Case Timeline & Updates
Missing-person investigation.Latest development May 27, 2026 · Last checked Nov 11, 2026
The sheriff identified the blood as Winder’s and clarified the vehicle lead.
Entries distinguish event dates, report dates and routine source checks. Earlier milestones remain available as the case develops. Scheduled hearings are not reported as completed events.
The news that the blood was his mother’s reached Colten Winder months after her pickup had been found burning in Brazos County, Texas. Until then his family had known for certain that someone had set fire to something Nikki owned. Now they knew she had been hurt. Colten told KBTX what it was like to wake up each morning and realize all over again that she was still missing.
The fire and the blood came from two different places. On February 25, 2026, Nicole “Nikki” Winder, 53, was last seen at the rural property on FM 974 where she worked. That afternoon her white Chevrolet pickup was found on fire at an oil pad. Investigators determined that someone had deliberately set it alight. The truck was accounted for that same day. Its owner wasn’t.
The next day investigators were back at the property where Nikki had last been seen. They found blood in a driveway. From the house, trees obscured that part of the drive. Deputies took samples, and on May 27 the sheriff’s office announced the lab result that would stay with Colten. It was Nikki’s blood, in a quantity investigators associated with a serious injury. It placed her at the driveway. It gave searchers no direction to follow from there.
One possible lead came from a camera on FM 974. A utility vehicle had passed that afternoon. When deputies released the footage, people called in tips about a particular green Polaris. Investigators wanted to locate it so they could check whether it was the vehicle in the recording. Recognizing a make and model was a start. Until they found the Polaris and compared it, they could not say that the tip and the camera showed the same vehicle, much less identify who had driven it.
In July, as the sheriff’s office continued to process evidence, Colten and his family arranged a benefit at Joe’s Place in Bryan. There would be music and an auction, and room for neighbors to bring their children. By then, five months of the investigation had given the family two painful certainties about one afternoon. The question Colten described waking up with was the simplest one, and it was still unanswered. Where was his mom?
Research Sources
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