Heather Ann Bodden Obituary, Death; – The individual accused of murder in the brutal death of a woman from Yankton, South Dakota, earlier this month made his initial court appearance on Thursday.
Craig Nichols Jr. faces multiple felony charges, including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and first-degree manslaughter, following allegations that he killed Heather Ann Bodden. Should Nichols be convicted of first-degree murder, he may face the death penalty in accordance with South Dakota law. Bodden’s remains were found in her Yankton apartment on January 2, 2025.
On that date, Yankton Police responded to a report of a deceased person at a local apartment. Upon arrival at the East Meadow Apartments located at 1001 Memory Lane, officers encountered three women who had come to check on their friend. They reported that upon entering the apartment, they discovered a decapitated body.
The deceased was later identified as 41-year-old Bodden. An interview with the women who found her revealed that Bodden had sent a message to one of them on January 1, indicating that her boyfriend, Craig Nichols Jr., was threatening her with a weapon. Concerned after losing contact with Bodden, the women visited her apartment the following day, where they found her lifeless.
Court documents indicate that surveillance footage from outside the Memory Lane apartment captured Nichols, aged 32, at Bodden’s residence on the night of January 1. The footage also showed two other men entering the apartment around 10 p.m. that evening and leaving an hour later. They informed the police that they had been at Bodden’s apartment to use narcotics with Nichols and Bodden, asserting that she was alive when they departed.
Further video evidence revealed that Nichols was seen entering and exiting Bodden’s apartment between 2:50 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. on January 2, during which he was observed carrying two trash bags away from the premises. In the course of investigating Bodden’s apartment, where her body was found, authorities discovered several trash bags, one of which reportedly contained Bodden’s head.
