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MORGAN NICK, 6, VANISHES FROM LITTLE LEAGUE GAME, NEVER SEEN AGAIN · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful little six year
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Speaker 1: old girl vanishes from a little league game, never seen again.
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Speaker 1: I'm messy, Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: being with us.
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Speaker 2: A six year old girl catching lightning bugs with friends
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Speaker 2: goes missing from a baseball game just yards away from
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Speaker 2: her mother.
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Speaker 3: Morgan Nick, six is a loving big sister to siblings
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Speaker 3: Logan and Karen. After her parents' divorce, Morgan becomes much
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Speaker 3: more reserved. She seems to settle into their new home
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Speaker 3: in Alma, Arkansas after adopting a young kidd Mom Colleen
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Speaker 3: Nick is grateful to see Morgan coming back out of
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Speaker 3: her shell after her girl Scout meetings. She's a very
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Speaker 3: dedicated daisy. Morgan also has big dreams for the future,
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Speaker 3: but can't decide if she would rather be a circus
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Speaker 3: artist or a doctor.
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Speaker 1: What a beautiful, beautiful girl. Sugar and spice and every
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Speaker 1: everything nice. Torn between being a doctor, a medical doctor,
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Speaker 1: and a circus artist. Just adopted a pet kitty cat.
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Speaker 1: She seemingly vanished into thin air. Her mother just yards
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Speaker 1: away at a little league game full of children and
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Speaker 1: families screaming and yelling supporting their kid out there on
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Speaker 1: the field. What could be a more wholesome environment a
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Speaker 1: little league game, Morgan goes to try and catch fireflies
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Speaker 1: lightning bugs with her little friends. Mom is watching, and
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Speaker 1: then shortly after that it's time to go, but no
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Speaker 1: Morgan joining me an all star panel to make sense
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Speaker 1: of what we know right now, But first listen to
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Speaker 1: investigative reporter crime online dot Com Sydney Sumner.
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Speaker 4: Colleen Nick is invited to join a friend for a
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Speaker 4: minor league baseball game in Alma, Arkansas. Colleen is hesitant
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Speaker 4: to accept. It's a half hour drive to Wofford Field
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Speaker 4: and the game starts fairly late. Colleen eventually agrees, bringing Morgan.
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Speaker 1: Along with her.
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Speaker 4: At the field, two other children ask Morgan if she
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Speaker 4: wants to catch fireflies with them in a green space
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Speaker 4: off the parking lot. Colleen is again hesitant, but agrees
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Speaker 4: when the children's parents assure her the kids do it
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Speaker 4: all the time.
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Speaker 1: This is a parent's worst nightmare, and the mom was
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Speaker 1: just yards away and watching Morgan, watching her play with
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Speaker 1: the other little girls her age. It's not like mom
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Speaker 1: wasn't nearby. But then just a few moments later, the
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Speaker 1: games begin to wrap up. Everyone's getting up out of
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Speaker 1: the stands, getting ready to leave, and this happens.
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Speaker 5: Colleen keeps an eye on the children from her spot stands,
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Speaker 5: but gets distracted. Around ten thirty, when the game is
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Speaker 5: wrapping up, the children Morgan was playing with return to
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Speaker 5: their parents in the stands, but Morgan isn't with them.
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Speaker 5: They tell Colleen Morgan had sand in her shoes and
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Speaker 5: she's cleaning them out by the car in the parking lot.
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Speaker 5: Colleen says her goodbyes and goes to get Morgan around
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Speaker 5: ten forty five, but the six year old is nowhere
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Speaker 5: to be found.
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Speaker 1: Joining me in All Star panel straight out to Alexis
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Speaker 1: Tereschuk Crime online dot Com investigative reporter again, every parent's
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Speaker 1: so worst a nightmare. You watch your child, You watch
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Speaker 1: your child, You watch your child. You turn around to
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Speaker 1: pick up your bags and your stadium seat and the
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Speaker 1: stuff you brought with you turn back, Morgan's gone, just
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Speaker 1: like that. Tell me what happened to Alexis.
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Speaker 6: So it was summer June in Arkansas and western Arkansas.
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Speaker 6: A town called Alma, and it's a small town, five
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Speaker 6: thousand people. They're out there for the little league game.
