[Missing] Nikki Cheng Saelee-McCain: Vanished After Car Breakdown
Born in a Refugee Camp
Nikki Cheng Saelee McCain was born on November 9, 1984, in a refugee camp in Southeast Asia amidst the chaos and uncertainty following the Vietnam War.
Her parents had lived in Laos during the war, but when countless families were displaced in the fallout, Nikki's family made the terrifying decision to flee. The U.S. government granted asylum in Thailand for those who could make it there, and Nikki's family was among the refugees who survived the journey.
Nikki was the third of seven children born to her resilient parents. Despite being born in unimaginable circumstances, Nikki's family eventually made it to the United States and settled in the Sacramento, California area.
Nikki grew up surrounded by her siblings, and her family worked hard to build a life in America after surviving so much trauma and loss.
A Life Full of Laughter
Those who knew Nikki describe her as someone with an infectious laugh and a calm, easygoing demeanor.
She was the kind of person who could find humor in any situation. Even when things went wrong, Nikki stayed calm and laughed it off.
That's exactly what happened the day her car broke down on the freeway.
The Day She Vanished
Nikki was driving on a California freeway with her friend Chloe. They were going 65 mph when Nikki mentioned that the gears in her red Mitsubishi Eclipse were getting stiff and wouldn't shift easily.
The Eclipse had a manual transmission and came with a few quirks, but Nikki adored her car.
When the gears became too stiff to shift, Nikki asked Chloe to help her pull the shifter to get it into a higher gear. They both started tugging at the gear shift, giggling and laughing the whole time.
Nikki said, "Just yank harder."
So they did.
The shifter snapped completely in half.
Instead of panicking, Nikki burst out laughing. She calmly said, "Oh my gosh, it broke," as if it were no big deal.
She turned on her emergency lights and coasted to the side of the road, still laughing about how absurd the whole situation was.
Chloe said this was classic Nikki—calm, collected, and able to laugh even in stressful moments.
But what should have been a minor inconvenience turned into a nightmare.
Nikki vanished.
The Investigation
Nikki's disappearance sparked an investigation, but for years, there were no answers.
Then, Nikki's husband was arrested and charged with her murder.
Her body has never been found.
A Family's Fight for Justice
Nikki's family has never stopped fighting for answers. They worked with Moms and Mysteries to share Nikki's story and keep her memory alive.
Nikki was born in a refugee camp, survived unimaginable hardship, and built a life in America. She was a daughter, a sister, a friend. She was someone who laughed easily and stayed calm under pressure.
Her life was stolen, and her family deserves justice.
If you have any information about Nikki Cheng Saelee McCain, please contact local authorities.
Nikki's family is still waiting for answers. Please help bring them closure.
TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a True Crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi, Mandy. How are you? I am doing pretty good this week. How are you? I'm doing great. I feel like we've seen each other Well, we've seen each other two days in a row.
Tomorrow will be three. That's a lot. Oh my gosh. That's like overload more than ever. That's more than ever. Too much about me, not about you. Oh wow. Wow. Okay. Just, I don't wanna see myself into the digs. 30 seconds in the new year. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Uh, speaking of the new year, now is a great time. If you'd like to get ad free episodes as well as a ton of bonus content over on Patreon, patreon.com/moms and Mysteries podcast, you can always just sign up for free membership and you'll see the calendars as we post them.
So if something's interesting to you. You can jump in, jump out whatever you want, but that will be there. Tomorrow we're dropping the first episode of a two-parter on the Jerry Springer fights camera action documentary. So good on [00:01:00] Netflix. So, so good, so good. Mandy's been sending me quotes from it and I just, again, she's watching tv, so I'm thrilled.
Yeah, so again, that's uh, patreon.com/moms and Mysteries podcast. So we're actually recording this episode on January 9th and. As all of you know, if you're following the news lately, there is just devastating fires that are happening in California right now. I've been seeing like these scariest videos and footage and people's stories that they're like saying, like being trapped in their homes and not being able to get out, and just how fast all of these fires have kind of taken over.
So if you live in the area or if you, especially if you've had to evacuate, we hope everybody is safe like that is. Terrifying to think of losing. Uh, but just the videos I've been seeing is just devastating. Yeah. So, yeah. So if you do live out that way, our friends over in the West, um, we are thinking of you and hope that all of you are safe and with your loved ones.
Absolutely. And the story that we have this week [00:02:00] actually, uh, comes from California and it is a relatively recent story. It's a story that our Hailey, uh, was able to work with some family members of the missing person in the. Story this week, and we are very fortunate that we're able to share the story, and so we're gonna get right into it.
The story of Nikki Chang, SALY McCain began on November 9th, 1984, amidst the chaos and uncertainty in Southeast Asia in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Born in a refugee camp. Nikki was the third of seven kids that were born to her very resilient parents. They had lived in Laos during the Vietnam War, but when countless families were displaced in the fallout, Nikki's family had to make the very scary decision to flee.
