FAMILY members of a mom who vanished from the same town where Sherri Papini staged an infamous kidnapping hoax are pleading for information as the hunt to find her nears the three-month mark. Nikki Cheng Saelee-McCain, 39, was reported missing by her younger sister in Redding, California , on May 21, having not been seen or heard from for four days. The mom-of-four was last sighted on May 17 visiting one of her husband's family members at a local hospital.
Nikki texted her sister Chloe Saelee that night to let her know she was leaving the hospital to drop her mother-in-law's vehicle back at her in-laws' home located near the Redding Rancheria, a Native American reservation. She said that one of her husband's friends was going to follow in a vehicle behind her to later drop Nikki off back at her home in Redding. Chloe continued to text Nikki that night and into the early hours of May 18 but did not receive a reply.
Read More Unsolved Cases Chloe and another of Nikki's sisters, Kaye Ford, told The U.S. Sun they have a siblings group chat and it isn't unusual to not hear from one another for a couple of days at a time.
But alarm bells began sounding for Chloe and Kaye when Nikki's husband, Tyler McCain, told them he hadn't heard from her for a few days, either. Chloe immediately reported Nikki missing to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office and the Redding Police Department. Four days later, on May 25, Nikki's 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche was found abandoned in a remote location in Tehama County.
Most read in The US Sun Weeks have passed without any signs of Nikki, and her family's hopes of a positive resolution have all but run dry. Compounding their concerns is the fact that Nikki's disappearance came just two weeks before her husband Tyler was due to appear in court to face felony domestic violence charges. Last December, Nikki checked into a Redding hospital with severe injuries she alleged were caused by Tyler during a brutal hours-long beating inside their home, police records obtained by The U.
S. Sun show. The case against Tyler has been temporarily dropped by prosecutors in the wake of Nikki's disappearance.
Nikki's sisters believe someone out there knows where their missing sibling is and have urged them to find the courage to come forward. "I feel like Nikki may not be here anymore," Chloe heartbreakingly confessed. "She wouldn't just walk off and leave.
She was so excited for a fresh start and she was taking all these steps and planning for her and her kids' futures." Chloe added, "Nikki is such a forgiving person and a loyal person, and for anyone that hurt her in some way or kind, I just want them to remember Nikki's kindness [..
.] and maybe they can have a change of heart and please just come forward. "Nikki didn't deserve this.
And while it may be too late to turn back time, it's not too late to do the right thing. "Do it for her children. Do it for her family.
"We are all hurting right now, but her children deserve to know the truth and her children deserve to see whoever did this to her is behind bars and won't be able to hurt them or anyone else." TROUBLE AT HOME Requests for comment with Tyler McCain's attorney have so far gone unanswered. The Shasta County Sheriff's Office has refused to confirm whether or not Tyler McCain is being investigated as a suspect in Nikki's disappearance.
Tyler was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of violating a criminal protective order and driving with a suspended license. The 39-year-old, who has been married to Nikki for more than a decade, was pulled over by an officer in Redding on August 1 for an alleged traffic violation. As part of a protective order related to his domestic violence case, Tyler was prohibited from having firearms or ammunition.
But when deputies searched his vehicle, they allegedly found ammunition, the sheriff's office said. According to Chloe and Kaye, Nikki's marriage to Tyler became strained during the pandemic and eventually became increasingly violent, they alleged. Police were called numerous times to the couple's home in Anderson, Nikki's sisters said, which eventually led to their four children being removed from their care by the state.
Chloe and Kaye say they would regularly plead with Nikki to leave Tyler and move out of the home, which she'd occasionally agree to do for days on end before eventually returning. "We told her all the time to get out of there," said Kaye. "But she'd tell us he'd apologized, that things were getting better, and that nothing like this would happen again.
"We could only keep her so long and we could only convince her to leave for so long because she's her own adult. "She never wanted to be the bad guy; she never wanted to be the reason her family broke apart. "We have taken her to one safe place which is a facility for women and children where they offer resources to help women in her situation.
"Each time she'd get further and further along in utilizing their resources and help but she would still go back." Chloe added, "It always worried me because she never wanted to make police reports when these things happened. "It worried me every time she returned home.
I told her, 'I'm starting to see a pattern here, and I think it's a cycle.' "We were all very worried for her, but she kept deciding to go back." TERRIFYING INCIDENT Since Nikki's children were removed from her care two and a half years ago, Chloe and Kaye say they've "absolutely" been living in fear for her safety.
