In February of 2020, Nicholas Colt Vigil went to Las Vegas for a UFC Match. While in Vegas, Nick got lucky and won a considerable amount of money.
Nick returned to his home state of California in the early morning hours of February 25. He had arrived at his mother’s house in Fortuna around 3:00 in the morning.
Nick’s mom, Debbie, said that despite Nick arriving home at such an hour, he told his mom he had to head out after getting a little sleep, to go meet with a friend and pick up a check.
He walked out the door that morning, hopped into his Ford 250 pickup truck, and drove off.
But Nick wouldn’t return home.
Debbie tried to report him missing, but Nick was a 37-year-old man. He could come and go as he pleases, and law enforcement didn’t take her report seriously.
Nick hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Where is Nicholas Colt Vigil?
Let’s talk about Nicholas Vigil.
Nicholas, who I’ll call Nick from here on out, was a larger-than-life kind of guy. At the time he disappeared, he was 37 years old, 6’1 inches tall, and weighed 250 pounds. He had also been losing weight, and his mom, Debbie, said he recently had lost about 50 pounds. Unfortunately, his weight loss was so recent, most of the photos out there of Nick are showing him about 50 pounds heavier than he was in February 2020.
It’s hard to imagine. February 2020 was just weeks away from a country-wide lockdown the United States would soon be experiencing. In a way, it feels like so long ago. But in reality, compared to many missing person cases we cover, February 2020 isn’t that long ago — just two years.
However, in missing person cases, each day feels like an eternity to these families.
Nick didn’t have much of a social media presence, but he did enjoy some other activities. In 2016 he was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana. We will probably revisit this in a bit, because to most of the world this isn’t a big deal. But, Nick lived in Fortuna, California, in Humboldt County. There is a history there. If you know, you know, if you don’t, we will go into more detail about the area shortly.
In February of 2020, Nick took a trip to Las Vegas for what would be described as a ‘mixed-martial arts’ event. While in Vegas, Nick won a lot of money. I know you are probably wondering, as am I, what is a lot of money? I suppose this means different things to different people. But I wonder if this event is related to his disappearance, or it is just a random fact about Nick and what happened in the days prior? We don’t know what he won and we don’t know how we won it. All we know is he did come into a chunk of money.
On February 24, 2020, Nick left Vegas and headed back to California. He arrived at his mom’s house around 3:00 a.m. The next morning, Nick left his mom’s house, not telling her where he was going, but he did say he would ‘be
right back’.
So Nick would leave the house, getting into his Grey Ford 250 pick-up truck and driving off.
Debbie expected her son home shortly after.
But Nick didn’t come home.
Nick’s friend started reaching out, looking for Nick also, saying that Nick never arrived at his house as planned.
When Debbie eventually expressed her concern to law enforcement, her pleas for help fell on deaf ears. Authorities didn’t want to be bothered. Essentially there was zero evidence that anything had happened. Nick was 37-years old. There were no signs of anything nefarious happening.
His truck was also missing, so everyone assumed he had the truck and just left town for a while.
His friend is questioned, the one that Nick was supposed to be seeing that morning to pick up a check, but the friend just said that Nick never showed up. And really, it seems it was the friend that helped even alert the family that something was wrong.
On February 26, the day after Debbie saw her son leave the house, a forest worker in the nearby town of Weitchpac noticed a truck parked down a rural road. This forest worker didn’t pay much attention to it. I’m guessing he just thought it was broken down there or that whatever happened to it, someone would be coming back for it.
However, it would be weeks before he actually reported it, and he did so then because he saw signs of it being broken into and thought people were vandalizing it. It was mid-April when Nick’s mom learned her son’s truck had been found.
Oddly, it seemed the forest worker not only just drove by it regularly for weeks, at one point, they also took a photo of the truck and posted it to the Weitchpack Local Facebook Group to see if anyone knew who’s truck it was.
I just have to wonder why. Why didn’t they run the plates to find out? Were the plates missing? Did the forest worker not want to be bothered with contacting law enforcement, instead of turning to Facebook for help?
