The Vanishing of the Firefly Girl | The Case of Morgan Nick | UNSEEN

Pay attention to this footage, as it hides two disturbing secrets. It was taken at a little league baseball game in 1995. The people sitting here in the stands are Colleen Nick and her six-year-old daughter, Morgan. They appear to be watching the game as it runs late into the night. Soon after, the footage shows little Morgan is no longer with her mother, but look closely. Behind the fence, we see her running to go play with friends. This footage was filmed just minutes before Morgan disappeared. Earlier that day, another parent films the same game. In the back, the video captures a red pickup truck with a white camper. After investigation, police discovered the truck did not belong to any parent there that day. And what's worse, the same red pickup truck with a white camper was seen in the parking lot. The last time Morgan was seen. Two months later, a man named Billy Jack Links is arrested. After trying to abduct an 11-year-old girl, just eight miles from where Morgan disappeared, and Links was seen driving a red pickup truck with a white camper. Three days later, Billy Jack Links is cleared of all charges in Morgan's case. For nearly 30 years, the circumstances in which Morgan Nick was abducted would remain a mystery until one mother who never stopped searching for her daughter finds that the truth has been hiding in plain sight. Alma Arkansas, June 9th, 1995. Colleen Nick and her six-year-old daughter Morgan are at home, getting ready to go watch the little league baseball game. The two younger siblings are staying over at their grandmother's house that evening, so Colleen can have a night out, just her and Morgan. That same day, just a few miles away from the baseball field. A man tries to kidnap a little girl outside the Alma Laundromat, but the mother is able to grab her away. The man drives off. And the incident goes unreported. It's nighttime, Colleen and Morgan are at the baseball field, and the game is running late. The kids sitting in the stands are becoming restless. Some are already running around, playing behind the bleachers. At one point, two kids run up to Morgan and ask her if she can come play. Morgan sat with me, you know, she was six years old. She was a little bit on the shy side a little bit quiet, and she didn't want to go play with them. And she just wanted to sit with me, and I remember she kept untying my shoes, and I had to pretend like, oh my gosh, how did that happen? And she would just laugh and laugh, you know, it's just the most hilarious thing to her. It's 10.30 pm. The game is almost over. The two kids return to Morgan and ask her if she wants to go catch fireflies. For the first time, Morgan turns to ask her mother if she can go, but Colleen says no. I didn't think it was a good idea that I thought it was too light and too dark. I was thinking about the times that I had been told that I was too overprotective. As a parent, that I need to find space to let my kids have a little bit of freedom. Other parents try to reassure Colleen, telling her it's safe that kids have been playing there all night. And with the double fence, you can clearly see all the way around. That's when I had that feeling like something was wrong. I thought to myself, I'm being ridiculous, I'm overprotective. She really wanted to go catch those fireflies, and I think the thing I remember most is how happy she was when I told her she could go. Morgan throws her arms around her mom's neck and gives her a hug. She kisses her on the cheek and climbs down out of the stands following the two kids to the parking lot. Colleen can clearly see her daughter from where she's sitting. She tries to put her worries aside and turns her attention back to the game. It's 10.40pm, the game is over, and she sees the two kids returning from the parking lot, but Morgan is not with them. Colleen is terrified, she runs over and starts looking between the cars, inside, and under. But Morgan is nowhere to be found. Some parents who attended the ball game take part in the search, but Colleen doesn't waste any time. She asks someone with a cell phone to call the police. Sergeant Harris is the first to arrive at the scene. "At that time, I was only like a mile away, and since I pull up, I see a group of people." The mother is frantic, she tells Sergeant Harris she believes her daughter has been kidnapped with her, our 10-year-old tie, and 8-year-old Jessica, the two kids Morgan left to play with. "And I recall one of the kids telling me, "Can you recall which one it would, but telling me that there's a man had come up." "A man leaning against his truck while we were playing. I mean, it was a little strange, but we are around adults all the time, like, you're so innocent then, you don't think anything and you're just running around laughing." The man had been standing there, next to his truck, watching them, with the door open. After playing there for a few minutes, tie and Jessica saw that the game was over, and they told Morgan