The suspect is described as approximately 23 to 38 years old in
1995, 6'0 and 180 pounds. Two sketches of Nick's alleged abductor are posted
below this case summary. The unidentified man may have been driving a red Ford pickup
truck with a white camper, which had windows covered with curtains. The vehicle
left the field's parking lot at approximately the same time Nick disappeared. Two attempted abductions occurred area on June 9 and 10. In Alma, a suspect
resembling Nick's abductor enticed a four-year-old girl into his red truck. The
abduction was interrupted, and the girl saved when her mother saw them and
screamed. In Fort Smith, fifteen miles from Alma, a suspect tried to entice a
nine-year-old girl into the men's restroom at a convenience store. He stopped
when the girl resisted. Authorities announced that the incidents involved the
same man. While the individual involved in these incidents has not been
confirmed to be the same man sought in Nick's case, he resembled the Nick
suspect and so did his truck, and authorities believe the events are linked.
- Missing Since: June 9, 1995 from Alma, Arkansas
- Classification: Non-Family Abduction
- Date of Birth: September 12, 1988
- Age: 6 years old
- Height and Weight: 4'0, 55 pounds
- Distinguishing Characteristics: Blonde hair, blue eyes. Nick had five visible silver caps on her molars at the time of her 1995 disappearance; the caps were scheduled to be removed in 2000. Her teeth were crowded at the time of her 1995 disappearance, and she will need orthodontic braces in adolescence. Nick has a protruding purple vein on the lower left side of her rib cage.
- Clothing Description: A green Girl Scouts t-shirt, blue denim shorts and white leather tennis shoes.
At 10:45 p.m. on June 9, 1995
in Alma, Arkansas, 6-year-old Morgan Nick was abducted from a little league
ball game by an unidentified man. She was attending the game with her mother
and had joined some friends to catch lightning bugs. Morgan was last seen
standing near her mother's car where she had stopped to empty sand from her
shoes. Witnesses observed a man watching the youngster as she was playing with
other children at the park. The witness also saw a red Ford pickup with a white
camper parked nearby that disappeared at about the same time as Morgan. The
camper is possibly damaged at the right rear and was described as four or five
inches too short for the truck, which has a short wheelbase and paint dulled by
age. The truck is believed to have Arkansas license plates. The man was
described as white, 6 feet tall, with a medium to solid build, a mustache and a
1-inch beard. At the time, he was believed to be 23-38 years old. Click here to
see a composite sketch. At the time of her disappearance, Morgan was
approximately 4 feet tall, about 55 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Morgan had 5 visible silver caps on her molars. She was last seen wearing a
green Girl Scout t-shirt, blue denim shorts and white tennis shoes. A massive
investigation has turned up thousands of leads, but still no solid clues to the
whereabouts of Morgan Nick or her abductor. The FBI and local communities have
offered a $60,000 reward for the recovery of Morgan Chauntel Nick and the
identification, arrest and conviction of subject or subjects responsible for
her abduction. The search continues to move forward. There have been numerous
possible sightings of Morgan across the United States. Morgan's parents believe
that Morgan is still alive and hope that with continued media coverage, someone
will be able to provide them with information that could bring their daughter
home.
As a young kid with a wild
imagination, Morgan's aspirations ranged from being a medical doctor to a
circus performer. In school, she had signed up for the track team but quickly
regretted that decision because she didn't enjoy sweating. In turn, she decided
to start participating in Girls Scouts where they often did indoor activities. Even
at such a young age, Morgan possessed character traits that would undoubtedly
lead to a successful future, no matter which avenue she pursued. Not only did
she have the uncanny ability to make others laugh, she also never limited
herself to experiencing new things. When she was five years old, she adopted a
kitten she named Emily, and a motherly bond was immediately formed. From then
on, the two were thick as thieves and Emily would always be found sleeping
next to her at night. The potential Morgan had was very bright. She enjoyed
being around others and people loved being around her, but on a summer day in
1995, everything that should have been for Morgan's future was snuffed out, and
the young girl with a heartwarming smile that could make anyone laugh suddenly
had an entire community in shambles.
On the warm summer day of
Friday, June 9, 1995, Colleen Nick wanted to share an afternoon with her oldest
daughter, Morgan, because they hadn't had a day for themselves in a long while.
They planned to visit Alma, Arkansas -- a quaint town thirty minutes west where
everyone knew each other -- to attend a Little League Baseball game with some
friends living in the area while Morgan's grandmother happily babysits her
grandchildren. Later that afternoon, Colleen and Morgan dined on grilled cheese
sandwiches they made together before leaving town in their Nissan Stanza a
little early, as this was their first-time visiting Alma. They arrived at the
local park where the baseball game was being held without a hitch and met up
with their friends. By the time the game had started, there was a total of 300
people in attendance.
