On a warm Friday evening in June, in the small town of Alma, Arkansas, 6-year-old Morgan Nick left the bleachers of a Little League baseball game to go catch fireflies with her friends. Her mother watched as she ran into the parking lot and played. Less than half an hour later, Morgan was gone. Two witnesses, ages 8 and 10, saw Morgan stop to get sand out of her shoes, while a man in a red truck watched. She hasn’t been seen since. What happened to Morgan Nick and where is she now?
Who was Morgan?
Morgan Chauntel Nick was born on September 12th, 1988 to Colleen and John Nick. She was the first child to the couple and was born in Europe. When Colleen went into labor, she and John went to the nearby military hospital, but were turned away because they had no more room for newborns. The Nicks went to the city’s hospital, where their nurse only spoke one word of English: PUSH. Not long after the doctor arrived, Colleen gave birth to a baby girl. Both Colleen and John were shocked as the doctor told them that they had a daughter, since they were expecting a boy.
In 1993, the Nicks, now with Morgan and her younger brother Logan, left the military and moved back to the United States to the town of Ozark in Arkansas. Their families were in Arkansas and, after 10 years in the military, the family wanted to be near loved ones. Not long after came the second Nick daughter, Taryn. Morgan was super excited to be a big sister again, especially to now have a little sister!
Colleen, now a mother of three, wanted to spend as much time as she could with her children and be a stay-at-home mom. She wanted to be in her children’s lives as much as she could. She started a licensed daycare in their home to supplement their income while her husband worked. For a while, Colleen watched children of all ages, sometimes for several days and over nights. In 1995, Colleen decided to cut back on the daycare and stick to just days so she could spend more time with her three children.
Morgan was friendly and loved helping her mother with the other children. She loved doing crafts and playing games. She was a little bit shy, but also silly and loved making people laugh. Once Morgan got to know someone, they got a chance to see more of her personality. Even though she was just learning to read, she did her best to read bedtime stories to Logan. In some ways, she was like most little girls; she loved the color pink, chewing bubble gum, and arts and crafts. When Morgan was in first grade, she brought home a permission slip for her mother so she could sign up for the track team. She came home after her first practice and told her mother that she wanted to quit. She had no idea how much she’d had to run and sweat and Morgan did NOT want to run and sweat. Morgan decided that she wanted to sign up for Girl Scouts instead, because they stayed inside and glued stuff.
Morgan was also an animal lover, cats in particular. One day, Colleen and John took her to the local Humane Society to look at kittens. Colleen recalled that Morgan looked around and promptly picked out the scrawniest kitten there and told her parents that that was HER cat. She wouldn’t change her mind. Morgan was stubborn, but in a fiercely compassionate way. Because they had to wait over the weekend to finalize things, Morgan worried all weekend that someone else might take “her” kitten. Fortunately, on Monday after work, John brought home the same scrawny kitten that Morgan had claimed that day. She was so excited, naming the kitten Emily.
The Day of the Disappearance
Friday, June 9th, 1995 started like most weekdays for the Nick family. Just six months prior, Colleen and John had gotten a divorce, but they were still able to care for the children and maintain a good relationship. Colleen and the three kids woke up, ate breakfast, then waited for the daycare children to arrive. As usual, Colleen had crafts and activities and games planned. As the day ended, the daycare children went home around 5PM. Colleen gave the kids baths and made grilled cheeses for dinner for her and the kids. Colleen recalled that Morgan asked her for a second grilled cheese that night, but they had plans, so she told her that they didn’t have time.
A family friend invited Colleen to a Little League game in Alma, which was about 30 miles away. The friend’s child played on the team. Logan, 3, and Taryn, 1, were too young to take to the game, so Colleen dropped them off at her mother’s house, and she and Morgan drove to the game in Alma. This was a makeup game because the last one had been rained out. They parked in the upper lot at the Alma Little League field and found Colleen’s friends in the bleachers. There was a double fence all the way around the ball field and two sets of bleachers, one on the first baseline and one on the third baseline. There were no concession stands or bathrooms. Morgan sat on the bleachers with her mother, watching the game. There were children all around the field and parking lots playing and running around. Morgan would watch them, but stayed on the bleachers. A small group of children would run up and ask Morgan to come play, but she told them she wanted to stay with her mom. Morgan kept untying her mom’s shoe, to which Colleen would act surprised, pretending she didn’t know how it kept happening.
