What you need to know about Morgan Nick | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Who is Morgan Nick?

Morgan Nick is the 6-year-old kidnapped from a baseball park in Alma almost thirty years ago.

She was with her family at a Little League game on June 9, 1995, when she hugged and kissed her mother and climbed down from the stands to catch fireflies with friends. The last time she was seen she was kicking sand out of her shoes.

A $60,000 reward was offered for the recovery of Morgan and the identification, arrest and conviction of her kidnapper. According to the Morgan Nick Foundation website, there have been numerous sightings of her in the US over the years.

Her case gained national attention after she was featured on the popular television shows “Unsolved Mysteries” and “America’s Most Wanted.”

Morgan’s family and the foundation they formed after her disappearance were also featured in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” in 2005, after their home was damaged in a boiler explosion.

Who was last suspected of her kidnapping?

FBI agents sought information about Billy Jack Lincks in 2021.

Lincks, who was 75 when he died in prison in 2000, had tried to kidnap a young girl in Van Buren, about eight miles from where Morgan was taken, the FBI said.

At the time of his death, he was serving a sentence for a 1996 conviction for sexual indecency with a child.

Lincks grew up in Crawford County in western Arkansas and returned to Van Buren in the 1970s after serving in the Army during World War II and working at Braniff Airlines in Dallas from 1962 to 1974, the FBI said.

Is this a cold case?

No, authorities have consistently said they did not consider it “cold” as they continued to gather and pursue leads in Morgan’s kidnapping.

What were the first leads in the case?

The children who were playing with Morgan minutes before she was kidnapped reported to authorities that they noticed a man nearby watching them play. The man was described as white, 6 feet tall, with a medium to heavy build, a mustache and a 1-inch beard. At the time he was believed to be 23-38 years old.

According to police, he was driving a pale red pickup truck with a white camper on the back. The camper was possibly damaged on the right rear side and was described as four or four inches too short for the truck, which had a short wheelbase and its paint had dulled over the years, they said. The truck was believed to have an Arkansas license plate.

What is the Morgan Nick Foundation?

The nonprofit Morgan Nick Foundation was founded in 1996 by Morgan’s mother, Colleen Nick, according to the organization’s website. It provides a support network for families with missing children and was expanded in 2020 to include families with missing adults.

The foundation’s website says it will provide trained search personnel, produce and distribute flyers, create social media campaigns and act as a liaison between families and police, among other things. It also provides education on child safety and kidnapping prevention and pushes for child rights legislation.

In addition, Arkansas’ Amber Alert system, designed to help authorities find missing children, was named in honor of Morgan Nick, according to the state of Arkansas website.