Throughout the entire evening,
everyone was having a wonderful time -- people could be heard roaring with
cheers and laughter on the bleachers, and Morgan would sneakily untie her
mother's tennis shoes when she wasn't looking for a funny joke. As time carried
on, Morgan became restless. At 10:30 p.m. two of Morgan's friends, 8-year-old
Jessica and 10-year-old Tye [last names are omitted] invited her to play in the
nearby field 75-yards away to catch lightning bugs. Morgan asked her mother for
permission, but Colleen was hesitant due to the late hour and being unfamiliar
with the area, but her friends assured her everything would be okay because
kids often played in the field next to the parking lot without any hiccups. Colleen
ultimately gave her consent but told her to stay in view. Morgan was hard to
miss, as her green Girl Scouts t-shirt and white tennis shoes could easily be
seen from a distance. Colleen would periodically glance over to check on Morgan
and nothing seemed amiss as she and her two friends pranced across the field,
where the parking lot light poles loomed over illuminating the area. Fifteen
minutes had quickly passed by and at 10:45 p.m. the baseball game concluded,
and people were beginning to gather their belongings and walk to their
vehicles. Morgan's two friends, Jessica and Tye, ran back to the bleachers to
meet up with their families but Morgan wasn't present. Colleen, confused by the
situation, asked where Morgan was, but they said she was in the parking lot
near her car emptying out sand that filled her shoes from running amok in the
field. She frantically ran to her car expecting her daughter to be there, but
she wasn't in sight. Growing more concerned by the second, she alerted one of
the baseball coaches and they began asking Jessica and Tye more questions, and
alarming new information came to light.
The two said that while they
had been playing, a man they characterized as "creepy" approached and
spoke to them as they were dumping sand from their shoes. He had been standing
beside a faded red colored Ford pickup truck that had a white camper shell. Not
too long after, the baseball game had ended and that's when they ran back to
their parents. An immediate search began but Morgan and the eerie man next to
the red truck was gone. The police were called to the scene and they arrived
within six minutes. They performed an additional search thoroughly of the
parking lot and fields, but the 4-foot-tall, 55-pound girl with blonde hair and
blue eyes was nowhere to be found. Interviews were soon conducted with those
still at the park. Several eyewitnesses corroborated the children's testimony
and provided additional details on the suspicious male. He was described as a
Caucasian male between the ages of 23-38-years-old and spoke with a
"hillbilly" accent. He had a medium build at approximately 180 pounds
and was estimated to be 6'0 tall, and he had salt and pepper colored hair that
was slicked back, with a mustache and a one-inch-thick beard. The truck he was
driving was a low wheelbase, red Ford pickup with dulled paint and a white
camper shell that had curtains on the inside covering the windows. Witnesses
noted the camper shell was too short for the bed and there was rear damage on
the passenger side. The unidentified male was the prime suspect in Morgan's
disappearance and was immediately classified as an abduction. It was soon
discovered that her vanishing wasn't the only terrifying event that transpired
that day. Earlier that evening in the same town, an unknown male driving a
red truck attempted to lure a 4-year-old girl to his vehicle. The abduction was
thwarted when the child's mother intervened and alerted those around her. It's
unclear whether the same man presumably responsible for Morgan's disappearance
was behind this attempted abduction, but the coincidences were notable. Interestingly,
the following day after Morgan vanished, another report came through to the
police when an unnamed man matching Morgan's alleged abductor's description
unsuccessfully tried enticing a 9-year-old girl into a men's restroom inside of
a convenience store fifteen miles away from Alma in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
When Colleen returned home,
she had to break the devastating news to her children. None of them couldn't
fully comprehend the extent of the situation. Logan, the oldest sibling, only
knew that Morgan wasn't home and would frequently ask, "Why did you lose my
sister?" as he broke down into tears repeatedly telling his mother to
"Go get her," because he missed playing with her around the house.
One year later in 1996,
Colleen commenced the Morgan Nick Foundation in Alma, Arkansas; a non-profit
organization that tries to help prevent children from going missing and offers
a support system to families who are facing the hardships of a child
disappearing. Likewise, the state of Arkansas honored Morgan by renaming their
Amber Alert system after her -- The Morgan Nick Amber Alert -- that connected
the police and over 250 radio stations in a statewide emergency broadcast. In
the subsequent years, Colleen relocated to Alma to make things easier for
handling the Morgan Nick Foundation. Meanwhile, the police were still acquiring
innumerable tips stemming from reported sightings and false confessions to the
abduction, but all of them were ruled out or considered unreliable. In 2001,
Morgan's case garnished a lot of traction.