So for weeks, no one paid any attention to Nick’s disappearance- except his mother, Debbie. And his friend. Everyone else thought he had just taken off.
Once the truck is identified as Nick’s the case is finally put into motion. And law enforcement admits right away that his disappearance is suspicious.
They begin to track his cell phone pings and find that the last pings, on February 25th, were near Blue Lake, California, specifically Titlow Hill Road.
This area of California is confusing- there is a Blue Lakes, California, and a Blue Lake, California, and we are specifically talking about Blue Lake, California. We are going to look at this area pretty hard, so if you’re watching on YouTube I’ll put up some maps so you can see.
So Nick’s cell phone pings on Titlow Hill Road, in Blue Lake. This is, according to google maps, an hour and 20-minute drive from Fortuna, where Nick had left from his mom’s house that day.
Which seems kind of far, since he told his mom he would ‘be right back’. But again, I guess that could depend on what people mean when they say that. I guess if someone tells me they would ‘be right back’, I’d expect them back in less than a couple of hours. In fact, I’d probably expect them back in less than an hour.
So Nick leaves Fortuna, and at some point his cell phone pings in Blue Lake, over an hour north of Fortuna. Then Nick’s truck is found, abandoned in Weitchpac, which is another hour north.
Weitchpac, where the Ford F250 was found, is considered part of the Hoopa Valley Reservation according to the map. Some people local to the area, however, have said that the area is also considered part of the Yurok Reservation.
This is a rural area. A beautiful area with rivers, creeks, mountains and a pretty landscape all around.
But the area is rich with controversy too. This story is about Nick, but if you’re interested in the history of the Native Americans and Indigenous people in that area, research the falling out with the Hupa people and Yurok’s, and the division that would take place in 1988, which is kind of recent history as far reservation territories go in the U.S.
Weitchpac sits specifically on the reservation, between the Hoopa Reservation and Yurok Reservation. An area that some locals have called a ‘lawless’ area, which is raised a lot of concern for Nick’s wellbeing.
Authorities did search the area where his truck was found but didn’t find anything. In fact, they believed that the truck was likely stolen and left there, staged. I have to wonder if they staged it there so it could be found, or if they believed it would invite vandals and thieves to ransack the truck and thus help muddle any evidence that would lead to the perpetrators. For instance, if many people were touching the truck and going through it, it is going to make the forensic evidence gathering a bit of a nightmare for detectives.
Law enforcement also said that Nick had property near Weitchpac, and they conducted a search there also, and discovered that the property there had been ransacked as well.
Were people looking for something?
Investigators question Debbie on Nick’s habits to get ideas of where they can search for him.
Debbie said her son did frequent two casinos very regularly- Blue Lake Casino and Bear River Casino.
Blue Lake Casino is located near Fortuna, which would be close to where Nick was that morning of February 25.
Bear River Casino is north of Blue Lake, about 30 miles. It’s not directly en route to Titelow Hill Road, where his cell phone pinged, but it could be.
Authorities reviewed all CCTV footage however at both casinos- looking for any sign of Nick, but they don’t see him anywhere. Detectives have said that both casinos have been fully cooperative during the investigation.
So if he didn’t go to his friend’s house that morning, and he didn’t go the casinos he always went to, where did he go?
While investigators were…investigating. The family didn’t feel they were taking it seriously enough.
The family wasn’t the only one either. Soon, MMIP activist, Jesse Armstrong, helps take up the cause, speaking to media, organizing protests, and even working with a private investigator to help find answers on Nick’s whereabouts.
Now, this made me wonder. What was an MMIP activist doing in this case? Nick was listed as Caucasian in all his missing person files.
Was it because he was listed incorrectly? This can be a problem in missing person cases if we don’t accurately put information in the system.
Or, was it because his truck was discovered on or near the Hoopa Reservation?
MMIP if you’re wondering, stands for Murdered and Missing Indigenous People. We featured MMIW back in October of last year- missing and murdered Indigenous women, and focused on some unsolved cases of Indigenous women. Percentage-wise, these cases far outweigh any other group of people in the U.S. when it comes to missing persons. The statistics are shocking, and almost every Indigenous person either knows someone who has gone missing or knows someone who has been a victim.
