ALMA, Ark. β Almost 30 years later, Alma police announced Billy Jack Lincks is the sole suspect in the disappearance of Morgan Nick.
They were able to reach that conclusion after tracking down Lincks's truck, which he owned at the time, and collecting possible evidence from it.
There, they found some hairs that police thought might belong to Morgan Nick. That hair was sent to a lab in Texas to see if DNA could be extracted.
Othram Lab has been operating since 2018 and has helped thousands of unsolved cases get answers.
The lab received the Morgan Nick evidence last December.
"When the FBI tried to build a DNA profile from that hair, they were not able to get enough DNA to build a profile or come to that conclusion," Othram Co-Founder Kristen Mittelman said.
The lab was able to extract DNA from the hair sample.
Then, a genetic profile was built off that DNA and compared with familial markers to see if there was a match.
Once they confirmed a match, police could confidently say Morgan Nick was in Linck's truck at some point.
"It's incredible because it's removing uncertainty from the investigation and allowing law enforcement to look in a different direction with certainty," Mittelman said.
Morgan Nick has still not been found, so police are focusing their investigation on that area now. They hope this latest development will lead to more tips. Anyone with information about Lincks is asked to call 1-800-THE-LOST.