Chloe and Kaye's fears were realized in December last year when Nikki checked into Mercy Hospital having sustained numerous injuries she accused Tyler of inflicting while he allegedly tied her up and beat her over a three-hour period. I feel like Nikki may not be here anymore. She wouldn't just walk off and leave.
Chloe accompanied Nikki to the hospital and claimed she was so severely beaten she didn't even recognize her sister. "I was very taken aback and I was terrified," said Chloe. "She looked like a completely different person and I was just in shock because I couldn't believe how many injuries she had and how she could've survived.
"It looked absolutely horrible." Shasta County Sheriff's records show that officers were summoned to Mercy Hospital on December 1 and encountered Nikki after she'd been treated at the ER. The responding officer reported noticing facial trauma to both of Nikki's eyes, forehead, and face.
"Both of her eyes were blackened severely, both were swollen in what appeared to be the result of a physical assault," reads the report. "I asked [the victim] who did this to her. She stated it was her husband, Tyler McClain [sic].
" In her recounted version of events, Nikki told the officer she'd returned home the night before around 8:15pm to find that Tyler wasn't home, state the documents. Nikki went into the bedroom to comb her hair when approximately 15 minutes later, Tyler returned home in a "strange mood and for some reason went and locked the back door of the house." "Tyler seemed extremely agitated and was not making any sense," reads the report.
"When he contacted her in the bedroom area, she said he immediately jumped on her, held her down on the ground and dragged her around, yelled at her and asked her, 'What's going on? What are you doing?'" Nikki told the officer Tyler had a "glazed, scary look in his eyes" and suggested it appeared as though he was having some sort of "mental episode." While Nikki tried to calm him down to no avail, Tyler allegedly tormented her, pinned her down, and "repeatedly" struck her in the face and started pulling her hair. "[Nikki] stated this behavior by Tyler continued for approximately three hours during which time he bound her ankles and wrists together with white tape," reads the report.
"He also placed a piece of tape over her mouth, so she could not speak properly [...
] During this time, [Nikki] stated Tyler turned her over onto her stomach and straddled her from behind, pulled on her hair, and forcefully pulled her head back, saying he was going to kill her." 'FEARING FOR HER LIFE' Nikki told the officer she believed she was going to die and that Tyler "intended to kill her," per the documents. She claimed Tyler tried to wrap an unknown item around her neck to choke her but was apparently unsuccessful.
After three hours, Nikki told police she was able to wriggle free of her restraints while Tyler was in another room, grab her car keys, and flee the home. "As she was leaving, Tyler came running out after her and jumped on the hood of the car, telling her to stop which she ignored." Nikki told the police she was unsure of Tyler's "illegal drug use" but said she believed he used methamphetamine periodically, which may explain his glazed and irritable state, according to the records.
When questioned by police, Tyler denied there was any disturbance between himself and Nikki and claimed he theorized she sustained the reported injuries in a fight with another woman. According to the report, Tyler also offered the police "inconsistent" statements, first claiming he believed Nikki was having an affair with another woman and later stating they "got along great, and have been together as a happy couple" for years. Tyler was arrested and charged with four felony charges of domestic violence.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was due to appear in court two weeks after Nikki was last seen alive. MOUNTING FEARS In the weeks and months after the December incident, Chloe and Kaye said Nikki had experienced and breakthrough and realized her relationship with Tyler was unlikely to improve. On May 7, Chloe received a text from Nikki stating she was going to divorce Tyler, re-enroll in school, and regain custody of her children, she said.
"She was really excited. She was looking at furniture for a new place and she was ready to leave Tyler and divorce him for good," said Chloe. "She had plans to start over, to get her kids back, and she was ready and looking forward to it.
" Ten days later, Nikki would be seen alive for the last time. Much of the details of her last known movements are unclear to Chloe and Kaye – not helped by apparently conflicting accounts shared with them by Tyler and his relatives. All they know is that their sister went to the hospital with Tyler's family concerning a medical emergency involving his brother.
Family members all reportedly piled into different cars, with various people shuffling vehicles around, driving people back and forth from the hospital, and dropping cars off. Exactly where Nikki was, who she was with, and what vehicle she was in, is unclear to Nikki’s family. "Later that night she texted Chloe and let her know that she was on her way to drop her mother-in-law’s vehicle off back at her house and that one of Tyler's friends would be following her to then bring her back home," said Kaye.
"We don't know who that person was or if that even happened. "From that point, the story has changed a little bit. We've been told she took an Uber back from her mother-in-law's house but we don't know if that's true.
