Five days ago, a man accused of strangling his pregnant girlfriend escaped from custody and hasn’t been seen since. According to Trooper Nicholas Hayes he is considered “extremely violent and very dangerous.”
Daniel Nick, age 25, was incarcerated at Bethel’s Yukon Kuskokwim Correctional Center, or YKCC, awaiting trial on multiple assault charges. The court gave him permission to attend a funeral, and he was released into the care of two third-party custodians, civilians who agreed to closely supervise Nick on law enforcement's behalf.
According to Trooper Hayes, Daniel Nick wasn’t in their care for long. The Troopers have video of him running away from one of his custodians in front of the jail almost as soon as he was released. That happened last Friday, and the Troopers are still looking for him. Trooper Hayes suspects that someone might be helping Nick to hide from them.
Nick has been convicted of assault at least four times in the past six years. He pled guilty to strangling his sister at his mother’s home in Bethel in 2015; she survived the assault. His most recent offense occurred in February 2016, when he allegedly strangled his pregnant girlfriend in Kwethluk. In a motion filed against him in that case, former Assistant District Attorney Bailey Woolfstead wrote that Nick dragged his girlfriend to his aunt’s house, who was home alone with her six young children. His aunt barricaded the door and wouldn’t let him in, so Nick allegedly started to punch and knee his girlfriend in the arctic entryway.
The motion states that Nick strangled his girlfriend until she blacked out, and then punched her until she came to; he did this five or six times. In an interview with the responding Village Public Safety Officer, Nick’s aunt said that she “could hear the moments when her nephew began strangling [his girlfriend] because you could hear [her] begin to gurgle.” It sounded, she said, like suffering. Nick’s girlfriend survived the incident.
Nick faces five different counts of assault, among other charges. Law enforcement advises that if you see him or know where he is, do not approach him. Contact the Bethel State Troopers immediately at 907-543-2294, or the Bethel Police Department at 907-543-3781.