Nakota Blake Kelly

• Missing Since 07/19/2020
• Missing From Indianapolis, Indiana
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Male
• Race Biracial, Black, White
• Date of Birth 05/25/2010 (13)
• Age 10 years old
• Height and Weight 4'6, 60 pounds
• Medical Conditions Nakota has ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and needs medication to control his condition.
• Distinguishing Characteristics Biracial (African-American/Caucasian) male. Brown hair, brown eyes. Nakota's nickname is Fergie.

Details of Disappearance

Nakota was last seen in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 19, 2020. Authorities believe he was murdered by his father, Anthony Dibiah. Nakota lived with his mother in Wabash, Indiana and visited Dibiah in Indianapolis on weekends. Photos of both of Nakota's parents arep osted with this case summary.

Dibiah was born in Nigeria under the name Ejike Ibe. He had been living and working in the U.S. under a stolen identity and used at least five different alias names between 2002 and 2022. In 2012, he pleaded guilty to Social Security fraud, identity theft and misusing documents to enter the U.S., and served a 34-month prison sentence.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement tried to deport him, but Nigeria refused to take him back. In 2016, after his release from federal prison, Dibiah returned to Indiana and got a court order granting him visitation with Nakota every other weekend. It was during one of those weekend visits that Nakota disappeared.

The Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) investigated four complaints of Dibiah's alleged abuse or neglect of Nakota during these visitations. The first complaint was on Nakota's first overnight visit with his father, in January 2017, when Dibiah gave him a double dose of his ADHD medication, something Dibiah said was an accident.

Hayley filed more complaints against Dibiah, alleging that he had pulled Nakota down the stairs in one incident which left a bruise, struck him on the face and knocked him backward over a couch on another, and threatened to beat Hayley in Nakota's presence on a third occasion.

Each time, DCS ruled the complaint unsubstantiated. Hayley asked the judge to order that Nakota's visits with his father be supervised, but the judge refused this since none of the complaints against Dibiah had been substantiated. Dibiah said Kelly was trying to keep him from his son by making baseless accusations, stating, "this is all about the mother not getting her way in terms of visitation and child support."

Nakota played in Little League, and his weekend games presented a problem because he had to miss them to visit with his father and he didn't want to miss them. His coach said he was a talented player, and he wanted to play baseball professionally when he grew up, but he had missed many games due to the court-ordered visits with his father.

On the day Nakota was last seen, it was the day of the last Little League game of the season and Hayley allowed her son to play in the game even though it would make him three hours late for his visit with Dibiah. The visitation time was supposed to start at 6:00 p.m.; Hayley didn't show up at the hand-off in Kokomo, Indiana until 9:15 p.m.

Dibiah was furious about this and said he would inform the family court. He was already angry because Nakota had hung up on him during a July 14 phone conversation. Nakota had told his mother, "I'm dead. Don't expect me to come home. My dad is going to kill me." Hayley contacted DCS about this, but nothing was done and Nakota was still legally ordered to visit his father that weekend.

The last time anyone heard from Nakota was at 7:36 p.m., when he called Hayley from his father's home in the 6000 block of West Lake South Drive in Indianapolis. He said he had had something to eat and was watching YouTube, and that he loved her. He expected to see her at the pickup time at 9:30 p.m. on July 19.

Two hours after Nakota called his mother, Dibiah called a relative in Texas. He seemed panicky and repeatedly said, "I just killed my son!" The relative called the police and at 10:11 p.m. the authorities arrived at Dibiah's apartment, but when they knocked, no one answered. Police did hear movement inside and saw Dibiah's white Jeep Patriot in the parking lot. They left after a supervisor told the officers on scene that there was not sufficient reason to force entry.

Surveillance cameras at Dibiah's apartment complex showed his Jeep leaving and returning several times between 2:27 a.m. and 7:44 a.m. on July 20. After 8:30 a.m., the video showed Dibiah going in and out of his apartment three times, and on the second trip, he was seen throwing a bag into the complex's dumpster.

Later that morning, he called a friend and asked to borrow a suitcase, admitting again that he had killed Nakota. He said he had suffocated the child in a plastic bag and had dumped the body. Dibiah's friend told him he was going to call 911 and that Dibiah should return to his apartment. Dibiah said he was out of state at present but was on the way back to Indianapolis.

Dibiah's friend called 911 at 11:43 a.m. and this time, when officers returned to Dibiah's apartment, they got the keys from the manager and went inside. Dibiah and Nakota were gone, and the police found brain matter on the bathroom floor, blood spattered on the bedroom walls, floor and ceiling, and a small amount of blood in the entryway.

At 2:01 p.m., Dibiah sent a text to Hayley saying, "Sometimes I hear voices. My son is in heaven." Kelly texted back "What" and became frightened after Dibiah didn't respond. She spoke to some people she trusted, who then called the police.

The police were, by then, trying to find Dibiah by tracking his phone as he drove through Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. At 4:00 p.m., the Missouri State Highway Patrol stopped him in Macon County, about 375 miles from Indianapolis, and arrested him. There were bloodstains in the back of his Jeep but no sign of Nakota.

In September 2023, Dibiah pleaded guilty but mentally ill to his son's murder and confessed to strangling and dismembering him. His plea allows him to receive psychiatric treatment in prison. He was sentenced to 52 years in prison, three years less than the maximum sentence of 55 years.

Hayley has filed a lawsuit against DCS for Nakota's wrongful death. Nakota's body has never been found.