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Speaker 6: It's nighttime. She's playing with the other kids. That the
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Speaker 6: parking lot is right next to the baseball field. It's
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Speaker 6: not like you have to walk any distance at all.
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Speaker 6: It is steps away from the baseball field. Their stands,
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Speaker 6: their metal stands, just what you would sit on in
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Speaker 6: your little league game park field. Anyway, she is playing
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Speaker 6: with these kids. They're catching fireflies or having a good time.
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Speaker 6: It's a warm summer night and the game is over.
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Speaker 6: So the kids come back, but Morgan doesn't come with
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Speaker 6: the kids. There are other children. They come back. Morgan's
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Speaker 6: mom says, where is Morgan? She says, The children say, oh,
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Speaker 6: she'd stand in her shoes. The parking lot can be sandy, dirty,
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Speaker 6: and she's just dumping it out. So mom goes out
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Speaker 6: to the parking lot to get Morgan so they can
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Speaker 6: go home, and cannot find her anywhere.
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Speaker 1: She is gone. She's missing. This is at the foot
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Speaker 1: of the beautiful Ozark Mountains, very very rural, Alexis, What
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Speaker 1: did you say the population is?
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Speaker 6: It's really it's about five thousand people.
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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness. Okay, So Robin Drake
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Speaker 1: joining me formerly with the FBI, I'm going to give
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Speaker 1: all Robin's creds in just a moment. But Robin Jerike,
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Speaker 1: in an area this small, you don't expect an unknown
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Speaker 1: assailant to kidnap your child with the mom a few
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Speaker 1: yards away staring at the child.
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Speaker 7: Yeah, you don't unless that person that assails the child
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Speaker 7: as a repetition of doing this in the past, which
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Speaker 7: I think you probably did too.
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Speaker 1: Doctor and Judy Hoe renowned clinical in forensic neuropsychologist, author
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Speaker 1: of the New Rules of Attachment and a second book,
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Speaker 1: Stop Self Sabotage. You can find her a doctor Judy
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Speaker 1: hoeho dot com. Doctor Judy, thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 1: You know, if I thought the mom was at fault,
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Speaker 1: I would be roasting her alive right now. I don't care,
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Speaker 1: and I have to this chagrin of many many viewers.
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Speaker 1: But from what I have learned in this case, mom
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Speaker 1: was doing everything right. She didn't leave the premises, she
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Speaker 1: didn't go to the hot dog stand, she wasn't involved
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Speaker 1: in conversations with another group of Little League moms. She
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Speaker 1: was there in the stands watching her daughter, who was
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Speaker 1: trying to catch fireflies. In a rural area at the
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Speaker 1: foot of the Ozark Mountains, crime rate practically zero. They
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Speaker 1: do have crime that's not why she's in downhw Manhattan
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Speaker 1: right where you're constantly on your guard, and she was
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Speaker 1: watching the child. I resent people attacking the mother in this.
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Speaker 8: Case, absolutely, Nancy. As you said at the top, this
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Speaker 8: is something that every vigilant parent has to do. Eventually,
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Speaker 8: turn around, pick up the bags, gather your belongings. It
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Speaker 8: could have been just merror moments and all of a
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Speaker 8: sudden she's not there. This is not about the mom
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Speaker 8: abdicating her responsibility. This is a vigilant, attentive mom and
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Speaker 8: it's just an absolute nightmare. And I don't think that
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Speaker 8: anybody should be attacking this parent because she was doing
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Speaker 8: exactly what she should have been doing, even in a
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Speaker 8: town where the crime breaths were so low, as you
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Speaker 8: just pointed out.
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Speaker 1: You know, doctor Judy Ho, I think people attack mom
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Speaker 1: because they want to blame someone. It makes me feel
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Speaker 1: better to go, oh, if mom hadn't been sleeping with
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Speaker 1: a sex offender, her daughter wouldn't have gotten murdered. Things
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Speaker 1: like that, And you know why I think I and
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Speaker 1: many other people do that. Now you're the shrink, not me,
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Speaker 1: because it makes us feel safer. Here's a great example,
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Speaker 1: Molly Tibbitts. Gorgeous young girl out jogging. Okay, she gets
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Speaker 1: attacked and murdered. People say, well, why was she out
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Speaker 1: jogging alone? Why she why was she wearing shorts? That's crazy, right.