A new composite sketch was
unveiled of her believed kidnapper, as well as an age-progression sketch
showing what Morgan may look like at her current age of twelve-years-old. On
August 28, 2001, the television program Unsolved Mysteries broadcasted her case
which created a massive resurgence that resulted in an ample number of new
tips. One tip suggested that Morgan's body could be located on a private
property in Booneville, Arkansas. The information was deemed so specific and
credible that the police initiated an immediate examination on January 15,
2002. After a full day of digging with a backhoe, nothing was unearthed, and
the investigation was concluded at 9:30 p.m. In the following years, the police
were still receiving regular tips, but they were either dead ends or exhausted
to their fullest without any positive results, but on the bitterly cold morning
of November 16, 2010, a narcotics officer thirty-five miles away in Spiro,
Oklahoma, alerted investigators in Crawford County to an abandoned trailer home
belonging to a convicted child molester who was serving time in prison. The
information supplied wasn't directly focused on Morgan's case specifically, but
the individual had been considered a viable person of interest since the very
beginning of Morgan's case and hadn't been ruled out. Detectives in Crawford
County assisted with the investigation at the property hoping to locate any DNA
evidence pertaining to Morgan, but none was uncovered. Two years later on June
23, 2012 -- a little more than 17-years after Morgan disappeared -- a brief
glimmer of hope emerged and then diminished just as quickly in a despicable
turn of events.
As the ball game ended around
10:45 p.m., Colleen was momentarily distracted by the cheers from players and
spectators. She then turned her attention back to Morgan but saw only the other
two children, and the first wave of panic washed over her. She asked them where
her daughter was, and they said the last time they saw her, she was pouring
sand out of her shoes by Colleen’s car. Not finding her there, they went back
up the sandy knoll, but Morgan was gone, and so was the man with the truck. After
searching in vain, someone called the Alma Police Department, and officers
arrived within a few minutes. In a matter of hours, the FBI, Arkansas State
Police and United States Marshals joined the search. Morgan’s playmates told
investigators about the man with the red truck and described him as being
white, approximately six feet tall and 180 pounds. He had black or
salt-and-pepper hair, facial stubble, and a mustache. Guesses about his age
ranged from 23 to 38 years old. A police artist drew a sketch of the man that
was sent to news outlets and law enforcement officials. In the days, weeks and
months after the abduction, authorities held press conferences with updates on
the case, and they set up a tip line for people to call, day or night. Morgan’s
picture was everywhere, on fliers, billboards, newspapers and TV. But where was
she?
It has now been over two
decades since Colleen Nick saw her precious blonde, blue-eyed daughter, but
with a mother’s devotion and resolve, she has kept Morgan’s case in the public
eye. At least 80 internet websites tell Morgan’s story, and many of them
feature her likeness, both in photos of her as she looked in 1995 and age-progressed
drawings of her as she would look now. APD Lieutenant Brett Hartley says, “The
case is still a very active case. We have followed leads all over the country
numerous times through the years.” Because the investigation is
still ongoing, Hartley couldn’t discuss anything of an evidentiary nature.
Faulkner County Sheriff’s
investigator Kent Hill, however, did confirm a name which has come up recently
regarding Morgan’s abduction – Edward Keith Renegar. As reported in the March
issue of AY, Faulkner County Sheriff Tim Ryals announced in October
2018 that Renegar is the primary suspect in the 1990 murder of Pamela Felkins.
Hill declined to comment further, other than to say Renegar had no record of
child molestation. Renegar, who died in 2002, might be considered in the Nick
case for three reasons. 1.) During Sheriff Ryals’s press conference, he said
among the vehicles Renegar had owned was a 1984 red Mazda truck with a white
camper shell. 2.) After serving a 10-month sentence for kidnapping, Renegar was
released from prison in May 1995, the month before Morgan disappeared. 3.) He
went to the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa, Okla., so
he could have been in the vicinity of Alma when the abduction took place. But
Hartley said, “One thing we run into is a lot of misinformation, and that makes
it tough.” He used the truck as an example. Though they received information it
was a red pickup with a white camper shell, Hartley said he wasn’t “tied to”
that witness report.
“You could go out and take 20
people,” he said, “and let them see the same thing, and you’re going to get 20
different descriptions of what they just saw.” Colleen Nick, who still has
trouble sleeping, is also the mother of a son and another daughter. “I’m not
sure there are words for how devastating it has been for our family,” she says.
