The boyfriend of the Tennessee mother, who was missing for three weeks, is seen in police video begging officers to tell him where she is being dropped off after he was seen having a drunk argument “slapped her in the face”.
Nikki Alcaraz and Steven Tyler Stratton, both 33, disappeared three weeks ago while driving from Nashville to Orange County, California, in their black Jeep Wrangler.
On Tuesday, the couple were found alive in Northern California near the Oregon border after a tipster spotted them. Alcaraz told officers she was fine while Stratton was taken into custody pending a warrant.
The Torrance County Attorney’s Office in New Mexico released ten bodycam videos immediately after the brutal brawl.
After questioning, the police released the couple without charge, separated them and took them to different locations.
Stratton is heard begging the police to tell him where she’s going, stating that he “loves” her and hopes they’ll be released together.
New bodycam footage shows Steven Tyler Stratton – the boyfriend of Tennessee mother Nikki Alcaraz – pleaded to be with Alcaraz after the drunken brawl that left the couple bloodied and injured on May 4
Stratton is heard begging the police to tell him where she’s going, stating that he “loves” her and hopes they’ll be released together. The police took them to different places
“They were both drinking, there’s a problem with the car we’re taking,” a responding officer explains in the footage.
“We’ll give you separate rides into town, do you have money?” NO? does she have money NO?
“Do you have a bag or something you want to take with you?”
Stratton, covered in his own blood and seated in a police vehicle, is heard asking, “So I’m going to jail?” The responding officer said, “No.”
“We’re taking you into town,” the officer said, to which Stratton asked, “What does that mean, sir?”
“Like we’re going to take you to a place that’s not a fucking nowhere so you have a place to go,” he explains.
“Can I talk to her,” Stratton asks, before the answering officer says, “What should I do?”
“Tell her I love her and don’t want to fight,” he explained.
“Do you guys have phones?” The officer questions Stratton before the 33-year-old reveals, “She has a phone, she friggin’ took my phone and threw it away.” [of the car].’
“I’m not inclined to let you guys talk … I don’t think it’s a good idea to put you guys somewhere where you can find out from there,” the official said.
“Will we be released together?” Stratton asks hopefully. “No, you will be released, but not together we will not take you to the same place,” repeats the officer.
Shocking bodycam footage showed Alcaraz alerting police to multiple bruises on her after a drunken fight with her boyfriend and telling cops she wanted to see his ass in jail.
Alcaraz, who disappeared just a few days after a “drunk argument” with her boyfriend, was also heard “screaming” by a bystander “on an emergency call”.
“Well, I need to know where she’s going, I need to know where she’s going,” Stratton said.
“Well, it’s up to her if she wants you to know,” the officer says on bodycam.
“May I ask you, please?” asks Stratton, whose requests are ignored by the officer who asks, “What kind of jeep do you need to take with you?”
“I just want her,” he replies desperately. “Well, you can’t do that if it’s not on the table,” he concludes.
In another video, a visibly distraught Alcaraz can be seen standing next to a passerby who called police after seeing the 33-year-old mother of two being “beaten” and “slapped in the face”.
“I’m a truck driver, when I drove by I saw her lying on the ground and I saw the guy over there beating her and slapping her in the face,” said the bystander.
“He punched me in the eye,” adds Alcaraz.
“How is he related to you?” the responding officer is heard asking Alcaraz, who replies, “We’ve been together for 16 years… we’re boyfriend/girlfriend.”
When asked if she’d like to press charges, Alcaraz nods and replies “yes” before revealing she’d like to see his “ass” in jail while holding back tears.
Nikki Alcaraz and Steven Tyler Stratton, both 33, disappeared three weeks ago while driving from Nashville to Orange County, California, in their black Jeep Wrangler
The couple left Tennessee in early May in this black Jeep, which has not yet been found. The car is owned by Alcaraz and was last located by a license plate reader in Arizona on May 8th
“I just wanted to make sure she was okay,” the onlookers can be heard saying.
Responding officers then ask if the man she is dating, later identified as Stratton, “is into anything,” to which Alcaraz replies, “I wouldn’t know that’s not the case.”
“But I’m done, I want his ass to go to jail, I’m over it,” she reiterates.
The Torrence County Sheriff’s Office previously released an incident report revealing that Alcaraz heard screaming in the background of an 911 call to police during the May 4 incident.
During the call, the woman, later identified as Alcaraz, could be heard screaming in the background. The police report said the man, named Stratton, “standing over her” before “slapping her in the face.”
According to the Torrance County Sheriff’s Office report obtained by , both Alcaraz and Stratton had been “drunk.”
The responding officer said he saw the 2013 Jeep at a small rest area and noticed red marks on Alcaraz’s face and fingerprints on both arms.
