Judge holds Tyler McCain to answer on all charges, including murder, felony domestic violence

Tyler Scott McCain’s murder charge has been upheld by the court. After more than two weeks, McCain’s preliminary hearing came to a close Tuesday. The Honorable Judge Thomas L. Bender announced around 5 p.m. that McCain will be held to answer on all 12 charges levied against him by the Shasta District Attorney’s Office. 

Those charges include a special allegation that he killed his wife, Nikki Cheng Saelee-McCain, in order to prevent her from testifying against him last year on a number of felony domestic violence charges, which were dropped in mid-2024 when she disappeared but have since been reinstated. Those charges include corporal injury, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, criminal threats and false imprisonment.

Just before the judge’s ruling, McCain’s defense attorney appealed to Judge Bender, saying that the prosecution had not yet proven that Saelee-McCain was killed, or by whom – and saying the prosecution had presented little evidence to connect her disappearance in May 2024 with her plan to testify against her husband on domestic violence charges in early July. The judge listened to his statements and then ruled to uphold the special allegation anyway.

Saelee-McCain has been missing since May 18, 2024. The Shasta County Sheriff pronounced her case a homicide earlier this year, but her body still hasn’t been found. The absence of a body has made prosecuting the case against her husband more difficult. Still, Shasta County prosecutors Sarah Murphy and Toby Powell managed to convince Judge Bender that it’s more likely than not that Tyler McCain could have committed the crimes he’s been charged with. 

The domestic violence charges are a continuation of a process that began in December 2023, when Saelee-McCain first told a Sheriff’s deputy from a local emergency room that she’d been battered by her husband. That deputy testified in court during the hearing that she had been “severely beaten” by someone much larger than herself, leaving her with two blackened eyes and bruising.

Saelee-McCain, who was 39 years old when she disappeared, was just 4’11” and 110 pounds. She and McCain had lost custody of their four children before her death. Statements from forensic interviews with their children, who are now in the care of one of Saelee-McCain’s sisters, were shared in the courtroom Tuesday. The children said they witnessed their father hit and otherwise harm their mother. One remembered their dad as a “pretty nice guy” but told a forensic interviewer that their mother sometimes used them as a shield because she knew their dad wouldn’t hurt them. 

The last day of hearings was mostly taken up with testimony from Sheriff’s Detective Kilee Holroyd, the lead investigator on the case. She narrated an in-depth timeline related to the days when Saelee-McCain was last seen and when she was reported missing. 

That timeline, which was admitted into evidence in paper form, documents some of the extensive data that was gathered and used during the Sheriff’s Office investigation, including information gathered from multiple individual’s phone and vehicle records, as well as footage of people and vehicles observed via surveillance cameras and license plate readers. 

Ongoing support for Saelee-McCain

On Tuesday morning before the hearing began, family and friends of Saelee-McCain rallied at the courthouse, holding signs and waving to passing cars. Several, including Saelee-McCain’s sister Kaye Ford, wore traditional Mien clothing.

Saelee-McCain’s mother, Fey Fo Saelee, was also at the courthouse, sobbing and hugging family members just before the hearing as another relative, Mey Chao-Lee, reminded the family of their focus during the hearing. 

“Let the evidence speak for itself, and let Cheng’s spirit be in the courtroom,” Chao-Lee said, using Saelee-McCain’s legal first name, which is Mien.

After the hearing, Saelee-McCain’s sisters, Ford and Chloe Saelee, spoke briefly to Shasta Scout, emphasizing their gratitude to the Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s Office for their many months of work in the case. 

Judge Bender’s ruling that McCain must answer to all charges in the case does not prove the defendant’s guilt, only that the court has determined that there’s a reasonable basis for believing he could have committed the crimes he’s accused of. When the case goes to trial, McCain will face a jury of his peers who will be tasked with determining whether they are certain, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he’s guilty. 

The case will move forward to an arraignment on Oct. 7 where the defendant will be asked to plead to his guilt or innocence. He will continue to be held at the Shasta County Jail without bail.

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