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Speaker 1: Just recently Lincoln Riley over at Uga broad dal Light
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Speaker 1: out jogging. She is attacked and murdered. People again, why
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Speaker 1: was she in a secluded area? Why was she jogging along? Well,
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Speaker 1: it's easier to blame something rather than to accept that
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Speaker 1: could happen to me, that could happen to my child.
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Speaker 1: They were doing nothing wrong. I think people put on
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Speaker 1: blinders so they can continue feeling safe.
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Speaker 8: You're right, And I think that people want to feel
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Speaker 8: like they have a sense of control in the world,
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Speaker 8: So when something so unjust happens, you want to grapple
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Speaker 8: at an explanation, even if that explanation is blaming the victim. Somehow,
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Speaker 8: in a weird way, it actually makes you feel better
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Speaker 8: about the world that I can explain this so that
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Speaker 8: I can protect myself and my family and all the
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Speaker 8: people around me, because I would never do this, and
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Speaker 8: there's a good explanation for what happened. But guess what,
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Speaker 8: Sometimes the victims are not to blame and most oftentimes
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Speaker 8: they're not, and yet we still do it.
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Speaker 1: Alexis Tereschuk. So the mom is gathering at herstall. She
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Speaker 1: turns around. She can't say more than anywhere what happens?
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Speaker 6: Then the games are Morgan's mom cannot find her. She's
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Speaker 6: searching every she's having adults help. She asked the kids
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Speaker 6: in the parkment, She says, did you see anything? Where
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Speaker 6: was Morgan? The children say, we saw a red pickup truck.
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Speaker 1: To Matt mean Gino, high profile lawyer and former district attorney,
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Speaker 1: author of the executioner's Told Crimes, arrest Trials, Appeals, Last Meals,
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Speaker 1: final words of forty six people in the US, Matt
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Speaker 1: almost immediately Alma PD calls in help from the state
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Speaker 1: police and the FBI. They immediately put Morgan's picture out.
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Speaker 1: And that's part of my book, Don't be a victim.
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Speaker 1: How important it is you have a recent photo of
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Speaker 1: your child with you on your phone at all times,
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Speaker 1: and that you know what they are wearing the last
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Speaker 1: time you see them. Like I tell you right now
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Speaker 1: what my children were in school today, Okay, right down
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Speaker 1: to the socks, because I lead it out for them.
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Speaker 1: But you have to have that. The mom did have that,
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Speaker 1: and it went out immediately to the media, all over
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Speaker 1: the news. Immediately, officers set up a call center in
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Speaker 1: the courthouse and tips start pouring in. They even get
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Speaker 1: a mobile command center up within an hour and a half.
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Speaker 1: Everything's going right. Would you agree with that, Matthew Mangino.
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Speaker 9: You know, it sounds like everything's going exactly as it should.
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Speaker 9: But in this situation, you have an opportunity that you
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Speaker 9: don't have in a lot of abduction. Sometimes children are
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Speaker 9: by themselves, they're in an isolated place, and an abduction
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Speaker 9: occurs here.
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Speaker 1: You have it at a ballpark.
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Speaker 10: The first thing that you need to do is canvass
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Speaker 10: those people there and make sure that everybody who's at
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Speaker 10: that ballpark at that time, you get their name, you
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Speaker 10: get their numbers, so you can follow up with them,
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Speaker 10: so you can get as much information that you can
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Speaker 10: about the circumstances around that ballpark during that game, what
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Speaker 10: they saw, what they observed, you know, did they tell
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Speaker 10: anybody anything that they saw?
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Speaker 11: All that information is so important and it is unique
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Speaker 11: in a lot of circumstances compared with other child abductions.
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Speaker 1: Straight back out to Alexis Teresat Crime online dot Com
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Speaker 1: investigative reporter tell me the part about the mom getting
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Speaker 1: information for the little friends that Morgan had gone to
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Speaker 1: the car, is that correct? With the little friends are
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Speaker 1: the ones that told mommy.
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Speaker 6: Yes, she's been playing with I think two little friends
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Speaker 6: in the parking lot. It's summer. They're going to catch fireflies.
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Speaker 6: Super fun for little kids to do. And they're literally
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Speaker 6: steps away from where the mom is on those stands.