I thought it was interesting to read that Jesse Armstrong and the MMIP came in- but honestly, the more help the better.
The protests in Humboldt County were pretty intense. They hung a red dress up in front of the coroner’s office, protesting autopsy results in that area. Many people in the county are mislabeling deaths as drug overdoses, when in fact, they are not.
And there are so many people they are standing in protest for- not just Nick.
Tawny Deann James. 32 years old, suspicious death in August 2020 listed as an ‘overdose’.
Tavia Starella Metzger. 33 years old, suspicious death in August 2020. Also listed as an overdose.
Beebee Simmons. A 75-year-old, Berkeley musician, disappeared in September of 2020. Car found abandoned on Snow Camp Road in Humboldt County. I believe they found her remains a while later, but information hasn’t been widely shared to confirm.
Mikey Logan. Found deceased in a Hoopa River in the summer of 2020.
All of these people died in 2020. And the list goes on.
There is so little information on Nick Vigil, and so few people talking, despite the obvious signs of something going wrong and a mother and activist working to raise awareness, I wanted to get a better feel for the area.
So I continued to research the Hoopa Valley Reservation and the Yurok Reservation area. All parts of Humboldt County, California.
If Humboldt County, California sounds familiar, you might have watched the Netflix series, “Murder Mountain”.
But, the premise of this series takes place in an area of California, often called the ‘Emerald Triangle’, and makes up part of Murder Moutain.
Murder Mountain, was originally titled ‘Murder Mountain: Welcome to Humboldt County,’
So you might be wondering- just because his truck was found in the center of this controversial area, what does that really have to do with Nick Vigil’s disappearance?
Well, maybe nothing.
But I want to take you back to 2016, and Nick’s marijuana charge he received. He was charged with not only possessing marijuana but running a little operation of growing marijuana. And he allegedly had property in Weitchpac, which is technically part of the Yurok reservation and is considered Humboldt County.
Many people in that area have gone missing and now makes you wonder if that had anything to do with Nick’s disappearance.
Was he another victim in murder mountain?
Is the crime rate part of the reason that investigators haven’t taken his case as seriously as they could have?
Jesse Armstrong will point out, that Nick’s truck wasn’t reported to authorities for 46 days. Meaning, authorities didn’t begin searching for Nick or investigating his case for 46 days.
So, maybe Nick was still messed up in the operations there on Murder Moutain. Or, maybe he wasn’t.
I have a couple of thoughts about his disappearance.
- Someone who knew about his recent win in Vegas came looking for him, with the intention to rob him and the robbery went bad. But this someone seemed pretty comfortable in getting rid of any and all evidence.
- Maybe Nick met up with someone regarding his connection to the Marijuana growing operations out there. But if so, why did he skip going to his friend’s house first? Or, did these other people- or person- find him first?
- Nick was also known to be a gambler. Did he have a gambling debt to take care of? I have a hard time with this one because he had just won a large sum of money and a friend of his was supposed to be giving him a check — for what, I don’t know- but it seemed he had money?
This seems like one of those cases where law enforcement needs that anonymous tip to lead them to Nick. Or lead them to answers.
This is likely a community of people that don’t like to talk, and probably want to stay out of situations like this and events involving law enforcement.
The family does have a reward offered of $10,000. Detectives often say that in these types of cases, the reward money can help bring in those anonymous tips.
Nick Vigil was 37 years old when he vanished. He is described as a Caucasian male, 6’1” tall and 250 pounds. He has brown hair, which he often shaves, and brown eyes. Sometimes he has facial hair and sometimes he is clean-cut.
Debbie said she last saw her son leave the house in a lightweight zip-up jacket or hooded sweatshirt, a t-shirt, khaki shorts with pockets, a black belt, short black socks, black Nike sneakers, and a necklace with a blue stone and a nugget. He was also carrying a black backpack with his laptop computer, keys, and other belongings.
If you have any information on the whereabouts of Nick Vigil, please contact the Fortuna Police Department at 707–725–7550.