“Everybody has worked really hard to find the good in the world, and if we
don’t fight back, and we don’t survive, then the person who took Morgan wins,
and we’re absolutely determined not to let that happen.” In the early stages of her
greatest grief, Colleen could never have imagined the impact her daughter’s
kidnapping would have on her own life trajectory. The National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) asked her to speak to other families who
had missing children and were going through the same trauma Colleen endured. The
NCMEC helped digitize the many files of data about the case and put them in the
national system so that other law enforcement agencies could access the information.
On September 12, 1988, John and Colleen Nick gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby daughter they named Morgan Chauntel Nick. She was raised in the small populated town of Ozark, Arkansas, a community of fewer than 4,000 residents. By 1994, Morgan became the oldest of two other siblings, Logan Nick, who was almost four-years-old, and a younger sister, Taryn Nick, who was a vibrant 22-month-old baby. As a young kid with a wild imagination, Morgan’s aspirations ranged from being a medical doctor to a circus performer. In school, she had signed up for the track team but quickly regretted that decision because she didn’t enjoy sweating. In turn, she decided to start participating in Girls Scouts where they often did indoor activities. Even at such a young age, Morgan possessed character traits that would undoubtedly lead to a successful future, no matter which avenue she pursued. Not only did she have the uncanny ability to make others laugh, she also never limited herself to experiencing new things. When she was five-years-old, she adopted a kitten she named Emily, and a motherly bond was immediately formed. From then on, the two were thick as thieves and Emily would always be found sleeping next to her at night. 
The potential Morgan had was very bright. She enjoyed being around others and people loved being around her, but on a summer day in 1995, everything that should have been for Morgan’s future was snuffed out, and the young girl with a heartwarming smile that could make anyone laugh suddenly had an entire community in shambles. On the warm summer day of Friday, June 9, 1995, Colleen Nick wanted to share an afternoon with her oldest daughter, Morgan, because they hadn’t had a day for themselves in a long while. They planned to visit Alma, Arkansas — a quaint town thirty minutes west where everyone knew each other — to attend a Little League Baseball game with some friends living in the area while Morgan’s grandmother happily babysits her grandchildren.
Later that afternoon, Colleen and Morgan dined on grilled cheese sandwiches they made together before leaving town in their Nissan Stanza a little early, as this was their first time visiting Alma. They arrived at the local park where the baseball game was being held without a hitch and met up with their friends. By the time the game had started, there was a total of 300 people in attendance.
Throughout the entire evening, everyone was having a wonderful time — people could be heard roaring with cheers and laughter on the bleachers, and Morgan would sneakily untie her mother’s tennis shoes when she wasn’t looking for a funny joke. As time carried on, Morgan became restless. At 10:30 p.m. two of Morgan’s friends, 8-year-old Jessica and 10-year-old Tye [last names are omitted] invited her to play in the nearby field 75-yards away to catch lightning bugs. Morgan asked her mother for permission but Colleen was hesitant due to the late hour and being unfamiliar with the area, but her friends assured her everything would be okay because kids often played in the field next to the parking lot without any hiccups. Colleen ultimately gave her consent but told her to stay in view. Morgan was hard to miss, as her green Girl Scouts t-shirt and white tennis shoes could easily be seen from a distance. Colleen would periodically glance over to check on Morgan and nothing seemed amiss as she and her two friends pranced across the field, where the parking lot light poles loomed over illuminating the area.
Fifteen minutes had quickly passed by and at 10:45 p.m. the baseball game concluded and people were beginning to gather their belongings and walk to their vehicles. Morgan’s two friends, Jessica and Tye, ran back to the bleachers to meet up with their families but Morgan wasn’t present.
Colleen, confused by the situation, asked where Morgan was, but they said she was in the parking lot near her car emptying out sand that filled her shoes from running amok in the field. She frantically ran to her car expecting her daughter to be there, but she wasn’t in sight. Growing more concerned by the second, she alerted one of the baseball coaches and they began asking Jessica and Tye more questions, and alarming new information came to light. The two said that while they had been playing, a man they characterized as “creepy” approached and spoke to them as they were dumping sand from their shoes. He had been standing beside a faded red colored Ford pickup truck that had a white camper shell. Not too long after, the baseball game had ended and that’s when they ran back to their parents. An immediate search began but Morgan and the eerie man next to the red truck was gone.