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Speaker 6: They say, oh, you know what, she got sand in
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Speaker 6: her shoes. You know, it's grassy. They're sand around there,
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Speaker 6: dirt even if you want, And so she's emptying it
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Speaker 6: out her shoes by the car, and we came over
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Speaker 6: here to y'all. But she's just right over there, no concern, nothing.
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Speaker 1: And then this listen.
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Speaker 3: One of the baseball team's coaches notices Colleen frantically searching
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Speaker 3: the parking lot and calls Alma Police to report six
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Speaker 3: year old Morgan missing. Alma pde and Crawford County Sheriff's
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Speaker 3: perform intense grid searches, assuming Morgan had just wandered off,
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Speaker 3: but adult witnesses stop officers to say they saw a
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Speaker 3: man trying to talk to a little blonde girl. While
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Speaker 3: she was playing, and his red truck left the parking
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Speaker 3: line shortly after they lost sight of her.
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Speaker 1: There is no coincidence in criminal law. I can assure
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Speaker 1: you of that. To Robin Driek joining us, a behavior expert,
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Speaker 1: former FBI Special Agent, chief of the FBI counter Intelligence
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Speaker 1: Behavioral Analysis Program, author of Sizing People Up, a veteran
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Speaker 1: FBI agents manual for behavior prediction, and so much more.
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Speaker 1: You can find him at peopleformula dot com. Robin, thank
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Speaker 1: you for being with us. So the coaches see mom
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Speaker 1: going crazy looking for her six year old little girl,
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Speaker 1: and they start a grid search.
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Speaker 7: What is that They're just methodically going through the entire
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Speaker 7: area getting everyone online because it sounds like they think
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Speaker 7: she's just wandered off and not actually been abducted. So
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Speaker 7: they're doing a grid search as if she got lost,
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Speaker 7: not abduction.
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Speaker 1: Again, did Doctor Judy Hoe joining us for now, clinical
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Speaker 1: forensic neuropsychologists and author of the New Rules of Attachment.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Judy again, in my world at the very beginning,
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Speaker 1: I think something horrible has happened. Okay, but that's me.
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Speaker 1: Most people look for an innocent answer because usually there
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Speaker 1: is an innocent answer. But also doctor Judy. I think
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Speaker 1: we want to believe that, we want to insulate ourselves,
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Speaker 1: such as, Okay, she's just wandered off, We're going to
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Speaker 1: do a grid search, she's here in the parking lot somewhere.
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Speaker 1: How do you analyze that behavior, doctor Judy, Well.
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Speaker 8: We all want to believe in the inherent goodness of people,
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Speaker 8: because we want to believe that we live in a
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Speaker 8: world where good people prevail. We're innocent people will prevail,
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Speaker 8: where good things happen. And the police were doing exactly
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Speaker 8: what I think they should have been doing, which is
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Speaker 8: the okam raiser rule, Like, hey, this is the most
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Speaker 8: easy explanation and probably the most likely explanation. She's a
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Speaker 8: six year old, easy for them to wander off, get distracted. Hopefully,
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Speaker 8: we'll do a quick grid search and we're going to
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Speaker 8: locate her, and everybody's going to go home happy. Everything's
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Speaker 8: going to be fine.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Judy, Ho, I really believe that the initial focus
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Speaker 1: on the mom impedes a lot of the investigation, because again,
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Speaker 1: it's so easy to throw a stone at mom here
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Speaker 1: instead of realizing Mom didn't do anything wrong. I find
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Speaker 1: that that slows down investigations. Sometimes.
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Speaker 8: I agree with you of course, family members are oftentimes
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Speaker 8: a person of interest for obvious reasons. They have the
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Speaker 8: most intel on the person that is missing. However, because
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Speaker 8: of blaming mom or this idea that maybe she did
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Speaker 8: something wrong, there probably was a slower response to activate
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Speaker 8: other units that could have focused on the perpetrator. And
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Speaker 8: of course later on they did find out that observers
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Speaker 8: saw this suspicious man. But again I think even the
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Speaker 8: observers when they saw that, they may not have thought
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Speaker 8: of something nefarious right away until, of course the police
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Speaker 8: investigation started and they're now racking their brain saying, you
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Speaker 8: know what, there was somebody there and it just seemed off.
