Watching You | 3. The Last Night

Summary

The Binge Cases: Watching You | Episode 3 – The Last Night

Host: Jonathan Hirsch
Date: December 15, 2025

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Overview

This gripping episode continues the unraveling of Dominique “Nikki” Leili’s disappearance and subsequent murder in suburban Atlanta, exposing the depths of dysfunction and abuse within her family. Titled "The Last Night," the episode blends intimate family memories, chilling audio evidence, and first-hand accounts in the final weeks before Nikki went missing—culminating in the harrowing discovery of her body. Central themes are trust, control, and the silent pain of domestic violence, revealed both through family testimony and disturbing surveillance recordings.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Alex’s Decision to Leave Home (03:50 – 07:43)

• Alex, Nikki’s eldest daughter, recounts her breaking point with stepfather Matt, describing years of surveillance, control, and emotional abuse.

  • After Matt physically pulls Alex from a friend’s home (04:12 – 05:15), she asks her mother if she will stand up for her—but Nikki is paralyzed, unable to protect her daughter or herself.
  • Alex: “I could tell she…felt like she didn’t have a choice but to let me go. But it also felt in a way her saying, please go, like, I don’t know how else to protect you if you don’t go.” (06:01)

• Nikki’s reaction to her daughter’s departure is suspiciously resigned, as observed by her sister, Amy:

  • Amy: “She said, well, I think it might be for the best. And I was like, what?” (06:41)

2. Estrangement and Fleeting Connection (07:43 – 09:38)

• After moving out, Alex is cut off from her siblings and rarely sees her mother. Matt strictly controls all communications.
• Amy arranges a last “girls’ day” (mani-pedis, apartment applications), but Nikki is anxious about Matt’s monitoring and potential punishment for spending too much time or money away from the house. (08:52)
  • Amy: “If she’s gone for too long, she’s gonna be in trouble. If she spends too much money, she’s gonna be in trouble.” (08:52)
• This is the last time Nikki and her daughters have a normal day together. (09:38)

3. Marital Breakdown: Money, Trust, and Surveillance (11:03 – 16:14)

• Jonathan Hirsch discusses the “bedrock” issue of trust in marriage and its erosion within Nikki and Matt’s relationship, exacerbated by:
  • Matt’s obsessive jealousy over an alleged emotional affair between Nikki and her boss.
  • Ongoing financial strain: Nikki funds Matt’s faltering security business, pushing them into debt.
  • Intimacy issues and accusations of infidelity and betrayal from both sides.
  • Nikki (to Matt): “You lied to me. You hurt me … You have beaten on me. … You started having a little online affair … then begged me not to go down and kick his ass.” (13:13)
  • Matt: “Unfucking believable … we’ve invested over a hundred thousand dollars in [the business] and it’s done nothing?” (14:18)
• Audio recordings capture hostile confrontations and signs of physical violence, including mutual accusations of choking. (16:25 – 16:55)

4. Amanda’s Perspective: Living in Chaos (17:30 – 19:44)

• Nikki and Matt’s other daughters, Amanda and Rebecca (now ages 12 and 9), are also exposed to this turmoil.
• Amanda describes a morning when Nikki tries to leave for work; Matt blocks the door, prompting Nikki to call 911. The police intervene but allow Nikki to leave. The children are left confused and fearful. (17:30 – 18:26)
  • Amanda: “Come downstairs and… my mom’s yelling at my dad, ‘let me out of the house, I need to go to work.’ … She had a suitcase with her, which also confused me.” (17:30)
• After this, Amanda is manipulated by Matt into trying to persuade her mother to “save the family.”
  • Amanda: “I was kind of a pawn in that situation.” (18:35)

5. The Night Nikki Disappeared (19:44 – 21:00)

• The family’s last week together is filled with nightly fighting. On “date night,” Matt’s father is staying with them. The next morning, Nikki is gone, though her car is still in the driveway—uncharacteristic for her. (19:44 – 20:29)
  • Amanda: “She was an early riser … I remember waking up that Saturday and she wasn’t there. What was even stranger was my dad was awake at … 8, 9 o’clock in the morning.” (19:53)
• Alex describes her last texts and missed calls with her mom:
  • Alex: “That was the last text message I ever sent to her … I never heard back.” (20:35)

