One Dating App From Murder

Nicole white – Orting Washington, small pop between 7-8000 – rural area, with a river that runs through, fed from Mt. Rainier. It’s a pretty low crime area. Pretty close knit, most people knew each other. Nicole went missing on a Saturday night. Father, Eddie Nieto – said Nicole was kind, vibrant and loving. Always helping others. Her best friend, said she referred to herself as an irish Mexican (keri webb), she was tiny, beautiful and fun. Her sister, Melissa Nieto became close with her sister when they were grown and said Nicole became protective over her. 28, single mother to 2 young boys, got married young, got divorced and she was working on getting a good job to take care of them. Jill Nichols, mom – divorce was hard on her, and she was down but kids kept her going. She was always mentally strong. She began dating online and used dating apps. Placicng herself out there made her vulnerable- her sister warned her about all the dangers of online dating but Nicole threw caution to the wind. She was smart and said she knew how to be careful and wasn’t fearful. Nicole would share profiles of interests with her friend Kari and she found a profile she liked, jon harris. She wasn’t looking for a long term relationship, just wanted to dip her toes into the dating world again,. Kari never saw his profile, but he was a rugged hunter type that Nicole was attracted to. John’s friend, knew him for about 10 years, and they were both bouncers – Matt martino – said john used a ton of different daing apps, described him as a big, dumb, country boy. He was friendly, known as Big John – he was 6’7” so compared to Nicole, he was ginormous. He was a big flirt and always had a bunch of women on deck. Nicole formed a perception about John online. She told her sister she was seeing someone and that he seemed ok and she was going to go on a casual date. She asked her friend to meet him with her to escort her. John told his friend that he was talking to this cute little gal and he was going to bring her into the bar they worked at to play some pool. They had their first date at Jeepers – John’s friend, Matt was the bouncer on duty. He said the couple looked to be having a great time. Lots of flirting, laughs, drinks and food. Nicole told her mom about John and to her, he looked like a nice, normal guy Her sister said Nicole did everything right. She met him in public, she told everyone where she’d be, the way everyone is told. After their first successful date, John and Nicole continued to message each other. A couple of weeks later, they decided to meet up again. Again, she was going to meet him at Jeepers. Before the date, she had her friend Keri over and tried on different outfits until they decided on the perfect one. Nicole really wanted Keri to go as well but Keri didn’t want to. Nicole told her mom she’d be home by midnight or 1 because she had to work the next day. She lived with her mother for the time being, after her divorce, to help get herself back on her feet. Going out wasn’t unusual for Nicole, but she was always responsible. Played hard and worked hard. June 7, 2015, 6am – Nicole wasn’t at the house when her mom woke up. She thought maybe Nicole had slipped out early to work, so she called Nicole’s work, but she hadn’t shown up. That’s when she knew something was wrong. Her sister heard she was missing around 7am when Nickole didn’t drop her son off for her sister to take care of him for the day. She also got a phone call from Keri asking if she’d seen or talked to Nicole. Keri was terrified, knowing Nicole wouldn’t ever leave her son or not show up to work. Her mom said her kids were her everything and she’d never run away. With no sign of Nicole or her car, her mom reported her missing to the police. john delgado detective sergeant for the sheriff's department let the investigation into Nicole's disappearance. jeepers was the last place nicole was seen by friends and acquaintances. Matt saw Nicole and John on their second date at jeepers bar on June 6 2015. He said they came in together. At the start of the night nicole was in a great mood and she seemed like she was having fun. They had CCTV surveillance video of them there and it's crazy to see how much taller he is the Nicole like he could rest his forearm on her head he was that much bigger. Matt said they were both drinking quite a bit John more so than Nicole but they were nowhere near stumbling drunk. The couple stayed at jeepers for about four hours. At closing time Matt walked over to them and told him it was time to go to close up. So at that time Nicole went over to get john, who was drunk but not so much so that he couldn't walk or anything. Matt gave Nicole a hug and shook john's hand and told them to have a good night. He saw the couple get into Nicole's Dodge neon. That was last he saw them Her family made posters and began spreading them all around the town. Friends and strangers all gathered together to start searching for Nicole. The searches became so big that it was about 150 to 200 people gathering to search fields areas around the town and whatnot for Nicole. On day two of searching which is June 8th police had their first big breakthrough. Nicole's car was found. police then brought in 2K9 crews to come search the area where her car was found. Nicole’s family was thinking that she broke down and got lost maybe. The area her car was found in is pretty wooded. They thought that maybe she started walking home and something happened to her possibly. Nicole's vehicle was found pinned between 2 trees. Detectives thought the vehicle bin had been staged when they came across it. It didn't look like it was an accident it looked like someone had put it intentionally where it was. To stage an accident. The tracking dogs took them up a Hill where there is several retention ponds where they ended up draining about 40,000 gallons of water but there was no sign of Nicole or any helpful evidence. That same evening the detective met Nicole's father and mother where the car was found. He promised them he would find their daughter. Nicole's father Eddie said that after for five days or even a week he felt it in his heart that Nicole wasn't going to be coming back alive. But he still didn't give up hope. On June 7th detectives and investigators went to interview John Harris at his house. They wanted to get his timeline and his story about what happened to Nicole after their date. The officers talked about how Giant John was and how huge his hands are when they shook them. They talked to him for a few minutes about where he had been. He said he had been with Nicole the night of her disappearance. He said he asked Nicole for a ride home. She told him no problem but reminded him that she had to work in the morning. He said she took him down to a convenience store and he went inside and that when he came back out she wasn't there anymore she had driven off. So John says he calls Nicole and ask Sir like hey where'd you go? He told them that he was the phone at the convenience store. Detectives asked him which phone and he said the payphone out front. When detectives went down to the convenience store to check out John's story they notice there is no payphone. John said Nicole didn't pick up so he walked from the