March 19, 2025 • 11 mins
We have some new and updated information on the disappearance of Nikki McCain from Northern California.
In Texas, police nabbed a fugitive wanted for murder out of Georgia. After the arrest, news broke that the suspect was also wanted out of North Carolina for offenses against minors.
In Florida, a man has been charged in the fatal wrong-way collision of a mother of four at the end of February.
Consider joining PLUS+ at swordandscale.com/plus
In Texas, police nabbed a fugitive wanted for murder out of Georgia. After the arrest, news broke that the suspect was also wanted out of North Carolina for offenses against minors.
In Florida, a man has been charged in the fatal wrong-way collision of a mother of four at the end of February.
Consider joining PLUS+ at swordandscale.com/plus
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to Sword and Scale Daily, a
daily show covering all things true crime, five days a week.
It's Wednesday, March nineteenth. I'm your host, Ryan Williams. All right,
shall we're back. Thanks so much for understanding my absence yesterday.
It's been a pretty gnarly sickness just kind of kicking
(00:23):
my ass. I'm not one hundred percent, but good enough
to go. So with all that said, let's dive into it.
We have some new and updated information on the disappearance
of Nicki McCain from northern California. In Texas, please snabbed
a fugitive wanted for murder out of Georgia. After his arrest,
some news broke that the suspect was also wanted out
(00:44):
of North Carolina for offenses against miners, and in Florida,
a man has been charged in the fatal wrongway collision
of a mother of four at the end of February.
All of this coming at you right now here on
Sword and Scaled Daily. Back in July of twenty twenty four,
(01:09):
we reported on the story of thirty nine year old
that Nicky Saylee McCain, the missing mother from northern California,
over the weekend, there was a breaking development in the case.
To quickly recap Nicki was last seen on the evening
of May seventeenth, leading into the early hours of May eighteenth.
On that evening, Nicki had driven from her home to
the residence of her mother in law in an effort
(01:30):
to get her loved one to the hospital. A few
hours later, Nicki dropped her mother in law back off
at home and then went back to her house. When
Nicki arrived home, she texted her sister to let her
know that she was back home, safe and sound and
was going to head to bed. Just a few hours later, however,
Nicki's sister had send a text message but received no response.
It was unusual for Nicki to not be in communication
(01:52):
with her siblings, yet the messages continued going unanswered. Just
a day later, Nicki's sisters drove over to her house
and ever to check on her, but they found that
no one was home. Even more strange was the fact
that Nicki's two thousand and two Chevy Avalanche was missing.
It was extremely perplexing to not only her loved ones,
but also the community, who had become aware of a
(02:14):
strange disappearance. A week after Nicki had last been seen,
sheriff's deputies in neighboring Taima County had discovered Nicki's vehicle
abandoned in a rural area next to a dry creek bed.
Once this announcement became public, many in the community began
searching the area. Unfortunately, those searches really didn't uncover much
of anything. What was most concerning about Nicki's disappearance was
(02:36):
the discovery that she had been a recent victim of
domestic violence. You see back on December first, twenty twenty three,
an investigator with the Shasta County Sheriff's Office responded to
Mercy Medical Center in Reading for a report of a
domestic violence incident. It was at this time that the
investigator came into contact with Nicki and immediately noted there
was facial trauma to her eyes, forehead, just all over
(02:58):
her face and the NSCIE I didn't report. The investigator
wrote quote. Both of her eyes were black and severely
Both were also swollen in what appeared to be the
result of a physical assault. Now, in speaking with Nicki,
she explained that on the evening of November twenty ninth,
at around nine to fifteen pm, she had arrived home
and her husband, Tyler McCain wasn't there. She went into
(03:19):
their room and was combing her hair. That's when Tyler
arrived home roughly fifteen minutes later. She explained to the
investigator that her husband seemed agitated and really wasn't making sense.
All of a sudden, he pounced on her and held
her on the ground before yelling, quote, what's going on?