6. Reporting Nikki Missing – Matt’s Behavior Raises Suspicion (22:16 – 25:27)

• Nikki’s sister Amy gets a call from Nikki’s phone, but it’s Matt, not Nikki, on the line—asking if she has seen Nikki but showing little urgency to call police.
  • Amy: “I don’t know. You psycho. You called me. I’ve been in Connecticut since Friday. How would I know?” (22:47)
• Matt tells Amy that Nikki “just up and left,” shows little concern, and is more worried about “embarrassment” if the police get involved. Days pass before anyone (other than Matt) reports Nikki missing.
• When Alex is called by Matt (using Nikki’s phone), he brings up an old incident—seemingly trying to control the narrative for the benefit of surveillance.
  • Alex: “Why the hell did he just… I knew I was being recorded. I knew something was wrong by the panic in his voice and why he asked me about that. I just hung up. I was like, nope, I know you too well.” (24:41)

7. Police Investigation and Community Search (25:36 – 30:15)

• During the early investigation, Matt quickly retains both a divorce lawyer and a criminal lawyer.
  • Alex: “One of them was a divorce lawyer, and one of them was a criminal attorney.” (26:07)
• Matt gives police and family a story: Nikki packed a bag, there was a loud fight, and she left in the early morning. Surveillance footage captures Nikki on the porch, but nothing more.
• Community members, led by Nikki’s friends and colleagues, organize a search party. Over 100 people comb the woods near the house.

8. The Discovery of Nikki’s Body (29:45 – 31:43)

• Detective John Richter describes the discovery: Nikki’s body is located a short distance from her home, naked and covered with leaves and debris—except for her feet, suggesting she didn’t walk there herself. (29:45)
  • Detective Richter: “Just covered up with just some hair showing… her feet … completely untouched.” (30:15, paraphrased)
• Nikki’s friend Allison is the one to find the body, her scream broadcast on live television. The trauma of this moment is palpable.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Alex, about her mother during a breaking point:
  “As a 16 year old, it was one of the most painful moments of my life because I knew, okay, my mom just let me go.” (06:31)

• Amy, about Nikki’s attitude after Alex’s departure:
  “‘Well, I think it might be for the best.’ And I was like, what?” (06:41)

• Amanda, recalling witnessing domestic drama:
  “Come downstairs and, like, my mom’s yelling at my dad, like, ‘let me out of the house, I need to go to work.’ … She wound up calling 911.” (17:30)

• Alex, on the call from Matt during Nikki’s disappearance:
  “Why the hell did he just… I knew I was being recorded. I knew something was wrong by the panic in his voice and why he asked me about that. I just hung up.” (24:41)

• Detective Richter, on the scene of Nikki’s body:
  “She was just maybe 30ft from the wood line as it starts…just covered up with just some hair showing, just a little bit of her hair.” (29:45)

• Jonathan Hirsch, highlighting the significance of surveillance:
  “These recordings are chilling because they were like the soundtrack of their lives.” (17:05)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:50 – 07:43: Alex describes her decision to leave home and Nikki’s reaction.
• 07:43 – 09:38: Amy arranges a mother-daughter day; last happy day together.
• 11:03 – 16:14: Exploration of Nikki and Matt’s decaying marriage, including audio of arguments and abuse.
• 17:30 – 18:26: Amanda witnesses and recounts an incident where Nikki tries to leave and is blocked by Matt.
• 19:44 – 21:00: The last night and morning before Nikki disappears.
• 22:16 – 24:41: Amy receives the first “missing person” call from Matt via Nikki’s phone, sparking suspicion.
• 25:36 – 26:07: Matt retains both divorce and criminal lawyers immediately.
• 29:45 – 30:15: Police and volunteers discover Nikki’s body near the family home.

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Tone & Style

The episode’s tone is raw, empathetic, and deeply unsettling, juxtaposing mundane family moments with evidence of escalating violence and fear. Testimonies are presented in the speakers’ original voices, with moments of confusion, pain, and regret powerfully conveyed.