convenience store back to his house. John had been wearing cowboy boots those that night and detectives didn't think he'd be walking six miles in cowboy boots in the middle of the night. John claimed it took him about 3 1/2 hours to walk the six miles. Investigators got the surveillance video from the convenience store to check out John's story turns out John was never there on June 7th between 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning. They asked him if he knew where Nicole's car was or where Nicole herself was he claimed he did not. Detectives started questioning him a little bit harder and when that happened he began to pause like he was having a bit of an anxiety attack. When they asked him about his reaction he said it was just a lot to take in and they asked him what he meant and he couldn't explain. He explained he does get panic attacks. Cops concluded the interview at that time. So far the police only had one suspect they didn't want to get tunnel vision. With John story not stacking up they took him to the police station in took photographs of him. He had many injuries on his body scratches and scrapes all over on his knees on his elbows on his side of his body. And even on his back. But he refused to tell police how he got them. Police thought he was guilty at this time but they didn't have a lot to addressed him on. Nobody and basically no evidence Police even got warrant at this point to search John's home. By this point Nicole had been missing for seven days. June 13th of 2015. the area is close to an army base. For this reason FBI got involved too. Whenever there's a crime near an army based the FBI gets involved too because it's federal. The FBI has at their disposal tools that the regular police department's do not. They were happy to take advantage of that. They found a reason to detain John, but it wasn't for murder. When the FBI searched John's garage they found hundreds of weapons parts in thousands of rounds of ammunition. The ammunition was manufactured out of state so once it came into Washington it was considered unlawful possession of ammunition which is a federal charge. SO, FBI arrested him for that. This gave detectives valuable time to gather further evidence against Jon in Nicole’s disappearance. Blood stained clothes were found in the search and were sent in for evidence. Waiting for results – when John was first arrested, he was arrogant and he even smirked in his mug shot, thinking he had nothing to worry about. John continued to deny any involvement in Nicole's disappearance and police were no closer to finding anything at this point. John's friend Matt who was the bouncer at the bar was interviewed. Matt revealed to the police that the night at jeepers, he’d seen something in John that he hadn't seen previously. John’s mood changed throughout the night after a former girlfriend of John’s showed up at the bar with her new boyfriend. That seemed to put him in a bad mood since he still had feelings for her but she had clearly moved on. The whole mood of the night changed. There was a point in the night where Matt saw John sitting by himself, in the outdoor beer garden, stewing and angry. He took a beer bottle and smashed it on the ground. Matt confronted John about smashing the bottle at which point, John grabbed another bottle and thew it across the room onto a brick wall. Matt had to tell him to knock it off. Matt put police in touch with John’s ex-girlfriend. She said they met in 2010 and dated on and off until 2015. She could tell that night at the bar that John was upset because she was with her new boyfriend. She also said that when they were dating, and would drive home from that same bar, they would take a route home that would make it less likely they would run into police. She said one thing that stood out that every time they passed a certain area, John would comment on how it would be the perfect place to bury a body. So, guess where law enforcement went? Ex-girlfriend along with her new boyfriend, drove down to the area with their windows down and an awful smell wafts in through the breeze in the exact area John had mentioned would be a great burial ground. The investigator got out, searched around and found – a dead dog. Day 9 of the search – friends and family are exhausted in 90 degree weather, not giving up hope. Police felt like they knew most of the answers but couldn’t prove anything and sleeping at night was a struggle. Police dogs continued to search the wide expanse of area around nicole’s car. It’s one of the largest mountains in the us and the forest that surrounds it is so immense that you could walk for weeks and not come across a road or another person. It’s absolutely beautiful, but a dead end. So the lead detective scours every piece of information that has been gathered to try to find something he’s missed. Finally, while John’s car is being searched, the detective gets a call about a device found in the car. If you’re convicted of a DUI, you may be forced to have a device installed in your car that you have to breathe into to prove you’re sober before your car will start. When you breathe into the device, it will take a photo. But, it also will randomly take a photo in your car along with marking the date and time of the photos. They downloaded the information from John’s interlock device. They went through the times and photos and it showed he drove the car in the evening of June 7th and gave the cops the area he was at. They found from the photos the exact area he was at in the woods that evening. That night was the first day of Nicole’s disappearance. The area he was in is not one that people frequent, but because of the technology, they knew where to go look. At this point, they brought in cadaver dogs who worked the area for four days. On that forth day, they came to a spot where they came across Nicole’s body in a wooded area. It was father’s day, the day her body was found. They called her father and let him know. Nicole was found wrapped in a tarp and then a painter’s canvas. She had laid dead for 2 weeks. She had been thrown down a sort of embankment. When the autopsy came back, it was even a harder blow for family. It said she had suffered the whole time. The examiner said it was one of the worst cases she had ever seen. She discovered there was extensive skull and sternum (breastbone) fracturing, rib fractures, lower forearm fracture and hand fractures. The sternum fracture comes from being stomped on. They couldn’t say what weapons he may have used but that substantial force had to have been used. Her injuries were much more severe than required to actually kill her. John maintained his innocence. He had tried to create an alibi, leaving messages on Nicole’s phone after the attack. He also messaged a friend, asking if he had been in a fight – they think, trying to come up with an explanation for his visible injuries to himself. More damning evidence came after the search of his house. Analysis with luminol found the floor and walls had blood and it came back from the labs as having been Nicole’s. Police found the sweatshirt John had been wearing at Jeeper’s in John’s garage covered in Nicole’s blood as well. Now they have her body, her DNA and they were able to charge him with murder June 23, 2016.