Ashley Flowers

And the files are full of conflicting accounts.

I mean, there's one person at least who believed that Nikki and Tommy were having an affair.

Others insisted they were just close friends.

Some say it was all just one sided with Tommy wanting more and Nikki shutting him down.

So I am going to get like more into Tommy later.

But before him becoming like the foregone conclusion to this case and after they had looked hard at Bobby, it turns out that there were a lot of people that they looked at in between.

That's all we got publicly.

But that's never been the full story.

And this one is full of winding roads, twisty turns, and more red herrings than one case can handle.

But it's been almost 25 years, and maybe to find Nikki, we have to kind of wade through all of that.

Starting with a totally out-of-left-field allegation that came about two years after Nikki disappeared, when someone tried to inject a brand new theory into the case.

One so pointed that if it were true, would turn the entire investigation on its head.

In November 2003, detectives received something completely unexpected, an anonymous letter claiming investigators had missed a crucial relationship in Nikki's life.

No name was signed to this letter, just a set of accusations sharp enough to ruin a career or derail an entire investigation.

According to the case report, this letter alleged that Nikki had been romantically involved with someone from work and not Tommy Swint, not even just an officer like Tommy.

This letter named the guy presiding over the entire prison.

Like the warden?

The warden.

And the letter claimed that the two had some sort of secret relationship that they had argued before she disappeared and that there were rumors he didn't want her getting married.

And just to make things even stranger, this letter was signed only with the number 634-5789.