Missing Goddess Update: Nikki McPhatter

Police look for man named 'Teddy'
Authorities in N.C. and S.C. believe man has information about Charlotte woman missing since May 6.

By Christopher D. Kirkpatrickckirkpatrick@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Friday, May. 22, 2009

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police ask that anyone with information in the case, or anyone spotting McPhatter's vehicle, call 704-336-6034.

With just a first name to guide them, investigators in two states were trying to locate a man named “Teddy” who they believe might have information about US Airways employee Nikki McPhatter's disappearance.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police were in Columbia on Thursday looking for the man, but wouldn't say what his connection with McPhatter might have been.

“I know she was supposed to have been heading this way,” Columbia police Capt. Thomas Dodson said of her disappearance. “They're trying to locate a Teddy.”

The 30-year-old Charlotte woman was last heard from on May 6 when she called a friend and said she had run out of gas in Columbia.

Investigators are still trying to identify two men captured on bank video May 6 as they tried unsuccessfully to use McPhatter's ATM card at a S.C. Wachovia branch.
And they were also asking anyone who has seen her car, which has the N.C. license tag “PHATTAH,” to contact police.

Fran Eddings, a co-worker who set up a Facebook page for McPhatter's friends and family to support each other, said people have spotted the car at various locations in the Charlotte area, including Eastland Mall and Graham Street in Charlotte. One report placed the car on I-40 between exits 119 and 125 in the Hickory area.

Eddings said people started calling her with tips about the case after she put her phone number online. She said she would prefer tipsters call police directly.

McPhatter was last seen at work on May 4. She works at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport at the international terminal ticket counter. She hasn't been heard from since calling a friend two days later from Columbia and saying she needed money because had run out of gas. The friend told police that McPhatter didn't answer her phone a short time later.

Between 6:45 and 7 p.m. that day, a camera at the Wachovia bank branch on Farrow Road in Columbia caught two men on video.

McPhatter missed several days of work, which is uncharacteristic, and failed to meet a friend in Georgia on May 6.

Latoya McPhatter, who lives in Raleigh, said she was supposed to meet her sister on May 8, but she didn't show up.

Various friends and co-workers tried to reach McPhatter and stopped by her home in northwest Charlotte.

Akilah Weaver, a concerned friend, filed a missing persons report on May 11.
She did so after receiving a call from McPhatter's employer who said she had missed several days of work. She tried to call her friend and also drove by her house off N.C. 16 near I-485.
“She never misses work. I saw that as a red flag. If there is any word that describes her, it is responsible.”

She said Nikki McPhatter, originally from Raeford, still cares for her grandmother. She drives to Raeford once or twice a month to see her. McPhatter has a business degree from UNC Charlotte.
Weaver described her friend as “very outgoing, very friendly. As soon as you met her, you felt a connection. She never said anything negative. She had a very positive energy.”

“There has been a lot of confusion and worry…,” Weaver said. “We want her to come home.”