Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Pregnant Mom of 7 Brutally Murdered in Mexico

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

Makala Pendley was a mom of seven who was pregnant with her eighth child. In February 2026, an Indiana Children's Services case worker reported Makala and her seven children missing. On June 8, Makala's body was found in a ditch in Mexico. The father of her children has been arrested for her murder. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with Makala's uncle in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/9a359c7f5Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Chris LambertCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Um, you know, as her uncle, I would just say, you know, she was a really, um, happy person. Um, she was hardly ever sad. Michaela Penley, a pregnant mother of seven murdered in the most horrific way. Police say the man who took her life should have been protecting her and their children. Um, and I think he's always tried to keep her isolated, um, you know, just that's typical, typical signs of abusers. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy.

Michaela Penley's family, they're in shock. They're trying to come to grips with the fact that she was murdered in Mexico, and they will never, ever see her again. Michaela was a mom from Indianapolis, Indiana. She had seven children, and she was between six and seven months pregnant with her eighth child. And the way that Michaela's family says she was murdered is horrific. The person accused of murdering her, the father of her children, this man, Joseph Jude Butler Jr.

The prosecutor in Mexico says Butler is responsible for Michaela's brutal death. In Spanish, prosecutor Jorge Abarka announced that Micha had died from head trauma caused by a sharp, blunt object. Abarka said Michaa suffered multiple injuries and abrasions on different parts of her body, but the injuries to her head were the ones that caused her death. Michaela's body had been dumped on the outskirts of a town. She was discovered on June 8th. The prosecutor labeling her death a famicide, a murder of a woman or girl,

a victim targeted because she is female. Abarka said following the arrest of Butler, they discovered he had a violent criminal history with offenses that included theft, fraud, illegal possession of firearms, intimidation involving threats of bodily harm, rape, drug possession, and the list goes on. Michaela's family is absolutely devastated, beyond devastated, really. Her uncle is going to join me here shortly to talk about Michaela in this entire tragic situation.

Michaela and her seven children had been reported missing to the Indianapolis Police Department in late February by a Department of Child Services case manager. Now we know where she and the children were. In a GoFundMe message, one of Michaela's sisters wrote, My sister Michaela Marie Penley was murdered yesterday. She was found stabbed, raped, sodomized, naked, with her head bashed in, and she was pregnant, six to seven months pregnant. She's been missing from my mom's since February. This is the worst time in my life, my mom's life.

All of our lives have been affected and shattered. I am in shock, and so is my mom. Michaela was a mother before anything. She became a mom at 16 and had seven kids. She has survived by all her kids except for the one that went with her to heaven. My mom, my brother, my sister and I are devastated and don't really have any funds to help us right now. So anything is appreciated. Just prayers for the kids and all of us.

Thank you and God bless. Thankfully those seven children were not hurt. They are safe and they will be returned to Indiana. I want to bring in Chris Lambert. He is Michaela's uncle. Chris, first of all, thank you for joining me. And I want to say I'm so, so sorry. And we all here at Law and Crime are so sorry for the loss of your niece.

Yes, thank you so much. It's a tough situation. I know that, you all were considering, you considered her missing for many months. Can you tell me what you think was going on there? Well, she was missing according to, I think, you know, like the state of Indiana. Because during this last situation, I think the state of Indiana took the kids away. And they were giving her an unrealistic.

I don't know what the word is, unrealistic things to do to get her kids back, put it that way. Meanwhile, her kids were in foster care, I guess, with foster parents that were obviously not qualified to have kids. And I guess they were being abused. So they, Michaela had fought to get her kids back,

temporarily at the time because she had proved that this is what was going on. I guess she had to go through that whole process to even prove that because the state was not doing their part, put it that way, which is crazy to me. But and then when she was able to get them back, I think that that's when she went to Mexico. I think she had a lot of fear that the kids were going to be taken away. She wasn't going to, she was going to have to go through, you know, this whole process. And, you know, maybe she wasn't ready for it. But she wasn't mature enough to handle that, if that makes sense. But these are all things that I've heard as her uncle through family.

That's really all I can say about that. The dad of the kids had got her and took her to Mexico at that time. So she willingly went with him at the time. But the whole time she's been with him, he's been very abusive, and she's continued to stay with him. and I guess, you know, deal with the abuse, which is unfortunate because when you have a lot of family and, you know, just friends and people in your life that love you and want the best for you and you're continuing to choose, you know, something that's not good for you, it's, it hurts, you know, to those people. and it affects everyone. You said that Michaela was being abused by the father of her children.

And had this been going on for years? From what I know, yes. And I think that something even, I think they used to live in Alaska. And in Alaska, she was being abused. and it actually got brought to the light at one point there. And then he got taken to jail there for it. And a whole lot of stuff happened there. And then she ended up moving to Indiana.

And it's just, it's been a, I mean, from the start to finish, you would have to actually have someone put together a whole timeline of how all this started, you know. you know she's always kind of been away from the family especially ever since she's been with him and he's the type of guy that don't want to be around other men because he knows that he would probably be called out or held accountable he's not going to be able to act any kind of way around other men especially men that you know have a sense of decent about themselves. So I have not met him ever in my life.

He's never came around. And I think he's always tried to keep her isolated. You know, just that's typical, typical signs of abusers. And, you know, all you can do is stand by and watch sometimes, you know. That's very unfortunate. it is common in domestic violence, relationships where domestic violence is present. You know, your family just, I've read some of the Facebook posts. I've read the GoFundMe.