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Speaker 8: But again, in this community where a lot of people
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Speaker 8: may have known each other, people just don't go to
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Speaker 8: that as the first explanation. And so, as you mentioned,
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Speaker 8: sometimes when law enforcement may be well intended, but perhaps
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Speaker 8: they've seen certain things and they're thinking, well, maybe this
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Speaker 8: is the most likely explanation that that parent is at fault,
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Speaker 8: they lost that valuable time to save a life.
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Speaker 12: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Witnesses describe I've seeing a
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Speaker 12: creepy man talking to a little blonde girl soon after six.
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Speaker 2: Year old Morgan Nick is gone.
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Speaker 3: One of the baseball team's coaches notices Colleen frantically searching
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Speaker 3: the parking lot and calls Alma police to report six
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Speaker 3: year old Morgan missing. Alma pde and Crawford County Sheriff's
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Speaker 3: perform intense grid searches, assuming Morgan had just wandered off,
16:23
Speaker 3: but adult witnesses stop officers to say they saw a
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Speaker 3: man trying to talk to a little blonde girl while
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Speaker 3: she was playing, and his red truck left the parking
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Speaker 3: line shortly after they lost sight of her.
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Speaker 1: We even have a photo of the red truck. As
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Speaker 1: I was saying earlier, there is no coincidence in criminal law.
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Speaker 1: Six year old Morgan goes missing from this little league
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Speaker 1: game just about the time Mommy realizes she's not in
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Speaker 1: the parking lot getting sand out of her shoes. Witnesses
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Speaker 1: see a red truck leaving the area. Joining me in
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Speaker 1: an all star panel to make sense of what we
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Speaker 1: know right now, but straight out to and Drake, You
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Speaker 1: and I, Matt Mangino. Everyone on the panel has dealt
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Speaker 1: with nothing but crime for the big part of our careers.
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Speaker 1: In this case, the fact that a red truck would
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Speaker 1: scratch off while everybody else is helping to look for
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Speaker 1: this child. I've got a problem with that.
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Speaker 7: Yeah, me too, Nancy. So every time someone uses that
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Speaker 7: word creepy or creepy man or unusual truck, the first
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Speaker 7: thing that strikes me is that's where we need to
17:25
Speaker 7: be looking, because what that's saying is that we have
17:27
Speaker 7: a deviation in what parents are normally seeing. So all
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Speaker 7: the parents on one side of the team should have
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Speaker 7: said what looks different for you? Then law enforcement should
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Speaker 7: have gone to the other side, the other team, and said,
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Speaker 7: what looks different to you? All that truck stands out.
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Speaker 7: These things, when they stand out, they generally lead to
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Speaker 7: where we need to go.
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Speaker 1: When somebody says that date's creepy, it's not always just
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Speaker 1: a hunch. It's not always just judging a book by
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Speaker 1: the cover. I think we have instincts that are born
17:54
Speaker 1: of thousands of years of creation development, from the time
18:03
Speaker 1: a human was first emerged to now. It's what you hear,
18:09
Speaker 1: it's what you see, it's what you smell, it's your
18:12
Speaker 1: past experiences, it's someone else's body language. It's a million
18:18
Speaker 1: things go into a hunch. So when these people say
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Speaker 1: I saw a creepy guy, That can mean a lot
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Speaker 1: of things, but very often those hunches are based in fact.
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Speaker 1: Hunch is born up thousands of years of evolution.
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Speaker 7: One hundred percent. The first thing we're looking for as
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Speaker 7: human beings from that evolution standpoint is we're looking for
18:39
Speaker 7: an environment and behaviors and people around us that allow
18:42
Speaker 7: us to feel safe. Things that don't allow us to
18:45
Speaker 7: feel safe are when we're seeing incongruencies between people's actions, words,
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Speaker 7: and deeds that stand out from what we normally expect
18:52
Speaker 7: to allow us to feel safe. And that's what makes
18:55
Speaker 7: us feel creepy, is when we don't feel safe. And
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Speaker 7: in this situation, this man, this truck did not allow
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Speaker 7: those people to feel safe with their children. So it
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Speaker 7: makes you feel creepy, and they were right on with it.
