Morgan Nick had left her mother’s side to catch fireflies with her friends when she vanished
A 6-year-old girl was at a little league baseball game when she left her mother’s side to go and catch fireflies with her friends. It was the last time she was ever seen.
Morgan Nick went to the game in Alma, Ark., with her mother, Colleen, on June 9, 1995, according to 5 News, KARK and KATV. When the two girls that had gone with Morgan to catch fireflies returned without her, however, concern abounded.
In a 1995 story from the Associated Press, it was reported that Morgan was last seen by her friends dumping sand out of her shoes near a car. Around that same time, a red pickup driven by a man with a beard was spotted. The AP reported that both Morgan and the truck disappeared around the same time.
“I went over to the car, looked around the outside of the car, opened the doors, looked inside the car, thinking she had gotten in,” Colleen Nick told Unsolved Mysteries. “Even at one point, looked under the car, just thinking she has to be here somewhere. Within a couple of minutes, all of the people and most of the cars were gone and it was very clear that Morgan wasn’t there.”
Related: Suspect ID’d in Disappearance of Morgan Nick, Ark. Girl, 6, Who Vanished in 1995
The case generated a lot of attention in Arkansas, generating thousands of leads. But after several years, the case went cold and remained unsolved.
“It’s the worst terror that any parent can ever feel,” Colleen said, according to Unsolved Mysteries. “There’s such a sense of it not being real, somehow. It does not seem possible that your child could be missing, that someone could have taken your child.”
But after nearly three decades, police finally announced that there had been a break in the case.
On Oct. 1, 2024, Alma police announced at a press conference, which was reported by 5 News, KATV and KARK, that DNA had led them to a suspect who’d died in 2000.
Billy Jack Lincks had been questioned two months after Morgan’s disappearance, KARK reported, citing police. At the time, he was being investigated in the attempted kidnapping of another girl weeks after Morgan’s.
Court records reviewed by PEOPLE show that Lincks was convicted of sexual solicitation of a child in 1996.
The case of Morgan’s disappearance was reopened in 2020. 5 News reported police had searched a truck that had belonged to Lincks after finding its current owner. The search bore fruit.
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The truck, which was vacuumed for evidence, contained several hairs that were sent to a lab for analysis, according to KATV. Investigators discovered that the hairs belonged to a member of Morgan’s family — perhaps even Morgan herself. There was no evidence that any other member of the girl’s family had been inside the vehicle.
The findings led police to announce that they were officially naming Lincks a suspect in Morgan’s disappearance.
“An army of supporters, advocates and heroes have rallied to uncover the truth about her disappearance,” Colleen Nick said at a press conference, according to KARK. “Morgan’s heart shines on.”
