Watching You | 1. Eyes On You

Summary

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The Binge Cases: Watching You

Episode 1: Eyes On You

Host: Jonathan Hirsch
Release Date: December 1, 2025
Producer: Sony Music Entertainment

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Overview

The first episode of "Watching You," titled "Eyes On You," begins unraveling the mysterious disappearance and subsequent death of Dominique "Nikki" Leili in suburban Atlanta during the summer of 2011. The episode immerses listeners in the tension and heartbreak of her family, detailing Nikki’s personal history and introducing the chilling presence of round-the-clock surveillance within her home. Through interviews, firsthand accounts, and telling audio from inside Nikki's household, the episode paints a picture of escalating control, manipulation, and familial strain — all captured on tape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Disappearance and Search (03:00–08:00)

• Nikki Leili is reported missing; her family and coworkers organize a search in her Atlanta neighborhood.
• The press is initially reluctant to cover the story, believing Nikki left voluntarily.
• The family orchestrates a search party to attract media attention — "We were all wearing red. That was the plan... a loud, very visible color." (Amy, 05:32)
• During the search, Nikki's body is discovered in the woods, setting off a chain of traumatic and public events.

2. Family Grief and Shock (06:08–08:21)

• Vivid, emotional recollections from Nikki's sister Amy and her daughter Alex as they learn about the discovery of Nikki’s body.
• Alex’s raw reaction: "I remember just completely blacking out. Like I hit the pavement, blacked out, like, completely on the ground." (Alex, 07:40)

3. Introducing Nikki: Background and Character (10:54–16:09)

• Nikki is remembered through her sister Amy's loving descriptions: vibrant, headstrong, the "butt of the family jokes" but always included.
• Historical pressures: Family judgments about Nikki’s marriage and life choices.
• Amy: "She and I actually had a running joke that she made mistakes so that I didn't have to." (Amy, 14:19)
• Sisterly bond highlighted during a period of living together as young adults.

4. Nikki's Relationships and Meeting Matt (18:10–22:17)

• Nikki’s embrace of Internet chat rooms in the 1990s leads her to "LJ One and Only" (Matt).
• Early warnings: Matt’s unsettling sense of humor (e.g. demanding Nikki bark like a dog) and manipulative tendencies.
• Amy’s growing discomfort — Matt shifts from being a temporary houseguest to taking over Nikki’s life and space.
• "He was this person that was standing in front of me and frankly, standing between me and my sister." (Amy, 23:43)

5. Amy's Observations of Manipulation (22:27–23:43)

• Matt is described as manipulative, gaslighting, and creating rifts among family members.
• Small incidents, like cigarette "theft," are evidence of Matt’s manipulative patterns.

6. Moves, Career, and a Growing Family (25:35–28:58)

• Nikki progresses professionally while moving states (Athens → Oklahoma → Mississippi).
• Matt’s role remains ambiguous — more present in the household but not seen working.
• Alex shares painful childhood memories of Matt’s bullying, including frightening "games" and a general sense of menace:
  "He would think it was funny to sit on me to the point where I felt like I was suffocating." (Alex, 28:05)
• Family and grandparents oscillate between suspicion and respect for Nikki’s choices, unsure how to intervene.

7. Escalating Conflict and Matt’s Demand for Control (29:41–36:32)

• Frequent arguments, especially surrounding Alex’s relationship with Matt.
• Surveillance equipment is introduced: Matt’s fascination with "security" evolves into the obsessive installation of cameras and audio devices throughout the house.
• Police, upon entering the Leili home, are shocked: "This looked like a war room." (Jonathan Hirsch, 33:00)
• Nikki and Matt’s private conversations, full of tension and control, were captured — and now serve as evidence.

8. Monitoring, Obsession, and Erosion of Privacy (31:24–36:32)

• Clips of investigator explanations and actual surveillance recordings demonstrate how instrumental the equipment became in the unraveling story.

