Police have named a prime suspect in the nearly 30-year-old kidnapping case of 6-year-old Morgan Nick in northwestern Arkansas, and it’s someone they had previously interviewed in connection with the case.
Morgan was kidnapped around 10:45 p.m. on June 9, 1995, from the Alma Little League ballfield parking lot, the Alma Police Department said Tuesday while updating community members on the case.
Witnesses told police to look for a red truck with a white camper shell and according to the police department, they have put thousands of hours investigating more than 10,000 leads to find out what happened to the little girl.
Authorities continued to plead with the public for clues that may lead to the missing girl and in 2015, then-governor Asa Hutchinson addressed media outlets to keep her case alive. The police department also posted about her in June 2020, asking that those with information call in.
Police now say a man named Billy Jack Lincks has been connected to Morgan’s kidnapping through DNA found in his truck.
Here’s what we know.
Suspect’s red truck, DNA connect him to Morgan Nick
Lincks was on the radar of investigators not long after Morgan’s disappearance. Less than three months after she went missing, Lincks was arrested for sexual solicitation of a child following an attempted kidnapping of an 11-year-old girl.
At the time, police took note of Lincks’ red truck. They also found blood and blonde hair in the truck but there wasn’t enough DNA for a match, reported KHBS-TV.
When police questioned Lincks, “he denied any knowledge of Morgan’s abduction and appeared to be truthful,” Alma police said. “Investigators moved on.”
Lincks, who also was arrested in 1992 for sexually abusing a young family member, died in prison in 2000. The next year, police named him as a person of interest, and on Tuesday, they announced that hair collected from Lincks’ truck was a match to Morgan.
“Physical evidence collected from the truck that Lincks owned when Morgan was abducted strongly indicates that Morgan had been in his truck,” the department said.
Morgan remains missing, but police say they are still working to try to find out what happened to her.
Who is Billy Jack Lincks?
Lincks grew up in Crawford County, Arkansas, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and later worked at Braniff Airlines in Dallas from 1962 to 1974, according to the FBI office in Little Rock.
Lincks was arrested for raping a family member, a girl who was under the age of 14, in December 1992, according to an affidavit obtained by USA TODAY on Wednesday. Lincks’ then-wife filed for divorce the same month, according to court records.
At the time, Lincks pleaded no contest to first-degree sexual abuse and avoided time behind bars, instead being ordered to pay a fine of about $640, perform community service and not have contact with the victim, court records show.
Morgan was taken less than three years later while Lincks was still on parole. Three months later, he was arrested in an attempted kidnapping and was sentenced to six years in prison. He was in the fifth year of that sentence when he died in 2000.
Court records say that Lincks had approached an 11-year-old girl, who was with three of her brothers and a friend. Lincks tried to entice the girl with money, distract the boys and get them to leave. He began speaking to the girl using graphic sexual terms, inviting her over to his house. “The girl fled after becoming frightened,” records say.
An adult witness provided Lincks’ license plate number, which led to his arrest.
Police have been working to learn more about Lincks for the last few years.
“Whether it was through school, work, church, or any social activity, we need information about Lincks and details about his entire life,” the FBI said in a 2021 news release “Remember, every piece of information about Lincks’ life is important – no detail is too small or insignificant.”
What took the investigation so long?
Police did not provide an explanation for why it took them so long to zero in on Lincks but said that “a review of the early stages of the investigation” drew their attention back to him.
That led them to track down his old truck, which had a new owner. An FBI evidence team vacuumed the truck and collected multiple canisters of items, including hair, in 2020. And last year, Alma police submitted the evidence to the Texas-based Othram Laboratory for analysis.
This past Friday, Othram Laboratory’s report came in showing the DNA link.
Morgan’s mother, Colleen Nick, said in a news release that Lincks robbed her family.
“He stole Morgan from me, her dad, Logan and Taryn,” she said in the news release, referring to Morgan’s siblings. “He didn’t see that he could never win. Because our love for Morgan – her memory, her voice – outlasted his life. And that love continues to shine. Morgan’s heart shines on.”
Police ask that anyone with information to call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at@SaleenMartin or email her atsdmartin@usatoday.com.