Just as the game was getting close to ending, two children, 8-year-old Jessica and 10-year-old Tye, ran back over to again ask Morgan to play and to catch fireflies. Morgan looked at her mother and asked if she could go. This was the first time she actually wanted to go with her friends. Colleen told her no, that it was too late and dark. Morgan, like most six-years-old, begged her mother to let her go. Colleen began thinking about all of the times she’d been told before that she was too overprotective as a parent, and needed to let the kids have some space. Friends around the bleachers said that the area was safe, that the kids had already been playing there all night. Colleen later said that she had a feeling something wasn’t right, but figured she was just being overprotective. Finally, Colleen relented and told Morgan she could go play. Morgan was so excited, she hugged her mother and kissed her on the cheek. She climbed out of the stands with Jessica and Tye and Colleen watched as the three kids ran out, between the two gates and were playing in front of the cars parked in the lot. She could see her daughter wearing a green Girl Scout t-shirt.
The parking lot overlooked the ball field, and the kids were playing in sand piles in the back area. Colleen could see Morgan and her friends. She looked up three or four times over the next 10 minutes and saw the trio in the same place each time. Not long after, the baseball game ended and Colleen began making her way to the parking lot. She saw Jessica and she saw Tye walking back towards the field, but didn’t see Morgan. The two told her that Morgan had stopped and leaned on her mom’s car to empty the sand out of her sneakers. Colleen walked to her car, but still didn’t see Morgan. She continued looking around the parking lot, growing increasingly more worried as the crowd thinned out and she still didn’t see Morgan. She knew her daughter was shy and that she wouldn’t have wandered off alone. Colleen alerted the other adults and her friends that Morgan was missing, but no one could locate her.
At 11:07PM, a call came into the Alma Police Department reporting that there was a missing child at the little league ball field off Walnut Street. Police immediately responded and began checking the area. Sargent Harris was the first on scene and quickly got as much information as he could from Colleen. He found that Colleen had first noticed her daughter missing around 10:40PM. At first, she just assumed she might’ve been walking around looking for her, but when she couldn’t find her, Colleen knew something was very wrong.
Initially, police just knew that they had a missing child, not necessarily an ABDUCTED child. They believed that Morgan was simply lost. The public was already helping search, and although unorganized, they were continuously reporting back to police. Police began putting out descriptions of Morgan and what she was last seen wearing, as well as the information that they had gathered. More police flooded the area and began ringing doorbells of houses in the area, looking for anyone who might’ve seen anything suspicious or any signs of Morgan. It wasn’t easy to search the area because, due to the recent heavy rains, there was significant flooding and they really had no specific direction to search in. Everyone was essentially just looking everywhere.
Police had gathered that the last place Morgan had been seen was on the hilltop parking lot overlooking the field. The area was covered in soda cans, cigarette butts, and other small pieces of trash. Police quickly got in touch with Jessica and Tye’s parents so they could find out what they’d seen, since it seemed as though they were the last people to see Morgan. They both said that after playing on the sand piles, the three started to head back to the field. Morgan stopped by her mother’s car to empty the sand out of her shoes. Tye stayed back with her as Jessica ran ahead. Tye said that as Morgan finished tying her sneakers, he started running down the hill towards the field, assuming that Morgan was behind him. Both described seeing a white male with a scruffy bear and shorts, who was either shirtless or with an open shirt with chest hair. He was sitting in the driver’s seat of a red truck with a white camper that didn’t fit on the back. The door of the driver’s seat was open and he was smoking a cigarette. This man and his vehicle were right by where Morgan had stopped.