What are you doing? Nicki explained that she tried to
calm Tyler down, but he had a quote unquote glazed,
(03:42):
scary look in his eyes. All of a sudden, Tyler
allegedly began hitting her in the face repeatedly. She stated
that the behavior began to grow more intense, and in
addition to hitting her in the face, he also allegedly
pulled her hair and dumped water on her. Nicki told
the investigator that this incident lasted approximately three hours, and
during this time he allegedly bound her ankles and wrists
(04:04):
with tape and placed a piece on her mouth so
she couldn't speak. Nicki went on to state that this
is when she was rolled onto her stomach while her
husband straddled her, pulled her hair and allegedly told her
that he was going to kill her. After interviewing Nicki
at the hospital, investigators drove out to her home on
Olinna Road and made contact with Tyler. He met them outside,
where he was taken into custody without incident. He was
(04:25):
subsequently taken to the Shasta County Jail. According to the
incident report, the responding investigator explained that he had read
Tyler his Miranda rights, and after Tyler acknowledged and verbally
stated that he understood his rights, he agreed to speak
with the investigator. Tyler was asked if he was aware
of the injuries his wife sustained, to which he stated
he was aware, but hadn't seen them. He told the
(04:45):
investigator that he believed that Nicki had been involved in
a physical altercation with another woman, but hadn't seen the
fight take place. The investigator noted that Tyler's statement seemed
pretty inconsistent, but that's when Tyler tried to explain that
Nicki was allegedly having an affair with another female, but
that really didn't matter to him because they got along
great and we're a happy couple. Ultimately, Tyler would be
(05:08):
booked in charge with fellow need domestic violence, false imprisonment,
and terrorist threats. Over the past ten months that Nicki
has been missing, there's been a lot of odd things
that have occurred, and many people in the community believe
that Tyler is the person who has the answers to
Nicky's location. First, the charges against Tyler were dropped because
Nicki couldn't appear in court, which obviously cause and uproar.
(05:30):
Many people showed up at the Shasta County Courthouse and
protest of this decision, and just a few weeks after
the charges were dropped, there was a weird, suspicious fire
at Nicky and Tyler's home. Through all of this, Tyler
remained silent, But that all changed two weeks ago when
Tyler had a press conference in conjunction with the Shasta
County Sheriff's Office. But then on the afternoon of Friday,
(05:51):
March fourteenth, local news outlet KRCRTV Channel seven had life
footage from Nicky and Tyler's home as investigators with the
Shasta County Shriff Office, FBI, and Homeland Security were seen
removing Adams from the home. That very same day, the
Shasta County Sheriff's Office announced in a statement that they
now believe that Nikki is the victim of a homicide.
(06:13):
They also stated that they've identified persons of interest in
the case, but they cannot disclose those names based on
the nature of the investigation. We're still continuing to follow
this story closely and will bring you an update when
more details are made available. On Thursday, February twenty fifth,
(06:36):
deputies with the Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Office in Georgia were
notified of a body that was found on a wooded
property in the eastern part of the county. When I
responding deputies arrived, they confirmed the finding and then reported
the death to the GBI or the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.
All that was initially reported at the time was that
a body had been found, but just days later the
(06:58):
victim was identified via dental and medical records. The GBI
announced that the man was sixty five year old David Stewart,
who was the victim of a homicide. But that's not all.
It seems as if the GBI had a prime suspect
in mind for David's alleged murder. The GBI announced they
were looking for twenty nine year old at Michael Douche
in connection with the death of David Stewart. They also
(07:19):
went on to announce that Michael was being charged with
a following malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery,
exploitation of the elderly, false imprisonment, concealing the death of another,
financial car theft, an identity fraud. By the time the
suspect was named and the charges were publicly released, it
(07:40):
was found that Michael was wanted out of North Carolina.
It appears as though Michael had sixteen felony warrants for
his arrest, all for sexual exploitation of a minor. To
say this was a bad dude would be an absolute understatement,
But that all changed on Thursday, March sixth, when news
broke that Michael had been located and arrested in Denton, Texas.
(08:00):
He just so happened to be captured while driving around
in a stolen RV, which thankfully was flagged by a
patrol officer's license plate reader. At the time of this writing,
Michael Douche is in custody at the Denton County Jail
awaiting extradition to Georgia. There's still a lot of unknowns
in this case, but were continuing to follow it closely.
When more details were released, including a potential motive, will
(08:22):
be sure to bring you an updates. On the afternoon
of Thursday, February twenty seventh, deputies with the Hillsborough County
Sheriff's Office in Florida responded to an area on southbound
(08:43):
Gun Highway for a reported car crash. When responding deputies
arrived on the scene, they spoke with witnesses who saw
that a Chrysler Pacific a mini van had crossed from
the northbound lanes and clyded head on with the Lincoln
town Car in the southbound lane. The wreck was pretty bad.