The US government had stepped in and granted asylum in Thailand for those who could make it there, and Nikki's parents decided to take that chance. They migrated to Thailand and lived in refugee [00:03:00] camps where they welcomed four children, including Nikki and her sister. Kay. Years later, Nikki's family made another bold decision to relocate to the United States.
They settled in the Seattle, Washington area and they continued to grow their family with three more children, including another sister named Chloe. Life in Seattle brought new beginnings and Nikki's family was able to reconnect with some of their other family members there. They formed close knit communities with other immigrants and had a very close relationship with their families and those in their community.
Nikki and her siblings grew up spending a lot of time with their cousins, but since most of the cousins were boys, it ended up bringing Nikki a lot closer to her sisters because they were the only girls, and they ended up forming a bond that lasted a lifetime. Even when the sisters grew into adults, the whole family stayed in close contact and they would share frequent group messages and calls.
Nikki was always someone [00:04:00] that stood out. She was stunningly beautiful and she really had the personality to go with it. She had a bubbly, upbeat attitude, balanced with the shy, caring side. Her sister Chloe said that Nikki would be your biggest cheerleader, and she was always positive, which often rubbed off on those around her.
Nikki had a gift for finding the humor in everything. She was someone who loved to laugh and loved to giggle. Nikki also had an extremely forgiving nature, and in the rare moments that something bothered her, she was quick to let it go and to move on. She was always up for an adventure, whether it was browsing for antiques or just driving around with a Starbucks in hand.
She really didn't even need a plan. She just brought her usual enthusiasm to any situation and made it fun. As a result, people loved being around her. She was a source of comfort and happiness and someone you could always depend on. Nikki saw the good in people and believed in everyone's potential, regardless of their flaws.
She was extremely [00:05:00] compassionate and she had a huge heart. I. Nikki's sisters shared some of their favorite memories, including one story that really perfectly illustrates Nikki's easygoing nature. So the story goes that when Chloe was 16, Nikki was moving back home to Redding from Sacramento, and Chloe was helping with the move.
So they're in Nikki's Red Mitsubishi Eclipse going 65 down the freeway. When Nikki mentioned that the gears in her car were getting stiff and they wouldn't shift easily, which is something that could absolutely cause full-blown panic for sure for me on the freeway. Okay, terrifi, what thought, panicky driver here?
Um, I already had anxiety. Just reading this story, I was like, Nope, nope, nope. Can that happen? Yeah. So the eclipse had a manual transmission and it came with a few quirks, but Nikki adored her car anyway. And so on this trip, when Nikki realized that the gears were stiff, she asked Chloe to help her pull the shifter to get it into a higher gear.
And that's when they both started tugging away at the gear [00:06:00] shift, all while giggling and laughing the whole time. And at one point, Nikki said, just yank harder. So they did. But then the shifter snapped completely in half. Oh my gosh. Did you know that was something you could even worry about? I didn't. No.
No, I definitely didn't think you could do that. I thought that was all connected from like the part that you grab onto all the way down into something in your vehicle that like could not be broken. The unbreakable piece. Right. I know. Me too. So instead of panicking though, Nikki just burst out laughing and calmly said.
Oh my gosh. It broke. Like it was really no big deal. So she turns on her emergency lights coast to the side of the road, all while still laughing about how absolutely absurd the whole situation was. And Chloe said this was really typical of how Nikki handled intense situations. Nothing ever really seemed to rattle her, and she was always lighthearted and ready to solve the problem.
Another memorable moment that Nikki's sister Kay shared [00:07:00] was about the time that Nikki taught her to ride a bike. So rather than this, you know, traditional approach that one might take to saying, get on the bike, hold it steady, and then just pedal. Nikki had her own unique advice. She said, if you feel like you're falling, just yank the handlebars the other way and you won't fall.
Which is true. It's true, and it's very easy, I feel like, for like a new rider to understand. I love that. Right. That's exactly what you need to do. So case bike riding lessons were a mix of pedaling and making quick, sharp swerves to keep her balance. But it was an example of how Nikki always turned something ordinary into a fun and memorable experience.
In the late two thousands, Nikki was working at a casino as a cocktail waitress when she met Tyler McCain, who worked at the same casino in the slot machine department. Tyler was known for his charming and flirtatious personality, but like Nikki, he had a shy side, and that shy side is what captured Nikki's heart.[00:08:00]
Tyler and his mom are both members of the Redding Rancheria, which is a federally recognized indigenous people, sovereign nation, and he had a little bit of a troubled past. He had charges of felony burglary and misdemeanor vandalism from 2008. The burglary charge had been dismissed, but the vandalism got him three years of probation, which he was still serving when he met Nikki.