they were going back to see their parents. Morgan followed, but as they leave the sandpile, the three of them stopped to empty their shoes. Morgan was sitting by the back of the truck, tie and Jessica were near the front. When her friends left, they were convinced she was close behind. It was the last time anyone saw her. "And if I just would have stopped or, like, we would have stayed together better, then it wouldn't have ever happened." The two kids described the suspect as a white male with a scruffy beard wearing shorts, but no shirt. Jessica also gives a description of the vehicle he was driving, a red pickup truck with a white camper on it. As more officers start to arrive, they secure the parking lot crime scene with yellow tape. Some officers go knocking door to door, looking for witnesses, while others organize the search. Knowing Morgan is inside a moving vehicle makes it imperative to find her quickly. Chief of Police Russell White contacts other agencies to ask for help. The state police and the FBI join the efforts. "We really think, we've kind of narrowed down with things, and it's a good possibility it's a red truck. There's still no mate." The red pickup with a white camper, white male dark hair, short, dark beard. "And, of course, the last time you would see a shirt." June 10th. The two kids, Jessica and Ty, are brought into the police department to help create a composite sketch of the man they saw. This sketch is then shared with every news outlet, and soon, everyone in Arkansas is talking about the kidnapping. "It's been almost 24 hours since Morgan disappeared from the little leak filled in Alma." Morgan was only supposed to be away from her mother, Colleen, for a few minutes. She said she wanted to hunt for fireflies with her friends. "We needed Colleen involved, so we convinced Colleen to be involved, basically dragging and kicking and screaming into the press room, so you've got to do this. She did well at it, and she got better at it, and she learned that it was a tool, and she learned how to use it." "My daughter never ran off, she's very shy, and she's very quiet. She wouldn't go up first up in the dark. She did not run off." "Look at everybody you go by, look at every truck you say, and think that if it was your child, I'm not even wanting to come home, so you're on her hand." As the hours pass, the chances of finding Morgan alive decrease. Colleen can't stop thinking about the events leading up to the kidnapping, about how she let her daughter go play against her intuition, about how people told her she was too overprotective, and about her last dinner with Morgan before they left the house that night. "What I specifically remember is really making grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner that night, because my kids love grilled cheese. Morgan and I got ready to get to the game, and then I specifically remember, "Hah." I remember Morgan asking for a second sandwich, and I didn't only have time to cook it, and she wasn't a real big eater, and so I didn't only think that she needed it, and I didn't night-get for. That still bothers me." As the investigators try to locate and identify every person present at the ballgame that night, they uncover crucial footage filmed by a parent at the game. The video was filmed earlier, the same day Morgan was kidnapped, and the back, you can clearly see a red pickup truck with a white camper on it. After further investigation, no one who was at the game can say who the truck belongs to. Before we continue with Morgan's story, we're going to pause for a moment to acknowledge this episode's sponsor. At Unseen, our sponsors help make it possible for us to share survivor stories with the care and depth they deserve. So today, we're partnering with Factor. If you're at Unseen, we know how important it is to stay fueled and healthy throughout the day, but with busy schedules, it can be a challenge. Factor makes healthy eating simple, by delivering fresh, fully cooked meals straight to your doorstep. Each meal is designed by dieticians and crafted by chefs using high-quality ingredients, like lean proteins, colorful vegetables, and healthy fats all built to support your goals. 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And we have tried to examine this pickup truck closely. In fact, we've had some enlargements made. We've in fact, we've gone to 400 times. It doesn't take long for tips to start pouring in. Hundreds of people report sightings of a similar red truck. Tim Reed of Alramar was pulled over twice in his pickup, but he doesn't seem to mind. You know, it was a little hassle, but it's good to know that they're out having to capture him. However, there are some people that are being hassled by the public just because they drive a truck that looks like the one police are trying to find. We'd like to caution the general public for taking any type of enforcement action. If you think you see the truck, police are looking for jot down the license plate number and call them. And if you drive a red