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Conclusion

Episode 3, “The Last Night,” is a masterclass in building suspense while exposing the crushing weight of domestic violence behind closed doors. With a careful blend of first-person narrative, haunting audio evidence, and law enforcement insight, listeners are left devastated by the details leading up to Nikki’s murder, even before the podcast reveals what the home surveillance tapes would ultimately show. The groundwork is laid for a deeper investigation, with the promise that the truth, recorded in thousands of hours of tape, will soon emerge.

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Next episode: The investigation digs into the massive trove of home video and audio footage that may reveal what really happened to Nikki Leili.

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. You know that moment when you realize you've just waited way too long to start your holiday shopping. Like the shelves are empty, the parking lot is chaos, and you've regretted every life choice that led you here. Yeah, I live in that moment annually. And there's always one group of people I have a hard time shopping for. The people close to me. My family. Not the kids, but, you know, the adults. And the older you get, the more options that you run out of. I'm always looking for something that feels thoughtful. So this year I'm getting everyone an aura frame. It's the one gift that feels personal without me having to, you know, lose my mind in a store on December 24th. I've already preloaded it with a bunch of family photos unique to each person. Vacations, the dog, even a few embarrassing childhood ones I found in a shoebox. And I can keep adding straight to it from my phone. No tech stress, no last minute panic. Just a gift that actually lands. Aura makes it ridiculously easy. You can upload unlimited photos and videos, literally unlimited. You can personalize the gift with a message before it even ships. And every frame comes in this really nice gift box so it already looks wrapped when it arrives. You can't wrap togetherness, but you can frame it for a limited time. Save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off Aura's best selling Carver mat frames named number one by Wirecutter by using promo code Binge at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code binge. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast, so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply.

[Jonathan Van Ness]

Hi everyone, it's JVN from Getting Better with Jonathan Van Ness. This season we've been talking a lot about hope. Not the fluffy kind, but the grounded gritty. We're actually doing something kind. One of the places I term for that is Americans United for Separation of Church and State. They're this quiet and mighty force that's been working to keep religion and government separate so all of us can live as ourselves and believe as we choose. As long as we don't harm others. Church State separation touches so many of the things we care about. LGBTQI plus rights, marriage equality, reproductive freedom and abortion access. Americans United is out here being one of the vital voices of reason, fighting in the courts and in Congress and pushing back against Christian nationalist efforts to force everyone to live by one narrow set of beliefs. You can learn so much more about what AU does and how to support their [e-mail] Getting better. Your support, no matter the amount, helps to safeguard our freedoms. Americans United is fighting for freedom without favor and equality without exception. You can start a chapter in your hometown today. You can volunteer money or time. Get involved in your community. Learn [e-mail] Better.

[Matt]

The bench.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Hey, y'. All. Wanted to let you know verbal abuse and domestic violence are a part of this story. It's a cautionary tale to listen to with caution. At age 16, Alex finally moved out of Matt and Nikki's house and in with her dad. She'd had enough.

[Alex]

One of the, like, last final straws before I moved out was mom was out of town and a group of friends wanted to go to a Braves game. And so I called her and was like, hey, can I go to this Braves game? And she was like, yeah, no problem. Just let Matt know that you're gonna go. So I was like, hey, I'm going. You don't get to say I'm going. You're not my parent kind of thing. So anyways, he was like, have you.

[Amy]

Talked to your mom?

[Alex]

And I was like, yep, Shardy said I could go. Don't need your permission. Like, I have my keys. I'm leaving. See you later. Very like F you kind of attitude. And he said on the way out, he goes, well, take this phone with you. I was like, I have a phone. Like, I don't. What do I need this phone for? It's like this big, bulky phone. He's like, just take it. Well, just not even thinking about it. Cuz I wanted out of the house so bad. I threw at my purse, not realizing that this phone tracked everything I was doing. Well, I guess he thought I was going, like to Atlanta straight to the Braves game when I was going to the friend's house for us to go. Like their mom was driving us to Atlanta. Get to the friend's house and we're hanging out, Mom's there, all this stuff. He shows up, walks in their house, doesn't knock on the door, walks in their house and yanks me out. Said I didn't have permission to be there, wasn't allowed to be There and like, literally pulled me out, like, physically out of their house. It was a moment where I was like, I'm done. Like, no, thank you. I want nothing. I'm done.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Alex asked her dad if she could move in with him, and he agreed. After 12 years of bickering over Nikki's daughter, Matt finally got his wish to have Alex completely out of their lives.