By 2010, the couple was married and living on a three and a half acre lot in Happy Valley, California, which was near the Rancheria. Nikki and Tyler soon grew their family to include four children, and life seemed perfect and full of promise for a beautiful future. But everything changed in 2020 when, as we all know, COVID-19 began to spread across the world, and people everywhere were thrust into a completely different lifestyle and routine than the one that they were used to.
When the world went on lockdown in 2020, Tyler was working [00:09:00] as a spa manager, and since the spa had been forced to close, that meant Tyler found himself at home full time. At the same time, the couple's four children who had been attending public school switched to being homeschooled, so the family was all together all the time.
Tyler's sister also stayed with them frequently, which added to the already crowded intense situation. And like many people during that time, Nikki was mostly in touch with her family through messages and calls, but face-to-face visits really weren't much of a thing. As weeks turned into months of lockdowns and spending every moment at home, Tyler started to isolate himself and would spend hours out in the garage just kind of hanging out in a space that he had created for himself.
Nikki would try to engage with him and get him to come spend time with the family, but tensions only grew and eventually Nikki started to suspect that Tyler was using drugs. When she started to confront him about it, he would just react [00:10:00] defensively and escalate the situation into a very intense verbal argument.
At some point, these fights appeared to turn physical and the volatility increased even more between them. Then to make matters even worse, Tyler got arrested that year for driving under the influence. His blood alcohol level was over two times the legal limit. He was sentenced to probation and required to install an ignition interlock device in his car.
Meanwhile, the couple's arguments were more frequent than ever and they were intensifying with each one. All these things were really starting to take a toll on Nikki, who, as you know we've been saying, is really just a gentle, kind, very patient and calm person. The pandemic had forced a physical distance between Nikki and her own family while leaving her completely vulnerable to Tyler's growing control and manipulation.
Since they lived in the country, far from neighbors and from the local [00:11:00] community, there really weren't many opportunities for Nikki to even have casual interactions with other people or just quick little escapes. I can't tell you how often I just will be like, I just need to go run to the gas station or go run and like, you know, get a Diet Coke or just to get out for a little bit and have somewhere to go.
Not even for a long time just to go run. A, you know, an errand somewhere. She didn't even really have that opportunity to just kind of get outta the house, take a break from the kids, you know, and from Tyler and all of that. Like she had, she was completely isolated. She had no support system and really no way where to escape to.
On top of all that. The kids, as we said, were also at home being homeschooled. So there's no connection to the outside world. There's no routine or part in her day that involves other adults, you know, who would be able to see that things were wrong or you know, to be able to hold Tyler accountable or anyone really for that matter.
And we have so much more to get into after a quick break, to hear a word from this week's sponsors. For years, Nikki and Tyler's [00:12:00] relationship was really anything but stable with those close to the couple, describing it as being tumultuous. Nikki's sister Chloe told Nancy Grace that she had seen the signs of abuse as early as 2019.
When Nikki once showed up with black eyes and bruises. Other witnesses said they'd seen sheriff deputies at the residence multiple times in the same week. When the couple would have an especially bad fight, Nikki would go to her parents' house for a day or two to cool off, but Tyler would text Nikki's sisters and plead with them to tell Nikki that he was sorry.
So we have some examples of the text he sent to both Chloe and Kay and they said things like, tell Nikki that I love her and that, I'm sorry. Tell her I'll change and go to rehab and get clean as well as can you ask Nikki if she wants to go outta town with me for a few nights? Thanks, Chloe. If she doesn't wanna go, the house will be free for her, for her to get things she's needing.
In the meantime, I'm going to come by. Thanks. But despite Tyler's apologies and these promises to change, the violence and [00:13:00] hostility continued. Witnesses frequently saw the couple fighting, sometimes even taking it to dangerous levels, and the police were really quite familiar with their address In one chilling incident in the winter of 2023, neighbors heard Nikki screaming for help and saying that Tyler was attacking her.
She ran outside with bloody feet that had been cut on broken glass inside the house. Witnesses saw that she had swollen lips, abrasions on her face, and bruises around her neck that looked to have been come from being choked. Tyler had thrown water on her, then kicked her outta the house and locked the doors.
Mandy, we cannot get through a single episode these days without. This coming up without someone allegedly being choked. And so again, we're gonna say the statistic until everybody knows it, and that is that a woman who has suffered a non-fatal strangulation incident with her intimate partner is 750% more likely to be killed by that same perpetrator.
Yes. Choking is a very, very, [00:14:00] very. Serious red flag. Yeah, that's, I just, I don't know. I always have this feeling that one person needs to hear that specifically. Absolutely. It is because it is unreal. It's very eyeopening and especially, uh, you know, if you are in an abusive relationship or in a situation like that.
