substitute names indicate a troubled history with father figures. Mousy students usually end up in pawn shops and bus depots, which are really rough places. Mekayla Bali may have been a violin player and a good student but the Pawn shop part of her life is worth asking questions about.
Mekayla Bali was an introverted teen with lots of online friends
According to her family and friends Mekayla Bali was a shy and introverted teen who had friends she went to school with but none of her friends really knew what she did outside of school. Although her friends revealed that she made a habit of making friends online through social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Kik and Facebook.
They knew she talked to people online through social media platforms but didn’t know many details about with whom she is in contact with or meeting with people she met online. But during the days before her mysterious disappearance, she had mentioned to her friends that there was a guy friend who was coming to meet her. All they knew about this person that she mentioned before was that his name was Christopher.
2 months before her mysterious disappearance, Mekayla Bali posted a picture on a social media platform, Snapchat with the caption,
“Looking for Snapchat friends because I have none in real life. Add me…Please don’t be a greasy fuck and send me gross ass nudes. Just looking for a friend.”
According to the investigations, it is clearly suspected that someone might have contacted her that day, and that Mekayla planned to meet him, whoever they were that month, possibly in Regina.
What happened the day Mekayla Bali disappeared?
The evening before her cryptic and mysterious disappearance, she seemed troubled, distressed and talked to another friend about being upset about a boy. The next day at 6:41 AM on April 12, 2016, Mekayla’s mother described that it was just as another ordinary day. They both got up, got ready for school and work, and Mekayla dropped off at the Sacred Heart High School by her grandmother around 8:00 am where she checked into the school’s Wi-Fi exactly at 8:08 AM.
Mekayla texted her friend Oksana and asked her to drive her to the bank. When Oksana declined her offer she was seen by the surveillance system of school leaving the school building through the back entrance by 8:26 AM, 6 minutes after putting her school things from her bag into her locker. Mekayla walked to the nearest TD Bank between 8:50-8:55 AM where she arrived before it had opened. She was seen waiting at the front while talking to someone on the phone on the CCTV footage of the bank. When the bank teller opened the shutters of the bank, Mekayla quickly finished the call and asked the bank teller to withdraw $55 from her bank account.
That day she didn’t attend her first period, her ex-boyfriend noticed her absence and texted her asking why she wasn’t in their first period, to which Mekayla responded that,
‘She was on the other side of town.’
After withdrawing the cash, she headed to the pawn shop, which the pawnshop owner recalled Mekayla and said that,
‘I refused the ring as it was too low of a price, and he didn’t buy it from her. But she didn’t look distressed’
Around 9:15 AM she headed south and entered a combined Tim Hortons and Wendy’s, where she ordered a drink. Mekayla sat in a booth with her backpack next to her where she was likely to use the WIFI. However, she never carried a backpack to school, so it looks as if that she planned to leave Yorkton. She sat there for thirteen minutes, constantly glancing at the entrance behind her.
At 9:23 AM, Mekayla was captured by surveillance where she exited through one of the two exits and was seen walking through parking lots where she continuously has her phone to her ear and is talking into her phone. Twenty minutes later she re-entered the same Tim Horton’s restaurant while talking to someone on the phone, where she again sat at a booth facing the entrance.
At 10:12 AM, Mekayla messaged a friend Shelby, “Hey, I need help,” but twenty minutes later, right before she left the restaurant, she messaged Shelby again and said, “Nevermind, I figured it out.” While she was sitting there, Mekayla asked women to help her to book a hotel room which the women refused.
Mekayla Bali always dreamed of leaving the town
According to her friends, it looked like she always dreamed of leaving the town because she used to tell them that she wanted to go on a vacation to Regina, Saskatchewan. While some of friends heard her say that she wanted to go to Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, or Saskatoon, all larger cities nearest to the small community she lived in. Her friends revealed that Mekayla would often talk about leaving town to get away to a big city and live there, but they never paid too much attention to her most recent ideas as they assumed she was dreaming.
Around 10:45 AM, she left the restaurant while talking to someone on the phone and between 10:45 – 11:55 AM, Mekayla’s whereabouts are unknown till now.
Mekayla Bali’s last appearance
Mekayla came back to school around noon at 12:02 PM, where she met with two of her school friends, and told them that she was taking a bus to Regina. Few minutes later she left the school where she was last captured by CCTV Footage of the school. When she found out that the bus she wanted to board would leave at 5:00 PM, she left the school and went to the UFC Bus Depot, where she ordered a meal for lunch at a Trail Stop restaurant inside the depot and she wasn’t captured by any CCTV at the location. Between 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM, it was seen that Mekayla departed from the depot and that’s where she was last seen by the CCTV Footage.
Till then Mekayla never came back to home or school. At the end of the day, her grandmother arrived at the school to take her to a violin lesson. When she didn’t come out, Mekayla’s mother, Paul Bali was immediately called. When they couldn’t find her anywhere near the school or home, Paul Bali immediately checked the “slush fund” which she always kept in the house in case of emergencies. Paul Bali found out that the “slush fund” was untouched, assuming that Mekayla also didn’t take many belongings with her. The backpack she was seen carrying could only have held a few days’ worth of clothing and the money she withdrew. Later on the next morning she was reported missing at 7:00 AM.
Bali family is still living to the hopes of finding Mekayla Bali soon
Whereas her family and friends remain hopeful that Mekayla will be found sooner than later. Since then no one ever heard a word from Mekayla. However, frequent sightings have been reported as recent as 2019. But sadly, it was always too late.
Her Mother, Paula doesn’t believe that her daughter intended to leave the town for an extended amount of time and thinks she may have fallen victim to a human trafficking operation. While many investigations are still going on to find Mekayla. Paula said,
“I will never give up the belief Mekayla is out there and in need of help. Hope is all I got… I have a gut feeling that she is alive, not safe and I desperately need to find her and ensure that she is safe. My mother, sister and the committee will continue to search for her and continue to fundraise.”
Bali family have announced a reward
If you have any information related to Mekayla Bali, please contact the RCMP. The Bali family is offering a $25,000 reward for her safe return.