[Alex]

My dad came to pick me up and all of my stuff, and Matt looked at me and said, just so you know, you're never welcome back in this house again. My mom was behind him and I looked at her in the eye and I said, are you gonna stand behind that? Are you gonna. Like, I just remember looking at her and it was like I could.

[Amanda]

What you said exactly was, are you going to let him talk to me like that?

[Alex]

I don't even remember saying it. I feel like I. But I remember looking her in the eye and just. It wasn't even words. It was just, is this it?

[Amy]

No words.

[Alex]

But I could read through her like I'm reading through her soul. And I could tell she. I could feel the pain behind her as a mother, her not knowing what to do. She seemed like she felt like she didn't have a choice but to let me go. But it also felt in a way her saying, please go, like, I don't know how else to protect you if you don't go. As a 16 year old, it was one of the most painful moments of my life because I knew, okay, my mom just let me go.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Given all the strife, Alex moving out didn't surprise anyone, certainly not Nikki's sister Amy. But there was something off to her about how it all went down, how.

[Amy]

Nikki seemed to take it when Alex made the decision to leave and go live with her dad. Obviously, Nikki was devastated when she talked to me about it, she said, and I was devastated on her behalf. But she talked to me about it and she said, well, I think it might be for the best. And I was like, what?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

To her, she knew something had to be wrong. Why the hell would Nikki put it that way? She had a fierce love of her daughter. There's no world in which Alex moving out would be for the best. And as soon as she was out, Alex felt like a door Matt had been waiting to close on her had been slammed shut.

[Alex]

Some of my fondest memories as a kid was Christmas. And I was. I really didn't want to miss out on Christmas with my sisters, but I had moved out and so I was like, can I please just come stay for Christmas, I just want to stay one night. I just want to see my sisters. And they told me that their therapist told them it was best if I was not around. I didn't come.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

At this point, Alex barely communicated with her mom, didn't talk to her for two or three months after she moved out. For years after that, Alex only talked to her mom sporadically, only when she was in the car. But Alex said she didn't speak to her once she arrived home. And if she was with Matt. Increasingly, Nikki was on an island. So one day, Alex calls up her aunt Amy, tells her about how much she misses her mom.

[Alex]

But I called Amy and was like, I don't ever get to see her without him. Like, it sucks. I was genuinely just like, please get her away from him. Like, I want to see my mom.

[Amy]

I got in touch with my sister and I said, well, we are going to do a girls day. No guys allowed, no husbands, no nothing. We are going to go and we're going to get our nails done and we're going to get mani pedis, and you are going to spend some time with your daughter before she goes off to college. And Matt is not invited.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Nikki told her she was in, but she seemed on edge about taking a day off from Matt.

[Amy]

She said, well, wherever we go, whatever we do, it has to be quick and it has to be cheap. If she's gone for too long, she's gonna be in trouble when she gets home. If she spends too much money, she's gonna be in trouble when she gets home. Like he's monitoring everything, tracking everything, and you know, if she's gone for too long, she's gonna get accused of something. But we had our. Our mani pedi day. We sat at the kitchen table at my dad's house and she helped Alex fill out her apartment, stuff like her application for Elise and all that, and co signed on it and all that stuff. And we had a lovely time.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It was the very last time the girls would have a day like that together ever again. From Sony Music Entertainment, you're listening to Watching you. I'm Jonathan Hirsch. Episode 3 the Last Night. Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are back in Disney's Freakier Friday, now streaming on Disney.

[Matt]

We switched bodies. I am freaking out right now.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

I think I just peed a little. It's an absolute riot. And the only movie that can be.

[Matt]

Described as so much weirder than the last time. What last time?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It's the Frequel. You ready? We've been waiting for that. Absolutely. Slays Disney's Freakier Friday, now streaming on Disney. Rated PG.

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[Alex]

Click on the link and book it.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Oh, wow.