The police were called to the scene and they arrived within six minutes. They performed an additional search thoroughly of the parking lot and fields, but the 4-foot-tall, 55-pound girl with blonde hair and blue eyes was nowhere to be found. Interviews were soon conducted with those still at the park. Several eyewitnesses corroborated the children’s testimony and provided additional details on the suspicious male. He was described as a Caucasian male between the ages of 23-38-years-old and spoke with a “hillbilly” accent. He had a medium build at approximately 180 pounds and was estimated to be 6’0 tall, and he had salt and pepper colored hair that was slicked back, with a mustache and a one-inch thick beard. The truck he was driving was a low wheelbase, red Ford pickup with dulled paint and a white camper shell that had curtains on the inside covering the windows. Witnesses noted the camper shell was too short for the bed and there was rear damage on the passenger side.
The unidentified male was the prime suspect in Morgan’s disappearance and was immediately classified as an abduction. It was soon discovered that her vanishing wasn’t the only terrifying event that transpired that day. Earlier that evening in the same town, an unknown male driving a red truck attempted to lure a 4-year-old girl to his vehicle. The abduction was thwarted when the child’s mother intervened and alerted those around her. It’s unclear whether or not the same man
presumably responsible for Morgan’s disappearance was behind this attempted abduction, but the coincidences were notable. Interestingly, the following day after Morgan vanished, another report came through to the police when an unnamed man matching Morgan’s alleged abductor’s description unsuccessfully tried enticing a 9-year-old girl into a men’s restroom inside of a convenience store fifteen miles away from Alma in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
During this interval of time, a composite sketch was created of Morgan’s possible kidnapper and media coverage quickly swept the state. This resulted in over 4,000 tips and leads, and the police had to purchase a storage shed to file the uncanny amount of information in extra filing cabinets, but none of the leads panned out. When Colleen returned home she had to break the devastating news to her children. None of them couldn’t fully comprehend the extent of the situation. Logan, the oldest sibling, only knew that Morgan wasn’t home and would frequently ask, “Why did you lose my sister?” as he broke down into tears repeatedly telling his mother to “Go get her,” because he missed playing with her around the house. One year later in 1996, Colleen commenced the Morgan Nick Foundation in Alma, Arkansas; a non-profit organization that tries to help prevent children from going missing and offers a support system to families who are facing the hardships of a child disappearing. Likewise, the state of Arkansas honored Morgan by renaming their Amber Alert system after her — The Morgan Nick Amber Alert — that connected the police and over 250 radio stations in a statewide emergency broadcast. In the subsequent years, Colleen relocated to Alma to make things easier for handling the Morgan Nick Foundation. Meanwhile, the police were still acquiring innumerable tips stemming from reported sightings and false confessions to the abduction, but all of them were ruled out or considered unreliable.
In 2001, Morgan’s case garnished a lot of traction. A new composite sketch was unveiled of her believed kidnapper, as well as an age-progression sketch showing what Morgan may look like at her current age of twelve-years-old. On August 28, 2001, the television program Unsolved Mysteries broadcasted her case which created a massive resurgence that resulted in an ample amount of new tips. One particular tip suggested that Morgan’s body could be located on a private property in Booneville, Arkansas. The information was deemed so specific and credible that the police initiated an immediate examination on January 15, 2002. After a full day of digging with a backhoe, nothing was unearthed and the investigation was concluded at 9:30 p.m.
In the following years, the police were still receiving regular tips but they were either dead ends or exhausted to their fullest without any positive results, but on the bitterly cold morning of November 16, 2010, a narcotics officer thirty-five miles away in Spiro, Oklahoma, alerted investigators in Crawford County to an abandoned trailer home belonging to a convicted child molester who was serving time in prison. The information supplied wasn’t directly focused on Morgan’s case specifically, but the individual had been considered a viable person of interest since the very beginning of Morgan’s case and hadn’t been ruled out. Detectives in Crawford County assisted with the investigation at the property hoping to locate any DNA evidence pertaining to Morgan but none was uncovered.
Two years later on June 23, 2012 — a little more than 17-years after Morgan disappeared — a brief glimmer of hope emerged and then diminished just as quickly in a despicable turn of events. Tonya Renee Smith, a 24-year-old Hollister, Missouri native who had served time in Louisiana State Prison, tried assuming Morgan Nick’s identity by purchasing vital documents and a birth certificate via the website VitalCheck. Due to the extreme nature of Morgan’s case the police were alerted and on August 2, 2012, Tonya was apprehended in Branson, Missouri. She was soon extradited to Arkansas and spent 120 days in Pulaski County Jail. On February 28, 2013, she was charged with computer fraud and sentenced to six years of probation and ordered to pay a $2,500.00 fine. Once again, Morgan’s case turned into a standstill, but five years later on December 18, 2017, another seemingly crucial tip regarding a water-well led investigators back to the abandoned trailer home in Spiro, Oklahoma they had searched seven years prior. The LeFlore County Sheriff, Rob Seale, along with the FBI and numerous Cadaver dogs, spent the entire afternoon combing for evidence, but regrettably, their efforts proved fruitless.
