California police have found 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 the missing person sighting the pair had noticed earlier on Monday night.
They were found in the 100 block of 4th Street in Eureka, not far from the Oregon border.
Alcaraz had been seen about 150 miles away at a Redding Walmart earlier in the weekend. Surveillance cameras spotted her at an ecoATM as she sold her cell phone for $75.
Her boyfriend, Tyler Stratton, was also with her at the time she was found by police and arrested.
If you or someone you know is suffering from domestic violence, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE).
The missing Tennessee couple, Nikki Alcaraz and Steven Tyler Stratton, both 33, have been located after disappearing nearly a month ago. They were found Tuesday in Redding, California
The pair were found Tuesday after disappearing nearly a month ago on a road trip from Nashville to Orange County, California
The couple was found Tuesday morning in the 100 block of 4th Street in Eureka, California
Eureka agents found Alcaraz and Stratton both in their black jeep and co-operated with the police officers at the scene.
Alcaraz insisted she was fine and didn’t need help, while a check by the Stratton Police Department found he had an outstanding warrant for his arrest by the Tennessee police.
Stratton was taken into custody without incident after failing to appear in court in Tennessee for theft.
California detectives have also contacted the Moriarty, New Mexico Police Department to inform them that Alcaraz is no longer considered missing.
The couple had gone on a cross-country road trip almost a month ago when things seemed to take a sudden turn for the worse in Torrance County, New Mexico, on May 4.
A truck driver witness saw Stratton punch Alcaraz in the face, according to a report from the Torrance County Sheriff’s Office.
Stratton told a deputy sheriff he was also hit. Video shows him with blood coming from his mouth and nose.
A local news channel managed to get hold of shocking body camera footage of the couple’s fight.
Video sees them both bloody and bruised with Nikki, covered in bruises and with a black eye, telling the deputy she wants to press charges.
New Mexico’s Torrance County Attorney’s Office has released 10 bodycam videos in the immediate aftermath of the brutal brawl.
The pair were separated and dropped off at different locations with no charges filed.
Shocking new bodycam footage showed the mother-of-two being shown multiple bruises by police after a drunken brawl with her boyfriend who told police she wanted to see his ‘a** in jail’
In one of the videos released, a noticeably distraught Alcaraz can be seen standing next to the bystander who called the police after seeing the mother of two being ‘punched’ and ‘slapped in the face’.
“I’m a truck driver, as I was driving by I saw her laying on the ground and I see that guy hit her there and hit her in the face,” the bystander said.
“He punched me in the eye,” Alcaraz adds.
“How is he related to you,” you hear the responding officer asking Alcaraz, who replies, “We’ve been together for 16 years… we’re boyfriend/girlfriend.”
When asked if she wants to press charges, Alcaraz nods and replies, “Yes” before revealing that she would like to see his “a** in jail” while holding back tears.
“I just wanted to make sure she was okay,” you hear the bystander say.
Responding officers then ask if the man she is with, later identified as Stratton, is “on something” to which Alcaraz replies “not that I know of no.”
“But I’m done with it, I want his ass to go to jail, I’m over it,” she repeats.
The Torrence County Sheriff’s Office previously released an incident report revealing that Alcaraz could be heard screaming in the background of a 911 call to police during the May 4 incident.
New Mexico’s Torrance County Attorney’s Office has released 10 bodycam videos in the immediate aftermath of the brutal brawl. A witness to the fight is seen, left
One of the videos shows a noticeably distraught Alcaraz standing next to the bystander who called the police after seeing the 33-year-old being ‘punched’ and ‘punched in the face’
Video shows Alcaraz badly bruised with marks on her arms and face, while Stratton was also covered in blood gushing from his nose and mouth
After questioning, police released the couple without charge after they were separated and taken to different locations
In the call, the woman, later identified as Alcaraz, could be heard screaming in the background. The police report stated that the man, Stratton, “stood over her” before “punching her in the face.”
According to the Torrance County Sheriff’s Office report obtained by DailyMail.com, both Alcaraz and Stratton were “intoxicated.”
The responding officer said he saw the 2013 Jeep in a small rest area and noticed red marks on Alcaraz’s face and fingerprints on both of her arms.
He also noted that Stratton had “blood coming out of his mouth and nose.”
The responding officer said Alcaraz said they dropped a friend off in Amarillo, Texas, before picking up a bottle of Fireball whiskey, which she and Stratton both drank.
Alcaraz claimed that Stratton “started beating her for no reason” and when they got to the rest area, she jumped out of the vehicle, but he “caught her.”
She also claimed to have bruises on her chest and back.
The report identified the alleged assailant as “Thomas,” but the sheriff’s office confirmed with DailyMail.com that it meant Stratton.
Stratton claimed that Alcaraz also hit him, allegedly slapping him on the mouth for “for no reason” and that she continued to hit him while they were traveling.
He stated that “Nikki blacks out after drinking liquor,” but that he “didn’t want her to go to jail.”
Blood splatter on the passenger door and blood on the “running board” had been observed by the deputy sheriff and both disputed driving the vehicle. Neither of them has filed a report.
The pair departed Tennessee in early May in this black Jeep, which was seen Tuesday morning in a parking lot in Redding, California
Alcaraz disappeared just days after getting into a “drunken dispute” with her boyfriend
Alcaraz was seen on surveillance camera over the weekend trying to sell her phone at an ecoATM in Redding, California
Alcaraz, Stratton and their dog set off on a road trip from Nashville to Southern California and got into a fight in New Mexico on May 4.
A police report filed by Torrance County Sheriff’s Department shows the mother of two with a black eye after witnesses said they saw Stratton punch her in the face.
Both were then given a ride by the responding police, with Nikki being dropped off in Moriarty where she called her sister Toni, and a friend met her to spend the night at a motel.
But the next day, Alcaraz insisted she find Stratton.
Her jeep was located by a license plate reader near Flagstaff, Arizona, on May 8, while Alcaraz messaged her sister to say she intended to complete her journey.
The couple was finally found Tuesday in a Walmart parking lot in Redding, California.