TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

The body of Azita Nikooei might never be found, but the mystery surrounding her disappearance seven years ago came to an end Monday after her one-time fiance pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Nathan Allan Mowers admitted to strangling Nikooei following an argument Sept. 6, 2004, Kern County District Attorney Lisa Green said during a news conference held at DA headquarters Monday afternoon. Mowers then drove Nikooei's body a few miles past the San Bernardino County line and dumped her in the desert.

Mowers, 38, agreed to a stipulated 11-year prison sentence as part of the plea deal. A charge of first-degree murder was dismissed.

Green said Nikooei's family consented to the plea deal to gain some closure and find Nikooei's remains.

"The family was hoping to have something to bury," prosecutor Melissa Allen said.

But so far the search has come up with nothing but an acrylic fingernail, which may not have even belonged to Nikooei, Allen said. DNA tests will be conducted on the nail.

"They're doing about as well as can be expected," Allen said of Nikooei's family.

Mowers' attorney, Peter Kang, said he's declining to comment until after sentencing on Feb. 29.

The confession

Mowers has been in custody since May 2011 when he was arrested at his home in La Quinta and brought to Bakersfield.

Long a person of interest, his arrest came after investigators accumulated evidence through numerous interviews, gathering cellphone records and wiretapping Mowers' phone. Allen declined to comment further about the wiretap.

Allen said she offered the plea deal to Mowers months ago, and he only recently accepted. She said she doesn't know what influenced his timing, but he agreed to lead investigators to the area where he left Nikooei's body.

Bakersfield police Detective Herman Caldas said that earlier this month law enforcement searched a rocky area of the High Desert studded with mine shafts and dirt roads. The closest major thoroughfare to the location Mowers gave them was Highway 395.

Despite turning up only a fingernail, Caldas said he remains optimistic that Nikooei's body will one day be found and that her family will have "full closure."

Mowers gave a confession following the search. Caldas said Mowers expressed remorse as he confessed to strangling the woman he had once wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

"He was sorrowful with what happened, that things got out of hand," Caldas said.

The disappearance

Bakersfield police long ago concluded Nikooei, 29, was dead based on her lack of contact with family members, including relatives in Iran, and the cessation of activity on her bank accounts and credit cards.

Mowers in the past had told investigators he had only argued with Nikooei before she disappeared. He had told police he last saw Nikooei at 2 p.m. at The Marketplace on Sept. 6, 2004.

Nikooei, an exotic dancer who made $500 to $600 a day at Deja Vu, had been due in Tulare later that day to pick up her son from her ex-husband, according to court documents. She never arrived and the ex-husband called Mowers.

It was later confirmed that it was the first child exchange appointment Nikooei had missed in four and a half years, court documents say. Nikooei's friends told investigators that "she adored her son and would never leave him."

Upon questioning, Mowers told detectives that fights between he and Nikooei had sometimes become physical, court documents say. He said Nikooei once suffered bruising on her neck when he pushed her, but he was only trying to keep her away so she couldn't hit him.

Mowers left Bakersfield shortly after Nikooei disappeared without telling anyone. He was arrested in Wisconsin in early October 2004 with several guns and more than $20,000 in cash.

Court documents indicate Nikooei made several comments to co-workers that eerily foreshadowed her death.

She once reported to a co-worker that Mowers choked her so badly during a fight that she nearly lost consciousness, according to court documents. Nikooei also told a co-worker she had to get away from Mowers "before he killed her," the documents also say.

Bakersfield Police Chief Greg Williamson commended the tenacity of prosecutors and the officers in his department -- especially Caldas and Lt. Joe Aldana -- in bringing Mowers to justice. He said he's proud of all the work that went into the case.

And Caldas, responding to a question about how Mowers "got away" with the killing for so long, said that was never the case. Nikooei's death always remained an open investigation.

"(Mowers) didn't get away with it, it just took us a little bit longer," Caldas said.