It’s now 2018 and Morgan Nick has been missing for nearly 22-years. For the town of Alma, Arkansas, many things have changed since the unfateful day of Morgan’s disappearance, including the baseball field she vanished from, which has since been remodeled into a parking lot, but her spirit still lives on in the community.
You hear it all the time;
"Back then, people didn't lock their doors at night." That phrase often
gets mentioned when devastating crimes occur in unexpected places that are
deemed safe by the community. When those tragedies happen everything changes,
but sometimes positives can blossom through the aftermath of the rubble. In the
unsolved disappearance of Morgan Nick, her story has remained a beacon of hope
that transcended across the nation. This is her story. On September 12, 1988,
John and Colleen Nick gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby daughter they
named Morgan Chauntel Nick. She was raised in the small, populated town of
Ozark, Arkansas, a community of fewer than 4,000 residents. By 1994, Morgan
became the oldest of two other siblings, Logan Nick, who was almost four years
old, and a younger sister, Taryn Nick, who was a vibrant 22-month-old baby.
The two said that while they
had been playing, a man they characterized as "creepy" approached and
spoke to them as they were dumping sand from their shoes. He had been standing
beside a faded red colored Ford pickup truck that had a white camper shell. Not
too long after, the baseball game had ended and that's when they ran back to
their parents. An immediate search began but Morgan and the eerie man next to
the red truck was gone. The police were called to the scene and they arrived
within six minutes. They performed an additional search thoroughly of the
parking lot and fields, but the 4-foot-tall, 55-pound girl with blonde hair and
blue eyes was nowhere to be found. Interviews were soon conducted with those
still at the park. Several eyewitnesses corroborated the children's testimony
and provided additional details on the suspicious male. He was described as a
Caucasian male between the ages of 23-38-years-old and spoke with a
"hillbilly" accent. He had a medium build at approximately 180 pounds
and was estimated to be 6'0 tall, and he had salt and pepper colored hair that
was slicked back, with a mustache and a one-inch-thick beard. The truck he was
driving was a low wheelbase, red Ford pickup with dulled paint and a white
camper shell that had curtains on the inside covering the windows. Witnesses
noted the camper shell was too short for the bed and there was rear damage on
the passenger side. The unidentified male was the prime suspect in Morgan's
disappearance and was immediately classified as an abduction. It was soon
discovered that her vanishing wasn't the only terrifying event that transpired
that day. Earlier that evening in the same town, an unknown male driving a
red truck attempted to lure a 4-year-old girl to his vehicle. The abduction was
thwarted when the child's mother intervened and alerted those around her. It's
unclear whether the same man presumably responsible for Morgan's disappearance
was behind this attempted abduction, but the coincidences were notable. Interestingly,
the following day after Morgan vanished, another report came through to the
police when an unnamed man matching Morgan's alleged abductor's description
unsuccessfully tried enticing a 9-year-old girl into a men's restroom inside of
a convenience store fifteen miles away from Alma in Fort Smith, Arkansas.As for Colleen, she refused to return home to Ozark, Arkansas without her daughter in hand. For the next six weeks, she remained steadfast and took up residence at a volunteer fire station located next door to the police building -- doing anything she could fathom to help spread awareness to bring Morgan home. Flyers were made and distributed to locals, placed on the windows of stationary vehicles, and stapled across light poles all throughout the town. Colleen even faxed over urgent letters to President Clinton hoping to get the federal government to react quicker with nationwide bulletins when children go missing. During this interval of time, a composite sketch was created of Morgan's possible kidnapper and media coverage quickly swept the state. This resulted in over 4,000 tips and leads, and the police had to purchase a storage shed to file the uncanny amount of information in extra filing cabinets, but none of the leads panned out.
considerable amount of time has gone by, she continues to fight and pursue closure. While others may not share the same sentiment, Colleen does, and her relentless faith is a testament for anyone struggling with something in their life. Never give up hope.
An old superstition says if you make a wish when you see the first lightning bug of the year, the wish will come true. But for Colleen Nick, lightning bugs remind her of the night her six-year-old daughter, Morgan, went missing.