The Investigation
The day following Morgan’s disappearance, Tye and Jessica were brought to the police station to help a sketch artist make a composite drawing of the man they saw. Police were trying to identify everyone who’d been at the field that day, but still couldn’t figure out who the man was or who’s red truck that was.
Morgan’s parents were quickly cleared of any involvement, but that didn’t stop the public from condemning John Nick on their own. There were a lot of reports made to police, saying that John wasn’t very involved with his children, that he didn’t really care. While Colleen was constantly in front of the camera, pleading for help from the public for Morgan’s safe return, John either stood quietly by Colleen’s side or not at all. What the public didn’t see was that John was completely cooperating with police and never denied them access to anything. He later said that he had a very bad experience at the start with the press and after that, he left it to Colleen. Colleen wasn’t initially on board, but quickly realized that it was a powerful tool to help in the search for Morgan. John, to this day, says he doesn’t care what people say about him, about his involvement or non-involvement, because if they’re talking about him, then they’re still talking about Morgan.
Four days after Morgan’s disappearance, a home video was brought into the police department that had been shot at the ballpark on the day of the disappearance. In the background, there was a red truck with what appeared to be a white camper fitted incorrectly on the back, but some thought it might’ve been a storm door laying on its side in the bed of the truck. Police began collecting every home video they could find from the Little League field, but also collected videos from the rest of the complex, high school games, and other little league games. They found another video of a red truck with a white camper shell at a field on a different day. Much like the one reported to have been seen on the night of Morgan’s abduction, police were unable to identify who that truck in the video belonged to or where it was.
Locals in Alma and the surrounding areas were on the lookout for anything that might help investigators find Morgan or the man in the red truck. One local who drove an early model red Ford pick-up truck with a camper shell that was too long had been stopped so many times by police, that he wrote on the back of his truck with shoe police, “I haven’t taken her”.
Though investigators had received several home videos from the game that night, it seemed like most of them stopped right at home base and the truck was believed to be right past it. Police felt helpless. They felt like they were at a standstill, and no one felt like they were any close to finding Morgan. Months turned into years and the Nick family was left wondering what happened to Morgan, who took her, and if she was even still alive.
Time Passed
In 2019, the Alma Police Department made an announcement; After 24 years on the Morgan Nick case, Police Chief Russell White retired, leaving the department and the now 24-year-old missing child case to Jeff Pointer. Newly appointed Chief Pointer immediately made contact with the Nick family. He told them that his plan was to go back and begin reviewing all of the information that had been gathered since day one. In 25 years, Morgan was the only missing child in the area that had not been located. He told them that there’d been over 8,300 leads in the case, most of which were dead ends. Chief Pointer discussed the different composite drawings of the suspected abductor. He also spoke about an attempted abduction at a nearby laundromat where the man hadn’t been caught. In August of 1997, investigators released a composite that was a hybrid of the one made from Jessica and Tye’s description and the one at the nearby laundromat. Although some investigators had placed quite a bit of emphasis on the composites, Pointer said that he wasn’t focused on those, that it was time to try something different.
Facts, Details, and Specifics
Pointer was ready to focus on facts, details, and specifics. He and the rest of his team began looking at initial witness statements and facts. The red truck had been parked next to Colleen when Morgan was abducted. When Colleen and Morgan first pulled into the lot, they passed a few vehicles, then followed Colleen’s friend to the far side of the lot, where she parked. She never recalled seeing the truck being there.
Jessica and Tye had said that thought they’d seen the man sitting in the driver’s seat of the truck smoking, there was a period where he’d gotten out of the truck and leaned on the hood. Besides Jessica and Tye, there were no other children who reported having contact with the mystery man that night at the ballpark.
Looking through crime scene photos, he came across one of a red pickup truck with a white camper on it. After having just looked through past witness statements about the vehicle, Pointer felt confident that he was looking at THE truck in that photo.
