ALMA, Ark. — The Alma Police Department said there has been a “significant development” in the investigation into the 1995 kidnapping of 6-year-old Morgan Nick.
Alma Police Chief Jeff Pointer reported during a press conference on Oct. 1 that Billy Jack Lincks has officially been named a suspect after DNA evidence gathered from the red truck he used to own tied him to Morgan Nick’s disappearance.
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What we know
Since 1995, Morgan’s disappearance has become one of Arkansas’s most infamous unsolved mysteries.
Nearly 30 years ago, Morgan and her family went to a little league baseball game in Alma to cheer on a friend. Toward the end of the night, Morgan was invited to go catch fireflies with some friends. After playing for a while, her friends decided to leave, leaving Morgan by herself. That was the last time anyone saw her.
For years, everyone from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to local police departments has been trying to solve the case. In 2021, the FBI believed they were closer than ever as they linked local World War II veteran and Crawford County native Billy Jack Lincks to Morgan’s abduction.
Lincks, a resident of Van Buren since the late 1970s, was caught attempting to abduct an 11-year-old girl 8 miles away from the Wofford Baseball Field where Morgan was taken from. Lincks’s abduction attempt was just two months after Morgan’s disappearance.
Lincks was found guilty of sexual solicitation of a child and sentenced to prison where he later died in 2000. However, he was not named a suspect in Morgan’s disappearance until after his death.
Press conference rundown
10:33 a.m.:
Jeff Pointer, the chief of the Alma Police Department, took the podium and began speaking about the criminal history of Billy Jack Lincks.
Police tracked down the current owner of Linck’s truck. The FBI tested the truck for DNA in 2020. In July 2023, an Alma detective discovered an advanced DNA system, and spoke with FBI to send the DNA evidence to a lab for testing.
10:38 a.m.:
On Sept. 27, 2024, the lab’s report came back determining that hair contained in the evidence sent in belonged to either her mother Colleen Nick, or a member of Colleen’s family. Pointer said that nobody in the Nick family was familiar with Lincks.
Pointer officially identified Billy Jack Lincks as a suspect in Morgan’s disappearance. However, detectives are still looking into what happened to Morgan after police believe Lincks took her from the Alma ballpark.
10:45 a.m.:
Pointer answered a question about a red truck formerly owned by Lincks’s. In 1995, witnesses reportedly told investigators a similar red truck was at the ballpark when Morgan was taken. The red truck was at the center of the FBI’s recent investigation.
Colleen Nick gave a closing statement at the press conference.
“He stole Morgan from me,” she said.
After the press conference, 5NEWS spoke with retired Alma Police Chief Russell White, who started 11 months before Morgan’s disappearance. He said this case has transformed the police department.
“Being involved with a lot of other agencies and a lot of training, a lot of resources that we have access to that we never would’ve without this case,” White said. “Alma is better prepared if this ever happens again.”
Although it is a case he wishes he could’ve cracked, White said the investigators who worked on the case have done “an excellent job.”
“It is something that when I was retired, I hope would happen in my lifetime. So, I think that they definitely answered a lot of questions that I have wondered for the last many years, and I’m really proud of them,” White said.
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