[Amanda]

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[Jonathan Hirsch]

The issues that bring a marriage to its knees are often the same for everyone. One partner steps out of the relationship. Or both, I suppose. Or the stresses of raising children leave each feeling like the other is just a roommate. Or worse yet, an enemy. And of course, money. The most feelingless and definitional of levers in a marriage. Because the sad truth is you either have it or you don't. But underlying all those issues is one bedrock. Trust. Without trust, marriage can fall apart alarmingly fast. And it had been a long time since there was trust between Matt and Nikki. A major fault line was this email Nikki had written to her boss back in Mississippi.

[Nikki]

Well, how come he knew intimate things.

[Matt]

What intimate things did he know? What? That I was working and you weren't. That was public knowledge. In a city like Kosciusko, Mississippi, a very old fashioned valued town, they take very seriously that men support their women.

[Nikki]

So there you go justifying that too.

[Matt]

I'm just telling you, Matt.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

At first she thought it was kind of harmless. But Matt was terribly upset. And once they got into it, she conceded that she had fantasized about her boss, even though he was married. And according to her, the feelings were not mutual. This started the rewriting of their marriage. Matt saw her as the partner who never told the truth, who, even when they met, was flirting with other people. The fights over him were unceasing.

[Nikki]

You lied to me. You hurt me. And then sat there and say, no, Matt, I don't do nothing. No, Matt, I never do that. No, Matt, I don't talk the about you. No, Matt, I don't do this.

[Matt]

I.

[Nikki]

And you do it all the fucking time. You fucking had the little affair with. Partial affair with. Whatever you wanted to do. I took you back. Do I get credit for it? No. I just get labeled as a fucking schmuck.

[Matt]

You use me as an excuse.

[Nikki]

You lied to me. You have beaten on me. You have disrupted our marriage. You have chosen people over me. You've chosen your daughter over me. You embarrassed me in this escape, Mississippi. You started having A little online affair or whatever kind of affair, emotional affair, whatever you want to do with your fucking boss. And then begged me not to go down and kick his ass.

[Matt]

Go kick his ass if you want to.

[Nikki]

You begged me. You protected him.

[Matt]

No, I am.

[Jonathan Van Ness]

Over me.

[Nikki]

You protected him. You chose him over me.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

I spoke with that boss. He said there was no affair, emotional or otherwise. I asked Amy about this, too. I think she would have told her sister if she had cheated on her husband. But Nikki said her boss was just her boss. That this was Matt's weird obsession. And while we're on the topic of weird obsessions, Nikki was still financing Matt's security business. They were now majorly in debt because of it. Money continued to be an issue for them.

[Matt]

Unfucking believable. You want to come to me and spend 700 fucking dollars on a yellow page ad for a business that we've invested over a hundred thousand dollars in in the past two years that has done nothing?

[Nikki]

And where's the support been from you?

[Matt]

Where's the support been from Maine?

[Jonathan Van Ness]

Every fucking.

[Matt]

How the fuck do you think you're here?

[Nikki]

Oh, okay, so I got carpeting and you're paying the rent. So you can embarrass me. You can take my manhood away. You can talk trash about me.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Nikki and Matt were clearly in dire straits. On top of a mounting debt and the tension around Alex, they also fought about sex. It seemed that they both recognized it was supposed to be part of the marriage. But it was clear Nikki wasn't interested in being intimate with Matt anymore.

[Matt]

I was cognizant of it. You've asked me when I do say no. Oh, I could take that. If you looked at the whole picture. Look at what happened the day before. Then look at what happened. Well, I did. I looked at at the three dates prior to me saying, no, I don't want to have sex, mom on the rag. We had had sex. We were doing good.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

I wish I could tell you that the troubles between Matt and Nikki ended there. That like most couples who have been together for over a decade, they work through all manner of issues that life presents us. Parenting, money and sex. But that's not this story. This story is about something much worse. Because the fights between this doomed couple crossed a line from words to action. A work colleague told cops she'd noticed her injuries. He'd already pushed Nikki when she was pregnant. Alex, as a young girl, had seen it firsthand and promised to always have eyes on Matt. But now she'd been exiled and Matt's eyes were trained on Nikki.

