The relationship had been turbulent for more than a decade
A thirty-year-old pregnant American woman, Makala Pendley, was found dead in a rural ravine in Chiapas, Mexico, after vanishing with her seven children more than three months ago — the end of a long flight from one danger that delivered her into another. Her partner, Joseph Jude Butler Jr., a man whose history of violence had been documented across multiple American states, now faces feminicide charges in Mexico, where the law names such deaths for what they are. Seven children, the youngest barely a year old, survived and wait in state care while two nations negotiate what comes next for them. The story is, at its core, an ancient and unfinished one: a woman caught between the threat of losing her children and the man who would take her life.
- Makala Pendley fled to Mexico to keep her children — and walked into the hands of the man she was most afraid of losing them to.
- Mexican authorities found her body in a rural ditch in Chiapas, bearing the marks of blunt force trauma and sexual violence, six months into a pregnancy that would never reach term.
- Her seven children, aged one to twelve, were found alive in a nearby city — orphaned in practice, their futures now suspended between two governments and a grieving family.
- Butler, already carrying a criminal record spanning assault, rape, weapons charges, and an outstanding Alaskan warrant, is now in Mexican custody facing a potential century behind bars.
- A critical window existed — authorities had briefly removed the children from the couple's care in May, then returned them to Makala — a decision investigators now weigh against the timeline of her death.
- Her sister's words on social media carry the full weight of what institutions failed to prevent: a wound, she said, that will never fully close.
Makala Pendley was thirty years old and six months pregnant when she disappeared from Indianapolis in February, taking her seven children to Mexico with Joseph Jude Butler Jr., the father of her children and a man she had been entangled with since her teenage years. She had grown afraid of losing custody of the children — and so she ran, not away from him, but with him, into a country where no one was watching.
Her body was found months later in a ravine near the village of Elambó Bajo, in Chiapas. She had been struck repeatedly in the head with a blunt object. She had been sexually assaulted before she died. Her seven children — the youngest just one year old, the oldest twelve — were discovered alive and physically unharmed in San Cristóbal de las Casas, not far away.
Butler was arrested on suspicion of feminicide, the charge Mexican law reserves for the killing of a woman. Prosecutors are seeking one hundred years in prison. His American record was long and dark: theft, fraud, assault, illegal weapons, intimidation, rape. He had an outstanding warrant in Alaska. As far back as the previous August, Makala herself had reported to authorities in Mérida that he had attacked her.
In May, Mexican authorities had briefly removed the children from the couple's care — and then returned them to Makala. Investigators now believe her body lay in that ravine for between eight and twelve hours before it was found. The children remain under state protection while Mexico and the U.S. Embassy work to place them with family. Makala's sister, Maurica Lambert, described the relationship as toxic and the grief as permanent — a wound, she wrote, that would never fully close.
Makala Pendley was thirty years old, pregnant with her eighth child, and had been missing for more than three months when authorities in southern Mexico found her body in a rural ravine. She lay in a ditch near the village of Elambó Bajo, in Chiapas state, her skull fractured from repeated blows with a blunt object. She had been six months along. Before she died, she had been sexually assaulted.
Her seven children—ranging in age from one year old to twelve—were discovered alive and physically unharmed in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, also in Chiapas. They had been missing since February, when a child welfare caseworker in Indianapolis first reported them gone. Makala had taken them to Mexico with Joseph Jude Butler Jr., the father of her children and her longtime partner, after she grew afraid of losing custody. The relationship between them had been turbulent for more than a decade, marked by cycles of separation and reconciliation since she was a teenager. Her sister, Maurica Lambert, would later describe it as toxic.
Butler is now in custody, arrested by Mexican authorities on suspicion of feminicide—the term used in Mexico for the murder of a woman. Prosecutors are seeking the maximum sentence of one hundred years in prison. Court documents show that Butler had a substantial criminal history in the United States: convictions and charges for theft, fraud, assault, illegal weapons possession, intimidation, and rape. He also had an outstanding arrest warrant in Alaska. In August of the previous year, Makala had reported to authorities in Mérida that Butler had attacked her in a house there.
The family's disappearance had drawn the attention of Indianapolis police and child protective services. In May, authorities located them in Mexico and temporarily removed the children from their parents' care. But the children were returned to Makala's custody shortly after. It was a decision that would prove fatal. Investigators estimate that Makala's body lay in the ravine for between eight and twelve hours before it was found.
According to Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca, the prosecutor for Chiapas state, the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. The sexual violence came before the killing. Now the seven children are under state protection while Mexican authorities work with the United States Embassy to arrange for their custody to be transferred to family members. Maurica Lambert, Makala's sister, posted on social media that the grief would be permanent, that losing her sister this way had opened a wound that would never fully close.
Citações Notáveis
The relationship between them was toxic, marked by cycles of separation and reconciliation since she was a teenager— Maurica Lambert, Makala's sister
The grief will be permanent— Maurica Lambert, in a social media post
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did Makala take the children to Mexico in the first place? What made her think that was safer than staying?
She was terrified of losing custody. Something in her situation—maybe the relationship itself, maybe the way Butler was behaving—made her believe that if she stayed in Indiana, the courts would take the children away. So she ran. She thought Mexico would be a place where she could keep them.
But Butler went with her. He was part of the problem.
Yes. That's the tragic part. She was fleeing something, but she brought the source of the danger with her. The relationship had been unstable for years—her sister said it was toxic, full of breakups and reconciliations. Makala was only sixteen when it started.
The children were found alive. What happens to them now?
They're in protective custody while authorities figure out how to get them back to family in the United States. They're physically safe, but they've lost their mother and their father is in prison. They're orphaned, essentially, and they're in a foreign country.
Was there any warning? Any sign that things would end this way?
There were signs. Makala had reported Butler's violence to authorities in Mexico months before she died. She'd been assaulted by him. But when authorities found the family in May, they returned the children to her care. That decision haunts the case now.
What does the prosecutor think happened?
That Butler killed her—struck her repeatedly in the head with something heavy, sexually assaulted her, and left her in that ravine. He's facing a hundred-year sentence if convicted. But the children will grow up knowing their mother was murdered and their father did it.