9. Preview of What’s to Come (36:32–36:45)

• Teaser of the next episode: Matt’s increasing antagonism towards Alex and her realization of the threat he poses.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Amy (on media coverage):
  "Amy, I'm really, really trying. But at this point, the story is basically a grown woman in her right mind left her house willingly." (04:31)

• Amy (emotional memory at discovery):
  "I run to the woods and it's one of Nikki's co workers, Allison, and she's clearly in a state. And she said, it's her. We found her." (07:01)

• Alex (on discovering her mother’s body had been found):
  "I remember just completely blacking out. Like I hit the pavement, blacked out, like, completely on the ground." (07:40)

• Amy (on Matt’s manipulations):
  "That was my first hint that he was super manipulative." (22:27)

• Amy (on Matt coming between her and her sister):
  "He was this person that was standing in front of me and frankly, standing between me and my sister." (23:43)

• Alex (on Matt’s physical bullying):
  "He would think it was funny to sit on me to the point where I felt like I was suffocating." (28:05)

• Jonathan Hirsch (on police discovering house surveillance):
  "This wasn't just a hobbyist camera setup. This looked like a war room." (33:00)

• Nikki (on her marriage):
  "I asked for lower temper, more affection, attention, and effort into this marriage." (31:29)

• Matt (expressing regret and alienation):
  "Do I have regrets? Yes. Lots of them. Am I sad that I can't talk to my husband about the fact that I'm sad? Yes." (35:29)

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Important Timestamps

• 03:00 – The search for Nikki begins
• 06:08 – Nikki's body is discovered and the aftermath
• 10:54 – Introduction to Nikki’s early life and family
• 18:10 – Nikki begins meeting men online, meets Matt
• 22:27 – First signs of Matt's manipulative behavior
• 25:54 – Alex recalls moving to Oklahoma and family changes
• 28:05 – Descriptions of Matt's bullying
• 31:24 – Introduction of surveillance equipment and recordings
• 33:00 – Police discover the "war room" of surveillance
• 34:30 – Snippets of recorded conversations showing escalating tension
• 36:32 – Episode wraps with preview of next installment

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Tone & Style

The episode is somber, contemplative, and deeply personal. The narrative is driven by mournful recollections, family loyalty, growing dread, and an escalating sense of invasion. Audio snippets from real surveillance and family conversations inject a raw, chilling quality, underscoring themes of privacy, control, and the sometimes invisible dynamics of domestic abuse.

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Conclusion

“Eyes On You” sets the stage for a gripping investigation into control, surveillance, and the unraveling of a family caught between public perception and private horror. Through the perspectives of Nikki’s family and the unnerving archive of home surveillance, the episode leaves listeners with more questions than answers — and a growing sense of unease about what those cameras saw, and what the family was truly living through.

Transcript

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Listen to all episodes of Watching you ad free right now by subscribing to the Binge. Visit the Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen the binge feed your true crime obsession.

[Jonathan Van Ness]

Hey everybody, it's Jonathan Van Ness from Getting Better with Jonathan Van Ness. If you care about protecting real religious freedom for people of all religions and for people who don't want to believe in any religion, there's an event that's happening for you. I need it on your radar. The Summit for Religious freedom or the SRF, pronounced sir. It's three days of connection, strategy and action in Washington, D.C. and online April 25th to 27th. You'll hear from authors, lawyers and policymakers. Join an organizing institute to level up your skills and even do a Hill Day to meet your representatives and tell them why church state separation matters. You guys, this isn't just a conference, it's a community on the move. If you're looking for a way to get off the sidelines and into this fight of pushing back against Christian nationalism and building a future where LGBTQ + rights, reproductive freedom and strong public schools are protected, this is for you. This is a movement for big change and collaboration that strengthens our democracy, protects public schools, reproductive and LGBTQ rights, and more. Come learn, organize and leave with a plan and friends family. You can learn more@the srf.org.

[Radio DJ]

Get your mother loving ears on because your big time radio DJs got news. PayPal lets you choose how you want to pay for all the stuff. With PayPal I can pay in store, pay online, or pay overtime.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

What's that?

[Radio DJ]

You want this translated into song? I hope you're sitting down. You can pay your own way. You keep those ears on, you hear? Don't just pay, baby. PayPal.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Learn [e-mail] the bench. Here's something I think about now and again. How hard it is to commit a crime today. Because wherever you are, you're being watched. Cameras are everywhere. Cell phones, live footage, traffic cams, cctv. A walk in any American city and you'll end up in the background of a dozen Instagram reels, TikTok tapes everywhere, cameras are rolling. And if you've done something bad, somebody somewhere has you on camera walking away from the scene of the crime. This is a reality that we accept in today's world. Outside our homes, all eyes are upon us. Behind the curtains and closed doors, however, it's our kingdom to have property is in a way to have privacy. But what if someone saw you as their property and those inescapable recording devices were in your home? What if your comings and goings became the subject of round the clock surveillance? Every moment, every laugh, every tear, the mundane, the profound, every phone conversation. This is not some elaborate rumination or a scene from a spy movie. This is where our story begins. In a single family home in the suburbs of Atlanta, Nikki Liley is missing. No one has seen her in a week. It's the peak of summer. July 2011. A muggy, soupy afternoon heat blanketed the suburban Atlanta neighborhood of Lawrenceville. An army of concerned friends, family and co workers are preparing a search party to find Nikki. Her sister Amy and her oldest daughter Alex are leading the efforts. The problem was they were having trouble getting anyone to run a news story about Nikki, something that happens to many families when a loved one goes missing. Amy even knew someone at the local station. She pleaded with them to run a story about her sister.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

