ALMA, Ark. — Nearly three decades ago, 6-year-old Morgan Nick was kidnapped from the parking lot of a little league ballfield in Alma, Arkansas.
According to reports, she was taken at about 10:45 p.m. on June 9, 1995. During that time a suspect was developed, including a red truck with a white camper shell that had allegedly been involved in the tragic incident.
Since then detectives with the Alma Police Department have been working alongside local, state, and federal law enforcement. They have spent thousands of hours investigating more than 10,000 leads to try and bring closure to the family of Morgan Nick.
Below you can find a complete timeline of the 29-year case surrounding Morgan Nick's kidnapping:
1995:
6-year-old Morgan Nick was kidnapped from the parking lot of the Alma Little League ballfield just before 11:00 p.m. on June 9, 1995.
Police were given the description of a suspect, including the description of a red truck with a white camper shell that had reportedly been involved.
2000:
Billy Jack Lincks was in prison for having attempted to abduct an 11-year-old girl about eight miles from the ballfield where Morgan Nick was taken.
He was found guilty and was sentenced to prison where he died in the year 2000.
However, Lincks was not investigated as a suspect in the disappearance of Nick until after his death.
2019:
Detectives with Alma PD began a review into the early stages of the investigation. During this, their attention was once again brought back to Billy Jack Lincks.
They were able to locate the truck that Lincks owned in 1995, despite it having been sold multiple times in the years since.
The current owner of the truck did not have any type of connection to Lincks but allowed detectives to conduct an in-depth investigation of the vehicle.
2020:
The FBI Evidence Response Team examined the truck belonging to Billy Jack Lincks. By vacuuming various locations inside the truck, they produced "vacuum canisters" which contained various things including hair.
The FBI was in possession of the evidence collected.
2023:
A police detective with Alma PD learned of the advanced analysis processes that were available at the Otrham Laboratory. He then gathered evidence from the truck by the FBI and submitted it to the lab on December 1, 2023.
2024:
On Tuesday, October 1, 2024, police reported a significant development in the 1995 kidnapping case which showed DNA evidence of Nick's hair being found in a truck belonging to Billy Jack Lincks.
Lincks has been a person of interest in the case for years. He was arrested in 1995, about three months after Nick's disappearance, for the sexual solicitation of a child.
During the press conference on Tuesday, police officials named him as the first and only suspect in the case.
In September, Othram Laboratory in Woodlands, Texas sent a report to detectives stating they determined that hair from evidence that had been submitted for analysis belonged to Colleen Nick (Morgan's mother), one of her siblings, or one of her children.
Interviews with family members of the Nick family showed that none of the family knew Billy Jack Lincks and that none of them had ever been inside his truck. Physical evidence collected from the truck also showed strong indications that Morgan Nick had been in his truck.