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Speaker 1: To Matthew Mangina, a veteran trial lawyer, Matt, you've prosecuted
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Speaker 1: so many cases as a former district attorney. The coincidence
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Speaker 1: and of course this is nothing we could really use
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Speaker 1: a trial. I could argue it in closing statements, but
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Speaker 1: it's not probative on its own. It doesn't prove anything
19:27
Speaker 1: but the fact that everybody else is running around frantically
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Speaker 1: looking for this little girl, and he coincidentally at that
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Speaker 1: moment when you hear the mom starts screaming, my daughter's gone,
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Speaker 1: My daughter's gone, and he scratches off, puts the pedal
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Speaker 1: to the metal. I find that very odd. Of course,
19:45
Speaker 1: he could always argue I didn't hear any of that.
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Speaker 1: I had my windows up and the air conditioned on.
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Speaker 1: On the radio PLAYE. Now, he could argue any of that.
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Speaker 1: But the fact remains that that is a very strong coincidence.
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Speaker 9: Well, you know, Nancy, at the outset of this, as
20:01
Speaker 9: soon as the police get there, you know, it's not
20:04
Speaker 9: so much about investigating a crime, it's about maybe saving
20:09
Speaker 9: this child's life.
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Speaker 13: What do we need to do.
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Speaker 11: And I don't think that you can sit there and say, hey,
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Speaker 11: I saw a creepy guy and he drove off in
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Speaker 11: a red truck and let that, you know, you know,
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Speaker 11: sort of bypass you and say, well, let's do a
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Speaker 11: grig shirt.
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Speaker 9: She might be around here somewhere. I mean, I think
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Speaker 9: at that point, because time is so important, you know,
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Speaker 9: focus has to be directed there.
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Speaker 1: Jumping off what Matthew Man Gina just said. Robin Drake.
20:38
Speaker 1: They also say he was talking to trying to talk
20:43
Speaker 1: to a little blonde girl. Morgan is little. Morgan is blonde.
20:49
Speaker 1: Now what is a grown man doing talking to a
20:52
Speaker 1: six year old little girl other than going hey, you're
20:54
Speaker 1: a cute little girl, bye, where's your mommy? And leaving?
20:57
Speaker 1: Why is he having a conversation with a six year
20:59
Speaker 1: old girl? I have never once in life seen my
21:03
Speaker 1: husband walk up to a little child and Target or
21:06
Speaker 1: Walmart and strike up a conversation.
21:08
Speaker 7: One hundred percent right again, more deviations from what normal, healthy,
21:11
Speaker 7: safe things are. That's why it stood out to all
21:14
Speaker 7: the parents, and so that's where the focus should be.
21:16
Speaker 7: And everyone there had a correct confirmation bias in that moment.
21:20
Speaker 7: They're looking for a little girl, they weren't looking for
21:22
Speaker 7: a perpetrator of a crime, so their focus was a
21:24
Speaker 7: little too narrow.
21:25
Speaker 1: You know that brings to mind something joining me now,
21:28
Speaker 1: Doctor Jory Crasin, Faculty Saint Leo University and Psychologists consultant,
21:34
Speaker 1: Blue Wall Institute and author of Operation Start. Jory, thank
21:38
Speaker 1: you for joining us today, doctor Jury. I always wonder
21:44
Speaker 1: why didn't anyone say anything they see a guy they
21:50
Speaker 1: think is creepy talking to a six year old little girl.
21:57
Speaker 1: I mean, does anybody have a problem with I mean,
22:00
Speaker 1: maybe the witnesses thought that was her dad. I'm not sure.
22:05
Speaker 1: But why are we so loath to get involved?
22:09
Speaker 14: That's just the way that our society has become, you know,
22:13
Speaker 14: we kind of isolate ourselves and we kind of keep
22:16
Speaker 14: to ourselves so that we don't get involved when we
22:18
Speaker 14: see things that don't look appropriate, that look out of sorts.
22:23
Speaker 14: People are seeing it, but they're just refusing.
22:25
Speaker 13: To interact or to intercede and to question the behavior.
22:30
Speaker 1: Everyone is so busy being politically correct. They weren't dream
22:34
Speaker 1: and going, hey, is that's your daughter? But then the
22:36
Speaker 1: case becomes more murky. We can't get a good description. Listen.
22:41
Speaker 4: Witnesses couldn't discern the man's age in the dark, but
22:44
Speaker 4: say he was mid twenties to forty years old. They
22:47
Speaker 4: describe him as six foot tall and one hundred and
22:50
Speaker 4: eighty pounds, wearing only denim shorts. His hair was combed back,
22:54
Speaker 4: He had at least three to four days of facial
22:56
Speaker 4: hair growth, and a hairy chest. They picked up on
22:59
Speaker 4: his hillbilly accent. He was driving a red truck with
23:03
Speaker 4: a white camper shell that was too short for the bed.