It is, you need to know that, like you need to hear statistics like that because your life really does depend on it, so it's very important Absolutely. To share that. Absolutely. And that one is that that is probably the one statistic that always blows our minds when we hear it, because Absolutely. It's so stark and so, I mean, it's.
Just, it's so important to share for sure. In another terrifying episode, Tyler was seen chasing Nikki around the yard with a large wrench. On another occasion, he threatened to decapitate her, and another he poured gasoline on her car in a fit of rage. And despite these horrific attacks, Nikki never pressed charges.
Like many victims of abuse, Nikki clung to this hope that things could one day go back to how they were [00:15:00] before. And we talked a little about the cycle of violence back in October, so it might sound familiar, but again, very important. The cycle of violence is this repeating pattern that traps victims in abusive relationships.
It begins with tension building, it leads to explosive incidents, and then. Shifts to reconciliation and calm before starting all over again. And Nikki being someone that has this incredibly forgiving nature and has this desire to see the good in everyone, it really kept her from taking any legal action.
She was willing to really do anything to avoid breaking her family apart. So as time went on and the restrictions from COVID started to ease up, Nikki's family started hearing more about the police being called to her home. Kay said that Nikki would call the police in the middle of a fight, but then when the police arrived, she would downplay the situation and sometimes the officers would urge her to make a formal statement.
Nikki didn't want to. Nikki's family told her how important it was to accurately report the [00:16:00] abuse and pointed out the very real concern that repeated calls to law enforcement with no follow through could result in the police viewing her calls as less urgent in the future. But still, Nikki hesitated.
She left Tyler and she just kept the hope alive that he could change. Everything got so much worse when the ongoing violence in Nikki and Tyler's relationship led to their four children being removed from their home. The Redding Rancheria tribal court placed the children with members of Tyler's tribal family, but Nikki's sisters were able to fight and ended up getting shared guardianship of all four of the kids.
Of course the abuse did not end, and it started to spill over into other areas of their lives. One altercation between the couple happened at Tyler's mother's house where Nikki ended up calling the police, but things took a turn when Tyler's mom filed a formal complaint against. Nikki, this is really a devastating twist as you can imagine, since Nikki has never, ever filed a [00:17:00] formal complaint herself against Tyler.
This is the first time that anything is being documented officially, um, on paper and is being recorded legally. And this one thing is labeling Nikki as the aggressor in the relationship, not Tyler. So that's extremely frustrating. I'm sure everyone is like, what in the world is going on here? We have to point out though that Tyler's mom has some things going on of her own.
There was actually an incident that was reported that Tyler's mom bit Nikki's arm in some kind of fight that they were having and left a visible bite mark on her. Of course, this is still an ongoing case. It's still very new. There are things that have been reported. That of course, we don't know exactly everything that's going to be proven in a court of law later because this hasn't, everything hasn't come out about this case yet.
Nikki's sisters, Chloe and Kay, were actually stunned and you know, they tried to point out that even though Tyler had a long history of abuse and had managed to avoid having anything on record about it, now his victim is the one with a formal [00:18:00] complaint against her. It was all just very, very unfair. So, Nikki's sisters.
Urged her to start documenting absolutely everything in creating a paper trail to protect herself and to be able to expose the truth one day. Nikki's reluctance to file a report stemmed from the same place it always had. It was the compassion that she hold for others and the belief in the good in people.
She also cared deeply about Tyler and his family, and she didn't wanna be the reason that anyone in his family faced legal trouble. She would make excuses for them and say things like, you know, they didn't mean it. Or she would just brush off these attacks as being done in the heat of the moment. You know, they were upset at the time, but it's fine.
But Nikki's sisters were concerned that she was just rationalizing these harmful behaviors at the expense of her own safety. The situation with Tyler's mom was also really complicated. At times. She would be close and supportive, which contributed to Nikki's apprehension about, you know, reporting anything.
But it also falls in line [00:19:00] with the cycle of violence where you'll have these explosive episodes, right? And then there's this period of calm and the abuser draws you back in in many ways, you know, and is during this like period of calm that that's when they're apologizing, that's when they're treating you really nicely and you know, love bombing you almost, and kind of getting back in your good group.
Before the cycle starts all over again. So that's kind of the same type of dynamic that it seems like that she had with Tyler's mom, where, you know, at times it seemed like she was supportive and somebody you could trust. But then. She would also, you know, kind of flip the script a little bit on a different day.
Nikki's sisters believed that it was years of manipulation and abuse that led to this pattern of Nikki excusing the terrible actions of others, and that she had just grown to accept this mistreatment as normal, that same kind and forgiving nature that made her so loved by her family and friends also made her vulnerable to Tyler's manipulation and abuse, and she was trapped in a cycle that she just could not seem to escape.