He also observed that Stratton had “blood from his mouth and nose area.”
The responding officer said Alcaraz said they dropped off a girlfriend in Amarillo, Texas, and then picked up a bottle of Fireball whiskey, which she and Stratton both drank.
Alcaraz was seen on surveillance camera on Saturday May 27 trying to sell her phone at an eco-ATM in Redding, California
Alcaraz claimed Stratton “started hitting her for no reason” and when they got to the rest area she jumped out of the vehicle but he “caught her”.
She also stated that she had a bruise on her chest and back.
The report identified the alleged attacker as “Thomas”, but the sheriff’s office confirmed to that it was Stratton.
Stratton claimed Alcaraz also hit him, allegedly hitting him in the mouth “for no reason” and that she also hit him during the trip.
He explained, “Nikki passes out after drinking alcohol,” but he “didn’t want her to go to jail.”
The deputy noticed blood splattered on the passenger door and blood on the “running board” and both denied driving the vehicle. Neither of them pressed charges.
Police in Moriarty and the Cheatham County Sheriff’s Office had previously filed a missing persons report, which said Alcaraz was in “danger” because he had “a history of domestic violence” – although there is no evidence that one of them is dead.
Cheatham District Attorney Ray Crouch is reportedly seeking a statewide extradition order for Stratton based on an independent warrant.
Despite the dark parallels to the Gabby Petito case, Toni is confident her sister is still alive. Alcarez is referred to as Cunningham, which is her ex-partner’s last name
According to WKRN, its office also released a picture of Alcaraz trying to sell her phone at an eco-ATM in Redding, Calif., on Saturday, May 27.
No further information about her disappearance was released, but her family told GMA that they are “scared after not hearing from her for three weeks.”
Alcaraz, Stratton, and their dog made their way from Nashville to Southern California and got into an altercation in New Mexico on May 4.
Timeline of the disappearance of Alcaraz and Stratton
Early May: The couple set off from Nashville to drive to Southern California in their black 2013 Jeep Wrangler and their dog.
May 4: Police in Moriarty, New Mexico, are called over reports of a fight in a vehicle. A truck driver says he had to pull Stratton away from Alcaraz. Stratton will be dropped off several intersections away. Alcaraz spends the next two nights in a motel with a friend who has been called to help.
May 6: Alcaraz leaves the Super 8 Motel early in the morning and says she wants to find Stratton.
May 8: Alcaraz texts her sister Toni to let her know she’s in Arizona. It’s unclear if Stratton and the dog are with her. Their jeep is caught on cameras near Flagstaff. There is no further sighting of the vehicle, Alcaraz, Stratton or the dog.
A police report filed by the Torrance County Sheriff’s Department shows the mother-of-two suffered a black eye after witnesses said they saw Stratton punch her in the face.
Chron.com has reached out to the Torrance County Sheriff’s Department, Moriarty Police Department, Redding Police Department and Cheatham County Sheriff’s Office for comment.
Prosecutor Ray Crouch did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Both were then taken away by the intervening police, Nikki was dropped off in Moriarty where she called her sister Toni and a friend met her to stay at a motel for the night.
But the next day, Alcaraz insisted she had to find Stratton, who has not been seen since the violent incident.
His family has not filed a missing person’s report for him, but he is mentioned in official calls to find Alcaraz.
Alcaraz – credited as Nikki Cunningham on a missing poster – exited the Super 8 motel in Moriarty, a town about 40 miles east of Albuquerque, around 7am on May 6 and was not seen again until May 30.
Her Jeep was located by a license plate reader near Flagstaff, Arizona on May 8, and Alcaraz notified her sister that she wanted to end her trip.
She didn’t say if she was alone or had returned to Stratton’s with her dog. Her family has not heard from her since.
Speaking to WKRN, Toni said: “I’m scared that something happened to them, whether it’s that they argued again or that they crashed their jeep somewhere.”
“I talk to her almost every day, so I’m scared something has happened to them.” It’s a journey she’s been on hundreds of times.”
Authorities are still looking for leads to find Alcaraz and Stratton, and the mother’s family is urging witnesses to come forward.
Federal officials have not yet joined the search, which has so far turned up no leads.
Stratton is wanted for a no-show for a parole violation for theft.
Speaking to WKRN, Toni said: “I’m scared that something happened to them, whether it’s that they argued again or that they crashed their jeep somewhere.”
Despite the dire omens of the headline case surrounding Petito, who was found dead two months after her argument with Laundrie, Toni said she was confident her sister was still alive
Despite the dark parallels to the Gabby Petito case, Toni hoped her sister was still alive.
“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,” she said.
On the similarities to the Petito case, she further noted, “All the stories like this that seem to be happening and are happening more and more often make it even more chilling.”