CHEATHAM COUNTY, Tennessee (WKRN) — A Tennessee family is desperate to find their loved one after they allegedly disappeared while traveling across the country with her boyfriend, who is currently on an independent arrest warrant.
Toni Alcaraz last spoke to her 33-year-old sister Nikki Alcaraz, aka Nikki Cunningham, three weeks ago.
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Nikki had left in her black Jeep with boyfriend Tyler Stratton and a dog to visit family in Orange County, California.
“I talk to her almost every day, so I’m afraid something has happened to them,” Toni said. “It’s a journey she’s made hundreds of times. Our uncle is still in Southern California and she visits him often.”
During their overland trip, the couple ran afoul of law enforcement in Torrance County, New Mexico. According to a May 4 report from the Torrance County Sheriff’s Office, a witness saw Stratton punch Nikki in the face. The report went on to say that Stratton claimed he was also hit, with blood pouring from his mouth and nose.
With neither wanting to press charges, authorities said Stratton and Nikki were taken away. After Nikki was dropped off in Moriarty, Toni said Nikki called her.
“She was crying and upset. Her eye was already turning black and you could tell she was pretty beat up,” Toni recalls.
Shortly after the fight, Toni said a family friend drove to New Mexico where he met up with Nikki in hopes of taking her to California.
“That morning when they were supposed to leave, she told him she had to go back and find Tyler because she had a bad feeling, so he left without her,” Toni explained.
Toni thinks this friend was the last to see her sister on May 6th.
However, two days later, on May 8th, Nikki communicated with Toni via text message telling her that she was in Arizona and planning to complete the trip to California.
“Then I didn’t hear anything after that Monday morning,” said Toni.
Nikki’s phone now appears to be dead, leaving her family to fear the worst.
“I don’t think she’s dead out there anywhere, but as of this writing, anything is a possibility and I’m very scared of it, but I pray that’s not the case,” Toni said, adding that Nikki had two Has children in Cheatham County.
Fear of Nikki’s disappearance was compounded by some uncanny similarities to the high-profile Gabby Petito case. The 22-year-old Florida woman embarked on a cross-country trip with fiancé Brian Laundrie in July 2021. More than two months later, Petito’s body was found in a national park in Wyoming.
Laundrie was found dead at a Florida wildlife sanctuary in October 2021, near a notebook in which he confessed to killing Petito.
“All the stories like this that keep happening make it even more terrifying,” Toni said.
According to Toni, on May 9, a license plate reader picked up Nikki’s Jeep near Flagstaff, Arizona. Toni filed a missing person’s report in New Mexico because that’s where Nikki was last seen.
District Attorney Ray Crouch of Cheatham County, Tennessee, said officers are collecting information from law enforcement agencies in New Mexico and Arizona.
He said his office has requested the nationwide extradition of Stratton, who has an independent warrant for his non-appearance for a parole violation for theft.
Nikki is 5 feet 6 inches tall with brown eyes and black brown hair. She also has many tattoos.
The Jeep is a black 2013 Jeep Wrangler with BGL3539 writing, a Mama Tried decal, and camouflaged seats.
Anyone with information about Nikki’s whereabouts is asked to call the Moriarty, New Mexico Police Department at 505-832-6060 or 505-834-2705.
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