Sharing Few Details, Shasta County Sheriff’s Office Says Nikki Cheng Saelee-McCain Case is now Homicide Investigation

On Friday, March 14, Shasta County Sheriff’s staff along with agents from Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted a midday search of a property located at 17277 Olinda Road in Anderson. That’s the location where the Sheriff’s Office says Nikki Saelee-McCain was living when she was originally reported missing in the spring of 2024. 

It’s the second Sheriff’s Office search of the Olinda property that’s occurred since Saelee-McCain’s disappearance on May 17, 2024. According to the missing woman’s family, Saelee-McCain texted her sister late that day, saying she was driving her husband’s mother’s vehicle back to his mother’s home near the Win-River Casino. She stopped responding to texts not long after. The Chevy Avalanche that McCain-Saelee had been driving that night was found abandoned eight days later, on May 25, in Tehama County.

After the search last week, the Sheriff’s Office issued a brief press release indicating that the case has been transitioned from a missing persons investigation to a homicide investigation. The Department did not describe the reason for the change in case status, instead sharing a vague statement indicating that the decision was “based on evidence gathered, information learned from interviews and the fact that none of Nikki’s family members have heard from Nikki since May 18th, 2024.” 

According to the press release, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office has also now identified a “person of interest” in the homicide investigation, described to the public as “a driver of a red in color truck”.

As the County continues to investigate, Sheriff’s Office detectives have asked for the public’s help identifying that driver who, they say, “may have picked up a male adult in the area of Highway 36 in the western portion of Tehama County near the R Wild Horse Ranch or the Beegum Gorge bridge between May 18 and May 25, 2024.”

Saelee-McCain was reported missing ten days after her husband Tyler McCain was arraigned on the multiple felony domestic violence charges she filed in December. That case was eventually dismissed by the County District Attorney after the missing Saelee-McCain was unable to appear as a witness in the trial.  

To submit a tip regarding this investigation, contact the Major Crimes Unit by email at MCU@shastacounty.gov or at 530-245-6135. Anonymous tips can be submitted to the NorCal Alliance for the Missing Tipline at 530-378-4491, or using this link.

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