Ford pickup truck, police say, be patient. The investigation has narrowed the search to Ford trucks only after one witness claimed they saw the pickup that night. The problem is the little girl who was playing with Morgan gave police a different description of the vehicle. I felt like it would look more like a Chevy would, like an old Chevy. At the time, I don't remember thinking because we had a Chevy truck, it reminded me of that. Just the way it was shaped, the squareness, the boxiness of it. There's a chance everyone is out there looking for the wrong truck. Days pass, and still, investigators haven't found any trace of Morgan, but the search doesn't lose momentum. The people of Alma and the state of Arkansas have come together to help ring her home. Reminders come in the form of flyers, bumper stickers, t-shirts, and billboards, all of which have been donated by the community. The command center has been set up to collect information, check out leads, and hold press conferences. Some people even turn it into a temporary home. People also start holding benefits to raise money for a reward fund. Morgan's parents are overwhelmed by the amount of support they've received so far. They don't have to care. It doesn't affect their lives. You know, we have a lot of friends around here who know us and it affects you personally, but these are people who just don't know us at all. You know, I guess we don't get a chance to say I appreciate everybody now, but you know, I think everybody is helping. Like I say, Morgan, you know, it's the Father's Day. I want to see you for the days of. I remember sitting in the car that night and storms had moved in. It was raining, lightning. I mean, it was a bad thunderstorm. I just stayed out there in a car by myself with horrible thoughts going through my head. Almost didn't make it through that knot. Some people during the day, you're more hopeful that you don't turn up any minute. Some periods of the day, it's hard to stay hopeful. It's got to keep staying helpless. It's not going to keep going. The local search goes national and Morgan's story appears on America's most wanted. I'm John Walsh with an urgent missing child alert. If we ever needed your help, we need it now. The attention brings in new leads, but there's one in particular that is the most promising. June 24, nearly 200 miles away in Studegaard, Arkansas, a man files a report claiming he spotted a young girl who fits Morgan's description. Police mounted large search in the wooded area where the sighting happened. Colleen and her family are flown in awaiting her rescue. We would like our faces to be the first one she stayed for when her know how much we love pulling this personal. But the reunion never happens. The man who filed the report is identified as Albert Harvey. He admits he just wanted the attention. Harvey is charged with interfering with government operations and falsifying a police report. But perhaps his worst crime was to break the heart of Morgan's mother. We are looking for you so hard so you can come home. We were stationed in Europe, and Morgan was born there, and the night that we went into labor, the entire four hours that we were there, our nurse only spoke one word of English. The only thing that she could say was push. And you know, I remember Morgan being born in the doctor handed her to me, and that was, that was, when I knew that I would always fight for her. No one ever thought the search would last more than a day, let alone an entire year. What started as a community effort has reached across the country. In her fight to find her daughter, Colleen created the Morgan Nick Foundation. She launched a personal campaign to help prevent more families from going through the same or deal. She also teamed up with other parents of missing children to rally across the country for help, bringing her fight to Washington DC. She was there when the president signed an executive order, mandating pictures of missing children to be placed in all federal buildings. The more people who know about her, including the president, knowing that she is missing, the more we're going to get changed for missing children. And so do you believe your child is alive? Yes, I believe my child is alive, and I will not give up hope until she comes home because I am the only person who can fight hard enough to bring Morgan home on the only person who cares enough, and I will not let her back to when I will find her and she will come home. And believe the Morgan and show the world that we're going to fight for her, we're going to raise her home, and we're going to end this nightmare because she doesn't deserve this. I don't care what fathers are, and I do not care what the statistics are because Morgan will come home. March 2000, five years after Morgan's abduction, police are no closer to finding her. Just a few miles away from the baseball field in Alma, a man returns home with his wife and finds his neighbor's pickup parked in the driveway. When he walks into the house, he finds the neighbor