(CNN) — Nearly 30 years after a six-year-old girl disappeared in Western Arkansas, authorities have identified a suspect in her abduction through DNA evidence.
Morgan Nick was abducted from the parking lot of a Little League ballfield in the rural town of Alma on the evening of June 9, 1995, according to the Alma Police Department.
Local police received a suspect description, along with details of a red truck with a white camper shell that the suspect allegedly drove, according to a release from the Alma Police Department.
Authorities identified an initial person of interest in 1995 as Billy Jack Lincks, who drove a red truck. Lincks was arrested a few months later for the sexual solicitation of a child, authorities said.
Police questioned Lincks about Nick’s disappearance but released him after he “denied any knowledge of Morgan’s abduction and appeared to be truthful,” according to the release.
Alma Police detectives, along with other law enforcement officials, spent “thousands of hours investigating more than 10,000 leads” without reaching significant conclusions on the case, officials said.
It wasn’t until 2019 that Alma Police detectives began a review of the early stages of the investigation.
Authorities were able to locate the red truck owned by Lincks at the time of Nick’s disappearance, which had been sold several times over the years, the release says.
The current owner of the vehicle allowed detectives to conduct an in-depth examination of the truck, and the results of forensic tests indicated that hair evidence submitted for analysis belonged to Morgan Nick’s mother, Colleen Nick, or one of Colleen’s siblings or children, police said.
“Physical evidence collected from the truck that Lincks owned when Morgan was abducted strongly indicates that Morgan had been in his truck,” the release says.
Lincks died in 2000, and Nick remains missing, authorities say.
“An army of supporters, advocates, and heroes have rallied to uncover the truth about her disappearance,” Colleen Nick said in the release.
“He stole Morgan from me, her dad, Logan, and Taryn. He didn’t see that he could never win,” she continued. “Because our love for Morgan – her memory, her voice – outlasted his life.”
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