And I said, can you see if you can get this story? And he called me back and he said, amy, I'm really, really trying. But at this point, the story is basically a grown woman in her right mind left her house willingly.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Time was running out. She was beginning to fear the worst. Several days ago, flyers with Nikki's face and bright red lettering that read missing had been put up on the power poles in the neighborhood. Now most of them were gone. And that's how Amy and Nikki's oldest daughter Alex, found themselves in the parking lot of a Walmart. If Nikki's disappearance wasn't enough of a news story on its own, well, then she was going to make a news story, because that's the kind of person Amy is. She would never give up on her sister.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

And sure, enough, news vans showed up.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It worked. The search party was enough of a story, even if her disappearance wasn't.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

We were all wearing red. That was the plan. We were all going to wear red shirts so that it was like, you know, a loud, very visible color.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

The group would split up and cover the entire neighborhood around where Nikki lived. The Liley family home was located on the far end of a loop. The entrance to the neighborhood was surrounded by trees. Search parties rarely yield results, and Amy knew that it wasn't the point. They wanted the cameras there because if they could get this story outside of their small suburban community, maybe the word would spread. Maybe someone would have seen her.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

I got this call from Sophia choi from Channel 2 News. She said, you know, she wanted to speak with me. And, you know, I'm like, in the woods behind their house. It's raining and it's miserable. And I see the news truck pull up and so I get out of the car and I go and I shake Sophia's hand and nice to meet you, all of that. And then there's a blood curdling scream from the woods.

[Nikki Liley]

I just saw a huge, big pile. It just looked. It looked like it was covering up something. So I just started kicking away at it and then saw her body and her hair. Oh, dear God.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

Family members cry out As a co.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Worker, we're gonna be roping this whole area off.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

Gwinnett county firefighters and police arrive just minutes after people looking for Nikki Liley make a shocking. I run to the woods and it's one of Nikki's co workers, Allison, and she's clearly in a state. And she said, it's her. We found her. I'm pretty sure it was her cameraman that caught the footage of me running out of the woods and hugging my stepmom and crying.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Alex, Nikki's daughter, was on the far side of the neighborhood, near the family's home.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

My grandmother pulled up with her husband, and she looked at me and she said, they found a body. And I remember just completely blacking out. Like I hit the pavement, blacked out, like, completely on the ground.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And when she came to, she took off towards the woods, towards her mother.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

It was almost like I was not in my own body, if that makes sense. Like I just probably ran faster than I've ever ran in my entire life. And went up. The police were already there, crime scene already put up by the time I got up there and I hit the crime scene tape and this cop, like, caught me midair and I was like, let me go. Like I need to know.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

This is the story of a family torn apart by jealousy, lies, and the need for control so shocking it's hard to put into words.

[Nikki Liley]

I asked for low temper, more affection, attention, and effort into this marriage.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

A marriage that became defined by one man's sick obsession.

[Nikki Liley]

That's not what I said and how I said it.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Inside the four walls of this family's story, so many people knew something was wrong, but nobody really knew until they heard it for themselves.

[Matt (Nikki's partner)]

Welcome to my world. You killed me a long time ago.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

From Sony Music Entertainment, you're listening to Watching you. I'm Jonathan Hirsch. Episode 1 Eyes on you foreign.

[Jonathan Van Ness]

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[Jonathan Hirsch]

We find Vecna. We end this once and for all together on December 25th.

[Matt (Nikki's partner)]

We have a plan.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

It's a bit insane.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Everyone in the he knows where we are.

[Nikki Liley]

Watch out.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Get ready for one last adventure.