Things came to a boiling point on [00:20:00] November 29th, 2023 when Nikki came home. Sometime between eight 15 and eight 30, Tyler wasn't there, so she went into the bedroom and started combing her hair. About 15 minutes later, Tyler came in and was visibly agitated and speaking words that really just didn't make much sense.
He went into the bedroom and jumped on Nikki and held her on the ground. Then he dragged her around while saying, what's going on? What are you doing? Nikki later told Officer Gary Mall that Tyler's eyes looked glazed over and she was scared. She tried to deescalate things, but he started verbally assaulting her and hitting her in the face with his hand.
Then he pulled her hair and doused her in water from a nearby jug. Tyler assaulted Nikki for the next three hours tying her ankles and wrists together with tape and putting tape over her mouth just enough so that she could breathe, but she couldn't speak. Once Nikki was tied up, Tyler flipped Nikki over and sat on her back and pulled her hair back forcefully while saying he was going to [00:21:00] kill her, which Nikki said she fully believed he was about to do.
Tyler kept hitting Nikki periodically, and at one point she said it felt like he tried to wrap something around her neck but was unsuccessful. Finally, at around 1130, Tyler left the room and went into the kitchen for several minutes, which is when Nikki took the opportunity to run away. She was able to grab her robe that had her car keys in it, and she bolted for the car.
As she was pulling away, Tyler chased after her and threw himself on the hood of the car, asking her to stop. But Nikki managed to escape to her mother's house in Redding for a few days. Then Nikki went to her sister Chloe's house, who insisted that they go to the hospital, and that's when Officer Ma came to speak with her on December 1st.
Nikki said that she had not spoken to Tyler since the assault on the 29th, officer Ma noticed clear trauma to Nikki's face. Both of her eyes were blackened and swollen, and her forehead and facial areas also had visible signs of trauma. And [00:22:00] Nikki said that while Tyler had assaulted her before, it had never been to this extreme.
She told the officer that she wasn't sure about Tyler's use of any illegal substances, but she thought he had used meth in the past. Nikki stated that she would not be returning to the home. She shared with Tyler and that she planned to stay with her sister. Officer Mall suggested that Nikki file a restraining order against tile and shared some educational materials for abuse victims, including a Marcy's card and a Marcy's card.
I actually had never heard of that until this episode. I'm not sure if it's something that is done in every state or if it's just in California. I actually think there's a couple other states that might do it over towards the West coast side, but it's essentially when a, a victim reports. An abuse or you know, reports, like an incident that's happened, um, the responding officer can give them, or is supposed to give them this Marcy's card that basically is informing the victim of the rights that they have.
So like that they have the right to contact an [00:23:00] attorney about their rights. You know, they have a right to certain things. They have a right to, just different things with having their safety and things considered. Right. You know, when their perpetrator is being sentenced or being punished, like there's just a list of things that they want you to know that you have a right to, um, seek out as far as like what your legal rights are.
Um, I've read something, I'm sorry I don't have the actual information pulled up about this. I'm just going off of memory, but I did read something that, you know, they're supposed to give it to them like immediately because there's actions that you can take that are on this card. Within the first, right away, like, you know, 24 to 48 hours after something has happened.
So the officer who responds to the incident is supposed to immediately give them this so that the victim is aware of these things like right away. I think that's really cool. So I don't know if it's in every state. If it's not, it definitely should be. So after this meeting at the hospital, officer Ma contacted other deputies to meet him at Tyler and Nikki's home.
As they approached the house, Tyler just walked outside and he was easily taken into custody. He had his rights read [00:24:00] to him and he agreed to speak with law enforcement at the station. They asked Tyler if he had seen Nikki and seen the injuries that were on her face, and he told them that he was aware of the wounds, but he hadn't seen them himself because he hadn't seen her since Around 8:00 PM on November the 29th, officer Ma asked Tyler if there had been a fight between the couple and he said no, and then he suggested.
Get this, that Nikki had gotten into a fight with another woman. He claimed that he and Nikki, it gets, it gets even weirder. Uh, he claimed that he and Nikki were a happy couple with a great relationship and that they never had any sort of physical altercation. He said he had never hit Nikki and he did not know how she got these injuries.
For whatever reason, the police did not believe Tyler's story and he was soon charged with one count of corporal injury to a spouse, one count of false imprisonment by violence, one count of making criminal threats and one count of assault, likely to [00:25:00] produce great bodily injury. For a few months after these charges, Nikki bounced between staying with her mom and with her sister.
However, she did stay somewhat in contact with Tyler. One day he told her he needed a ride to a court hearing since his license was suspended, and that was stemming from his DUI that he had gotten in 2020. Uh, so Nikki agreed to take him, but instead of going to the courthouse, Tyler ended up ambushing her and making her take him to his lawyer's office instead.