Back in 1995, police had the image of the red truck within a week of Morgan’s abduction. During an interview, the former police chief said that the truck had been identified as a Mazda belonging to a parent that had been there. Unfortunately, there was no documentation or ANYTHING to back this up. When asked about this claim following his retirement, the former chief said he doesn’t recall anyone telling him that the truck was a Mazda or that its owner had been identified.
Not the Only Circumstance That Night
Pointer took a step back and began making out different events that had happened throughout Alma on the night Morgan was abducted. He told her family that he didn’t believe that she was the only circumstance that happened with that unidentified individual that night in Alma.
The first encounter happened earlier in the evening. A local teenage female was walking down the street when a truck drove past her, then stopped. It reversed back towards her and beside her with its passenger window slightly down. The man driving asked if she’d like a ride to downtown Alma (the little league ballpark was in downtown Alma). The girl said no, but the man didn’t move. She walked off and left him sitting there in his truck. He eventually drove off.
The second encounter was more vague than the first. A woman called and reported that her two girls, 5 and 6 years old, had been playing out front by the street when they came running in towards her, screaming. She looked to see a red pickup truck with a white camper driving off.
The third encounter was in downtown Alma. A few teenage boys were walking home from the older kids’ baseball field. A red truck with a white camper stopped by them and the driver, a white male, yelled at them for walking in the road. They watched as he turned onto Walnut Street, which leads straight into the upper parking lot of the Little League field.
The fourth encounter was on Walnut Street. Another group of boys were riding their bikes in the street. A man in a vehicle with the same description stopped and yelled at them to get out of the road.
The fifth encounter was with Morgan, Tye, and Jessica at the Little League field.
The sixth encounter was the red truck being photographed on the street near the ballgame.
The last encounter was at an undisclosed location, as police continue to investigate the area. Within a 10 minute period of Morgan being abducted, a group of teenagers who were driving in the undisclosed area saw a vehicle parked that matched the exact details of the truck in question, as well as a white male in the driver’s seat. One of the teenagers in the truck even said that it appeared that the man in the driver’s seat may have been holding a child down in the front seat. When the group of teenagers learned about Morgan’s abduction, they immediately reported what they’d seen to police. When they tried to lead them to the area, they were unable to due to the significant flooding. And by significant flooding, I mean that fields that were relatively far away from the river were as much as four feet underwater. This last location is the area that Pointer strongly believes is the last place that Morgan was after being abducted. He even speculates that she may have never even left the area.
The Suspects
One of the first main suspects in Morgan’s abduction was a man named Charles Ray Vines. Vines was also known as the River Valley Killer. He raped and stabbed two elderly women to death in Arkansas in the 90’s and was ultimately apprehended after being caught raping and attacking a 16-year-old girl. The investigators made a deal with Vines in order to question him on other unsolved cases, as they strongly believed that Vines had killed others. There was jailhouse information as well that Vines had confessed to Morgan’s abduction and murder as well. By the time investigators had arranged to interview Vines, he was comatose with terminal cancer. He died not long after, never regaining consciousness and was unable to be questioned. Though police are understandably skeptical of jailhouse gossip, it was very disappointing not to have the opportunity to talk to Vines about Morgan. Pointer said that he knew Vines had access to a red truck with a white camper, but there wasn’t a vehicle connected to him.
Vines had more than once remarked that the best place to hide a body was under concrete and rocks. Excavation equipment and search dogs were brought to Vines’ property to look for any sign of Morgan or remains, but none were found.
Another individual that has been strongly in the forefront of suspects in Morgan’s abduction is Billy Jack Lincks. In August of 1995, Lincks attempted to abduct an 11-year-old from a Sonic in nearby Van Buren, just 8 miles from where Morgan was taken and only two months after her disappearance. A girl was with her brother and a few of his friends at a Sonic restaurant, when a white male in a red truck pulled up and started talking to them. They’d just begun walking away from the restaurant when he pulled up beside them. He was waving money at them, offering the boys money to go get a drink and leave him and the girl alone. Fortunately, they didn’t. He started being very vulgar and making sexual comments towards the girl and offering her more money to come home with him. She said no and threatened to call the police. The man dropped a cigarette on the ground and asked the girl to pick it up and hand it to him. The group of kids began running back towards Sonic. The man in the truck, who the kids later reported to have seemed VERY intoxicated, sped off and into a pole, then fled in his vehicle.
