Latest news with #MorganNick
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee reflects on Morgan Nick case
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is looking back, remembering Morgan Nick, the efforts to find her, and the hope that still lingers despite the decades gone by. It's a call to never forget. 'I think every parent in Arkansas had this immediate sense of not just grief but a deep ache in our hearts as parents to know that this mother had her child at a ballgame, and then she was gone,' Huckabee said. Gone for 30 years as of June 9, 1995. 'I just remember on the night that this happened, and, of course, the news broke the next day,' Huckabee said. 'I was Lt. Governor when the story came out about Morgan Nick's abduction.' The following year, Huckabee was elected as the 44th governor of Arkansas, maintaining a strong connection to the case and the Nick family. 'I was able to meet Colleen fairly soon after all this happened, [and] I have remained in touch with her all these years. She's one of the most remarkable people I've ever met,' Huckabee said. Remarkable and determined, Colleen Nick continues her fight and hasn't given up on getting answers about her daughter's disappearance. 'I think many of us wanted to encourage Colleen. It turns out she was the one who encouraged us,' Huckabee said. All while helping others at the same time through the Morgan Nick Foundation, which assists with more than 1,000 missing person cases each year, turning her worst fear into a tool for other parents going through a similar case. 'I was blown away that here was a mother who had been looking for her daughter and had no idea where she was or if she was safe. But she didn't curl up in a fetal position and give up. She took her energy, and she started using it—first, obviously, to find Morgan, but then to say to parents, 'Here are things you need to be aware of. Don't let your child out of your sight. Make sure you have a good understanding of your surroundings,'' Huckabee said. 'It was very obvious that without Colleen and her advocacy for missing children, some of these important pieces of legislation would never have happened.' One of those was Megan's Law, which requires authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders. 'I just think that anything that a legislative body can do, whether it's to increase the penalties, more resources to law enforcement, to do a better job at being able to quickly identify those who have been abducted [is necessary],' Huckabee said. 'We won't stop till we find her': Driven by Morgan Nick case, Arkansas forms cold case units The most recent bill passed in the Natural State, Senate Bill 371, recognizes the Morgan Nick Foundation. The law establishes a new reporting system for missing children who do not meet the minimum reporting criteria to issue an Arkansas Amber Alert. 'How do you say no to a mother who comes to the state capitol, who shares her story with such a level of articulation and eloquence, and yet does it not with anger, not with bitterness, but just with the broken heart of a mother who now wants to make sure that no one else ever has to experience it,' Huckabee said. 'She had an impact on every legislator. She had an impact on me.' The common sentiment—'It won't happen here'—acted as a wake-up call to many Arkansans following 6-year-old Morgan's disappearance. 'We're a small-town kind of state. Most people know each other, and they know their neighbors, and these kinds of things don't happen,' Huckabee said. 'But it does… and it did.' The question also remains. 'Sometimes I wonder if the technology of today had been in existence when Morgan was abducted, would we have found her,' Huckabee said. 'I'd like to think we would have had a much better chance because images would have been instantly available, a description of the pickup truck that was believed to have taken her away, DNA evidence that was in its infancy—if it even existed at all in places.' Three decades later, the same law enforcement agencies, family, and friends who stood with them then still stand with them today. 'I wish that Colleen had been able to watch her grow up, watch her go to the prom, watch her graduate, watch her get married, watch her bring grandchildren into the world for her. She didn't get to do any of that,' Huckabee said. 'I pray that someday—I pray that I live to see it—that Colleen finds out what happened to Morgan.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
WATCH: Extended interviews from Chasing Fireflies: A Morgan Nick Special