The four occupants of the Lincoln, which included three children,
were all transported to a local area hospital for emergency treatment.
(09:07):
While deputies were on the scene, they went and spoke
with the individual that witnesses stated was the driver of
the Chrysler minivan. The driver was later identified as thirty
three year old Nicholas Bettencourt. As deputies were speaking with Nicholas,
they noticed that he kept nodding his head and seemed
to have a hard time keeping it up. It became
quickly apparent that Nicholas was under the influence of either
(09:28):
alcohol or some type of substance. Based on this, in
combination with the fact that Nicholas appeared to be injured
from the crash, he was also taken to a local
area hospital for emergency treatment and to get his blood
tested for the possible presence of alcohol and drugs. Those
tests showed at the time of the crash, Nicholas had cocaine, amphetamines,
(09:49):
oxy cotone, and benzodiazepines in a system, and when deputy
searched his vehicle at the scene, they located meth psilocybin, mushrooms, cocaine, MDMA, xenix,
and narcan. He had quite the stash, to say the least.
But here's where things get a little bit interesting. You see,
(10:09):
roughly six hours before the crash occurred, Nicholas had been
released from the custody of the Panelas County Sheriff's office
after he was arrested for dy So he gets arrested,
his license got suspended, and then as soon as he
gets out, he allegedly gets loaded on a cocktail of
drugs and then goes out for a joy ride got it. Unfortunately,
(10:30):
news broke that the driver of the Lincoln town car
later identified as thirty six year old A Dana Rivera,
and passed away as a result of injury sustained in
the wrong way crash. With this, Nicholas Bettencourt was charged
with manslaughter while driving under the influence, vehicular homicide, reckless
driving with serious bodily injury, along with several drug charges.
(10:51):
After his arrest and the charges were made public, it
came to light that Nicholas was a minister for a
local Presbyterian church. So much for taking care of your flock.
While Dana unfortunately lost her life, her children who were
injured in the crash are thankfully recovering, and although they
may physically recover, the scars of what they lost that
day will remain forever. We send our heartfelt thoughts and
(11:13):
prayers to their family through this absolute tragic time. Thanks
so much for tuning in for today's episode of Sword
and Scaled Daily. I'm your host, Ryan Williams, and we'll
see you back here tomorrow.
Hello, and welcome back to Sword and Scale Daily, a
daily show covering all things true crime, five days a week.
It's Wednesday, March nineteenth. I'm your host, Ryan Williams. All right,
shall we're back. Thanks so much for understanding my absence yesterday.
It's been a pretty gnarly sickness just kind of kicking
(00:23):
my ass. I'm not one hundred percent, but good enough
to go. So with all that said, let's dive into it.
We have some new and updated information on the disappearance
of Nicki McCain from northern California. In Texas, please snabbed
a fugitive wanted for murder out of Georgia. After his arrest,
some news broke that the suspect was also wanted out
(00:44):
of North Carolina for offenses against miners, and in Florida,
a man has been charged in the fatal wrongway collision
of a mother of four at the end of February.
All of this coming at you right now here on
Sword and Scaled Daily. Back in July of twenty twenty four,
(01:09):
we reported on the story of thirty nine year old
that Nicky Saylee McCain, the missing mother from northern California,
over the weekend, there was a breaking development in the case.
To quickly recap Nicki was last seen on the evening
of May seventeenth, leading into the early hours of May eighteenth.
On that evening, Nicki had driven from her home to
the residence of her mother in law in an effort
(01:30):
to get her loved one to the hospital. A few
hours later, Nicki dropped her mother in law back off
at home and then went back to her house. When
Nicki arrived home, she texted her sister to let her
know that she was back home, safe and sound and
was going to head to bed. Just a few hours later, however,
Nicki's sister had send a text message but received no response.
It was unusual for Nicki to not be in communication
(01:52):
with her siblings, yet the messages continued going unanswered. Just
a day later, Nicki's sisters drove over to her house
and ever to check on her, but they found that
no one was home. Even more strange was the fact
that Nicki's two thousand and two Chevy Avalanche was missing.
