Nicholas Ray Turrietta, 31, was found dead inside his home on Maggies Ave NE in Albuquerque on the last day of 2021 after friends who could not reach him looked through a window and called for help. When Albuquerque Police gained entry they found him unresponsive; the scene initially suggested a possible overdose. The Office of the Medical Investigator later discovered a gunshot wound to his head concealed by his hair, and the case was reclassified as a homicide.

Detectives traced Nicholas’s missing phone to Socorro and then to a rural area near Los Lunas. Phone records and social media communications led investigators to identify 39-year-old Saou Maiga as a person of interest; Maiga was believed to be the last person to see Nicholas alive. An arrest warrant was issued for Maiga in April 2023, and he later surrendered and was charged with murder and tampering with evidence. Nicholas’s family described him as a free spirit and a loving soul; he went by Nikki and identified as a woman.

Did anyone in Albuquerque or the Socorro–Los Lunas area know Nicholas Nikki or see his phone after December 31, 2021?