On the morning of April 12, 2016, 16-year-old Mekayla Margaret Kim Bali was driven to her school in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, by her grandmother, a seemingly ordinary start to a day that would end with her vanishing. Surveillance footage captured Mekayla inside Sacred Heart High School at approximately 8:20 a.m., placing a binder in her locker. However, she left the school through a back entrance just a few minutes later.
What followed was a series of puzzling activities tracked by various security cameras around the city. Her movements suggested a departure from her usual routine, as she was described by her mother as a shy and quiet girl. Nothing about the morning had seemed out of the ordinary to her family. At the time of her disappearance, she was described as being five feet two inches tall, weighing around 115 pounds, with blue eyes and blonde hair, though she was known to dye it.
Mekayla's path through Yorkton that morning was meticulously traced by investigators. After leaving school, she was seen walking toward the downtown area. Around 8:40 a.m., she entered a pawn shop and inquired about pawning a silver ring but ultimately left without doing so. Shortly after, she went to a nearby TD Bank and withdrew $55. Her next stop was a Tim Hortons, where she purchased a drink, sat down, and was observed leaving and re-entering the establishment several times. Inside the coffee shop, surveillance footage showed her taking apart her cellphone and reassembling it. She also approached a woman and asked for help renting a hotel room, but the woman declined. Investigators later learned that many of her communications may have been through a messaging app called Kik, which made tracing her contacts difficult as the service does not track conversations in the same way as phone carriers.
After a period of unaccounted-for time, Mekayla briefly returned to her high school just before noon. Her final confirmed sighting was at the STC bus depot on 1st Avenue North. She was seen at the Trail Stop Restaurant, which was attached to the depot, where she had lunch. Eyewitnesses reported seeing her leave the restaurant sometime between 1:00 p.m. and 1:45 p.m. Although she had inquired about a bus to Regina, police confirmed that she did not purchase a ticket and did not board any bus that day. When she didn't return home, her family began a search and reported her missing to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that evening. The investigation into her disappearance was launched, led by the Saskatchewan RCMP's Historical Case Unit, which has since received and followed up on over a thousand tips from the public. Despite the numerous reported sightings and the relentless efforts of her family, no definitive trace of Mekayla has ever been found. The case remains a perplexing and unsolved mystery, marked by the unusual and seemingly deliberate actions she took on the day she disappeared, leaving her loved ones with unanswered questions.Last Seen: Apr 12, 2016