It was extremely perplexing to not only her loved ones,
but also the community, who had become aware of a
(02:14):
strange disappearance. A week after Nicki had last been seen,
sheriff's deputies in neighboring Taima County had discovered Nicki's vehicle
abandoned in a rural area next to a dry creek bed.
Once this announcement became public, many in the community began
searching the area. Unfortunately, those searches really didn't uncover much
of anything. What was most concerning about Nicki's disappearance was
(02:36):
the discovery that she had been a recent victim of
domestic violence. You see back on December first, twenty twenty three,
an investigator with the Shasta County Sheriff's Office responded to
Mercy Medical Center in Reading for a report of a
domestic violence incident. It was at this time that the
investigator came into contact with Nicki and immediately noted there
was facial trauma to her eyes, forehead, just all over
(02:58):
her face and the NSCIE I didn't report. The investigator
wrote quote. Both of her eyes were black and severely
Both were also swollen in what appeared to be the
result of a physical assault. Now, in speaking with Nicki,
she explained that on the evening of November twenty ninth,
at around nine to fifteen pm, she had arrived home
and her husband, Tyler McCain wasn't there. She went into
(03:19):
their room and was combing her hair. That's when Tyler
arrived home roughly fifteen minutes later. She explained to the
investigator that her husband seemed agitated and really wasn't making sense.
All of a sudden, he pounced on her and held
her on the ground before yelling, quote, what's going on?
What are you doing? Nicki explained that she tried to
calm Tyler down, but he had a quote unquote glazed,
(03:42):
scary look in his eyes. All of a sudden, Tyler
allegedly began hitting her in the face repeatedly. She stated
that the behavior began to grow more intense, and in
addition to hitting her in the face, he also allegedly
pulled her hair and dumped water on her. Nicki told
the investigator that this incident lasted approximately three hours, and
during this time he allegedly bound her ankles and wrists
(04:04):
with tape and placed a piece on her mouth so
she couldn't speak. Nicki went on to state that this
is when she was rolled onto her stomach while her
husband straddled her, pulled her hair and allegedly told her
that he was going to kill her. After interviewing Nicki
at the hospital, investigators drove out to her home on
Olinna Road and made contact with Tyler. He met them outside,
where he was taken into custody without incident. He was
(04:25):
subsequently taken to the Shasta County Jail. According to the
incident report, the responding investigator explained that he had read
Tyler his Miranda rights, and after Tyler acknowledged and verbally
stated that he understood his rights, he agreed to speak
with the investigator. Tyler was asked if he was aware
of the injuries his wife sustained, to which he stated
he was aware, but hadn't seen them. He told the
(04:45):
investigator that he believed that Nicki had been involved in
a physical altercation with another woman, but hadn't seen the
fight take place. The investigator noted that Tyler's statement seemed
pretty inconsistent, but that's when Tyler tried to explain that
Nicki was allegedly having an affair with another female, but
that really didn't matter to him because they got along
great and we're a happy couple. Ultimately, Tyler would be
(05:08):
booked in charge with fellow need domestic violence, false imprisonment,
and terrorist threats. Over the past ten months that Nicki
has been missing, there's been a lot of odd things
that have occurred, and many people in the community believe
that Tyler is the person who has the answers to
Nicky's location. First, the charges against Tyler were dropped because
Nicki couldn't appear in court, which obviously cause and uproar.
(05:30):
Many people showed up at the Shasta County Courthouse and
protest of this decision, and just a few weeks after
the charges were dropped, there was a weird, suspicious fire
at Nicky and Tyler's home. Through all of this, Tyler
remained silent, But that all changed two weeks ago when
Tyler had a press conference in conjunction with the Shasta
County Sheriff's Office. But then on the afternoon of Friday,
(05:51):
March fourteenth, local news outlet KRCRTV Channel seven had life
footage from Nicky and Tyler's home as investigators with the
Shasta County Shriff Office, FBI, and Homeland Security were seen
removing Adams from the home. That very same day, the
Shasta County Sheriff's Office announced in a statement that they
now believe that Nikki is the victim of a homicide.
