Tennessee Woman Missing for Weeks While on Road Trip with Boyfriend Found Safe

A Tennessee woman who went missing weeks ago during a road trip with her boyfriend has been located by authorities.

Nikki Alcaraz, 31, was last seen by a family friend on May 6, in Moriarty, New Mexico, Newsweek reported. The family friend came to pick up Alcaraz after police separated her from boyfriend Tyler Stratton two days prior. The couple allegedly engaged in a fight at a rest stop alongside I-40 where an eyewitness said he saw Stratton punch her in the face.

An investigator wrote in his report that he saw “red marks on her face and fingerprint marks on both arms,” which the  investigators believe “came from Mr. Stratton holding her down to avoid being hit,” NBC News reported. The mother of two told the investigators she also had a bruise on her chest and back. Stratton told the investigator that Alcaraz had punched him in the face. Officers found that the parties were mutually combative. Both Alcaraz and Stratton were drinking while traveling, but they would not tell officers who was operating the vehicle.

The details of this rest stop encounter with authorities are eerily similar to one that involved authorities with Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito almost two years ago. Petito went missing during a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend. Her body was found strangled near Wyoming National Park with Laundrie as the lead suspect. Laundrie was later found dead by a self-inflicted gunshot with a note saying he was responsible for her death. A month before she went missing Utah police pulled their van over due to a physical altercation between the couple.

Instead of leaving with the friend, Alcaraz texted her sister Toni Alcaraz on May 8 that she was in Arizona on her way to California. That was the last Toni Alcaraz heard from her sister.

Alcaraz’s phone was out of service, but her vehicle was picked up near Flagstaff, Arizona, by a license plate reader.

Three weeks after an eyewitness said he saw Stratton punch Alcaraz, she is seen in security footage at a Redding, California, Walmart selling her phone at an EcoATM. On May 30 — three days after her appearance at Walmart — the Eureka Police Department found Alcaraz and arrested Stratton, according to a Redding Police Department post.

Stratton had an existing warrant in Tennessee for a theft charge, KFOR reported.