No little girl deserves to grow up without a mother. For Payton Lackings, it’s a reality she knows all too well.
“The first day of school, obviously those are very important, and she was always there,” Payton told Dateline.
In August 2001, Payton started the third grade. Her mother, Niqui McCown, would typically take her to school on the first day. Payton said they would always take pictures in front of the building before they walked inside hand in hand.
But the first day of third grade was different.
“My aunt took me to school that morning, so that’s when I knew something was wrong,” Payton recalled.
Niqui had disappeared a few weeks earlier -- on July 22, 2001. Payton was only 9 years old.
“I wasn’t old enough to understand,” Payton said. “My daughter’s actually going to third grade this year, so I try to think back, like --. How can you explain to a 9-year-old child your mom’s missing?”
23 years later, Payton’s still trying to make sense of what happened to her mother. And she’s not the only one…
Niqui Vanished
Marilyn Renee Nicole “Niqui” McCown was born and raised in Richmond, Indiana. “She was the baby of 10 of us,” Michelle McCown-Luster told Dateline. “It felt kind of like the ‘Brady Bunch.’ Me and Niq are a year and a half apart, so we’re very close.”
Michelle says she always adored her younger sister. “We spent a lot of time playing with dolls. When we became teenagers, we spent a lot of time together talking about boys and school and high school,” she said.
As the teenagers became women, they soon entered serious relationships. Michelle says Niqui began dating a man named Steven Johnston. In 1992, the two welcomed a daughter together — Payton.
“She was always smiling and laughing, you know, looking for fun things to do,” Payton Lackings recalled. “I always felt loved by her.”
According to Payton, the relationship between her parents didn’t last long. “My parents split up when I was around 3. I was still pretty young,” she said.
By 1997, according to her sister Michelle, Niqui started dating an old flame — Bobby Webster. “They dated in high school for a while and then he moved to California and then he came back to the Richmond area,” she said. “He was very outgoing. It seemed like they had a lot of love.”
The couple got engaged and set the wedding date for August 18, 2001. “She seemed ready to get married,” Michelle recalled. “She seemed pretty excited.”
On July 22, 2001, Niqui and Bobby’s wedding was less than a month away.
According to Michelle, that morning, Bobby went to try on suits with his best man while Niqui went to the laundromat.
That evening, Michelle went to their sister Tammi’s house. “I remember walking into her house and she asked me if I had seen Niqui, and I said ‘No, I haven’t seen her. Why?’” Michelle recalled. “She was like, ‘Bobby says she’s not home and they were supposed to finish their wedding invitations.’”
Tammi told Michelle that Bobby was going to call some of Niqui’s friends and then call them back. “He not only called us back, he came there and he literally said he couldn’t find her,” Michelle remembered. “And then everybody started panicking.”
Michelle said despite the chaos around her, she remained calm. “I hadn’t started panicking yet, because I knew that Niqui was about to get married. And one thing about my sister, she loved to dress, and she loved to shop,” she said. “So, in my mind, I’m thinking she’s out getting ready for her wedding.”
Michelle says the group went to their parents’ house, also in Richmond, to see if they knew where Niqui was. Their mother, Barbara, told them she had seen Niqui earlier in the day when she dropped Payton off while she went to the laundromat. Barbara said Niqui returned from the laundromat around 2 p.m., worried.
“She was pacing back and forth and said, ‘He won’t leave me alone,’” Michelle recalled their mother telling her. When her mother asked who was bothering her, Niqui said it was some guys at the laundromat.
According to Michelle, their mother told Niqui the men were probably just flirting with her but said if she was that concerned, she should just go get her things and come back to the house.
Niqui left the house, but she never came back.
Later that evening, when panic had officially set in, their father told Niqui’s fiancé to file a police report, according to Michelle. “[Bobby] didn’t want to do it that fast,” she said. “My dad said ‘Well, if you don’t do it, I’m going to do it myself.’”
The next morning, July 23, 2001, Bobby reported his fiancée missing.
Michelle told Dateline their family immediately started searching for Niqui, but it took the police a bit longer. “They were under the impression that Niqui is getting married, so maybe she got cold feet,” she said. “They didn’t take it serious.”
But Niqui’s family knew better. “Niqui had Graves’ disease, so she had to take her medicine,” Michelle explained. “So we were panicking.”
Payton Lackings told Dateline she remembers being at her father’s house when she learned about her mother’s disappearance. “Maybe a few days later, I woke up and my dad’s girlfriend at the time was watching the news and I was like, ‘Hey, that’s my grandma,’ and naturally, she turned off the TV,” Payton said. “Then my dad explained to me that they weren’t really sure where Mommy was.”
The Richmond Police Department had begun their search for Niqui.
Dateline spoke with Detective Mike Wright with the Richmond Police Department. He says detectives discovered a video of Niqui at the Village Pantry, a convenience store in Richmond near the laundromat, at 3:19 p.m. on July 22.