(06:13):
They also stated that they've identified persons of interest in
the case, but they cannot disclose those names based on
the nature of the investigation. We're still continuing to follow
this story closely and will bring you an update when
more details are made available. On Thursday, February twenty fifth,
(06:36):
deputies with the Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Office in Georgia were
notified of a body that was found on a wooded
property in the eastern part of the county. When I
responding deputies arrived, they confirmed the finding and then reported
the death to the GBI or the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.
All that was initially reported at the time was that
a body had been found, but just days later the
(06:58):
victim was identified via dental and medical records. The GBI
announced that the man was sixty five year old David Stewart,
who was the victim of a homicide. But that's not all.
It seems as if the GBI had a prime suspect
in mind for David's alleged murder. The GBI announced they
were looking for twenty nine year old at Michael Douche
in connection with the death of David Stewart. They also
(07:19):
went on to announce that Michael was being charged with
a following malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery,
exploitation of the elderly, false imprisonment, concealing the death of another,
financial car theft, an identity fraud. By the time the
suspect was named and the charges were publicly released, it
(07:40):
was found that Michael was wanted out of North Carolina.
It appears as though Michael had sixteen felony warrants for
his arrest, all for sexual exploitation of a minor. To
say this was a bad dude would be an absolute understatement,
But that all changed on Thursday, March sixth, when news
broke that Michael had been located and arrested in Denton, Texas.
(08:00):
He just so happened to be captured while driving around
in a stolen RV, which thankfully was flagged by a
patrol officer's license plate reader. At the time of this writing,
Michael Douche is in custody at the Denton County Jail
awaiting extradition to Georgia. There's still a lot of unknowns
in this case, but were continuing to follow it closely.
When more details were released, including a potential motive, will
(08:22):
be sure to bring you an updates. On the afternoon
of Thursday, February twenty seventh, deputies with the Hillsborough County
Sheriff's Office in Florida responded to an area on southbound
(08:43):
Gun Highway for a reported car crash. When responding deputies
arrived on the scene, they spoke with witnesses who saw
that a Chrysler Pacific a mini van had crossed from
the northbound lanes and clyded head on with the Lincoln
town Car in the southbound lane. The wreck was pretty bad.
The four occupants of the Lincoln, which included three children,
were all transported to a local area hospital for emergency treatment.
(09:07):
While deputies were on the scene, they went and spoke
with the individual that witnesses stated was the driver of
the Chrysler minivan. The driver was later identified as thirty
three year old Nicholas Bettencourt. As deputies were speaking with Nicholas,
they noticed that he kept nodding his head and seemed
to have a hard time keeping it up. It became
quickly apparent that Nicholas was under the influence of either
(09:28):
alcohol or some type of substance. Based on this, in
combination with the fact that Nicholas appeared to be injured
from the crash, he was also taken to a local
area hospital for emergency treatment and to get his blood
tested for the possible presence of alcohol and drugs. Those
tests showed at the time of the crash, Nicholas had cocaine, amphetamines,
(09:49):
oxy cotone, and benzodiazepines in a system, and when deputy
searched his vehicle at the scene, they located meth psilocybin, mushrooms, cocaine, MDMA, xenix,
and narcan. He had quite the stash, to say the least.
But here's where things get a little bit interesting. You see,
(10:09):
roughly six hours before the crash occurred, Nicholas had been
released from the custody of the Panelas County Sheriff's office
after he was arrested for dy So he gets arrested,
his license got suspended, and then as soon as he
gets out, he allegedly gets loaded on a cocktail of
drugs and then goes out for a joy ride got it. Unfortunately,
(10:30):
news broke that the driver of the Lincoln town car
later identified as thirty six year old A Dana Rivera,
and passed away as a result of injury sustained in
the wrong way crash. With this, Nicholas Bettencourt was charged
with manslaughter while driving under the influence, vehicular homicide, reckless
driving with serious bodily injury, along with several drug charges.
(10:51):
After his arrest and the charges were made public, it
came to light that Nicholas was a minister for a
local Presbyterian church. So much for taking care of your flock.
While Dana unfortunately lost her life, her children who were
injured in the crash are thankfully recovering, and although they
may physically recover, the scars of what they lost that
day will remain forever. We send our heartfelt thoughts and
(11:13):
prayers to their family through this absolute tragic time. Thanks
so much for tuning in for today's episode of Sword
and Scaled Daily. I'm your host, Ryan Williams, and we'll
see you back here tomorrow.
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