A 33-year-old Tennessee woman who went missing earlier this month while road-tripping with her boyfriend across the US has made contact with her family.
Nikki Alcaraz is now confirmed to be safe, authorities said.
She had been travelling in her black Jeep Wrangler with her boyfriend Tyler Stratton and pet dog in Cheatham County to visit family in Orange County, California.
Her disappearance had sparked fears of domestic violence and been likened to the case of Gabby Petito, a young woman who was killed by her fiance during a road trip across the US, after the police had pulled the couple over having received reports that Mr Stratton had assaulted Ms Alcaraz.
Officers let them go without pressing criminal charges after Mr Stratton claimed he had also been hit.
Ms Alcaraz – who also goes by Nikki Cunningham, was reportedly spotted in a California Walmart before she made contact with her family.
On Tuesday, Redding Police said in a statement: “The Redding Police Department has been in contact with the Moriarty, New Mexico Police Department and confirmed Nikki is no longer considered a missing person.”
Earlier, Ms Alcaraz’s sister, Toni Alcaraz told WKRN that she hadn’t heard from her since she received a text message on 9 May saying she was planning to continue to California. The sister said that she spoke to Ms Alcaraz after the alleged assault and that she was crying and upset.
“Her eye was already turning black and you could tell she was beat up pretty bad,” Toni Alcaraz told the news site.
Photos released by the Cheatham County Sheriff’s Department showed Ms Alcaraz with a black left eye after the incident.
According to an incident report, Mr Stratton claimed he had also been hit, and Torrance County sheriff’s deputies observed blood coming from his mouth.
Neither Mr Stratton nor Ms Alcaraz wanted to press charges, and she was given a ride to Moriarty.
Ms Alcaraz was previously thought to have been last seen on the morning of 6 May at a Super 8 motel in the small town of Moriarty, New Mexico, about 40 miles east of Albuquerque.
A license plate reader picked up Ms Alcaraz’s Jeep near Flagstaff, Arizona earlier this month, but police said her cellphone was out of service and untraceable.
Then a Cheatham County deputy told News 2 that she was seen at a Walmart in Redding, California, on 27 May. A photo released by the county District Attorney General Ray Crouch shows her selling her phone at an ecoATM.
In September 2021, Gabby Petito’s remains were found in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming after she disappeared on a road trip with her boyfriend Brian Laundrie.
The couple was pulled over in Utah by officers from the Moab Police Department on 12 August after receiving reports that Laundrie had struck Petito.
They were allowed to continue separately after Laundrie claimed he had been hit by Petito.
An independent review of the domestic assault incident found the officers had made several mistakes, and should have been classified as a domestic assault.
Laundrie later shot himself in the head and left a suicide note confessing to killing Petito.
Petito’s family are suing the Moab Police Department for failing to follow the law and protect her during the traffic stop.