[Nikki Liley]

We stay true to ourselves, stay true to our friends.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

No matter the cost. Found you. Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 begins December 25th only on Netflix. Nikki spelled N I Q U E short for Dominique. She's the middle child of three girls. She was hard nosed, beautiful strawberry blonde hair. The butt of the family jokes but in on every one of them. She was also her younger sister Amy's favorite person in the world.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

So she had red hair. It was like not like fire engine red but it was like strawberry blonde, you know, orangey red hair. And she had that 80s do where it was like you know, kind of feathered, little bit, little bit mullet. Ish. But you know with the, the rollers and the, you know. You know what I'm talking about.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

Like blue eyeliner. And she used to wear like a members only Jack. There's this one picture she had on like this like lavender sweater with like the puffy sleeves. Cause like all the sleeves back then either you had shoulder pads or you had to have like the ruched puffy sleeves. I thought she was the coolest person on the planet. All the 80s stuff that I love is all because of Nikki. Peter Gabriel and Def Leppard.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Maybe it was because she was the middle child, but Nikki's life always seemed to be under the microscope of the family. Nikki got a scholarship to Vanderbilt. She was no slouch, but her mother and grandmother thought less of her when she gave up the scholarship to Mary John, her high school boyfriend, he had a Pontiac Firebird. At the age of 18, John and Nikki were madly in love. Young love, almost too young. Nikki found herself in her early 20s, divorced.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

I just grew up hearing about how Nikki didn't have the sense, quote, unquote, God gave a mule.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Then Nikki met Mike. He was much older, 15 years older. Amy remembered meeting him for the first time. She was a teenager, and her big sister was still the coolest person she knew.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

He was working as, like, a maintenance man at an apartment complex. His name was Mike. Apparently they were dating. I can remember her asking me, do you think he's too old for me? In my head I was like, oh, yeah. But I don't want to say that sounds mean. If there was ever anybody whose approval I wanted, it was hers. I always wanted Nikki's approval. I valued her opinion, I think, over most everybody else's. But at the same time, I didn't want my family saying the things about me that they had said about Nikki.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Nikki's relationship history matters because you have to understand where her head was at, what kind of pressures she felt from her family and how those pressures could lead her to make decisions she would later regret.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

She and I actually had a running joke that she made mistakes so that I didn't have to.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Nikki and her older man move in together. They had a property on the outskirts of Athens, a little town called Bogart.

[Jonathan Van Ness]

Rural.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

They had room for the dogs to run around. Nikki was getting a master's degree to become a teacher. They got married, and that's when they had their daughter, Alex. That relationship was also short lived. When Alex was just a few years old, they decided to get a divorce. By now, Amy is going to the University of Georgia in Athens, the closest big town.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

So here's Nikki and Alex, and I'm told she and Mike are getting a divorce and she's staying at my grandmother's house. And it just so happened, like, oh, okay, you need a place to live, I also need a place to live. Let's find a place together.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It was perhaps the most significant moment the two of them shared together as young adults. Amy just starting out in life and Nikki starting over with little Alex in tow. And it felt in a way that the story of Nikki, as the sister with poor judgment, might have been coming true. She felt judged for living Mike, even though they were lifetimes apart from one another. He worked a blue collar job and she was college educated, trying to make it as a professional. This history weighed heavy on Nikki as. As she entered into this new phase in her life. She wanted to make the right choices because now she had a child to care for too. Amy and Nikki's reunion was a new moment for them both.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

We found a little duplex that was on the east side of Athens. It was in a nice, quiet neighborhood. Wasn't super expensive or anything, but it was clean. So we moved in together. And Alex was, I think, like three or four at that time. We had so much fun putting that place together. That was like one of the best times I can remember having with her. You know, I mean, it was just. It was just this little bitty place. It was like a three bedroom, little duplex. When we first moved in, it was. It was winter, so it was like January. We had nothing. I had. I had a tv, but we had no furniture. I was working at Longhorn Steakhouse, wading tables, and she was working as a teacher. She said, I'm gonna go to the liquor store. You go to the grocery store and get the hot chocolate and the marshmallows. We had those old folding lawn chairs they used to have. They were like those cheapy aluminum things, plaid straps. So we had two of those. My TV was sitting. Sitting on a card table. So we sat on these crappy lawn chairs and were like, you know, bundled up underneath blankets, drinking hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps and watching ER2 Sisters there.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