On June 9, 1995, Colleen and Morgan traveled roughly 30 minutes from their home in Ozark to Alma, because they knew a family who had children playing in a Little League game at Alma’s ballpark. It sounded like a nice outing for mother and daughter, but after a while, watching baseball games can get boring for an active little girl. Morgan asked her mom for permission to catch fireflies with two of her friends, and Colleen consented after a slight hesitation. From where she sat in the bleachers, she could see the three kids in a well-lighted area no more than 75 yards away. It was a sandpile atop a small hill where it looked as if preparations had been made for some sort of construction. The children noticed a man leaning against a red truck that had a white camper shell on it, but he was outside Colleen’s line of vision.
As the ball game ended around
10:45 p.m., Colleen was momentarily distracted by the cheers from players and
spectators. She then turned her attention back to Morgan but saw only the other
two children, and the first wave of panic washed over her. She asked them where
her daughter was, and they said the last time they saw her, she was pouring
sand out of her shoes by Colleen’s car. Not finding her there, they went back
up the sandy knoll, but Morgan was gone, and so was the man with the truck. After
searching in vain, someone called the Alma Police Department, and officers
arrived within a few minutes. In a matter of hours, the FBI, Arkansas State
Police and United States Marshals joined the search. Morgan’s playmates told
investigators about the man with the red truck and described him as being
white, approximately six feet tall and 180 pounds. He had black or
salt-and-pepper hair, facial stubble, and a mustache. Guesses about his age
ranged from 23 to 38 years old. A police artist drew a sketch of the man that
was sent to news outlets and law enforcement officials. In the days, weeks and
months after the abduction, authorities held press conferences with updates on
the case, and they set up a tip line for people to call, day or night. Morgan’s
picture was everywhere, on fliers, billboards, newspapers and TV. But where was
she?“We just got this massive education about what the problem of missing children was like,” Colleen says, and over time, she became an advocate for them and their loved ones. After receiving more and more invitations to speak at schools and churches about the issue, she formed the Morgan Nick Foundation, which is headquartered in Alma. “It just evolved,” she says. “I never wanted to run a nonprofit or take up the fight. I just wanted to find Morgan. Our choice is to do everything we can to bring good out of this tragedy.” The hope that they will find Morgan ultimately is a big part of how Colleen has kept going. “We still don’t know where she is or what happened to her, and we absolutely intend to know that. Our message to Morgan if she ever hears or sees or reads anything [about her own case] is that we are coming for you, and we are coming with an army of people who have been fighting for you.” The Morgan Nick Foundation offers support to families of the missing and acts as a liaison with police and the media. Members strive to educate teachers, students, and communities about safety skills and preventive measures they can take to ward-off possible kidnappers. The Foundation encourages legislation that protects the rights of children and enhances law enforcement’s ability to find the missing and bring them home.
The Unsolved Disappearance of Morgan Nick
You hear it all the time; “Back then, people didn’t lock their doors at night.” That phrase often gets mentioned when devastating crimes occur in unexpected places that are deemed safe by the community. When those tragedies happen everything changes, but sometimes positives can blossom through the aftermath of the rubble. In the unsolved disappearance of Morgan Nick, her story has remained a beacon of hope that transcended across the nation. This is her story.
The potential Morgan had was very bright. She enjoyed being around others and people loved being around her, but on a summer day in 1995, everything that should have been for Morgan’s future was snuffed out, and the young girl with a heartwarming smile that could make anyone laugh suddenly had an entire community in shambles. On the warm summer day of Friday, June 9, 1995, Colleen Nick wanted to share an afternoon with her oldest daughter, Morgan, because they hadn’t had a day for themselves in a long while. They planned to visit Alma, Arkansas — a quaint town thirty minutes west where everyone knew each other — to attend a Little League Baseball game with some friends living in the area while Morgan’s grandmother happily babysits her grandchildren.
Fifteen minutes had quickly passed by and at 10:45 p.m. the baseball game concluded and people were beginning to gather their belongings and walk to their vehicles. Morgan’s two friends, Jessica and Tye, ran back to the bleachers to meet up with their families but Morgan wasn’t present.
presumably responsible for Morgan’s disappearance was behind this attempted abduction, but the coincidences were notable. Interestingly, the following day after Morgan vanished, another report came through to the police when an unnamed man matching Morgan’s alleged abductor’s description unsuccessfully tried enticing a 9-year-old girl into a men’s restroom inside of a convenience store fifteen miles away from Alma in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
As for Colleen, she refused to return back home to Ozark, Arkansas without her daughter in hand. For the next six weeks, she remained steadfast and took up residence at a volunteer fire station located next door to the police building — doing anything she could fathom to help spread awareness to bring Morgan home. Flyers were made and distributed to locals, placed on the windows of stationary vehicles, and stapled across light poles all throughout the town. Colleen even faxed over urgent letters to President Clinton hoping to get the federal government to react quicker with nationwide bulletins when children go missing.
