A man identified as the partner of an Indianapolis mother who vanished with her seven children earlier this year has been arrested in Mexico after authorities identified her as a homicide victim.
According to Fox News, officials in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas announced Monday that Makala Pendley, 30, was the woman whose body was discovered near the municipality of Zinacantán.
Pendley, whose family members said was six months pregnant when she disappeared, had been missing since February along with her seven children.
During a Facebook Live briefing, Chiapas State Prosecutor Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca said authorities arrested a suspect identified as Joseph “N,” whom investigators consider the primary suspect in the case.
“In the coming hours, his criminal responsibility will be determined, and he may be brought before justice. We will seek the maximum sentence of 100 years for this perpetrator of femicide,” Llaven Abarca said.
The prosecutor also revealed that Pendley’s seven children have been found.
According to authorities, the children were located alive and are now under government protection while officials coordinate with the U.S. Embassy to reunite them with relatives.
Llaven Abarca said the children were in “good health.”
Pendley and her children were reported missing after traveling to Mexico. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children issued an alert after the family disappeared from Indianapolis on Feb. 23.
Days before publicly identifying Pendley, Mexican investigators disclosed that a woman’s body had been recovered in the Elambó Bajo area of Zinacantán.
Authorities said preliminary findings indicated the victim died from a traumatic brain injury caused by blunt-force trauma.
Investigators believe the body had been left at the location between eight and 12 hours before it was discovered.
Indianapolis police had previously reported that the family had been located in Mexico last month. At the time, authorities said the children were briefly taken into custody by Mexican officials before being returned to Pendley.
During Monday’s briefing, Llaven Abarca said investigators also uncovered information about the suspect’s alleged criminal history in the United States.
According to the prosecutor, authorities learned through cooperation with U.S. officials that the suspect was linked to an active arrest warrant in Alaska and an Indianapolis police alert connected to Pendley’s disappearance.
Llaven Abarca further alleged that the suspect had previously been detained on accusations including assault, robbery, fraud, illegal weapons possession, intimidation, and rape.
The investigation remains ongoing as Mexican and U.S. authorities continue coordinating on the case.