For each other yet again, conquering the world, ready for a brighter future. It's 1996, ER is on TV and Seinfeld and friends. Bill Clinton is elected to a second term. And all across America, people are getting these circular packages in the mail with a CD enclosed that you could place in your personal computer and sign up for this new service called aol.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

So this was right at the. Really the birth of what we think of as the Internet. So there was aol. Everybody had like the discs and the. You know, you can all. I say aol, and everybody can hear it in their mind that you've got mail. You can hear all of that.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And Nikki was into it. She signed up and started using the Internet to connect with people from all over the world.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

She was on AOL a lot. There were chat rooms. She was spending a bunch of time in a couple particular Chat rooms.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

She was also single, raising Alex, living with her sister, putting herself through grad school. It was a welcome diversion.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

So then along comes this guy calling himself LJ one and only. Like one one n only. The LJ apparently was ostensibly supposed to stand for LoJack because he was this guy. He was living in Connecticut at the time. And he talked about the fact that he had worked for LoJack, the vehicle stolen vehicle recovery system. LJ1N only. And she calls herself Unique One Two U.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Of all the people Unique One to you met in the chat rooms, LJ One and only caught her attention. She'd stay for hours chatting with him about everything. His real name was Matt, and he was going through a transition too.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

She starts telling me that she made this friend in a chat room and he was between jobs, and would it be okay with me if we gave him a place to crash for a little bit while, you know, until he got back on his feet was the way she framed it to me.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Nikki didn't even know who he really was.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

That's what the Internet affords you, is you can. You can pretend to be anything you want.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And Nikki liked this guy. She went up to Connecticut to meet him. He was an acquired taste. Matt could be abrasive, loud. He'd suck up the air in the room.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

I think she did genuinely find a lot of. A lot of his humor funny. He had a very large, brash New York personality. He was always laughing about something.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And like we were saying earlier, Nikki wanted for this new relationship to last. That kind of hopefulness can cause a person to gloss over red flags, miss warning signs. Here's an example. Amy said that the first time Matt and Nikki met, he jokingly refused to speak to her until she barked like a dog. She passed that off as a joke at the time, but it stayed with Amy. She didn't see a jocular flirtation. She saw this as a test. When he first came down to Athens, Amy was under the impression this guy just needed a place to crash. He'd maybe be around for a bit, but then head on his way.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

And that was very much not what happened.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Matt picked on Amy like she was his little sister from the get go. After he moved all of his stuff into the apartment, at one point, he shoved Amy into an empty box.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

I am claustrophobic. Let me out of this box. And he looked over at Nikki and was like, is she really? And Nikki's like, yeah. And so then he let me out.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Amy was bothered by Matt, but Nikki shrugged it off. She kind of liked his sarcastic vibe. He was a dick, but he was funny. More importantly, she'd been doubted about her relationships for years.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

She was protective of him because I think she was like, this was the choice she was making and she was protecting that choice.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Amy felt like Matt was taking over this new life they had together, and she saw a different person when Nikki wasn't around.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

Well, at the time, we all smoked, including me. At one point, I had run out of cigarettes, and so I asked him, can I bum a cigarette? He said, notably when she was in the room, oh, yeah, you don't even need to ask. From then on, if I ran out of cigarettes, I just go get another pack from the carton. Dude said, you don't need to ask. Well, then months later, when I'm challenging him, she's stealing my cigarettes. It was, I'm stealing the cigarettes. But that was like my first hint that he was really super manipulative.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It might not seem like that big of a deal, and in a way it wasn't. Who cares whether Matt actually wanted to share his cigarettes? But what Amy noticed in that situation was someone who changed his story whenever it served his purpose. And so he went from generous roommate to accusing Amy of stealing. The sense I have from this story and stories like it about Matt was that at first he just seemed annoying, a little bit too much, put on whatever you want to call it. But he knew how to drive a wedge between people.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

He was this person that was standing in front of me and frankly, standing between me and my sister. Sister.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Matt stayed with Amy and Nikki and her daughter for six months. During that time, he was mostly at the house. And while he claimed to be looking for a job, Amy says she never really saw him working. Then Nikki got an offer she couldn't refuse. A new job opportunity to work in the accounting and finance team for a big company in Oklahoma. The money was really good and it was a step up for her career wise.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

At one point, I remember having an argument with her and I remember thinking, oh, dear God, please don't take this guy with you.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

But she would take him with her.