“She frequently would go into the Village Pantry to get change for the machines and such in there,” Det. Wright said. “So we were able to see what she was kind of doing on video then.”
The grainy video shows Niqui walking into the store, getting change, and then leaving. It’s the last known sighting of Niqui McCown.
Detective Wright says investigators searched the area around the laundromat, but nothing was found. They also looked into the men who had allegedly bothered Niqui at the laundromat earlier in the day. “The people that we talked to that were around the laundromat, um, indicated that [they] actually were not causing any problems,” he said.
Investigators also searched Niqui and Bobby’s apartment in Richmond. “There was no evidence found in her apartment,” Det. Wright said.
But Bobby was on their radar.
Niqui’s fiancé, Bobby Webster
Michelle told Dateline that their family was initially suspicious of her sister’s fiancé. She said that after Niqui disappeared, Bobby called off the wedding and tried to return his wedding band.
“I thought it was a relationship that was meant to happen and a lot of people felt that way, but after her disappearance, there was a lot of red flags,” Michelle said. “Some people witnessed him getting physical with her.”
Michelle says she never witnessed that herself, but says she did see him throw things. “Just little things like that.”
On July 25, a few days after Niqui’s disappearance, Bobby was called into the Richmond Police Department for an interview. He is heard explaining his timeline on July 22, 2001. He told detectives on the day Niqui disappeared, he went to get a suit, went to his grandmother’s house, and went home.
In the recording, he is also heard calling their wedding season “an exciting time” and saying that he was confused about Niqui’s disappearance. “No one understands what in the world is going on,” he says in the interview.
Detective Wright told Dateline that investigators at the time conducted a polygraph on Bobby, which he failed. He also cited some things Bobby was doing after Niqui’s disappearance that investigators found suspicious. “He potentially returned an engagement ring, was inquiring about some of her student [loan money] and things of that nature,” Wright said.
Michelle says she asked Bobby if he had anything to do with her sister’s disappearance. “He said, ‘I know your family thinks I have something to do with it. I had nothing to do with it. I loved your sister. I wanted to marry her.’”
According to Detective Wright, at one point, Bobby Webster was considered a person of interest in the case.
The search for Niqui continued. In November 2001, four months after Niqui disappeared, investigators made a discovery. “We searched the woods around Meadows of Catalpa,” Det. Wright said. “Her vehicle was located.”
On the day she vanished, Niqui had been driving Bobby’s car, a black GMC Jimmy. “There’s nothing to indicate that she was harmed or that she had any kind of struggle in that car,” Det. Wright said. However, several parts of the car were missing. “I believe the battery was gone but, again, you’re talking about a car that was potentially sitting there.” Wright noted that Niqui’s folded laundry was also in the car.
“We kept getting told from the police, ‘You find the vehicle, you find Niqui,’” Michelle said. And now, the car had been found. But Niqui was still missing.
Meadows of Catalpa, near where the car was found, is an apartment complex in Dayton, Ohio, nearly an hour from Richmond. It is also the apartment complex where Payton’s father -- Niqui’s ex -- Steven Johnston lived.
Michelle said that, initially, the car’s location came off as highly suspicious to the family.
Payton had been staying with her grandmother that day, so there was no reason for Niqui to have been at her ex’s apartment.
Niqui’s ex, Steven Johnston
Michelle told Dateline that Steven and Niqui had a tumultuous relationship before they split. “He was very abusive to my sister,” she said.
In a 2018 interview, Steven admitted he had not treated Niqui well. “I wasn’t good to her. I wasn’t,” he said. “I cheated, I was abusive.” Payton Lackings never thought her father had anything to do with her mother’s disappearance. “I’m sure it obviously crossed my aunts’ and my uncles’ and even my grandmother’s mind,” she said. “But I think everybody knew, deep down, there’s no way Steven did it.”
Detective Wright told Dateline Steven Johnston took a polygraph, which he passed. “Everything I’ve read, he was fully cooperative from the get-go,” he said, adding that Steven was never really considered a person of interest in Niqui’s case.
It’s unclear why the car Niqui was driving that day would have been at the apartment complex.
Michelle confirmed that she also ruled Steven out early on. But there is someone she hasn’t ruled out. Nor have police. “There’s a co-worker of hers that she’s really close to, and he has been a person of interest since the beginning,” Michelle said.
Niqui’s co-worker
“I have audio recordings of probably 30 different interviews,” Detective Wright told Dateline. “They’ve talked to friends, they’ve talked to family, they’ve talked to tons of co-workers.”
One of those co-workers interviewed was a man named Tommy Swint. According to Michelle, he was a correctional officer at a prison where Niqui also worked. Michelle said Tommy and Niqui’s friendship, eventually grew concerning.
“I remember one time I was on my lunch break, and I said, ‘Let me go over to [Niqui’s] house,’” Michelle recalled. “As I’m approaching the door, I hear someone screaming.”