And there his lawyer pressured Nikki to recant her statement about the domestic violence incident. November, the horrific one that she nearly could have died from. Yeah. And when Nikki declined to recant her statement, Tyler took off in her car. So Nikki was left, uh, stranded. You know, I can't even imagine just how scary that situation would be to be ambushed by this, your abuser and his attorney.[00:26:00]
The attorney part is really what threw me off. Obviously, I don't think the attorney said you need to. Tell her to bring you here or whatever. Right. But he took advantage of that situation. Right. And her good nature. He's gotta go to court and he changes things on her. But how terrifying to feel so scary.
Like it has to feel like no one's on your side. Definitely. Obviously her family is in stuff, but it has to feel like in those moments when it's just you and him, like you've got nothing. You and him and his lawyer, like that's. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. That would just kind about intimidation. Yes. Very, very, very intimidating.
So she was left stranded without a car, and Nikki called her sister Chloe for a ride. But unfortunately Chloe was at work. So Nikki ended up getting a ride home from another person. Tyler continued to try to pressure Nikki to drop the charges, but she just wouldn't budge. So he then started trying to convince her to move back in with him and was promising that he would change and they would work to get their kids back.
This tactic worked on Nikki because of course she wants nothing [00:27:00] more than to get her family back together and to have her kids back with her. So she agreed to move back in, but she still didn't drop the charges. On May seven, a preliminary hearing for Tyler's domestic violence charge was held and he pleaded not guilty to all four of the felony charges against him.
That same day, Nikki told her sister in a text message that she was preparing to divorce Tyler, and she'd been looking at furniture for a new home and coming up with a plan to regain custody of her children. Chloe said at this point, Nikki was confident and really determined to make these things happen once and for all.
On May 17th, Nikki and Chloe were texting back and forth about Tyler's brother Brian, who was actually in the hospital at that time after a medical emergency and was on the verge of possibly dying. Nikki said that she was at the hospital with Tyler and with his mom visiting, despite the ups and downs with Tyler and his family, it really wasn't unusual that Nikki would step in and help, because [00:28:00] as we've been saying, Nikki was a very caring and supportive type of person.
Nikki kept in touch with her sister Chloe through text throughout the night, and she would send her updates on Brian's condition around midnight. She mentioned that she had Tyler's mom's car and would be taking the car back to his mom's house, but that was the last message that Chloe or anyone ever received from Nikki After leaving the hospital, it's believed that Nikki may have dropped Tyler's mom and her car off at her home on the Rancheria and close to the casino.
Tyler's mom's home wasn't far from there, and Nikki's was located in a nearby community, so she most likely headed back home afterward. Chloe later shared that she saw Nikki's text that came in right after midnight. She was awake at that time with her son who was restless, so she read the text before she went to sleep, but she didn't reply right away, and so the next morning she woke up early and sent a message back to check on Brian's condition, but there was no reply.
At around 7:00 AM [00:29:00] Chloe tried again, and then again an hour after that, and once more, 30 minutes after that. At first, Chloe's texts were focused on Brian and making sure everything was okay, but as the morning went on and there was no word, Chloe grew more and more concerned about Nikki. Later that morning, Chloe sent another message asking Nikki about her daughter's soccer uniform.
She was playing in a tournament the next day, but they couldn't find her jersey and thought that it may have ended up at Tyler's mom's house because sometimes Nikki's daughter would stay there on the weekends, but Nikki never responded. Eventually, Chloe's fiance went over to Tyler's mom's house and asked if the jersey was there.
Interestingly though, Tyler's mom mentioned that Nikki had not been at the hospital the night before, and this was a detail that didn't really stand out at the moment, but it would later become part of a story that just didn't add up. So at first, Nikki's sisters weren't really super concerned when they didn't hear back from her because of course, they're all adults with children.
So going a few [00:30:00] days without checking in on each other isn't immediately too much of a worry. But by Tuesday, May 21st, her sister started to realize that. It actually wasn't just them that hadn't heard from Nikki, nobody else had either. By Wednesday, the family decided to report her missing with the Redding Police Department, but since the couple lived in a rural community outside of the Redding area, the case was handed over to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office major crime unit.
Their response ended up being delayed due to it being over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. At some point, Tyler reached out to Nikki's sister Chloe and said, have you heard from your sister? I think she's missing. He initially said that they had gotten into a fight at his mom's house, but then said that the fight actually happened at their own house, and Nikki had taken off after this fight.
Tyler saying these things was really just immediately a big red flag for Nikki's sisters because as we mentioned earlier, in the past when Tyler and Nikki [00:31:00] would get into a fight and Nikki would go stay with a family member for a few days, Tyler would always be sending texts to one of them, you know, to one of her sisters saying, you know, begging them to tell Nikki that he loved her and that he was going to change and.