[Nikki]

Oh, right.

[Matt]

What am I supposed to tell her, Matt?

[Nikki]

Out of respect for me instead of.

[Matt]

I had no respect for you when I talked to her?

[Amy]

None.

[Nikki]

This is bullshit. This is fucking bullshit. This is never gonna fuck up.

[Matt]

You put your hands around my throat and everything.

[Nikki]

I did not put my hands around your throat today.

[Matt]

What the fuck you want? But you had your fucking hands around my throat and pinned to the fucking wall. Please put yourself right here.

[Nikki]

You think I'm gonna harm you?

[Matt]

I don't know, Matt. You tried to tonight. I did not bullshit you. Don't you sit and be me 98 fucking pounds with 6 foot 5, 250 fucking plus pounds with your hands around my throat.

[Nikki]

My hands were not on your throat.

[Matt]

You can justify that shit to yourself all day long with your fucking hands were around my throat. You had me pinned to the fucking wall.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It's true that Alex was no longer the centerpiece of these violent altercations between Matt and Nikki. But she wasn't the only daughter in that house. Amanda and her little Sister Rebecca, now 9 and 12 years old, were living in the middle of these fights. These recordings are chilling because they were like the soundtrack of their lives. And one time, Amanda woke up to screaming.

[Amanda]

It was like 7am or something like that. Come downstairs and, like, my mom's yelling at my dad, like, let me out of the house. I need to go to work. Like, let me go. And every time, like, she would move towards the door, he would kind of stand in front of it. And she wound up calling 911 and saying, My husband won't let me leave the house. And then my dad snatched the phone from her, said, we don't need police. My wife's just having a temper tantrum. And eventually 911 call ends. And then my mom went and she had a suitcase with her as well, which also confused me. I wasn't sure what was going on with the suitcase. But then she goes out and she sits on the front porch. The police come, they talk to both of them, and then she goes to work.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Had Nikki packed a bag to leave and go to a hotel? Was she coming home that night? Later, Matt asked Amanda to do something for him.

[Amanda]

And then I had to call her that day. She wasn't answering his calls. He had me call her. The only thing I remember telling her was, like, what my dad wanted me to tell her of. Like, we need to save this family. Like, let's go on vacation or something like that. And so, like, I was kind of a pawn in that situation.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

After that, it kind of hit her.

[Amanda]

I'm crying because I'm like, oh, my parents are getting divorced. I'm the only one that can save them, apparently. But she wound up coming home that night.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Each is accusing the other of abuse. The fighting is just too intense for this to go on much longer. The marriage seems to be hanging on by a thread.

[Amanda]

I remember that night, that whole week, I had woken up almost every single night to them fighting. And then I remember Friday night, it was date night and they went out for their date. And Rebecca and I were old enough at that point to pretty much be left home alone.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

But they weren't alone. By then, Matt's dad, who was retired and lived back east, came to stay. Matt had called him.

[Amanda]

I remember going to bed and just waking up the next morning, Saturday morning, and my mom was an early riser and so every morning she was up, she grabbed her coffee, she was sitting at her desk playing Farkle. But she was like addicted to that and was playing it all the time. And I remember waking up that Saturday and she wasn't there. And like, I looked for her car and her car was in the driveway. And what was even stranger was my dad was awake at, I think it was probably 8, 9 o' clock in the morning. Morning.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Meanwhile, Alex was in Gainesville near her school, the University of North Georgia.

[Alex]

Yeah, Friday night, ironically, I had gone to like a college party, got super, super drunk and texted my mom. Was like, I'm never drinking again. That was stupid. That was the last text message I ever sent to her, but I never heard back from her. She had called me Friday actually that morning, and I didn't answer. She left her way but voicemail and was like, hey, babe, like, thinking about you.

[Amy]

Love you.

[Alex]

Call me back later.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Nikki was gone.

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[Matt]

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[Jonathan Hirsch]

Saturday passed. Then Sunday.

[Amy]

It was the Monday of that week.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Nikki was officially missing.

