Missing from: Richmond, Indiana
Missing: July 22, 2001
Age at disappearance: 28
Height: 5’2″
Weight: 115
Hair Color: Light Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Distinguishing Characteristics: Scars, Marks, Tattoos: African American female.She has a small scar above her left eye, a small scar on the right side of her face, a scar on the top of her head and a large scar on her left lower leg. AKA: “Niqui”. DNA: Available
Details of Disappearance: Niqui was last seen at a laundromat in the vicinity of the 1000 block of South E Street. While her clothes were either washing or drying, she went to her mother’s house and voiced concerns about a group of Hispanic boys who had been harassing her at the Laundromat. Initially Niqui’s family thought she was abducted from the laundromat but Richmond Police were able to rule that out based on a surveillance tape from a nearby store. She went back to the laundromat to get her belongings and never returned. She has never been heard from again. Surveillance footage showed her loading clothes into her 1990 GMC Jimmy 4×4 and leaving the laundromat; she did not appear to be under duress.
Niqui disappeared weeks before her wedding, leaving behind an eight-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. Her fiance, Robert “Bobby” Webster, was questioned in her case.
Days after Niqui’s disappearance, he canceled the wedding and demanded a full refund from the reception hall. He also tried to return his wedding band for cash, but the jeweler refused, because Niqui had purchased it and her name was on the receipt.
Webster said he needed extra money to help look for Niqui. Police have found no evidence against him and he did take a polygraph test. The car she was driving when she disappeared was registered in Webster’s name.
On the day of her disappearance, Niqui tried to contact her sister several times. Her sister says Niqui was seeing another man, Tommy L. Swint, whom Webster didn’t know about. Her sister warned Niqui to end the relationship.
Swint was sworn in as a police officer in Trotwood, Ohio in 2007, but he resigned from the department less than two months later. When the department found out he was a suspect in Niqui’s disappearance, a fact he hadn’t disclosed to them, they told him he had to resign or be terminated.
Swint had worked as a corrections officer at a state prison, the Montgomery Education and Pre-Release Center, from 1994 until 2007. Niqui also worked at the prison as an accounting clerk from 1994 until her disappearance; this was how they had met. He was considered a suspect in her case since shortly after she vanished. A photo of Swint is posted with this case summary.
On November 3, 2001, Niqui’s vehicle was located at the Meadows of Catalpa, a large apartment complex in Dayton, Ohio. Niqui’s laundry was folded in the backseat. There was no sign of her at the scene, and no fingerprints or other clues.
Niqui’s ex-boyfriend lived at the Meadows of Catalpa and Niqui had lived with him there in 1997. He passed a polygraph test and had an alibi and was therefore eliminated as a suspect in her case. She had made a phone call to Dayton the day she went missing; she spoke to a coworker who lived about a mile from the apartment complex.
In February 2010, Swint was indicted for murder in the death of Tina Marie Ivery, a prostitute from Dayton who was beaten and strangled to death in 1991. Authorities planned to question him about other homicides as well. The same day he was indicted, however, as police approached his home to arrest him, Swint committed suicide. He was living in Phenix City, Alabama at the time of his death. He remains a suspect in Niqui’s case.
Investigative Agency: Richmond Police Department (765) 983-7247
If you have any information on this case please contact CUE Center For Missing Persons using the contact form below or contact Cue Center at (910) 343-1131 24 hour tip line (910) 232-1687. All information submitted to CUE Center For Missing Persons is confidential.