Morgan Nick

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Alma Police Department (AR)

Missing From:

Alma, AR

Summary:

Morgan Nick was a 6-year-old girl who disappeared from Alma, Arkansas on June 9, 1995. She was abducted at 10:45 p.m. from a Little League baseball field where she had gone to catch fireflies with friends and was last seen near her mother's car where she had stopped to empty sand from her shoes. The case remains unsolved, though an open and active investigation, and in 2024 DNA evidence identified Billy Jack Lincks, a deceased child sex offender, as a suspect.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

On June 9, 1995, Morgan Nick and her mother, Colleen, traveled from their home in Ozark, Arkansas to a Little League baseball game in the town of Alma. At approximately 10:30 p.m., Morgan and her friends asked their parents if they could leave the stands to catch fireflies, and Morgan's mother was initially reluctant but was convinced by other parents and eventually agreed. Morgan was last seen at 10:45 p.m. by her friends, emptying sand out of her shoes alone near her mother's car while her friends emptied their own shoes a few dozen feet away. Witnesses observed a man watching the youngster as she was playing with other children at the park. The witness also saw a red Ford pickup with a white camper parked nearby that disappeared at about the same time as Morgan; the camper was possibly damaged at the right rear and was described as four or five inches too short for the truck, which had a short wheel base and paint dulled by age. Morgan's friends reported seeing a "creepy" man talking to Morgan as she was putting her shoes back on.

Additional Details:

Local law enforcement, state police, and federal agents converged on Alma, launching a massive effort that would eventually involve thousands of hours of investigation and more than 10,000 leads over nearly three decades. In 1995, Alma police released a sketch of the suspect and distributed the composite to police stations across the country; he was described as white, 6 feet tall, with a mustache and a beard, and was believed to be between 23 to 38 years old. Morgan's case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted. In 1996, Colleen Nick founded the Morgan Nick Foundation, which helps parents cope with the disappearances of children, and helps prevent children from going missing. In 1996, Arkansas changed the name of its child abduction emergency alert to the Morgan Nick Alert System, through which law enforcement agencies can activate the system through the Arkansas State Police to warn the public of possible child abductions. In August 1995, only two months after Morgan Nick was reported missing, Billy Jack Lincks was arrested for attempting to abduct an 11-year-old girl at a Sonic in Van Buren—just eight miles from the Alma ballpark. In November 2021, police named Billy Jack Lincks as a person of interest in their investigation; Lincks, who died in prison in 2000, drove a red pickup truck that had been the focus on their investigation since the beginning in 1995. The FBI said that fibers found in the truck were a close match for those from Morgan's t-shirt. The FBI Evidence Response Team took over the investigation and tested the truck for evidence in 2020. The evidence vacuuming yielded hair, and in July 2023, Alma investigators discovered Othram, a company operating an advanced DNA system that could test hair with or without roots; the hair was sent off to the company's lab in Texas. On September 27, 2024, Othram Laboratory sent a report determining that the hair contained in the evidence that was submitted for analysis was that of Colleen Nick, one of her siblings or one of her children. Alma Police Chief Jeff Pointer said officials spent the weekend conducting follow-up interviews with the Nick family and determined none of them knew Lincks or had been in a truck similar to the one that was investigated. On October 1, 2024, new DNA evidence firmly connected Billy Jack Lincks to the disappearance of Morgan Nick, making him an official suspect. Colleen Nick has since become an advocate for missing persons in the United States, and founded the Morgan Nick Foundation (MNF), which supports the families of missing children.

Case Last Updated:

Jul 26, 2026