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The high-profile disappearance of 6-year-old Morgan Nick may have been solved after nearly 30 years – with DNA pointing to a now-dead child predator who was eyed early in the investigation, cops said this week.
The young girl had been just a few yards from her mother at an Arkansas Little League game in June 1995 when she was snatched from the parking lot.
“One of the early persons of interest was Billy Jack Lincks,” investigators said in a “major update” Tuesday, noting how weeks after the disappearance the local veteran was arrested for sexual solicitation of another child in Alma using a red truck similar to one used by Nick’s kidnapper.
Questioned at the time about the missing 6-year-old, Lincks, then in his 60s, “denied any knowledge” and “appeared to be truthful,” Alma police said.
“Investigators moved on,” police said of the case featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” “Unsolved Mysteries” and a 2023 Hulu documentary, “Still Missing Morgan.”
Lincks was convicted of the solicitation charge and sentenced to prison, where he died in 2000.
His name reentered the cold case in 2019 when investigators located a truck he had owned at the time of the girl’s abduction, and the current owners — who had no ties to Lincks – allowed an FBI team to vacuum it for hair and other evidence.
DNA tests came back as a match for the missing girl’s mom and siblings, none of whom knew Linkcs, cops said.
“Physical evidence collected from the truck that Lincks owned when Morgan was abducted strongly indicates that Morgan had been in his truck,” the police department said, calling the late pervert a “single suspect” in the case.
“I can tell you today that this investigation is not over,” Alma Police Chief Jeff Pointer said Tuesday. “It is ongoing and active,” he said, with the girl listed as “still missing.”
Morgan’s mom Colleen thanked the “army of supporters, advocates and heroes” who never forgot her daughter.
“He stole Morgan from me, her dad, [her siblings] Logan and Taryn,” the mom said of Linck.
“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.”