ALMA, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Chasing Fireflies: A Morgan Nick Special featured interviews with those connected to Morgan Nick, her family and her missing person's case. See more from each person in our special below. Since her disappearance in 1995, Colleen Nick continues to search for her daughter and advocate for other missing children across the state. Watch our extended interview where she recalls the night Morgan disappeared. Taryn Hicks was only 22 months old when her sister, Morgan, went missing. Watch her emotional interview here. The Morgan Nick Foundation works to advocate for missing children and their families. Watch our interview about its work. Chief of Police for the Alma Police Department, Jeff Pointer, weighs in on his involvement with the Morgan Nick case since he joined the department in 1998 as a dispatcher. Watch his extended interview below. Detective for the Alma Police Department, Shawn Taylor, talks about the Morgan Nick case and the forensics process. Watch his extended interview here. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin talks about the impact that the Morgan Nick case has had on cold cases in the state of Arkansas. Watch his extended interview below. The Criminal Investigation Division for the Arkansas State Police shares more on the process for investigating cold cases in the state. Watch Major Stacie Roads' full interview here. Arkansas' 46th Governor Asa Hutchinson recalls his memories of the Morgan Nick case and how his office handled cold cases during his time as governor. Watch this extended interview below. Mike Huckabee served as Arkansas' Lt. Govenor when Morgan Nick went missing in 1995. He later became the 44th Governor of Arkansas. Watch him recount his experience from that time below. Christi Andrews works as a forensic artist for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. She has drawn multiple photos of what investigators believe Morgan Nick would look like today. Watch her explain the process for creating these images here. Former Chief of Police for the Alma Police Department, Russell White, retells his experience when he first learned of Morgan Nick's disappearance. Watch his extended interview below. Arkansas State Rep. Ryan Rose talks about his involvement with legislation to support families of missing children. Hear more about Colleen Nick's involvement in the legislative process below. Former Detective Kevin Johnson for the Van Buren Police Department once arrested Billy Jack Lincks before Morgan Nick's disappearance. Hear him recount stories of various run-ins with Lincks. Tiffine Shaffer and Jerri Emrick both teach at Ozark Elementary School. Emrick was Morgan's Kindergarten teacher, while Shaffer taught Nick in 1st grade. Both teachers recall their time with Morgan in the classroom. Bill Gossage's son was Morgan Nick's friend and reading partner in the 1st Grade at Ozark Elementary School. He later became friends with Colleen Nick and now serves on the board of the Morgan Nick Foundation. Watch our extended interview with him below. The annual Morgan Nick 5K race benefits the Morgan Nick Foundation and works to bring more awareness to missing children in Arkansas. We interviewed many attendees of the 2025 to find out their connection to the cause. Those who know Colleen Nick personally are sharing their experiences with assisting the Morgan Nick 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Yahoo
Former Van Buren detective recounts 1995 interview with Billy Jack Lincks
VAN BUREN, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Billy Jack Lincks was a father, husband, World War II veteran and airline employee, but, most notably, he's the suspect in Morgan Nick's disappearance. Lincks had a prior criminal history, being convicted of sexual solicitation of a child in 1996 and first-degree carnal abuse in 1992, which was later repealed by Arkansas Act 1738 of 2001. His 1996 conviction was met with a six-year prison sentence, serving only four of those before dying at Tucker Unit on Aug. 5, 2000 at 75 years old. Kevin Johnson, a former detective with the Van Buren Police Department and now a pastor at Home Church in Barling, said he always saw Lincks as an alcoholic, crossing paths with him for the first time when he arrested him for Driving Under the Influence in 1984. 'Chasing Fireflies': KNWA/FOX24 special takes a look back at Morgan Nick's disappearance 30 years later 'You can take the nicest person there is and give them alcohol, and they become a lunatic or a maniac or a total angry person that you don't want to be around,' Johnson said. 'When he started drinking, I think the demons, so to speak, came out and he did the things he shouldn't have done.' On Aug. 29, 1995 — two months after Nick's disappearance — Lincks drank a fifth of rum, drove from Fort Smith to a Sonic on the corner of Fifth and Broadway streets in Van Buren and attempted to lure an 11-year-old girl into his 1986 red Chevrolet truck, court documents said. An incident report from Aug. 29, 1995, stated Lincks offered four boys—three of whom were brothers and another being a friend—money to leave, while he talked to their sister on the corner of Fifth and Webster streets. While at the street corner, Lincks offered the 11-year-old money in return for sexual favors before she turned around and ran back to the Sonic screaming and crying for her brothers to call the police. Lincks sped away and hit a telephone pole in the process. Johnson said the red paint from Lincks' truck scraped off onto the pole. That clue, coupled with descriptions from the 11-year-old girl, led investigators to Lincks, Johnson said. Johnson brought Lincks in for an interview at the Van Buren Police Department Aug. 30, 1995, one day after the incident. 