New criminal protective orders issued after second day of Tyler Scott McCain’s preliminary hearing 

Editor’s Note: This story includes references to domestic violence. Read with care. If you or someone you know needs help to stay safe you can find shelter at One Safe Place. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233.

A pair of criminal protective orders capped off a full day in court yesterday, Sept. 9, for the preliminary hearing of Tyler Scott McCain. He’s being charged with murder with a special allegation that he killed his wife, Nikki Cheng Saelee-McCain to prevent her from testifying against him on felony domestic violence charges. She was reported missing on May 19, 2024.

The Honorable Judge Thomas L. Bender, a visiting retired judge from Madera County, issued the criminal protective orders against McCain in an effort to prevent him from contacting his wife’s sisters, Chloe Saelee and Kaye Ford, even through a third party. 

Prosecutor Sarah Murphy told the court the orders were necessary due to indications that McCain may have pushed earlier this week for family members to contact his children on his behalf. The judge initially questioned the need for the orders. McCain is incarcerated without bail, and the children are under the guardianship of sisters Saelee and Ford, according to statements by the prosecutor. 

Judge Bender ultimately granted the protective orders, but he did not grant similar orders for the McCain’s four minor children, saying he’ll hold a hearing Wednesday morning to consider the issue. 

Mid-afternoon the hearing was briefly interrupted when marshals burst into the room asking Judge Bender to call a recess due to a fire alarm in the building. Occupants of the building left via the stairwells waiting outside for about twenty minutes before the building was reopened and the preliminary hearing was able to continue.

Day 2 brings vivid descriptions of McCains’ home and vehicle

The prosecution interviewed six witnesses on the second day of McCain’s preliminary hearing. They were all members of law enforcement working for the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office. 

Sheriff’s Office Investigative Technician Ashlee Zumalt testified about photos she took of Saelee-McCain after she was allegedly battered by her husband in December 2023. And three sworn law enforcement officers with the Sheriff’s Office testified about incidents involving McCain that occurred on or near Shasta County roads in January and April of this year.

One of them, Sheriff’s Deputy Jordan Setnor described responding to a patrol call to the Palo Cedro area, contacting McCain as he walked along Deschutes Road. He said he searched McCain under his probation terms and found he was carrying an empty men’s wallet saying he drove McCain back to his residence on Olinda Road that day.

That’s the same residence where Senior Investigative Technician Courtney Leadingham, who also works for the Sheriff’s Office, collected evidence in May 2024, shortly after Saelee-McCain first went missing. In testimony that spanned hours, Leadingham described in detail what she discovered both at the home and in Saelee-McCain’s Chevy Avalanche, which was found abandoned on a rural roadside about a week after her disappearance with a bloody sheet in the covered bed. 

At the McCains’ shared home, Leadingham testified to finding both ammunition and guns stored throughout the home during a search warrant served on May 25, 2024. Photos admitted into evidence included a picture of a 30-caliber carbine rifle stored behind the refrigerator and photos of plastic bins and metal tins of ammunition stored in various places throughout the home. 

She noted items found together on the kitchen counter, including McCain’s ID, several 30-caliber carbine rifle rounds and keys, which were later discovered to be the keys to the abandoned Chevy Avalanche.

In the primary bedroom, which showed signs of use by both McCain and Saelee-McCain, Leadingham said the room was in disarray with walls riddled with holes that appeared to have been caused by a large object. The primary bathroom was covered with about a quarter-inch of water, she said, but testing with a reactive substance indicated that there had not been a “significant blood event” in the room, such as a shooting or stabbing. That did not rule out, Leadingham testified, another mechanism of death such as strangulation, suffocation or blunt force trauma could have occurred in the home. 

She then began to answer questions related to her findings after the Chevy Avalanche was discovered off a rural highway in Shasta County on May 28, 2024. Pictures of the inside of the vehicle bed included a depiction of a yellow and white tin of Easy-Off Oven Clean on top of a white sheet with reddish-brown stains. The bed of the vehicle, Leadingham testified, smelled strongly of human decomposition and had reddish-brown stains that tested presumptive positive for human blood. In response to questioning, she shared in detail the protocols followed to ensure the integrity of evidence in the case. 

In the Sheriff’s secure evidence garage, Leadingham and her team processed the vehicle shortly after it was found. Photos were admitted into evidence showing the areas of the truck bed that lit up as positive when treated with a reactive agent known as BlueStar, indicating the presence of blood. Finding the cab doors locked, Leadingham tried the keys from the counter of the McCain residence and was able to open the vehicle, yielding new evidence.

Back at the Sheriff’s Office evidence lab, Leadingham said, additional testing was conducted on items found inside the vehicle, including several drink bottles and cigarette butts found in the passenger seat of the vehicle that did not reveal clear prints. DNA swabs were taken, but the results of those swabs has not yet been admitted into evidence.

Leadingham also testified about what she referred to as the unique tire tread of the Chevy Avalanche, noting in subsequent questioning that a similar tire tread was found in loose dirt at a property on Nono Road in Ono belonging to McCain’s grandmother. The tread was photographed during a search on May 28, 2024, just days after Saelee-McCain went missing and the same day the vehicle was found off Highway 36. Leadingham said the prints were found in dirt so loose that “if you blew on them they’d just blow away” appearing to indicate that they were very fresh. 

Additional testimony shared by the investigation technician about the Chevy Avalanche related to findings that occurred in April 2025, almost a year after the vehicle was initially discovered and examined. That’s when the vehicle was moved to the California Highway Patrol’s evidence garage in order to determine if it might have been abandoned due to running out of gas, she said.

Leadingham accompanied the vehicle to the garage. When the vehicle was raised by lift to access the fuel tank, she said, she examined the vehicle from underneath noting indications of reddish brown stains with flow markings indicating they had run down part of the fuel tank. The stains tested positive for blood that appears to have moved from the covered truck bed to the undercarriage of the vehicle, running across part of the fuel tank before reaching a natural collection point where blood likely dropped from the vehicle.

McCain remained almost motionless with his head pressed against his hands throughout the day but looked up when the Chevy Avalanche with custom rims was shown in photos, examining the picture briefly before returning to his usual pose.

His preliminary hearing resumes today, at 9 a.m., in Department 63 of the Shasta County Superior Court. 

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