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[Jonathan Hirsch]

Alex was around 5 when the family picked up and left Athens. Nikki had started to gain more opportunities working in finance and accounting for large companies. It was well paying work with plenty of room to grow. When they arrived at their new home in Edmond, there was a surprising delivery at the door.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

One of my favorite memories, we moved to Oklahoma. This truck drives by and dumps a puppy off the truck. And the puppy came just running into the garage into my lap. And I just was like, mom, please let me keep it. Please let me keep it. She's looking at me like, we can't take a dog. We just moved to Oklahoma. We're like, starting this whole new life. And I was like, nope, its name is Molly and it's mine. She just was like, all right, we're gonna figure this out. Just looked at me like, you need this. We're gonna figure this out. And we. Did we ever.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Alex is now in her 30s. Some say she takes after her dad. Long dark hair, the same nose and brow line. Not as fair as her mother. They were always incredibly close.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

She was the person that always knew how to say it, when to say it. And sometimes I get mad that I shouldn't pass it on. Spunky, very spunky. She was probably nine pounds soaking wet. You know, red hair. Her body was covered in freckles. Like, just covered in freckles. She was really witty, really smart, you know, she always had a response for anything.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

She's the kind of person you'd feel comfortable telling anything to.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

Like, even talk. When we're talking about life problems, I'm like, what would mom say? I can't find it. I can't find it. Like, where is that Nicky river response? That's the first person I told that I lost my virginity at 16. I went straight to my mom. I didn't go to my best friend. I went straight to my mom. And then she took me to a random bathroom and made me take a pregnancy test. I didn't feel fear of, like, her punishing me for it or giving me some lecture. She showed genuine interest of, like, my safety and my emotional safety with having sex for the first time. Like, that was the person. You could tell that story stuff too.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

By the time the family had moved to Oklahoma, Matt wasn't a stranger anymore. He was kind of her stepdad. Alex had already been through a lot when they got to Oklahoma and Nikki knew that she was clearly trying to move her young family in the direction of stability, but had to tussle with some key complications.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

There was a few times where she did leave me alone with him. He's very bullish. He would think it was funny to sit on me and I was four years old. Now Matt is a 64250 maybe. I mean, I don't know. He's pretty big, big guy and I'm a four year old. So, you know, 35, 40 pound four year old. He would think it was funny to sit on me to the point where I felt like I was suffocating. And he thought it was funny.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It was confusing. What was with this guy. Alex was wary of him and Nikki was trying to keep the peace, to hold a new relationship together with a blended family and with a partner who kept encroaching on the boundaries, the people around him, her people. Alex now divided her time between Nikki and her dad who was back in Athens, a 14 hour drive away.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

So not great memories. I really don't have any positives of Oklahoma. I've kind of just buried them all away.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Still, on some level, there was a childish antagonism to Matt's pranks. He could pass them off as harmless. Nikki was gone frequently for work so couldn't speak to what she'd never seen happen. Alex's grandparents were concerned too, but it was hard to nail down what to do about it. Is he just obnoxious?

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

I would say our grandparents kind of had that foggy view of him of like trying to figure out is he dangerous? Not dangerous, like he's just annoying. But they also were trying to respect like, okay, this is the man our daughter chose.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

We reached out to Matt Lyly to get his comment but never heard back. Nikki and Matt started fighting now as well. A lot.

[Nikki Liley]

How do I feel? I feel that is Alice on me. Alice is not a problem.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

I know they fought about me. And so if my mom even remotely had to communicate with my dad, it was a problem. I mean a big problem. Fights would ensue and it got to a point where my parents couldn't communicate other than through me.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It seemed that one of the key sticking points for Matt was that he didn't feel like Alex respected him, that perhaps she never would, seeing as he wasn't her biological dad. Matt wanted kids of his own with Nicky. So if he wasn't working and he didn't really seem to be spending quality time with Alex. What was Matt don't want to wait for that next episode. You don't have to unlock all episodes of Watching youg Ad free right now by subscribing to the Binge Podcast channel. Search for the binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page, not on apple. Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. As a subscriber, you'll get binge access to new stories on the 1st of every month. Check out the Binge channel on apple podcasts or getthebinge.com to learn more.

[Investigator/Recorder Operator]

This is your recorder. It's on right now. I'm going to make the first file.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

From the time Nikki first met Matt, he'd expressed an interest in security and security Systems. Remember his AOL screen handle LoJack? One and only.