Pleading with her to come home, and he never in the past had ever said anything like he thought she was missing or anything along those lines. Yeah. So it seemed very strange for him to just say, Hey, have you heard from your sister? I think she's missing. Instead of the usual, Hey, I'm sure Nikki's there because we're fighting, so tell her I love her and I want her to come home.
Right. So it was very just out of character. On Wednesday night, May 22nd, Chloe accompanied the sheriff to Nikki and Tyler's house to conduct a wellness check. But when they got there, nobody was there. On Friday that same week, Chloe returned for a third time and she did talk to Tyler. He told her that Nikki's truck, a Chevy Avalanche, had broken down on a bridge off of Bowman Road.
Nikki had only owned this truck for a couple of weeks before she disappeared, [00:32:00] and her sister said they weren't really even sure why she got the truck as she already had a car, but they knew that Tyler had been the one to buy the truck for her. Chloe offered to take Tyler to the truck, you know, to go get it, but he declined and said that he would have some of his buddies drive him there.
But Chloe and Kay of course want to go see for themselves if their sister's truck is abandoned somewhere. So they went to go look. They said that there were only a few real bridges on Bowman Road and there were a few small bridges that crossed over creeks, but they weren't really large enough to like leave a vehicle broken down on, right?
So they went around the area and checked all the bridges, but they didn't even find Nikki's truck anywhere. One of the other times that Chloe went to Nikki's house, she ended up talking to this guy who was living on the property and asked if he had seen Nikki or her truck. And he said that he had not seen Nikki, but he had seen Tyler driving this truck around.
So this person that was living on the property [00:33:00] said that Tyler told him to pick Nikki up from his mom's house. Nikki had Tyler's mom's car following this hospital visit that they were all, uh, at together. So this guy ended up going there to get her, they ate and talked, and then he took Nikki back home.
He said he did not know what happened to Nikki after that. A week later, Tyler invited Chloe inside the house and pointed out that Nikki's Brown purse was sitting on the counter. But Chloe said that when she returned several days later, there was a purse there, but it was a different purse. There was a black purse sitting in the same spot.
Nikki's sisters had no idea where her phone could be, and they say to this day that if the police have found it, they have not notified the family of that. And we have more to get into after one last break to hear a word from this week's sponsors. So before the break, Nikki's family is searching for both her and her vehicle.
They're really getting the runaround from [00:34:00] Tyler on when he's seen her or when he's seen her vehicle. And now we have someone saying that not only was. Nikki's vehicle around, but Tyler was the one driving it. So finally on May 25th, Nikki's 2002, Chevy Avalanche was found in a desolate, hilly area about 40 minutes away from her home.
The location where the truck was found wasn't just any remote area. It was an area that few people even knew existed. There was no cell service, no nearby activity, and really this eerie openness to the area. Finding the truck in this specific location raised several questions like, how did it get there?
For starters. It really wasn't a place you could easily drive to and return from without help. So whoever left the truck there likely had assistance in the form of a second vehicle or some kind of a ride back. The truck would be way too long on foot or bike without significant effort. Two days after Nikki's truck was found, a massive volunteer search [00:35:00] party combed the area nearby.
But despite their efforts, no clues were found. Everyone was really baffled and wondering how and why Nikki's truck was so far from her home in her last known location. Literally, it's just out in the middle of nowhere. The searches expanded to include areas around the Rancheria lands, but there were some limitations due to tribal laws that protected certain areas from being searched without permission.
Meanwhile, Tyler was nowhere to be found when it came to the searches. He actually didn't participate at all, and when law enforcement started interviewing him and Nikki's family, suspicions started growing around the community. Nikki's story gained attention through a billboard funded by the Redding Rancheria that was placed on Interstate five in Anderson.
The billboard announced a $10,000 reward for Nikki's safe return. Soon. The reward grew to $30,000 thanks to contributions from the Kingsman Philanthropic Corporation and Shasta County's Secret witness program. [00:36:00] Then in a twist, on July 3rd, a fire broke out on Tyler and Nikki's three and a half acre property.
The fire ended up scorching 98 acres and destroying several of Tyler's vehicles, but all the homes were spared. Tyler said the fire started by accident when a hot, catalytic converter came in contact with dry grass. He was given a citation for starting the fire, but he wasn't arrested because there really wasn't significant evidence to prove criminal negligence.
Interestingly, the day before this fire, a fire broke out just 16 miles from where Nikki's truck was found, and that ended up burning 19 acres in Western Shasta County. The fire started on a remote back country property that was owned by Tyler's cousin, which is interesting. There had been a search plan for that area, but they could no longer conduct it because the property had been burned and.
Just to say there's no proof that either of these fires had anything to do [00:37:00] with Nikki's disappearance, but just kind of interesting. Yeah. On June 28th, superior Court Judge Daniel Flynn continued Tyler's domestic violence hearing until July 5th due to the fact that Nikki was still missing. On July 5th, the DA's office filed for a motion to dismiss the charges on account of insufficient evidence.