'He was never combative. He was never argumentative, anything like that,' Johnson said. 'It was a very casual conversation. It wasn't like there was any rub against each other.' National Center for Missing and Exploited Children uses forensic artists to help save lives However, the one thing Johnson was looking to get out of Lincks — the truth — was hard to come by. In the interview, Lincks recalled being in Fort Smith before going to the Sonic, descriptions of what the children looked like, offering the children money and hitting something when driving away, all despite claiming he was too drunk to remember what he talked about with the 11-year-old girl. 'He did remember it,' Johnson said. 'He was just withholding that because of the seriousness of the moment.' Nearly 25 years after his death, Lincks was named a suspect in Nick's disappearance by the Alma Police Department on Oct. 1, 2024, after a hair sample from his truck linked back to her DNA. Johnson has been a pastor for 26 years. He believes in the afterlife, but he's unsure of where Lincks' spirit may be. 'Hard for me to say because I'm not the judge,' Johnson said. 'Everyone who passes this life, if you're related to them, no matter what, you have hope. 'Maybe he turned his life around in prison, we don't know, but certainly, that's always the hope,' Johnson said. Police ask the public to contact them at 1-800-843-5678 if they have anything that can help further the investigation into Nick's disappearance. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Yahoo
‘Chills': Van Buren woman reacts to living near suspect Billy Jack Lincks' old home
VAN BUREN, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The name 'Billy Jack Lincks' garners a chilling reaction from many in the River Valley to this day. After being a person of interest for years, Lincks was named a suspect in Morgan Nick's disappearance Oct. 1, 2024, nearly a quarter-century after dying at Tucker Unit in Central Arkansas in 2000 at the age of 75. Not much of his has withstood the test of time, except for his old home in Van Buren. 'I just got the chills again,' Ashli Rowe said when she learned she lives near Lincks' old residence. 'I was not expecting that at all. It literally made my heart sink.' 'Chasing Fireflies': KNWA/FOX24 special takes a look back at Morgan Nick's disappearance 30 years later Lincks told investigators he lived at that address during an interview for a separate crime he committed in August 1995, two months after Nick's disappearance. He was later convicted of sexual solicitation of a child after attempting to lure an 11-year-old girl into his truck at a Sonic in Van Buren. Lincks was sentenced to six years in prison, only serving four before his death. Rowe was born June 5, 1995 — four days before Nick went missing. She thinks the story that caught national attention may have influenced her mother's 'helicopter' parent tendencies. Rowe has five children between the ages of 2 and 10. She said she keeps a close eye on the kids out in public, assuming a potential kidnapper could be around the corner. Arkansas Senate Bill 371 passes, Morgan Nick Foundation shares impact 'It just takes a second,' Rowe said. 'In Walmart, it panics me when my kid walks around the clothing and I can't see him for a split second, because you never know when that person is just watching or there or how long they've been watching you or what their intentions are in their head.' Rowe said the people who currently live at Lincks' old home have young children. She said her kids have played at the home and ride the bus to school together with them. Amid the questions that still loom about Nick's disappearance three decades later, Rowe extends her deepest condolences to her mother, Colleen Nick. 'It makes me feel bad because there's no closure for her parents,' Rowe said. 'They have a hole in their hearts.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Chasing Fireflies: A Morgan Nick Special airs this Sunday on 479 First
ALMA, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A 2-hour long special looking back on 30 years of searching for Morgan Nick airs this Sunday on 479 First and on the air June 9 and 10. 'Chasing Fireflies: A Morgan Nick Special' will be live on the 479 First app on Sunday, June 8, at 7 p.m. Part 1 will air live on Monday, June 9: KNWA at 4 p.m. KXNW at 6 p.m. FOX24 at 10 p.m. Part 2 will air live on all three channels on Tuesday, June 10 at times to be announced. Click to find KNWA/FOX24/KXNW on the 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
