California police have located the Tennessee couple who disappeared nearly a month ago while traveling west across the country.
Nikki Alcaraz and Steven Tyler Stratton, both 33, were located by Eureka Police at 7:15 a.m. Tuesday morning after someone called to report a sighting of a missing person, which the couple had already noticed Monday night.
They were found on the 100 block of 4th Street in Eureka, not far from the Oregon border.
Alcaraz was spotted at a Walmart in Redding about 150 miles away over the weekend. Surveillance cameras caught her at an eco-ATM selling her cellphone for $75.
Her boyfriend Tyler Stratton was also with her when they were found and arrested by police.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE).
Missing Tennessee couple Nikki Alcaraz and Steven Tyler Stratton, both 33, have been found after going missing nearly a month ago. They were found Tuesday in Redding, California
The pair were found Tuesday after disappearing nearly a month ago while driving from Nashville to Orange County, California
The pair were found Tuesday morning at the 100 block of 4th Street in Eureka, California
Eureka officers found Alcaraz and Stratton both in their black Jeep and cooperated with police officers at the scene.
Alcaraz insisted she was fine and needed no help, while a police check of Stratton found he was pending an arrest warrant from Tennessee law enforcement.
Stratton was taken into custody without incident after failing to appear in court in Tennessee on a theft charge.
California investigators have also contacted the Moriarty, New Mexico police force to let them know Alcaraz is no longer a missing person.
The couple had set out on a cross-country road trip nearly a month ago when things suddenly seemed to take a turn for the worse on May 4 in Torrance County, New Mexico.
According to a report from the Torrance County Sheriff’s Office, a truck driver witness saw Stratton punch Alcaraz in the face.
Stratton told an officer that he was also hit. A video shows blood pouring from his mouth and nose.
A local news channel managed to capture shocking body camera footage after the couple’s argument.
The video shows them both covered in blood and injured, along with Nikki, who is covered in bruises and one black eye, telling the police officer that she wants to press charges.
The Torrance County Attorney’s Office in New Mexico released ten bodycam videos immediately after the brutal brawl.
The couple were separated and dropped off at separate locations with no charges being filed against either of them.
Shocking new bodycam footage showed the mother-of-two showing police multiple bruises after a drunk argument with her boyfriend and telling cops she wanted to see his ass in jail.
In one of the videos released, a visibly distraught Alcaraz can be seen standing next to a passerby who called police after seeing the 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.
“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.
The Torrance County Attorney’s Office in New Mexico released ten bodycam videos immediately after the brutal brawl. A witness to the battle is seen at left
In one of the videos, a visibly distraught Alcaraz can be seen standing next to a passerby who called police after seeing the 33-year-old being “beaten” and “slapped in the face”.
Video shows Alcaraz had severe bruises on her arms and face, while Stratton was also covered in blood pouring from his nose and mouth
After questioning, the police released the couple without charge, separated them and took them to different locations
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 were “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 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 had observed blood spatter on the passenger door and blood on the “running board” and both denied driving the vehicle. Neither of them pressed charges.
The couple left Tennessee in early May in this black Jeep, which was spotted in a Redding, Calif., parking lot on Tuesday morning
Alcaraz disappeared just days after she got into a “drunk argument” with her boyfriend, and a bystander heard her “striding” “to an emergency call.”
Alcaraz was spotted on security camera over the weekend attempting to sell her phone at an eco-ATM in Redding, California
Alcaraz, Stratton, and their dog made their way from Nashville to Southern California and got into an altercation in New Mexico on May 4.
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.
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 that she had to find Stratton.
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.
The pair were eventually spotted Tuesday in a Walmart parking lot in Redding, California.