Michelle said she walked into the house and found Niqui sitting on a chair with her foot pressed on Tommy’s chest. “He’s leaned over and she’s like, ‘Help, he’s trying to rape me.’”
According to Michelle, Tommy tried to play it off and began chasing both of the women. “He started chasing us both around and started laughing like he was playing. So I assumed he was playing. I even asked [Niqui] and she was just like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’”
Although she was young at the time, Payton Lackings says she has her own memories of Tommy Swint. “I remember him, as a kid, giving me the heebie-jeebies,” she recalled. “He was someone who I would avoid at all costs if I ever saw him.”
The Richmond Police Department had their suspicions about Tommy, as well.
“He didn’t really have any concrete alibis,” Det. Wright said. “There’s complaints about Tommy almost everywhere you look. Sexually harassing women and problems of that nature at work.”
In 2010, nearly a decade after Niqui’s disappearance, the suspicions grew. Tommy Swint was indicted for the 1991 murder of a woman in Dayton, Ohio. “That one he was linked with DNA and fingerprints,” Wright told Dateline.
Swint killed himself as officers attempted to arrest him for the murder at his home in Phenix, Alabama. Detective Wright told Dateline Swint is still considered a person of interest in Niqui’s disappearance. He stressed that Steven Johnston and Bobby Webster are not considered persons of interest in the case.
Bobby Webster died in 2021.
Payton Lackings told Dateline she has always believed in Bobby’s innocence and that the two maintained a close relationship up until he passed away. “We talked about it a few times and he explained why he did things the way he did,” she said. “You are just kind of doing everything you can to find out what happened to your missing loved one.”
After her mother’s disappearance, Payton moved in with her grandmother, Barbara, but always had a close relationship with her father, Steven. She never believed he had anything to do with her mother’s disappearance, either. “My mom is a very sensitive subject for him because he also blames himself,” she said. “He feels like if he treated my mom better in their relationship, that maybe she would still be here.”
As for Tommy Swint, Payton says she isn’t sure if he has anything to do with her mother’s disappearance. “I’m very much ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ I know all signs point to Tommy Swint but he’s also got a daughter of his own,” she said. “I also believe that someone out there knows something. I don’t believe Tommy was able to keep all those secrets to himself.”
Michelle McCown-Luster told Dateline she also doesn’t know if Tommy Swint had anything to do with her sister’s disappearance. “We may never know if he had anything to do with my sister’s disappearance. We may never know where she’s at or if he did anything to her,” she said. “I’m hoping that with the new technology or something –. People just don’t disappear. Somebody knows something.”
Detective Mike Wright took on Niqui’s case two years ago. Since then, he says, he’s been doing everything he can to get her family answers.
His department has conducted new searches of wooded areas in Richmond, hoping to find new evidence. “We’re talking ginormous wooded areas that a handful of people can’t efficiently search,” he said. “So those areas I still find kind of interesting.”
The detective says his office now has Tommy Swint’s old computer. “You’re almost 15 years later, I don’t know if technology’s advanced to where maybe we can get deleted files or any other information,” he said.
Niqui’s case remains an open and active investigation. “The hard part is, we don’t know what happened. We don’t have a body. We don’t have evidence,” Wright said. “We’re gonna continue to follow up on leads and I would just hope that, at some point, if there is someone out there who has information on the case, that someone comes forward.”
A family’s fight for answers
The family matriarch, Barbara McCown, died of cancer on July 21, 2020 — one day before the 19th anniversary of her daughter’s disappearance. “I had, officially, two moms, so I lost my mom twice,” Payton Lackings told Dateline. Barbara “was a force and someone who worked really hard in keeping my mom’s story going.”
Payton has vowed to become that force now. “Grandma didn’t stop. Grandma fought hard for a very long time,” she said. “We haven’t stopped looking for her and we will continue look for her. We all love her and loved her and just want her back to us.”
Michelle McCown-Luster has channeled her energy into helping families going through similar situations, while she still looks for answers in her sister Niqui’s case. “You had the Laci Petersons and all of them that were getting attention, but my sister wasn’t getting that national attention that I felt she deserved,” Michelle said. “But when I met the Dock Ellis Foundation — they were listening. They understood.”
The Dock Ellis Foundation is a non-profit focused on missing persons of color. Michelle works as the foundation’s director and outreach coordinator. “It was helping me in my healing process,” Michelle told Dateline. “When we bring one home, it’s so rewarding. But when we bring one home deceased it’s still a bit of –. At least they don’t have to live with the not knowing.”
Michelle says she’s still hopeful that, one day, they’ll bring Niqui home, too. “I still have hope,” she said. “And I would like to say if Niqui is out there, ‘Don’t give up. Your family’s going to bring you home.”
Niqui is 5’3” and weighed 115 lbs. at the time of her disappearance in 2001. She was last seen wearing a dark colored swimsuit top, biker shorts, and sandals. She would be 51 years old today.
Anyone with information about Niqui’s case is asked to call the Richmond Police Department at 765-983-7247.