[Investigator/Recorder Operator]

There's eight hours of recording. Obviously you want to keep it to a minimum so you don't have too much to go through. All you do is it's a spring loaded switch that turns it on.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Well, that idea of being a sort of security professional continued to evolve in the years since he and Nikki met. Matt wanted to start his own private security technology business where he would outfit customers and companies with security surveillance systems.

[Investigator/Recorder Operator]

As soon as it turns on, wait for the main screen to come up, hit record your recording. If you hit record again. While it's recording, it pauses. If you hit stop, it stops that recording and then goes to the next file.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Without this equipment, he had nothing. And to outfit it for customers, he needed to use it. It's the reason so much of their lives was caught on tape recordings that eventually we gained access to by the Gwinnett County Police Department. And that's how he and Nikki began to purchase large amounts of surveillance equipment. Which meant that over time, the Lyly house became stuffed with state of the art cameras and recording gear. And while Matt was fiddling with his new security apparatus, Nikki was moving up in her career. She'd gotten an opportunity to take a bigger role at a company based out of a small town in Mississippi. So once again, the family found themselves on the move. Except this time with one key difference. Nikki was pregnant with Matt's baby. In the summer of 2011, Nikki had gone missing. The local news had caught a member of the party running out of the woods, screaming. The cops arrived and immediately made their way over to Nicky and Matt's house. What they saw took them by surprise. Something they'd never ever seen in a family home. It was a kind of control room. Inside were monitors. One of them a tic tac toe board of multiple video feeds covering both the inside and outside of the house. The room itself was stuffed with networking equipment, power supplies and servers. The power bill alone must be crazy. This wasn't just a hobbyist camera setup. This looked like a war room. Investigators didn't have any idea what to make of it. But they still had one question on their minds. What happened to Nikki? What they found that day wouldn't answer answer that question. But it would open a shocking and eerie portal into the private lives of the Lyly family.

[Matt (Nikki's partner)]

I don't think that it's a fair thing if. If I'm spending parental time on all three children.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

We're just as adults are arguing. The kids pop in to say goodnight, good night. Where Matt seems to be in a perpetual struggle for control.

[Investigator/Recorder Operator]

We have a responsibility for a productive conversation.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And Nikki is desperately trying to hold her family together, unaware of the danger that placed her in.

[Nikki Liley]

I am happy. Let me share that happiness with you.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

But the center of the Lyly family. Family would not hold.

[Nikki Liley]

What the. Have I done nothing that you can't Trust me. I'm supposed to live my life right around where a reporter is, what emails are being read.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And the gradual dissolution of a marriage that when it did fall apart would take everyone down with it.

[Matt (Nikki's partner)]

Do I have regrets? Yes. Lots of them. Am I sad that I can't talk to my husband about the fact that I'm sad? Yes.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

A real life Truman show and recordings. Footage that would reveal a twisted knot of insecurities, ego and obsession.

[Investigator/Recorder Operator]

Incidentally, you forget to say you love me.

[Matt (Nikki's partner)]

It's because you make me feel guilty. I told you why. Every minute I spend doing something, something I want to do or chose to do, if it wasn't with you or for you, I am forced and made to feel guilty for it. It's pointed out to me in logs. It's pointed out to me in phone converse in phone records. It's pointed out to me on recorders.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And one family's desperate attempt to escape this dark bubble.

[Nikki Liley]

You had to be cared for. The fucking law.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Next time on watching you. Matt wants his stepdaughter Alex out of their lives. And she has a realization.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

This man is dangerous.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

So Alex made herself a promise.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

I had to grow up real fast. I had to go.

[Amy (Nikki's sister)]

Crap.

[Alex (Nikki's daughter)]

I have to protect my.

[Matt (Nikki's partner)]

My mom.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Watching you is an original production of Sony Music Entertainment. It's hosted and reported by me, Jonathan Hirsch, Jason Hoak of Waveland Media is our lead producer and co reported the series with me. Katherine St. Louis is our story editor from Sony Music Entertainment. The executive producers are Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch. Sound design and mixing by Scott Somerville. We use music from Epidemic Sound and apm. Our fact checker is Naomi Barr. Our production managers are Tameka Balance Kolasny and Sami Allison. Our lawyer is Meenakshi K. Krishnan. Special thanks to Steve Ackerman, Emily Rosic, Jamie Myers and the whole team at Sony Podcasts. If you're enjoying the podcast, please rate and leave us a review. Thank you so much for listening.