The 10-month search for my sister has taken an excruciating turn. Her husband finally needs to tell the truth

Devastated family members of a mom-of-four who has been missing for 10 months are demanding answers from her husband after police announced her disappearance is now being investigated as a homicide. 

Nikki Cheng-Saelee McCain, 39, has been missing since May 17, 2024. She was last seen visiting one of her husband’s relatives at a Redding, California hospital.

Her last known communication came via a late-night text to her sister, Chloe Saelee, informing her she was leaving the hospital to go to her mother-in-law’s home. 

Nikki vanished shortly after. She was officially reported missing by her siblings on May 21 after days passed without her answering any of their texts or calls.

Nikki’s car was found abandoned on May 25 in a remote location in Tehama County, roughly 30 miles from her home. No further trace of her has been yielded since.

Following an extensive investigation, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) announced last week that they believe Nikki was a victim of homicide. 

The department said they have identified ‘persons of interest’ in connection with the case but declined to name them publicly.

The announcement came after SCSO, Homeland Security, and the FBI served a search warrant at the home Nikki shared with her husband, Tyler McCain, on March 14.

Nikki vanished two weeks before McCain was slated to appear in court to face four counts of domestic violence. He pleaded not guilty and the charges were dropped in the wake of Nikki’s disappearance.

McCain broke his silence for the first time at a press conference on March 10, telling gathered reporters: ‘I’m just here in support, so anything that I can do, I want to do that […] I haven’t been in the public eye, and I haven’t done very well with it. I apologize to everyone, especially my children.’

He also shared a brief message for Nikki, saying simply: ‘We miss you.’

Nikki’s sister Chloe – who says she has her suspicions of McCain – told DailyMail.com she was less than impressed by her brother-in-law’s display. 

‘I wish he would’ve said more. I know it takes a lot of courage to stand up there in front of cameras and a crowd and say something […] but when you’re fighting for a loved one, you do it, but with Tyler I didn’t understand it,’ said Chloe.

‘I didn’t know what he was trying to say, and then he apologized. But what was he apologizing for?

‘Was he apologizing for hurting Nikki? I thought he’d give us a little bit more to push us in a direction away from him, and for me to change my mind about him.

‘But the press conference just gave me even more confirmation about what I already feel.’

An attorney for McCain has not returned a request for comment. 

The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office has refused to comment on whether McCain is being investigated as a suspect in Nikki’s murder.

Chloe said she and her two siblings have had limited contact with McCain over the last 10 months.

She last spoke with him on March 14 after law enforcement raided his and Nikki’s home. 

‘He still sticks to his word that he is not involved in any way, shape, or form,’ claimed Chloe.

‘We also learned from detectives that before the press conference, Tyler and his mom have decided to cooperate with the investigation,’ she further said. 

It was Chloe who first alerted SCSO to her sister’s disappearance. 

She said she called 911 after McCain told her he hadn’t seen or heard from Nikki in a few days. 

And though it’s taken almost a year for police to announce that they believe Nikki was killed, Chloe and her family have long believed something terrible happened to her.

That belief was spurred by a message Chloe said she received 10 days before Nikki’s disappearance, in which Nikki revealed she was going to divorce McCain and start her life anew. 

According to Chloe, Nikki’s relationship with McCain began falling apart after the pandemic struck in 2020 and gradually grew increasingly toxic.

Then, in December 2023, Nikki checked into a hospital after suffering a litany of vicious injuries she accused McCain of inflicting, police records show. 

Chloe accompanied Nikki to the hospital and claimed she was so severely beaten she barely recognized her sister. 

A deputy from SCSO was summoned to the hospital and noted that Nikki had suffered trauma to her 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 McCain [sic].’

In an interview with the deputy, Nikki claimed she’d been at home the night before when Tyler returned in a ‘strange mood and for some reason went and locked the back door of the house,’ the report reads.

‘Tyler seemed extremely agitated and was not making any sense.

‘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 police McCain had a ‘glazed, scary look in his eyes’ and appeared to be in the throes of some sort of ‘mental episode.’

While Nikki tried unsuccessfully to calm him down, McCain allegedly tormented her, pinned her to the ground, 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.’

Nikki told police she genuinely believed she was going to die and that McCain ‘intended to kill her.’

McCain allegedly tried to wrap an unknown item around Nikki’s neck to choke her but was unsuccessful, Nikki claimed.

Finally, after three hours, Nikki was able to free herself from her constraints while McCain was in another room, grab her car keys, and flee their home.

She checked into hospital the next day.

McCain, meanwhile, told police that he and Nikki hadn’t fought and instead suggested she must’ve sustained the injuries in a fight with someone else, possibly a woman, police records show.  

According to the report, McCain 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. 

McCain was arrested and charged with four felony counts of domestic violence.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and the case was dropped by the local DA’s office last July on account of Nikki’s disappearance. 

The decision prompted outrage among the local community.

Seeking to explain the controversial decision, County DA Stephanie Bridgett released a statement, stating that her office had made every possible attempt to find a way to pursue the charges but couldn’t proceed because of McCain’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 ever to hold McCain accountable for domestic violence even if he admitted it later because of double jeopardy laws, Bridgett said.

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 that timeframe. 

‘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.’

Police had been called to Nikki and McCain’s home numerous times since 2020, resulting in their four children being removed from their care by the state in 2022, Chloe said. 

Nikki’s children are now aged 8, 10, 11 and 13.  

Telling her nieces and nephews their mommy would never be coming back is one of the hardest things Chloe and her sisters have ever had to do, she said. 

Chloe said the children took the news as well as can be expected but each child is clearly suffering in their own way.

‘If I said it was going well I’d be lying, and if I said it was going horribly I’d be lying then too,’ shared Chloe.

‘It’s difficult, but they’re just taking it day-by-day, which is all they can really do.’

Chloe said she is determined to get answers for Nikki’s children.

The recent police activity around the case leads her to believe that getting clarity about her sister’s final moments is just around the corner.

She urged anyone complicit in her sister’s death to come forward and confess to spare the family any further anguish. 

‘I want them to come forward so they can just give us some peace and so Nikki’s children can have the peace that they deserve, so we can all start the grieving process,’ implored Chloe. 

‘And I also want them to remember the way that Nikki was, how amazing Nikki was, and Nikki was always about doing the right thing. And Nikki was always a person who admitted to her faults.

‘People do things. We don’t know why they do, but people do things, and so it’s not what you did now. It’s what are you going to do. It’s about your actions. 

‘Nikki’s children don’t deserve this and we just want some closure.

‘Nikki deserves to be not out there somewhere alone. She deserves to be laid to rest in a nice and comfortable place.’

Officials are asking anyone with information about Saelee-McCain’s disappearance and death to contact the Major Crimes Unit by email at MCU@shastacounty.gov or at 530-245-6135.