Tyler Scott McCain pleads not guilty to charge that he murdered his wife, Nikki Cheng Saelee-McCain

Supporters of Nikki Cheng Saelee-McCain filled a hallway on the fourth floor of the Shasta County courthouse this afternoon as they waited for Tyler Scott McCain to appear in court. About sixty of them, many wearing #justiceforNikki t-shirts of various designs, spoke quietly in the hallway before court and then afterwards outside. Their mood was somber. 

McCain is charged with the murder of Saelee-McCain who disappeared fifteen months ago in mid-May 2024. In March 2025, nearly after a year after she went missing, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office said were treating her disappearance as a homicide. McCain was charged with her murder yesterday, in a filing by the District Attorney’s Office that also includes eleven other charges and a number of special allegations, including one that he killed his wife in order to prevent her from testifying against him in court on domestic violence charges.

McCain appeared briefly in court today where he was mostly shielded from view by his attorney, Michael Borges, who asked the court not to allow photos or videos of McCain while he’s in custody. The Honorable Judge Adam B. Ryan did not agree to that request, but did forbid the media from taking photos or videos that show McCain in restraints. 

McCain did not speak during the arraignment but his defense attorney Borges pleaded not guilty to all charges on his behalf. At District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett’s request, the judge ordered McCain to continue to be held without bail due to the seriousness of the charges against him. Borges did not contest the request. 

As Bridgett approached the courtroom before the arraignment, flanked by staff, one woman holding a service dog told her tearfully, “we wanted to give you a standing ovation.” Bridgett only nodded quietly in response. She’s faced significant scrutiny from the community over the fifteen months since Saelee-McCain went missing.

Bridgett began prosecuting McCain early in 2024 on charges of felony domestic violence that included corporal injury, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, criminal threats and false imprisonment. Saelee-McCain was scheduled to testify against her husband in his upcoming trial when she went missing. The DA’s Office dropped the charges shortly after, saying they were unlikely to succeed without her testimony, but noting that the charges could be refiled later.

Yesterday, August 21, the DA refiled those domestic violence charges along with others, including the charge of murder. Saelee-McCain’s body remains missing, but local officials believe they have enough evidence to convict her husband of murder. The Sheriff’s Office says a confidential informant has told them that McCain admitted to killing his wife at their home in Happy Valley on May 18 after another alleged domestic violence incident. 

Six days after Saelee-McCain went missing, her vehicle was found near the Shasta-Tehama border. Information released this week included the detail that a “strong odor of decomposition” was coming from the covered bed of the vehicle where a sheet was found with Saelee-McCain’s blood on it. Other DNA in the vehicle was mostly McCain’s, the Sheriff’s Office says. 

He will appear again in court on September 3 for a preliminary hearing that is expected to last three to five days. 

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