White bandana, beat-up sneakers, black windbreaker pants. “He had on the world’s worst outfit,” Alysha Cordova said. Yet, for the 18-year-old, it was love at first sight.
Alysha met her husband, Nick Cordova, at a graduation party in 2003. “I just remember him having, like, the prettiest smile, and he had such a big butt,” she told Dateline. Alysha’s childhood friend Andy introduced them. Nick was his cousin. “He calls him over and embarrasses me and says, ‘This girl wants to know who you are.’”
Before Alysha left the party, she searched the living room, wanting to see Nick one more time. She ran into him at the door, gave him her number, and waited for him to call. A few days later, the 23-year-old asked her out on a date. “Honestly, we were together every day, every night since. We were obsessed with each other,” Alysha said.
Seventeen years later, Alysha and Nick were living their dream life: kids, dogs, a house with a big yard.
Their son, Cruize, was born in 2012. Their daughter, Capri, in 2015. Nick “was nervous to be a dad,” Alysha said. “He hadn’t really been around a ton of kids.” But she says Nick was a natural. “It was like he’d raised 10 kids.”
Alysha and Nick both grew up in Arizona. Their family of four called Scottsdale home. After little convincing from Alysha, they found the perfect house. “He didn’t even walk in, and he was like, ‘There’s gonna be a tire swing on that tree in the middle. We’re gonna sit on rocking chairs on this front porch,’” Alysha remembered.
They did put a tire swing on that tree. Alysha remembers the kids running around outside while Nick did yard work. Their extended family was right down the road. “We moved here and our cousins come over all the time,” she said. “Raising all of our kids together and bike riding down the Greenbelt” are some of Alysha’s favorite memories. And the family was active. “We’d do a lot of camping and off-roading and going to the dunes.” Every summer, they went on a family trip to California.
In 2018, shortly after they bought the house in Scottsdale, Nick became co-owner of Gilbert Air, Heating and Cooling, an HVAC company in Gilbert, Arizona. With the recent expense of the new house, Alysha was worried about taking on another large financial commitment. “It was just, like, scary to think about,” Alysha said. Nick told Alysha he could handle it. “And so of course I want to support my husband,” Alysha told Dateline.
Alysha says Nick spent a lot of time at the office, building up the company. She stayed home with the kids. “He would be there five days a week from before the sun came up to — I’d have to call him at, like, 10 some nights and be like, ‘You need to get home,’” she said. “He was very passionate about the business and was so proud of himself.”
Near the end of 2019, Alysha saw a shift in her husband. “He came home one night and was just acting different,” she said. “I mean, I was with him forever. I know when something’s off.” She asked Nick what was bothering him. “And he was like, ‘I don’t know. I just have a weird feeling that, like, someone’s following me.’” She says she brushed it off.
But a week later, Nick’s demeanor was off again. “It took a lot to ruffle his feathers. He was never mad about anything,” Alysha said.
On May 27, 2020, 40-year-old Nick went into work late. “We had just got back from an awesome camping trip from the weekend,” Alysha remembered. She says Nick left for the office around noon. Later that day, Cruize and Capri got on a FaceTime call with their dad. Alysha was in the kitchen, unpacking from their weekend away.
“So they’re on this FaceTime call, and Capri’s like, ‘Mom, something’s wrong with Dad.’ And Cruize was like, ‘We can’t see Dad,’” Alysha said. She heard yelling coming from the call and ran over to grab the phone. Alysha says she couldn’t see Nick on the screen; it looked as if the call ended or his phone was in his pocket. “I could hear a fight. I could hear a struggle. I could hear that something was going on,” Alysha told Dateline. “I could hear moaning. And so I immediately knew that something was wrong.” She called 911 from her phone.
While on the phone with 911, Alysha says she saw something on the FaceTime call. “I thought that it was like a glove, but now I know it was a gun that was lifted over the phone. And so I’m assuming that Nick dropped the phone, and it landed, like, face up to the ceiling,” Alysha explained.