Since Nikki wasn't there to testify. Is extremely frustrating to hear that they can't move, oh my gosh, forward with charges because the missing person is not there. But Judge Flynn said that the reason was because Tyler had a constitutional right to face his accuser. So the case is just kind of left in limbo at this point.
The DA's office clarified that the charges could be refiled within the statute of limitations, which was three years, but at this point, there's just two and a half years left and time's already ticking. The dismissal of these charges marked the 17th time in 2024 that a domestic violence [00:38:00] charge was dropped in Shasta County due to these types of procedural hurdles.
As the charges were dismissed, Nikki's family held a justice for Nikki rally outside the courthouse, where over 200 people gathered to hold signs and demand answers. Nikki's sisters were among the crowd and they confronted Tyler as he walked by. They shouted things at him like, where is Nikki and where is my sister?
Tyler's reaction. Well, he did, of course, what any normal grieving husband would do in that situation. He shrugged his shoulders flipped. Nikki's sisters off and walked away without saying a word. Oh my gosh. Yeah, and within just a couple of weeks, Tyler found himself in legal trouble yet again. On July 31st, he was pulled over and arrested for driving with a suspended license, which as we said before, was still suspended since he had gotten his DUI in 2020.
During this traffic stop, the officer actually found ammunition in his car, which is a direct violation of the court order [00:39:00] issued after the domestic violence case because that said that he was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition. His legal troubles continued when he failed to appear at his August 19th trial date.
Instead, his attorney requested a settlement conference, which just pushed all the proceedings back even longer until October 7th. Meanwhile, Nikki's family continued to press for answers. They were determined to keep her name in the spotlight and to keep the search for her alive. As of this recording, Nikki is still missing and her family is desperate for answers.
Tyler for his part, has continued to change his story. He told one person that Nikki ran away with a female love interest then that she ran away with a man to Las Vegas. But all of this is really just a red flag for Nikki's sisters. Kay said that she knew, based on what Nikki told them, that Tyler had a very jealous nature.
So if Nikki really ran off with another lover, he would never be [00:40:00] that indifferent about it. It wouldn't be typical of him to just have these casual reactions to that type of news. Kay also noted that Tyler's personality made it unlikely for him to dismiss such situations without a confrontation of some sort.
Tyler's mom has also changed her story. She told Nikki's sister that an Uber picked Nikki up from her house that night after she dropped off the car. And of course this is after she said that Nikki wasn't even at the hospital that night visiting Brian. Tyler's brother. Yeah. And Nikki's sister also. Now question whether or not Nikki was even the one to send the text messages that night, uh, from the hospital saying that she was at the hospital with Brian and with Tyler and his mom, because now.
They're not even able to verify or confirm that she was even at the hospital that night. If you'd like to help Nikki and her family, please join the Facebook page and we'll of course have that linked in the show notes. You can share Nikki's story as well as the flyer, and [00:41:00] we've learned so much in the past year or so.
How much it means to families to do this is such a simple thing to be able to do, but for them to see the support. And you just never know whose eyes are going to see this. So anyone that has information about Nikki or how she disappeared, please contact the Sheriff's Office Major Crimes Unit at 5 3 0 2 4 5 6 1 3 5 or email mce@shastacounty.gov.
You can also submit tips through. C secret witness.com/submit a tip and we will have again that in the show notes. Nikki described as being around five feet tall, weighing 100 pounds, and has brownish red hair and brown eyes. She also has a forearm tattoo with flowers. Man, it's crazy when we hear of these stories that really happened so recently.
Very recent. Yeah. Just now going through it and kind of unfortunately learning as they go and, you know, getting this information, trying to figure it out. They're [00:42:00] like starting at the beginning trying to piece things together themselves. They are, and, and really just. Getting the story out there. I don't know if we mentioned in the very beginning that um, Hailey was able to, uh, sit down and speak with Nikki's sisters, Kay and Chloe, and, uh, they were very helpful in putting together the information for this episode.
So yes, um, we of course want to say thank you to them as well and thank you for allowing us to share Nikki's story. But, um, as you were saying, this is so recent and they are really just at the beginning of still trying to get answers. They still. You know, they still don't have all the answers. Right. Um, and this is very much an ongoing case, so absolutely pay attention if you live in that area and if you know anything, report anything that you know you think might be of any use.
Yeah, absolutely. And again, we'll have all the information in the show notes so you can take that. We'll also post on Instagram, Facebook, that sort of thing, so you can easily copy paste. [00:43:00] That sort of thing and share it. That would be, um, great. And join the Facebook group, of course, for Nikki's that Nikki's family has put together.
Alright guys. Thank you so much for listening this week. We will be back next week. Same time, same place. New story. Have a great week. Bye.