Your family just has to be in such tremendous pain and over what happened to Michaela. did you ever imagine that something like this was going to happen to her? I mean, I don't think anyone ever wants to imagine things like this happening to anyone. And you always hope that it would not happen. But on the other hand, I mean, if there's situations with people that are violent, disrespectful, not being addressed. I mean, you can always expect the worst out of something like that. And it's disappointing for people that are in those situations to not make the effort to get out of them and try to blame it, you know, on the other person.

They're not letting me leave. They're not going to, you know, they're not going to be allow that or something as if the other person has control over you you know and when you have so many other people in your life that are willing to like i said before help you and protect you and in all those things and you're still you know mentally uh don't feel safe with that i don't i don't know what else to say you know i think the main thing with these things is to to get it stopped when it's starts happening like right away you have to you have to really get that taken care of that quig so i mean and she's the oldest um of the kids in the family my my sister's daughter she was the first born um she was like a daughter to me when she was little now i have four daughters myself um and i definitely would not allow this to happen with my daughters but Michaela did not have a father figure much in her life growing up.

So that was also, you know, part of, you know, some of the things that she had going on, you know, as well. How do you want people to remember Michaela? And what do you want people to know about her? You know, as her uncle, I would just say, you know, she was a really happy person. She was hardly ever sad. She did have, you know, her own personality, which was very loud sometimes, I would say. But at the end of the day, she, you know, she had a heart of gold, and I think she truly wanted a better life for herself and her kids. But I think maybe she just felt stuck in a situation that she had already.

created. And that's unfortunate because, like I said, these things start in the beginning and you have to, like, manage that from the start. You can't, you know, let things get to this point. And she was, she was very, very much loved. And before this trip to Mexico, she was living with my sister. And so she was back around the family. And we all had an opportunity to kind of be in her life, you know, be around her and her kids and just kind of accept that.

And we did. And we were preparing for them to stay and build a life. And that just never happened. That's so sad. What is going to happen to the children now? Will they be brought back to the United States and placed with your family? you know that's the scary thing because you know as her uncle um you know i have been around the kids and they're great kids um they just need some love and guidance in their life and it's heartbreaking

to think that you know the state or whoever has control would would would separate them for one or would recklessly put them in a home that's not suitable for them that's not suitable for them that's not even close to being family. But I do think they're going to be sending the kids back. I think my sister is trying to prepare to possibly take them on. And I have other family members as well that seem to be on board with, you know, this whole thing, like wanting to get the kids, help them and allow them to thrive. you know all with family so um i have seen some news reports and post that speak of them you know coming back

along with macaela um so i'm i'm grateful for that as her uncle to know that you know she's not going to be necessarily buried there um and all like at the month all I can do is just, you know, hope for the best and pray that, you know, things will, you know, work out for them. You know, I'm just one person. I can't possibly, you know, be, you know, step in to be their foster parent or anything. But I can always be here to show my love and support, you know. It's so sad. And I hope that the children do stay together because they've lost their mom in a horrific way. They need each other and their father is accused of taking the life of their mother.

So they need a stable life. And I hope that they get that. Yeah, yeah, me too. And they do have. I think their dad is an only child and he has a mom that is still alive, which would be their grandmother. But I have never seen her or spoken with her either. So I'm not sure about that situation. And to be honest, I haven't even heard her name mentioned throughout any of this.

I think she has constantly enabled and ignored signs of, abuse that her son has been, you know, doing out here. And that's unfortunate also to have a grandmother that ignores their son's abuse over his seven kids' mother, for one, let alone his kids, most likely. But, you know, the world is a scary place, and sometimes it's hard to find people. that, you know, we're going to do the right thing, you know. Yeah. I'm so sorry, Chris.

Is there anything else that you would like to say? I mean, no, you know, I've really been very emotional alone about this whole situation. And I've been trying to kind of fight back with tears and pull my pants up kind of thing about it. I just, you know, just want to say I love my niece very much. And I hope to see justice from him. And I hope to see the kids be allowed and given a chance to thrive and be close to family and, you know, given the tools and whatever they need to be successful. So, you know. Well, again, Chris, I'm so sorry for your loss, the loss that your family is enduring and the children.

I hope that the children get back to the United States and that they all stay together. Again, I'm so sorry. And I think that my sister has like a GoFundMe type of page set up. And I'm not sure what's going on with it, but that would be a great way for someone to, you know, at least help give money because all of any and all the money that they give would go. towards these kids for their food, clothes, education, and, you know, housing, shelter over their heads. So, and, you know, that's not cheap to do that, right? So, and they're going to need beds, you know, there's a lot that's going to have to come of this. So, but I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me, interview me.

and I'm surprised that I even have came this far with you on this because I've had other phone calls and not responded. So it's because I just didn't know what to say. But today is like my Friday. So maybe I'm a little more upbeat and able to handle a call like this. Well, we appreciate you making the time. and we'll put the link to the GoFundMe in the bottom of the description for the podcast. Thank you so much. I hope you have a great Thursday.

You're doing great work back there. And I'm blessed to be part of this interview. Now, you've heard us mention that GoFundMe account. We've posted the link for Michaela Penley's GoFundMe in the description for this video. You can check it out there. Chris Lambert expects the children, as I mentioned, to be returned to the United States soon as prosecutors in Mexico say they are continuing to build the case against Joseph Butler. So we'll bring you any updates as they come in. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy.

Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.