assaulting his daughter. Police arrest 36-year-old Charles Ray Vines. After collecting a DNA sample from Vines, investigators compare it to evidence from other crime scenes in the area, and they get multiple hits. Vines is convicted for the murders of 58-year-old Juanita Wolford, and 74-year-old Ruth Pearl Henderson as well as the attempted murder of James Qual's daughter. All his crimes happened in close proximity to each other, and all within a 20-mile radius from where Morgan was taken. Charles Ray Vines immediately becomes a suspect in her case as well. Before his trial, prosecutors work out a deal with him. If he confesses to all his crimes, they agree not to ask for the death penalty. The case of Juanita Wolford is now over. Charles Vines admitted before a judge he is guilty, police would ask Vines questions about the unsolved cases, including Melissa Witt, Morgan Nick, Laurie Merchantson, Dorado, and Juanita Wolford. Vines tells the truth. He gets to live. And while he confesses to the beating of a 93-year-old woman in Fort Smith, he denies any involvement in the disappearance of Morgan Nick. Investigators would love to think the right side of the case is the suspect. Investigators would love to think the right suspect is finally behind bars, but they have no evidence linking him to the case. And for Cole Nick, it's clear they should keep looking for other suspects. Everybody would like to think that this is over, and that we have, you know, the big bad kidnapper in jail. That means everybody's safe, and there's not a predator roaming our streets. The problem is, it stops the leads. Morgan's not home, even if this is our kidnapper, even if this is our suspect. The leads can't stop because of what it's not home. As the years pass, it becomes harder to keep law enforcement engaged. Colleen is doing everything she can to make sure her daughter's case doesn't go cold. But one thing she succeeds in is ensuring the people of Arkansas keep Morgan in their hearts. Because of her, the leads have never stopped coming in. This is where we store the leads in Morgan's case. An entire room inside the Alma Police Department is dedicated to the 1995 kidnapping of then six-year-old Morgan Nick, thousands and thousands of tips from people across the country. As for Colleen, she has never given up hope that her daughter will come home. She has kept her room ready for the day she sees Morgan again. We know that kids survive, and we have to keep fighting for them and give them the opportunity to come home. Until someone can show me that Morgan didn't survive, I'm absolutely going to fight for her. And I do believe that I will look her in the eye someday, and I will be able to say to my daughter, "I always knew that I would find you." The year is 2019, 24 years after her abduction, Morgan would be 30 years old. Russell White, the Chief of Police who was there at the very start of the investigation, and who rallied to have every law enforcement agency involved, is now retired. But he's made sure his replacement, Chief of Police Jeff Pointer, won't give up on Morgan. from other investigators. That same year, Detective Brett Hartley is assigned as Alma's lead investigator, and he's determined to look into everything that was done on Morgan's case since June the 9th, 1995. "What if someone didn't have something?" "It's our duty to protect, and we have not found her, and we have not brought her home." The first thing Detective Hartley looks at are witness statements from the day of the abduction. He quickly discovers that Morgan Nick and the two kids with her were not the only people that day who had contact with the man driving a red truck, and when you put all the locations of each sighting on a map, it paints a very clear picture. "The first location is a teenage white female. She has a truck drive pastor pull over in front of her and back up to her. The first thing that this individual says to her is, would you like a ride to downtown Alma?" Downtown Alma is where Morgan was abducted from. When the girl refuses, the driver doesn't leave, and she's forced to run away, terrified. Location #2 - Two young children, five and six years old, who were playing on their front lawn, come running inside the house, screaming, and crying. When their mother looks outside, she sees a red pickup truck with a white camper. Location #3 is going to be in downtown Alma. Couple of teenage boys, they're walking from the older baseball field. The boys see a red pickup truck with a white camper after the man stops and yells at them for being in the road. One of those witnesses watches the truck turn on the walnut street. Walnut street leads to the baseball field. Location #4 - Again, two 10 year old boys are yelled at by the same male driver in a red pickup truck for being in the road. "Number five, I would call definitely the parking lot, where the abduction occurred. Everything within that time frame is a very short period of time. It let a track right to downtown, right to the abduction." Location #6 is captured on