Summary
In June 1995, in Alma, Arkansas, six-year-old Morgan Nick was abducted from a Little League baseball game by an unidentified man. Alma is located in western Arkansas at the edge of the Ozark Mountains. Witnesses spotted a red pickup truck with a white camper shell parked nearby the game that vanished around the same time Morgan disappeared. Several witnesses reported seeing a man watching Morgan as she played with other children. The man driving the truck was described as a White male between 23 and 38 years old, approximately 6 feet tall, with a medium to solid build, a mustache, and a short beard. An extensive search to find Morgan Nick was launched, but she was never found.
In August of 1995, in an unrelated incident, an 11-year-old girl in Van Buren, located just ten minutes from Alma, was approached by a man who was driving a red pickup truck. The man attempted to lure her into his truck by offering to take her to his house. The girl ran to safety and police were notified. A witness was able to provide police investigators with the truck’s license plate number. The license plate number was traced to a man named Billy Jack Lincks. In 2020, Lincks' truck was examined for evidence, which was collected for future analysis. While a direct link to Lincks could not be confirmed at the time, in November 2021, Billy Jack Lincks was identified as a person of interest in Morgan Nick's abduction based on available evidence. Over 10,000 leads were worked in the case.
In their efforts to determine if a link existed between the evidence collected from Lincks' red pickup truck and disappearance of Morgan Nick, the Alma Police Department, in collaboration with the Arkansas State Police, submitted forensic evidence to Othram in The Woodlands, Texas. In December 2023, the evidence from the truck arrived at Othram’s laboratory. Othram scientists developed a DNA extract from the forensic evidence, and then used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to build a comprehensive DNA profile for the forensic evidence.
Morgan Nick’s mother submitted a reference DNA sample so that a comparison could be made between her DNA profile and the DNA profile developed from the evidence recovered in the truck that belonged to Lincks. Othram used KinSNP® Rapid Relationship Testing to evaluate the relationship and was able to provide supporting evidence of a first degree relationship between the forensic evidence and the reference DNA from the mother. While Lincks was previously named a person of interest in the case, the comparison provided by Othram provided direct evidence that the evidence in the truck was, in fact, from Morgan Nick. Unfortunately, Lincks died in prison in 2000, while incarcerated for an unrelated crime.
Morgan’s mother, Colleen Nick, founded the Morgan Nick Foundation with a mission to educate children and teenagers about personal and online safety, aiming to prevent child abductions. The foundation plays an important role in supporting families and local law enforcement in missing person cases involving both children and adults.
Michael Vogen
Director of Case Management
Michael works with law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and Canada on “unsolvable“ cases that can benefit from advanced DNA testing methods. He helps these agencies use cutting edge DNA sequencing and new forensic techniques to develop investigative leads for their cases.