3 Major Takeaways
Nikki McCowan vanished just weeks before her wedding in 2001; her car was found abandoned near a laundromat.
Her ex-boyfriend, Tommy Swint, later became a police officer and was linked by DNA to another murder.
Though Swint died by suicide before trial, investigators believe he was responsible for Nikki’s disappearance.
It was supposed to be one of the happiest summers of her life. Twenty eight year old Marilyn “Nikki” McCowan was just weeks away from marrying the man she loved, planning the kind of wedding most little girls dream about. The date was set, the dress was chosen, and her life in Dayton, Ohio, was on track. But on a quiet Sunday in July 2001, Nikki disappeared without a trace, and what began as a frantic search for a missing bride quickly turned into one of the most haunting unsolved cases in the Midwest.
This is the story of the woman who vanished before she could walk down the aisle, and the tangled web of relationships, suspicions, and secrets that still haunt those who knew her.
You’re reading this investigation from Urban City Podcast, where we tell the stories that demand to be heard.
A Life on the Edge of a Dream
By all accounts, Nikki McCowan was the kind of woman whose light filled a room. She worked hard, studied criminal justice, and was deeply loved by her close knit family. Friends describe her as vibrant, loyal, and family oriented, a devoted mother to her 9 year old daughter and engaged to her college sweetheart, Randy Pugh.
The two had met years earlier while attending Central State University, an HBCU in Ohio, where they were inseparable. Randy was charming and confident, a former college basketball player. Their love story seemed solid until that summer of 2001, when small cracks began to show.
According to her family, Nikki was excited about her upcoming wedding, but also stressed. Planning a wedding while raising a child, managing work, and handling everyday pressures can weigh on anyone. She was juggling everything and like many brides to be, she wanted everything to be perfect.
The Last Sunday
July 22, 2001. It was one of those sweltering summer Sundays that force you to move slow. Nikki decided to spend the afternoon doing laundry at a nearby laundromat in Richmond, Indiana, just across the border from Dayton. She was wearing pink shorts and a white tank top, casual, relaxed. Her fiancé Randy said she planned to wash his clothes too, since he had basketball practice that afternoon.
But something about that day was different. Nikki called Randy several times from the laundromat, irritated that some of his clothes were missing from the pile. He told her not to worry, he’d left them in his car. That would be the last conversation they ever had.
When she didn’t return home, her family grew worried immediately. Nikki was responsible and predictable. She never stayed out without checking in. Her mother, Linda, started calling friends, then hospitals, and eventually the police. By nightfall, everyone knew something was terribly wrong.
The Abandoned Car
Within 24 hours, police found Nikki’s 1990 GMC Jimmy SUV abandoned in a parking lot just a few blocks from the laundromat. The driver’s door was unlocked. Inside, they found her cell phone, a load of laundry, and her wallet. There were no signs of a struggle. No blood. No broken glass. Just silence.
It looked as though she had vanished mid task, something no one who knew her believed possible. Nikki wasn’t the type to just walk away, especially not from her daughter or her upcoming wedding.
Investigators immediately began focusing on the people closest to her. As every detective knows, when a woman disappears, you start with the inner circle, and the fiancé is always first on the list.
The Fiancé Under the Microscope
Randy Pugh told police he was blindsided by Nikki’s disappearance. He said he had been playing basketball with friends that afternoon and had no idea what could’ve happened. But when police asked him to take a polygraph test, he hesitated, then eventually agreed.
He failed.
According to reports, the results showed deceptive answers when asked if he knew where Nikki was or if he was responsible for her disappearance. Randy insisted the test was wrong. He said he was nervous, devastated, and emotionally wrecked.
Still, investigators found inconsistencies. Witnesses claimed the couple had been arguing in the days leading up to her disappearance. Others said Nikki had confided that she was having second thoughts about the wedding. Detectives couldn’t ignore the tension, but they also couldn’t ignore a second name that kept coming up in interviews.
The Ex Boyfriend
Before Randy, Nikki had dated a man named Thomas “Tommy” Swint, a coworker she met while working at a correctional facility. The relationship had ended years earlier, but Tommy reportedly never got over her. Friends said he had been calling and visiting Nikki even after she got engaged.
When police interviewed him, Tommy appeared calm, cooperative, even helpful. He claimed he was shocked by Nikki’s disappearance and wanted to do anything to help find her. He had a solid alibi, and nothing linked him to the crime. The case stalled.
With no physical evidence, no witnesses, and no confession, investigators had nothing solid to move forward with. Months turned into years, and Nikki’s family was left with questions that ate away at them every day.
The Case Grows Cold
By 2005, the investigation had gone quiet. Leads dried up. The community moved on. But Nikki’s family didn’t. Her mother continued to call detectives, press for updates, and plead with the media to keep the story alive.
Then, in 2007, everything changed.
Police received new information that linked Tommy Swint, Nikki’s former boyfriend, to another cold case: the 1991 murder of Tina Marie Ivory, a 33 year old woman found beaten and strangled in Dayton. At the time, investigators had DNA evidence but no suspect. When they re ran the DNA through national databases, it matched one man, Tommy Swint.
It was the break detectives had been waiting for, but it came with a bitter twist. By then, Swint had reinvented himself. He was living in Alabama, working as a police officer. The irony was haunting, a man who once investigated crimes was now being investigated for murder.
The Arrest and the Ending No One Expected
On February 3, 2010, Dayton police and U.S. Marshals moved in to arrest Swint for the 1991 murder of Tina Ivory. But before officers could take him into custody, they heard a single gunshot from inside his home. Swint had shot himself.
He died instantly.
Inside the house, investigators found several photos of Nikki McCowan, old pictures, personal mementos, signs that he had never let go of his obsession. They also found police gear and personal effects that suggested he’d been living a double life, part lawman, part predator.
Swint’s suicide effectively closed the Tina Ivory case. But for Nikki’s family, it opened a wound that never healed. Without his confession, they may never know exactly what happened to her, or where her body lies.
The Questions That Still Haunt Dayton
Was Tommy Swint responsible for Nikki’s disappearance? Most investigators now believe he was. The timeline, his obsession, and his violent history fit too neatly to be coincidence. But without physical proof, the case remains officially unsolved.
There were theories that Nikki might have confronted Swint that day at the laundromat. Some believe she may have agreed to meet him to clear the air before her wedding, and that encounter turned deadly. Others think he followed her there, waited for her to be alone, and struck.
To this day, no one knows exactly what happened between the moment Nikki folded her last load of laundry and the moment her car was found abandoned.
The Family That Refuses to Forget
More than two decades later, Nikki’s family still keeps her memory alive. Her mother continues to share her story with local media and online communities, hoping someone, somewhere, will come forward with new information. Nikki’s daughter, now an adult, has lived most of her life without knowing what happened to her mother.
“She was supposed to walk down the aisle,” her mother once said. “Instead, we walked through years of not knowing.”
For the McCowan family, the case is more than a headline, it’s a hole that never closes.
The Lesson Behind the Tragedy
The disappearance of Nikki McCowan is a stark reminder of how obsession, jealousy, and violence can hide in plain sight. It shows how even the most ordinary days can turn dark in an instant, and how justice, when delayed, can feel like no justice at all.
Urban City Podcast covers stories like this because they speak to something deeper than crime, they speak to the human cost of unanswered questions.
As her case sits in cold file drawers, one truth remains: someone out there knows what happened. And as long as people remember Nikki’s name, her story will never truly disappear.
If you have information related to the disappearance of Marilyn “Nikki” McCowan, contact the Richmond, Indiana Police Department or Crime Stoppers.