Alysha says she called out to Dave Sweetman, the co-owner of Gilbert Air, who picked up the phone. “I was like, ‘What? Dave, like, where’s Nick?’ And he’s not listening to me, so I start freaking out,” she said. “All I hear him say is, ‘Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.’ And then he drops the phone.” Sweetman declined Dateline’s request for an interview.
Alysha got in the car with the kids and drove to Gilbert Air. “I’m not thinking any of this is happening. I call my mother-in-law, my mom, my sister-in-law,” she said. When she got there, the scene was taped off. Alysha told the kids to stay in the car. “I get up there and try to run under the yellow tape to get to the door of the building, and I’m stopped by two police officers.” That’s when she learned her husband was dead. Alysha describes that moment as an out-of-body experience. “It’s not something you ever think is gonna happen to you,” she said. “It’s like I was walking in a dream.”
News spread quickly about Nick’s death, and people gathered outside Gilbert Air to support Alysha. “Nick was a very loved guy. We had a lot of friends and family,” Alysha said. She stayed outside the building for hours. “As the sun’s coming up, a guy comes over with a bag of Nick’s stuff, and it was his wallet that had money in it,” she said. She stayed until Nick was brought out in a body bag. “We all stood there for a while not knowing what the hell to do.”
Two weeks after Nick’s death, the Gilbert Police Department released an image of a possible suspect on Facebook. According to the Facebook post, the GPD is looking for two suspects who “were last seen near Cooper and Guadalupe Roads.” The GPD described one suspect as “a Hispanic or Native American male approximately 5’8”, with a heavy-set build.” There is no information available on the other suspect. To this day, neither suspect has been identified.
In response to Dateline’s interview request, Gilbert Police Department PIO Brenda Carrasco sent the following statement via email. “While we cannot share additional information at this time, as it may jeopardize our investigation and any potential prosecution, the Gilbert Police Department stands firmly with the Cordova Family and the community in the pursuit of justice for [Nicholas]. We recognize these senseless acts of violence have been extremely difficult for the Cordova Family, and we are dedicated to sharing as much information as we can in a responsible manner.”
Alysha says she and her mother-in-law went to the Gilbert Police Department about a year and a half ago, to watch security footage from Gilbert Air of Nick’s last day. “And of course they told me, ‘You shouldn’t,’” Alysha said. “They said it shows Nick being shot in the back of the head on camera.” She watched anyway. “So I saw it, and what they said happened, happened.” The footage has not been released by the GPD, and Dateline has been unable to obtain it.
Alysha is still waiting for answers six years after Nick’s death. “I’m trying to fight for justice for my husband that should’ve happened years ago,” she said. Life without Nick has been difficult for Alysha. “I’d say for three years I didn’t get out of bed a lot,” she shared. “Time doesn’t heal all, but time definitely helps.”
“I’d say the thing that I miss most is raising our kids together,” Alysha said. They still live in the house she and Nick bought in Scottsdale, and she hasn’t changed a thing. But she is working toward the future. “He would want me to live my life and be the best mom that I can, and travel, and all these experiences,” she said. “So I’m trying to live the life he would want me to live.”
Alysha is determined to make “Noise for Nick” — sharing his story far and wide on Instagram and TikTok. She has gained a following from supporters, especially widows. “Everyone’s rallying behind me,” she told Dateline. Her end goal: justice for her husband. “It’s not gonna give us closure, but as I say, it’ll give us a little sliver of peace knowing that the men that took him from us are being held accountable.”
On the sixth anniversary of Nick’s homicide, the Gilbert Police Department posted on its Facebook page. “We remain fully committed to pursuing every lead and examining every piece of evidence to ensure those responsible are brought to justice,” they wrote. They also noted that there is a $20,000 reward, offered by Silent Witness, for information leading to an arrest.
If you have information regarding Nick’s case, please contact the Gilbert Police Department at 480-503-6500. You can also submit an anonymous tip online through Silent Witness or by calling 480-948-6377.
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