During this interval of time, a composite sketch was created of Morgan’s possible kidnapper and media coverage quickly swept the state. This resulted in over 4,000 tips and leads, and the police had to purchase a storage shed to file the uncanny amount of information in extra filing cabinets, but none of the leads panned out. When Colleen returned home she had to break the devastating news to her children. None of them couldn’t fully comprehend the extent of the situation. Logan, the oldest sibling, only knew that Morgan wasn’t home and would frequently ask, “Why did you lose my sister?” as he broke down into tears repeatedly telling his mother to “Go get her,” because he missed playing with her around the house. One year later in 1996, Colleen commenced the Morgan Nick Foundation in Alma, Arkansas; a non-profit organization that tries to help prevent children from going missing and offers a support system to families who are facing the hardships of a child disappearing. Likewise, the state of Arkansas honored Morgan by renaming their Amber Alert system after her — The Morgan Nick Amber Alert — that connected the police and over 250 radio stations in a statewide emergency broadcast. In the subsequent years, Colleen relocated to Alma to make things easier for handling the Morgan Nick Foundation. Meanwhile, the police were still acquiring innumerable tips stemming from reported sightings and false confessions to the abduction, but all of them were ruled out or considered unreliable.
In 2001, Morgan’s case garnished a lot of traction. A new composite sketch was unveiled of her believed kidnapper, as well as an age-progression sketch showing what Morgan may look like at her current age of twelve-years-old. On August 28, 2001, the television program Unsolved Mysteries broadcasted her case which created a massive resurgence that resulted in an ample amount of new tips. One particular tip suggested that Morgan’s body could be located on a private property in Booneville, Arkansas. The information was deemed so specific and credible that the police initiated an immediate examination on January 15, 2002. After a full day of digging with a backhoe, nothing was unearthed and the investigation was concluded at 9:30 p.m.
In the following years, the police were still receiving regular tips but they were either dead ends or exhausted to their fullest without any positive results, but on the bitterly cold morning of November 16, 2010, a narcotics officer thirty-five miles away in Spiro, Oklahoma, alerted investigators in Crawford County to an abandoned trailer home belonging to a convicted child molester who was serving time in prison. The information supplied wasn’t directly focused on Morgan’s case specifically, but the individual had been considered a viable person of interest since the very beginning of Morgan’s case and hadn’t been ruled out. Detectives in Crawford County assisted with the investigation at the property hoping to locate any DNA evidence pertaining to Morgan but none was uncovered.
Two years later on June 23, 2012 — a little more than 17-years after Morgan disappeared — a brief glimmer of hope emerged and then diminished just as quickly in a despicable turn of events. Tonya Renee Smith, a 24-year-old Hollister, Missouri native who had served time in Louisiana State Prison, tried assuming Morgan Nick’s identity by purchasing vital documents and a birth certificate via the website VitalCheck. Due to the extreme nature of Morgan’s case the police were alerted and on August 2, 2012, Tonya was apprehended in Branson, Missouri. She was soon extradited to Arkansas and spent 120 days in Pulaski County Jail. On February 28, 2013, she was charged with computer fraud and sentenced to six years of probation and ordered to pay a $2,500.00 fine. Once again, Morgan’s case turned into a standstill, but five years later on December 18, 2017, another seemingly crucial tip regarding a water-well led investigators back to the abandoned trailer home in Spiro, Oklahoma they had searched seven years prior. The LeFlore County Sheriff, Rob Seale, along with the FBI and numerous Cadaver dogs, spent the entire afternoon combing for evidence, but regrettably, their efforts proved fruitless.
It’s now 2018 and Morgan Nick has been missing for nearly 22-years. For the town of Alma, Arkansas, many things have changed since the unfateful day of Morgan’s disappearance, including the baseball field she vanished from, which has since been remodeled into a parking lot, but her spirit still lives on in the community.
At the public library, a bulletin board can be found that features flyers for missing children. There’s also a 5K/1 Mile Walk fundraiser hosted annually that helps provide extra resources for The Morgan Nick Foundation to further help prevent children going missing — an organization that has successfully solved over 40 missing person’s cases –many of whom had gone missing for over twenty years — and returned home safely. As for Colleen Nick, she remains undaunted that her daughter will be found alive, saying “No one else has to believe it because I believe it enough for everyone. I think there will be people who will be amazed when Morgan comes home.” Though a considerable amount of time has gone by, she continues to fight and pursue closure. While others may not share the same sentiment, Colleen does, and her relentless faith is a testament for anyone struggling with something in their life. Never give up hope.
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