The kids reported what had happened to the police. Another man called in to tell police that he saw a red truck’s driver talking to a group of kids. He thought it looked similar to the vehicle that was being looked for in regards to Morgan Nick’s disappearance, so he wrote down the license plate number. Police found the vehicle registered to Lincks. When they went to his home, they found the described vehicle with the described damage. While Lincks was cooperative, he wouldn’t admit to the attempted abduction. He was arrested for sexual solicitation of a minor and his vehicle was impounded and taken to be processed after the FBI was alerted by Van Buren police regarding the similarity to Morgan’s case.
Things about Lincks and his vehicle began to line up with witnesses from Morgan’s case. Jessica, Morgan’s friend who she’d been playing with that night, didn’t remember much about the man, but recalled that his truck seemed square, with square light. It looked like her family’s Chevy pickup truck. Lincks’ truck was a red 1986 Chevy. One of the kids in Alma who remembered being yelled at by a man in a red truck said that there was a dent on the front of the vehicle.
As Pointer continued to investigate into the impounding of Lincks’ truck, while it was great that it had been sent to the crime processing lab, none of the evidence from the 1995 arrest could be located. There were documents saying that the vehicle had been processed, but no findings or evidence. Meanwhile, Lincks passed a polygraph test and many were convinced that that cleared him. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 1996 for the attempted kidnapping in Van Buren. Unfortunately, he died in 2000 at the age of 76 while in prison before he could be questioned about Morgan’s abduction.
If you were wondering whether Lincks was brand new to crime when he attempted to solicit the 11-year-old girl in Van Buren, he was NOT! Three years prior to Morgan’s abduction, Lincks was accused of sexually assaulting his granddaughter. This was reported to police, but never served any jail time for it.
Finally a Break
Not long ago, investigators decided to run the VIN for Lincks’ old red pickup. To their surprise, the vehicle was listed as registered to someone. The owner lived just 30 miles from Alma. He told investigators that he’d bought the vehicle at an auction for him and his 3-year-old grandson to work on together one day. The coloring looked a bit faded, but there were obvious markers where there had been a camper shell and the holes had been filled. After the vehicle had been impounded following Lincks’ arrest, it was sent to auction.
They removed what was believed to be the original floor cover and found a singular blonde hair. Basically the vehicle was torn apart and everything was removed and sent to be processed. After a few months, results returned on the hair and a spot of blood found on the dashboard. While it was confirmed to be blood, there wasn’t enough to develop DNA. This was disappointing for the investigators, but not surprising. With over two decades having passed, the heat and sunshine in a vehicle would be very likely to ruin DNA. They waited for the last report of trace evidence to return and were shocked at what was found. Fibers were located under the seat, the driver’s seat floor mat and carpet, the metal padding and brackets that were of a blue-green color. When police sent in “known” items for comparison with their evidence, they included a shirt that was the exact same type and from the same time frame as the blue-green Girl Scout t-shirt that Morgan was wearing on the night she was abducted. The fibers in the truck matched microscopically and optically, with the same characteristics to the one in the shirt. It’s highly unlikely that they’d match randomly with how many processes a t-shirt has to go through when being made.
With the new discovery, Pointer and his team felt confident that while still being open to new discoveries, they could begin narrowing their focus towards one person of interest: Billy Jack Lincks.
Colleen Nick formed the Morgan Nick Foundation to provide support to families of all missing children. While the prospect of knowing what happened to her daughter is obviously something Colleen hopes for, she also battles with the fact that if Lincks was responsible for her daughter’s disappearance, she doesn’t feel that Morgan will ever get justice. Morgan Nick is still currently listed as a missing person.