[Amy]

I got a call that Monday, and I was actually in Connecticut because my then boyfriend, now husband, and I had traveled up there because his dad was at Yale University Hospital, and, you know, he was, like, in icu.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Her phone started ringing, and it's Nikki.

[Amy]

Her phone called my phone. But Matt was on the other line, which I thought was weird. He said, hey, have you. Have you heard from Nikki? And I said, no. Why? What's going on? And, you know, we had Elderly grandmother, you know, I mean, like, know. We had oldsters all over the place. I thought maybe some family thing had happened, you know? So I said. I said, no. Why? What's going on? And he said, I don't know. Why don't you tell me? Like, accusing me of something. And so again, me being me. I said, I don't know, you psycho. You called me. I've been in Connecticut since Friday. How would I know?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Matt told Amy that Nikki left.

[Amy]

I said, what? What the hell are you talking about? He said, yeah, she just up and left. And I was like, have you called the police? And he said, no. And I said, why? And he said, well, I didn't want. You know, if I call the police, then the news will get a hold of it, and then it'll be on the news, and then she'll be embarrassed and she won't want to come back. It just sounded so dumb and bullshitty.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Alex hadn't heard from her mom either, not since she sent the Friday texts. It wasn't like her to not get back to her. And then her phone rang. She was at Six Flags with a friend, actually.

[Alex]

We're in line to ride a ride, and I get this call, and it's my mom. So I answer, and it's Matt.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Matt's calling someone from Nikki's phone again.

[Alex]

And he's immediately, where's your mother? Have you heard from your mother? Where's Nikki? I was like, what? He immediately, before I could even hardly start talking, goes, do you remember that time she hit me with a knife? And my brain just clicked into drive and I went, something's wrong. Why the hell did he just. I knew I was being recorded. I knew something was wrong by the panic in his voice and why he asked me about that. I just hung up. I was like, nope, I know you too well. I know you're. Nope.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

So Matt's calling Amy And Alex, but still hasn't informed the police. Several days have passed.

[Alex]

Anyways, we had, between us, had eventually that afternoon, reported her missing.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

In the end, more than one person reported Nikki missing. And for the time being, everyone seemed to be working together to find her, including Matt.

[Alex]

And between Monday and Wednesday of that week, he was playing ball. It was, we need to check the local shelters. We need to, you know, put flyers up. But again, he was like, communicating with the family, per se, until Wednesday. Wednesday, all of a sudden, I don't know where, he completely cut off communication. And he said, you'll have to communicate with my lawyers.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Lawyers. Why would he need one lawyer, let alone two?

[Alex]

And one of them was a divorce lawyer, and one of them was a criminal attorney.

[Matt]

Hey, how are you?

[Matt (phone call)]

Not good.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

This is Matt on Sunday, but you.

[Matt (phone call)]

Find out I'm filing for divorce. I'm not. I'm not waiting around.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Nikki's just missing, right? And he wants a divorce. You can hear him laying out what he says happened. The night Nikki disappeared, we had a.

[Matt (phone call)]

Little bit of a spat and my dad came in and my dad expressed his opinions. And my dad pretty much told her how she is not very welcoming and that she talks to me like shit and that he doesn't feel comfortable here. And Nikki Sprague, and how she's made all these changes and how she's, you know, doing whatever she can to make things work. And my dad saying the same thing I am to her. My dad said, how have you changed? You know, I mean, I came down here, I've noticed several changes that, you know, in my son. And she pretty much went ballistic. She was yelling, she was screaming. She started packing her bags. I put my hand on her suitcase and I said, please don't go. Please calm down. And then finally she just dropped her suitcase and she just walked out the fucking door. At six o' clock this morning.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

The cameras. Surely the cameras would have seen Nikki. And sure enough, she's captured in a grainy video smoking a cigarette on the front porch of the house early in the middle of the night. Word is spreading about Nikki's disappearance. A missing person's report has been filed. Co workers are calling the Gwinnett County PD looking for any information about what happened to her. How can they help? Is she okay? Investigation. Detective Iverson.

[Nikki]

Detective Iverson.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Hi.

[Nikki]

This is Phil Wynn and Woody Alderman with acg.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yes.

[Matt (phone call)]

Hey, how are you?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Pretty good.