"We have no evidence of her leaving that home." The Redding Rancheria where Nikki was last believed to be is assisting law enforcement in their search for her. In a statement, the Rancheria says they are deeply saddened that Nikki has been missing for so long, saying that she is "close and dear to many in our Tribal community and we wish for her safe return home.
" The Rancheria has been working alongside NorCal Alliance for the missing, offering a $30,000 reward for information that leads to her discovery and displaying a large billboard along the nearby interstate. Nikki is such a forgiving person and a loyal person, and for anyone that hurt her in some way or kind, I just want them to remember Nikki's kindness [..
.] and maybe they can have a change of heart and please just come forward. Founder of NorCal Alliance, Trudy Nickens, told The U.
S. Sun the local community is showing up in force for Nikki's family. "Our community is very concerned," said Nickens.
"Once again, we have this beautiful young woman who is missing without answers. "It's frustrating the sheriff's office hasn't shared much information, but they're still working the case. "Everybody is just really worried and trying to rally around Nikki's family to help keep the story alive, keep conducting searches, and not allowing the case to go cold.
" CHARGES ABANDONED Messages sent by Tyler to Chloe and Kaye triggered alarm bells in their minds that something terrible could've happened to their sister, the two women said. During previous incidents and flare-ups in the couple's relationship, when Nikki left home for a few days at a time, the two women say Tyler would ask them to, "Tell her I love her. Tell her I'm sorry.
" Kaye said, "He would usually say something to that effect and be apologetic because he wanted her to come back. "But this time, he said, 'I think she's missing. I don't know I think she's missing.
' "So his response was different than normal, and that was definitely a factor for us in starting to worry." Contact between the family and Tyler has been limited in recent weeks, Chloe and Kaye said. The domestic violence charges against him were dismissed on July 5, prompting outrage among the local community.
Explaining the controversial decision, county DA Stephanie Bridgett told KRCR her office has made every possible attempt to find a legal way to continue pursuing the charges, but said it's impossible to do so given Tyler's constitutional right to face his accuser in court. “In the United States everyone has a constitutional right to confront the witnesses against them,” Bridgett said. “That means the accuser, the victim, must be present in trial to confront them and we haven’t been able to locate her.
” Moving the case forward now without Nikki's testimony would jeopardize the court’s ability to ever hold McCain accountable for domestic violence even if he admitted it later, Bridgett said. That's because of double jeopardy, which is a legal term that essentially forbids retrying an individual for the same crime twice. Bridgett further emphasized that felony domestic violence has a three-year statute of limitations, meaning even though the case has been dismissed for now, it can be refiled anytime within the next two-and-a-half years if and when new evidence comes to light.
“And that is what we want to be able to do,” Bridgett said. “We want to pursue, preserve that ability to hold him liable for that case.” SHERRI PAPINI LINK As their search for answers ambles on, Chloe and Kaye are both desperately trying to bring more attention to the case and keep their sister's story alive.
Nikki disappeared a stone's throw away from where Sherri Papini vanished for 22 days in November 2016 before she miraculously reappeared beaten, bruised, and shackled, claiming to have been kidnapped and held captive by two gun-toting Hispanic women. Police quickly hit a wall in their search for the culprits as they struggled to establish a motive for the random-seeming crime. However, the story made headlines around the world.
A six-year investigation would discover that Papini's story was an elaborate ruse constructed to conceal an affair she was having with an ex-boyfriend. Papini was arrested in 2022 and sentenced to 18 months in jail for lying to a federal officer after striking a plea deal with prosecutors. Chloe and Kaye commended the local community and local news outlets for their efforts in covering Nikki's case but said interest from further afield has been in short supply.
NorCal founder Trudy Nickens believes race may be a factor in the disparity between Nikki's coverage and Sherri's coverage. Chloe shared she also thinks Tyler's lack of public advocating for Nikki may also be playing a role, contrasting his silence with the various interviews that Papini's husband Keith did during the time her hoax was underway, emotionally appealing for her return. "Sherri had her husband out there advocating for her on every news station and pushing hard, and I'm not saying we aren't pushing hard, but it's different when it's your spouse," said Chloe.
"Nikki doesn't have that. She doesn't have a husband who is pushing and advocating for her. He has all the resources where he can put out all these resources for her but it's not getting done.
" Read More on The US Sun Appealing directly to Nikki, Chloe added, "I want her to know I'm going to keep fighting for her, and I know there will be justice served for her. "I want her to know I love her and I miss her, and I want to make sure that nobody else will ever have to do this." If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or chat at thehotline.
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