23:06
Speaker 4: Someone shooting a home video manages to catch the truck
23:09
Speaker 4: for a few moments, but does not get the license,
23:12
Speaker 4: flee or the driver.
23:14
Speaker 3: Authorities investigate the possibility other recent kidnapping attempts are connected
23:18
Speaker 3: to the same suspect. Earlier in the afternoon the day
23:21
Speaker 3: Morgan disappeared, a man matching the description given by the
23:24
Speaker 3: witnesses at the field tried to entice a four year
23:27
Speaker 3: old girl into his red truck in downtown Alma, but
23:30
Speaker 3: was interrupted when the girl screamed and her mother grabbed her.
23:33
Speaker 3: The next day, fifteen miles away in Fort Smith, the
23:36
Speaker 3: same suspect tries to entice a nine year old girl
23:39
Speaker 3: into the men's room in a convenience store, but flees
23:41
Speaker 3: when she resists.
23:43
Speaker 1: Alexisrestat Crime online dot Com investigative reporter what.
23:46
Speaker 6: They said, There's this man that people keep reporting in
23:49
Speaker 6: this area and Alma. I was like, Daan, I said,
23:50
Speaker 6: this is a small town, five thousand people within the area.
23:54
Speaker 6: Three different incidents. The day before a little girl, I'm sorry,
23:57
Speaker 6: hours before, a four year old little tries to get her.
24:01
Speaker 6: Then Morgan goes missing. The next day, there's a man
24:05
Speaker 6: at a convenience store and he's trying to get a
24:07
Speaker 6: girl to go into the men's room with him. All
24:10
Speaker 6: of these things are reported to the police in the
24:12
Speaker 6: area right as Morgan has disappeared and has gone missing.
24:16
Speaker 1: You know, this truck is very distinctive, a red pickup
24:19
Speaker 1: with a white cab that's too short for the bed.
24:23
Speaker 1: You know, Robin Drie former FBI. You can find them
24:26
Speaker 1: at peopleformula dot com. We hear free crimes. But this
24:31
Speaker 1: is three attempted victims, little girl victims in the space
24:34
Speaker 1: of seventy two hours that we know of.
24:37
Speaker 7: Yeah, and I guarantee you it's probably not going to
24:38
Speaker 7: be the only ones as well. You know, he's got
24:40
Speaker 7: a pattern behavior someone does at this point that they
24:43
Speaker 7: should be looking at, especially since you now have a
24:46
Speaker 7: missing child and you now have someone who's creeping the
24:50
Speaker 7: hell out of people and approaching other little girls. So yeah,
24:53
Speaker 7: that's exact girl, the focus should be.
24:55
Speaker 1: This brings to mind the case a beautiful little five
24:58
Speaker 1: year old Dulce Alvarez. Listen.
25:02
Speaker 3: Five year old Dulce Alavez is playing in the park
25:05
Speaker 3: with her three year old brother while her mother sits
25:07
Speaker 3: in her car thirty yards away talking to her sister
25:10
Speaker 3: on the phone. Noema Alavez Perez says she thought her daughter,
25:14
Speaker 3: Dalce was hiding, but when she went to look for
25:16
Speaker 3: the five year old was gone. New Jersey State Police
25:19
Speaker 3: issue an amber alert, believing Dulce has been abducted. Police
25:23
Speaker 3: are looking for his spanning mail five foot six to
25:25
Speaker 3: five foot eight, then build no facial hair acne on
25:28
Speaker 3: his face. The man led Dulce from the playground to
25:31
Speaker 3: a red van with a sliding door and tended windows.
25:34
Speaker 1: Again in Dulce's case, light Morgan Nicks's case, all we
25:39
Speaker 1: have to go on is a vehicle. Listen to this.
25:43
Speaker 4: Three months with no sign of Morgan. Alma Pedi get
25:46
Speaker 4: another report of an attempt at kidnapping. A man approaches
25:49
Speaker 4: an eleven year old girl eating at a restaurant with
25:52
Speaker 4: her brothers and a friend. He initiates a conversation with
25:55
Speaker 4: the girl that has clear sexual undertones and offers money
25:59
Speaker 4: if she'll leave with terrified. The girl screams and the
26:02
Speaker 4: man flees in a red truck. In his hurry, the
26:06
Speaker 4: man crashes into a poll and a bystander manages to
26:08
Speaker 4: write down his license plate number before he drives off.
