Nikki Missing: 'Smoking Gun' Cracks Case Of Missing Mom Wide Open
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
3.9 • 7.6K Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A California mom's husband pleaded for her safe return, and now he faces charges months after her disappearance.
Nikki Saelee-McCain, 39, vanishes in May 2024; after texting family members she was heading home, she never arrives and has not been heard from since, and her husband, Tyler McCain, is arrested as a suspect in her murder.
Nikki's Chevy Avalanche is located near the Shasta and Tehama County line a week after she vanishes. The truck's bed enclosed cover was opened and had an overwhelming odor of decomposition. Inside the vehicle, more evidence is recovered, providing strong evidence her husband, Tyler McCain, is the primary source of the DNA on the items.
McCain previously faced felony domestic violence charges, but the case was dismissed when Nikki disappeared because she couldn’t testify.
Based on the evidence gathered, information learned from interviews, and the fact no one in Nikki's family has seen or heard from Nikki since her disappearance, the detectives determined Nikki is a victim of homicide. Detectives also further conclude Nikki's husband, Tyler Scott McCain, is responsible for Nikki's death and disappearance. Detectives recently obtained a murder arrest warrant for McCain.
McCain was booked into Shasta County Jail, and prosecutors allege he killed Nikki to prevent her from testifying in the domestic violence case.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Kaye Ford - Nikki's sister
- Chloe Saelee - Nikki's sister
- Franz Borghardt - Criminal Defense Attorney, Founder of Borghardt Law Firm, Former Prosecutor, Adjust Professor at Louisiana State University teaching Criminal Litigation; Instagram and Facebook: BorghardtLawFirm
- Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, Author: "Deal Breaker," and featured in hit show "Paris in Love" on Peacock; Instagram & TikTok: drbethanymarshall, X: @DrBethanyLive
- Brian Fitzgibbons - VP of Operations for USPA Nationwide Security; Instagram: @uspa_nationwide_security, Kingsman Philanthropic's 2022 rescue missions of women and children in Ukraine, Iraq War Veteranide_security
- Matthew Mangino - Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County); Author: "The Executioner's Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States"
- Lauren Conlin - Investigative Journalist, Host of The Outlier Podcast, and also Host of "Corruption: What Happened to Grant Solomon; X- @Conlin_Lauren/ Instagram- @LaurenEmilyConlin/YouTube- @LaurenConlin4
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:05.0 | Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. |
| 0:09.8 | A beautiful young mom, Nikki Chang, missing. |
| 0:14.3 | But now a smoking gun cracks the case of the missing mom wide open. |
| 0:23.6 | Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories. |
| 0:30.8 | I want to thank you for being with us. Mom's Chevy is found abandoned on a remote country road. |
| 0:36.3 | Nikki's case is a homicide investigation. There were several assaults on Nikki. |
| 0:40.7 | A brutal assault on Nikki prior to her disappearing, prior to her Chevy being found abandoned on a remote country road. She thought |
| 0:47.3 | she was going to die. Where is Nikki? Where is missing mom Nikki? She's absolutely gorgeous. And this is where the whole thing started. Listen. Wednesday night, around 8.30, Nikki Saly McCain is in her bedroom combing her hair. Her husband of 13 years, Tyler McCain arrives home in a strange mood. For no apparent reason, Tyler McCain aggressively jumps on top of Nikki, holding her on the ground, |
| 1:14.2 | then dragging her around, yelling, what are you doing? |
| 1:16.6 | Nikki says Tyler McCain's eyes are glazed over. |
| 1:19.4 | Nikki tries calming her husband, but it doesn't work, and he holds her down and begins hitting her in the face. |
| 1:24.3 | The terror escalates over a three-hour period with McCain binding |
| 1:27.9 | Nikki's wrists and ankles together with tape, putting tape over her mouth so she couldn't |
| 1:31.8 | speak properly. Rolling his wife onto her stomach, Tyler McCain sits on her back, pulling |
| 1:36.6 | her hair back, forcefully pulling her head back and telling her he's going to kill her. |
| 1:40.7 | And it gets worse. The terror, she endured in that one episode was just part of |
| 1:48.8 | years and years of horrific, horrific domestic abuse. Can you imagine that being bound at |
| 1:57.9 | wrists and ankles with tape, tape over your mouth so you can't speak. You can barely |
| 2:04.0 | breathe. And there's more. Listen. After three hours of Tyler McCain allegedly beating |
| 2:09.1 | his wife, the mother of his four children, hitting her about the face and head, blackening |
| 2:13.5 | her eyes, pulling out her hair and taping her mouth shut, he leaves her alone and goes into the |
... |
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