[Nikki]

You and I spoke a few days ago and Woody. Woody and I are the owners of acg. And Nikki is our controller and we really just wanted to get an update as to where the investigation stands with regards to Nikki.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

She hasn't been located.

[Nikki]

She's a valued employee here, and we're. We're concerned, obviously, and we. We'd like to. We'd love to see her back here, but at this point, we. Can you give us an update on.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

She hasn't been located.

[Nikki]

That's all you've got?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yes, sir.

[Nikki]

How aggressive are we looking?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Okay, sir. She's a person who's an adult who left on her own.

[Nikki]

So no, no law has been violated.

[Jonathan Van Ness]

Okay. Okay.

[Nikki]

Nikki is an important part of our company here. We just feel like we should do something.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

This is when the search party is organized.

[Alex]

We met at the Walmart, like, down the road from there.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

I don't know.

[Alex]

It was over 100 people, I feel like, that showed up. So we, like, split up into groups. Like, you go here.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

You go here. Detective John Richter, one of many law enforcement personnel on the scene that night, recalled what happened next.

[Detective John Richter]

She is found just outside the neighborhood, so maybe a quarter a half a mile from their house. If you went A to B, right? And she was just maybe 30ft from the wood line as it starts. And she was covered with debris, like pine straw leaves. Naked, Completely naked, and just covered up with just some hair showing, just a little bit of her hair.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Nikki's body was found naked in their subdivision, covered up with leaves and dirt. But chillingly, one part of her body was cleaned untouched. Her feet, which investigators immediately understood to mean that this mother of three, Dominique Lyly from Lawrenceville, Georgia, hadn't walked off into the night of her own accord. She'd been placed there in the woods by someone else. Her killer. Nikki's friend Allison, had uttered that fateful scream in the woods. Captured that night on live television. She had made the gruesome discovery.

[Matt]

It was obvious there was a branch on top of the pile. And I'm combing. Derek and I are combing. You know, start at the very top of the hill and just start walking down. And Derek was on my right, and I was on the left side. And I just see this huge pile that looked like it had been put there. So I start kicking away at it, and I see bloatedness. Like, bloated. It looked like a stomach or purple. And so I screamed, derek. Before that, I had called Derek's name out and said, derek. Because I knew that I had found something. And when we saw the blonde hair, the coordinator of the search had told us, you know, if you find anything you know, don't touch it. Don't do anything. And call 91 1. And her sister called 911 right there because she heard me scream. So, yeah, the body was laying, like, this way.

[Detective John Richter]

Okay, now, you said at one point, you said he covered her up with stuff. Now you're suing me, her husband?

[Amy]

Yes.

[Matt]

Hell, yeah.

[Jonathan Van Ness]

Why do you.

[Detective John Richter]

Why do you. Why are you so convinced of that?

[Matt]

Because they got. Because they got in a fight on Friday.

[Jonathan Van Ness]

Okay. Okay.

[Matt]

And she never came back to work on Monday.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Next time on Watching you.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

And then ultimately there was, I think, around like 55,000 short videos that were discovered.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And audio recordings, too. Years of the lyly family's life immortalized. Two detectives take it upon themselves to listen to it all.

[Detective John Richter]

She's dead. I've never met her, but I know her better than any other person I've ever met. I know her, her attitude. I know her little traits. I know how intelligent she is, witty, a great mother.

[Matt]

Amanda had no cavities. Well, that's a good thing. So when are they gonna do all these cavities? I don't know. I think they told Daddy, but they didn't tell me. Did they say anything about Amanda's braces? Yeah, they said she's gonna get braces in a month. In a month? Yeah, in a month.

[Detective John Richter]

All these things just from these recordings. But I know the end, and I think she knew the end, too.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

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. Watching youg is an original production of Sony Music Entertainment. It's hosted and reported by me, Jonathan Hirsch. Jason Hoch of Waveland Media is our lead producer and co reported the series with me. Kathryn St. Louis is our story editor from Sony Music Entertainment. The executive producers are Kathryn 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 Kalasny and Sami Allison. Our lawyer is Meenakshi Krishnan. Special thanks to Steve Ackerman Emily Rossick, 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.