When Killers Get Caught: A True Crime Podcast · Ransom Storytelling Studios LLC

Nika Nikoubin's delusions were so severe she didn't even know she'd commited a crime

October 7, 2023·1 hr 7 min·4 clips

She says she told police it was for revenge and mentioned Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani.

1. When Killers Get Caught speaks with Nika Nikoubin about her background, the Las Vegas attack, and her life before and after it. 2. Brittany Ransom hosts the episode, and Nika Nikoubin is the guest because she is describing her own arrest, diagnosis, and mental health history. 3. The episode asks what happened in Nika Nikoubin’s life before the attack and how she understood her own actions at the time. 4. Nika says she is half Persian and half Kurdish, paints, sings, and has music videos out. 5. She says she was born and raised in Iran and came to the U.S. at age 12 with very little English. 6. She describes carrying a dictionary everywhere and accidentally speaking Persian to teachers and friends. 7. She says an all-girls magnet school later replaced the co-ed middle school because the first year felt like a major culture shock. 8. Nika says she did well academically, became class president, joined cheerleading, and stayed active in clubs. 9. She says a traumatic experience before freshman year of college caused her grades to fall from A's to B's and C's. 10. She says the person tied to that trauma was on her college debate team, so she saw him almost every day. 11. Nika says she had flashbacks during debate practice and cried in the bathroom while trying to keep up with school. 12. She says the hallucinations later became severe enough that she saw the same face on many different people. 13. She says she transferred to Berkeley, California, for debate, where the team was supportive but the delusions and depression continued. 14. She says COVID moved her back to Dallas, took away her job and friends, and pushed her into a mental health crisis. 15. She says she disclosed the trauma to her parents and started treatment, but online therapy did not fully meet her needs. 16. She says she resisted psychiatric medication because she believed the pills were poison and would limit her creativity. 17. Brittany and Nika discuss how post-hospital aftercare, follow-up appointments, and affordable treatment could better support people in crisis. 18. The conversation is reflective and interview-based, with Brittany pressing for specifics while Nika explains her delusions in detail. 19. People interested in mental health, college trauma, or the Las Vegas case. 20. Listeners who want a light, plotless conversation.

As heard by us

A case interview that follows the attack, the mental-health issues around it, and the aftermath.

This episode has Brittany Ransom speaking one-on-one with Nika Nikoubin, and it traces her life before the attack, the attack itself, and what has followed since.

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Want a first-person account of a delusion, an attack, and what came after?

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