video by a parent at the game between 5.30 and 7pm. Location #7 - Within a 10 minute period of the abduction, a group of teenagers are parked near the river when they see the same vehicle come in. "One of them went as far as to say that they felt like they observed the adult male driving the truck, potentially holding a child down on the front seat of the truck." The teenagers come forward, and the next day, officers return to the location with them. Unfortunately, there's been a heavy rain in northwest Arkansas, so the teenagers are unable to find the exact spot because of the flooding. "I'm very comfortable that from location #1 all the way to location #7, I'm looking at the same truck. I'm also very confident I'm looking at the same subject. We face the fact that there is a potential that Morgan was washed away with floodwaters." As it turns out, some of the witnesses who had provided information on the red truck had also given license plate numbers. "In August of '95, they ran those tags. Every one of these tags have returned no record." Detective Hartley runs those tags again, this time through the FBI's National Database, and I get some hits. I pull the photograph out and I'm looking at a red truck with a white camper. I think, "Oh my God, I'm looking at the truck." As Detective Hartley tries to contact some of the witnesses from that day, one of them shows up at the station. The man appears irritated because he says he's already shared this information before. "He immediately tells me that I'm the one with the information that you need. It starts talking to me about an individual. The he believes could be responsible for Morgan." August 29, 1995, an 11-year-old girl is with her two brothers at the local sonic when a drunk man driving a red Chevy pickup truck stops in front of them to talk. At first, he offers the boys money trying to get them to leave so he can be alone with the girl. They refuse and start walking away. But the man insists he offers the girl money. "She naturally tells him no. She says she's going to call the police." The man then drives off in a hurry, crashing his car into a telephone pole before flaying the scene. However, one man witnessed everything from the bank across the street. He takes down the license plate and files a report. Police identify the suspect as 71-year-old Billy Jack Lynx. When they show up at his house, they find the red pickup truck with damage to the front. Lynx is immediately put under arrest and sent to the FBI for further questioning in relation to Morgan's case. What's more, one neighbor who was interviewed by investigators reveals another damning piece of the puzzle. "That witness tells the state police investigator up until a couple of months ago that truck had a white camera on it." When Detective Hartley reads into the case files, he finds out Lynx's red pickup truck was surged by state police after his arrest. Documents show investigators found duct tape, a tarp, rope, and a machete inside the truck. They also found hair fibers and blood. But in 1995, DNA technology was still in its infancy, so samples of the blood and hair were kept for future analysis. And Billy Jack Lynx was cleared of all charges in Morgan Nick's case. "What it looks like is that he was given a polygraph exam, apparently passed his polygraph, and that was the end of the lead being ran on him. It was very apparent to us. This person looked very interested in them in Morgan's case as well." Lynx was sent to jail in 1995, two months after Morgan's disappearance, and was sentenced to six years for attempted kidnapping of the 11-year-old girl at the Sonic. He died in jail on August 5, 2000. "Where we are 25 years later is unfortunately not able to put our hands on those items." To Detective Hartley, Lynx is the most obvious suspect, but without any physical evidence, the case cannot be solved. "I have always believed that they're going to solve this case. They're going to find Morgan and that we're going to get justice for her." "You know, the probability says that 2% of missing children like Morgan who are abducted by a stranger who are missing more than 2 years, the probability that they will come home is only 2%. The possibility is that 2% do survive. That means that until someone can prove that Morgan didn't survive, the possibility remains that she survived." Colleen Nick has never stopped looking for her daughter, and every day since, she's been committed to protecting children in her community. In 2019, she helped launch a new program called the Child Abduction Response Team, or CART, for short. "We now have 12 trained CART teams spread around the state, each one attached to state police headquarters." In January 2020, 6-year-old Julian Boyd went missing after his parents were found murdered in their home. "Our local certified Child Abduction Response Team, also known as CART, helped in this search. Just 2 hours later, the boy was found." "When this child went missing and shared with this morning, they could gather their CART team. They could