Ma’Kayla Wickerson, 25, and her young daughter Malaiyah were among six people who disappeared from Berkeley, Missouri, in the summer of 2023. The group had been living together in a rental home on Graham Lane near St. Louis Lambert International Airport and were last seen together on August 6, 2023, at a Quality Inn in Florissant, Missouri. Family members say Ma’Kayla had quit her corporate job, stopped paying rent, and distanced herself in the months before the disappearance; she had been involved with an online group called the University of Cosmic Intelligence.

When police visited the Berkeley home for a welfare check on August 12, there were no signs of forced entry but many personal effects remained: valuables, laundry in the washing machine, and food in the microwave. Residents had been served an eviction notice shortly before they vanished. The FBI is involved and investigators have considered possible destinations including Mexico or Atlanta, Georgia. Followers of the group’s leader, Rashad Jamal, are said to sometimes disconnect from family and go off the grid, and Jamal is currently imprisoned in Georgia for unrelated crimes.

The families remain without answers and hope for information that could lead to the whereabouts of Ma’Kayla, her daughter, and the other missing people. If anyone has information about where they might be or saw them after August 6, 2023, please come forward.