ALMA, Arkansas — On June 9, 1995, six-year-old Morgan Nick was playing with friends at an Alma ballpark when she disappeared. The mystery behind her disappearance sparked a statewide outcry that is still heard almost three decades years later.
Morgan was playing just yards away from her mother Colleen. Within minutes, she disappeared.
After a documentary aired on Channel 5 and was then produced into a Hulu miniseries, new information was revealed that could potentially bring answers to the years-long mystery: Police say a red pickup truck seen at the Alma ballpark could be linked to Morgan's disappearance.
The Arkansas-based director behind the Still Missing Morgan documentary that aired on Channel 5 in 2021 has brought the story with the same name to Hulu as a docuseries produced by Ridley Scott, known for Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Gladiator (2000).
We visited with Colleen Nick and the director of the documentary.
Nick, in an interview with 5NEWS, said about the documentary, "For us, it looked like an opportunity to put Morgan's information out there in a different way than it had ever been done—reaching out to people that have never been reached."
Nearly 30 years later, police are still searching for answers and following leads.
Arkansas native Devon Parks, the director of the documentary who is also a director for the Hulu series, followed Arkansas and federal officers for several months as they investigated the case.
The documentary turned docuseries has an unprecedented look inside the open case, revealing new details from law enforcement and the Nick family that had never been shared with the public.
Since the documentary dropped, Director Devon Parks says “We've been really impressed with the public response from what we've seen ... But our main goal and target was to saturate the local area with the information in the documentary. That's why we were doing it in the first place. And so far people have been highly responsive.”
"Viewers aren't watching something that's happened already, they're part of history in the making," Parks told 5NEWS in 2021. "They are along for the ride with the family of a missing child, the investigators searching for her, and the information as it's pieced together like a puzzle."
Parks says another goal with this was to show the viewer how investigators handle tips. “A lot of times the public thinks that when they turn in a tip, or they call investigators, or they call Channel Five, and give information that they may have, they think that it just falls on deaf ears. And so it was a goal of mine to show how dedicated not just the family but the investigators on these teams are and have been for 25-plus years."
As local police continued their search for answers, the FBI announced a major development in the case in November 2021. Investigators named Billy Jack Lincks as a person of interest, asking the public for any information about him.
Taking a look into his past, Lincks was no stranger to law enforcement.
According to court documents from August 1995, Lincks attempted to abduct an 11-year-old girl at a Sonic in Van Buren, Arkansas. It happened just two months after Morgan's abduction, only eight miles away from the Wofford Baseball Field where Morgan was last seen.
Following the incident, Lincks was charged and later convicted for sexual solicitation of the child he attempted to abduct in Van Buren.
The biggest detail about Lincks that stuck out to investigators was not his eerily similar track record, it was the vehicle he drove— a red 1986 Chevrolet pickup.
For years now the Alma Police Department has connected a similar red truck, but one with a white camper shell, to Morgan's disappearance.
Despite that, Chief Jeff Pointer says they've never been able to find and question who owned that truck.
"It may not be who took Morgan, but we've never been able to identify who the owner of that truck was," he told our Little Rock affiliate, THV11.
Lincks, unfortunately, passed away years before investigators were made aware of him as a suspect.
As for the Nick family, they continue to hold onto hope for her return, or at the very least, closure in knowing what happened to Morgan.
Colleen Nick said in a 5NEWS interview, "I've always hoped that we find more, and bring her home ... Even if we can't bring her home the way we wanted to."
Morgan's mother Colleen has devoted her life to helping families like hers through the Morgan Nick Foundation. She says that "every child deserves that fight," as well as that she hopes "this documentary speaks to the heart."
The Morgan Nick case is still an ongoing investigation. If you know anything about her disappearance, you are asked to contact the Alma Police Department at (479) 632-3333 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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