immediately call out all the resources they need." What Colleen has built will go on to save countless children, who, like Morgan, need the public's help to be found. She knows that if all this had existed in 1995, her daughter might still be here with her. "You know, there are days when the grief of this, it takes me to my knees, I'm just telling you, but at the end of that moment or at the end of that day, I know that I have to keep fighting for Morgan. If I'm not fighting for Morgan, honestly, eventually, nobody else will. My job is to make sure that anybody who is involved in her case continues to fight for her with passion, that they fill her in their heart, and that they want to do everything in their power to fight for her. And if I don't do that myself, I can't expect other people to do that." It's the year 2020, when Detective Hartley and his team finally locate Billy Jack Link's truck. After spending years impounded in a tow yard, it was auctioned to a private owner. "When first arriving at the truck and seeing the truck for the first time, I was actually pretty surprised with how decent of condition it was in. You can actually see where a camper show used to be on the bed of the truck." The red pickup truck is not a Ford, but a Chevrolet Scottsdale. The same make, eight-year-old Jessica said she saw, "I felt like it would look more like a Chevy would, like an old Chevy. At the time, I remember thinking because we had a Chevy truck, it reminded me of that." It's also a clear match to the truck from the baseball field video footage. "FBI ERT, while processing, actually removed what is believed to be the original floor cover of this truck, and under that floor cover, they located a blonde hair." The blonde hair is sent to the FBI lab to be compared with a sample of Morgan's hair provided by Colleen. If it matches, then they can say with confidence that Morgan was in Billy Jack Link's truck. After months of waiting on the lab results, Detective Hartley team finally received the report. After a review, we were able to look at the documents and see that the hair that was involved in the trace evidence came back inconclusive. There just wasn't enough information to pull anything from it. This doesn't mean the hair is not Morgan's, but because it was too damaged, they can't prove that it is. And for the next three years, the truth remains hidden until 2023. When Colleen is researching new DNA technologies, she stumbles upon Othrom Labs, a company who has been pushing scientific boundaries. I called Art Detective and said, "Have you ever heard of Othrom Labs?" And he said, "No." So I sent him the article and I said, "Read this." Othrom Labs promotes their use of newly developed methods that has helped solve decades old cases. Then he said, "Yes, let's try it." Detective Hartley agrees to send the blonde hair found in the truck to Othrom Labs. It's a hail Mary, but it's the best chance they've got to solve Morgan's case. On October 1, 2024, nearly a year after the evidence was sent to the lab, the Alma Police Department holds a press conference. Colleen is there with her family. On September 27, 2024, Othrom Laboratory sent a report to Detective Taylor that the hair contained in the evidence was that of Colleen Nick, one of her siblings, or one of her children. The bottom line in this is that the physical evidence collected from the truck strongly indicates that Morgan had been in this truck. The links have helped in abducting Morgan or consiling his crime all these years. And where is Morgan now? I can tell you today that this investigation is not over. After 29 years, Billy Jack Links has finally been identified as the man who kidnapped Morgan. What I have to say about Billy Jack Links is that he's still Morgan from me. He's still her from her dad, and he's still her from Logan, Terran, but he didn't say that he could never win because our love for Morgan, her memory and her voice, at last in his life, and that love gave us the shine. Colleen has dedicated her life to improving child safety across the country, and although she now knows what happened to her daughter, her fight is far from over. We can change that children wouldn't be taken and that communities are educated and that law enforcement knows how to respond and that predators get jail sentences that don't allow them to get out again and commit these kind of crimes. She was told she was too overprotective and that she should let her child go and chase the fireflies. For years, Colleen has held on to that guilt. Just lives in the back of my head and I can't let it rule my life, I won't let it rule my life, I will not let the person who took Morgan still anything else from us. Morgan loved fireflies. That was the thing that made her willing to leave my side that night was to go catch fireflies. Fireflies have become really a symbol of shining light in the darkness. Today she carries a message of hope for other parents. She doesn't want the fear of what happened to Morgan to stop other children from chasing the fireflies.