26:12
Speaker 4: The driver is identified as Billy Jack. Links the case
26:16
Speaker 4: even so seemingly goes cold.
26:20
Speaker 3: But then this with no new leads on Morgan Nick.
26:23
Speaker 3: Investigators review the early stages of the investigation. Everything points
26:28
Speaker 3: to Billy Jack Lynx, so investigators decide to track down
26:31
Speaker 3: his red truck. The truck has been sold several times,
26:34
Speaker 3: but the latest owner agrees to lot authorities examined it
26:37
Speaker 3: for evidence one more time. Investigators carefully comb the interior
26:41
Speaker 3: for evidence with a high powered vacuum. They discovered several
26:44
Speaker 3: blonde hairs in one of the vacuum canisters and send
26:48
Speaker 3: it off for DNA testing.
26:49
Speaker 1: Joining me now is the esteemed director of Forensic DNA Experts,
26:54
Speaker 1: specialist in sex assaults and murder, former forensic scientists for
26:58
Speaker 1: the Texas Department of Public Safe Safety. You can find
27:01
Speaker 1: them at Forensics DNA Experts dot com. It's doctor Monty Miller,
27:05
Speaker 1: DOCTA Miller. Thank you for being with us. Explain to me,
27:09
Speaker 1: I need to understand this. How is it that even
27:14
Speaker 1: though this red truck has been sold a couple of
27:17
Speaker 1: times that DNA experts forensics experts are able to get
27:23
Speaker 1: several strands of blonde hair out of that truck.
27:27
Speaker 15: Well, first of all, they have some really good vacuums,
27:29
Speaker 15: and you know, they'll vacuum and they'll do tape lifts
27:32
Speaker 15: in all kinds of areas.
27:35
Speaker 1: And you know, even if.
27:37
Speaker 15: Someone cleans their car, there's a really good chance that
27:40
Speaker 15: they're not going to clean all the nooks and cranny.
27:42
Speaker 15: So that's one thing. The other thing is if this
27:46
Speaker 15: had been a work truck and someone had been putting
27:48
Speaker 15: stuff in and getting a lot of stuff out and
27:50
Speaker 15: getting in and out, it's more likely that the hair
27:53
Speaker 15: would have been lost. But being that it transferred hands
27:57
Speaker 15: a few times, it might just not have been used
27:59
Speaker 15: much in the hair might have just been left there.
28:01
Speaker 1: Explain to everyone that's not familiar with an hvac what
28:05
Speaker 1: it means that several blonde hairs are found in the
28:11
Speaker 1: vacuum canister.
28:13
Speaker 15: You know, I mean, it's like any vacuum. It has
28:15
Speaker 15: a canister, only this is a pretty high speed one
28:19
Speaker 15: that gives you a lot of suction, and so it
28:23
Speaker 15: pulls up just about everything and here can kind of
28:25
Speaker 15: get stuck to fabrics and things. And so it's a
28:28
Speaker 15: really good vacuum, has a really good filter and it
28:32
Speaker 15: tries to collect just about everything that's in that car.
28:41
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace two, rub and Drake joining
28:47
Speaker 1: us for FBI. Is it significant to you, because it
28:51
Speaker 1: is to me if these hairs which are traced back,
28:56
Speaker 1: they do belong to Morgan nix if they had a
29:01
Speaker 1: root attached or they had just shed in the truck.
29:06
Speaker 7: So it depends on what period of time in history.
29:09
Speaker 7: Right now we can get a DNA match just with
29:12
Speaker 7: the hair itself without a root back then most likely not,
29:16
Speaker 7: And so our ability to really analyze DNA samples has
29:19
Speaker 7: advanced a lot since she initially went missing.
29:22
Speaker 1: Okay, everything you just said was correct, but I'm looking
29:26
Speaker 1: for something different because I already know that the DNA
29:29
Speaker 1: matches Morgan. Okay, the fact that the hair was torn
29:33
Speaker 1: from her head. Last night, I picked up my cat
29:38
Speaker 1: and I walked around with it, even though I say
29:41
Speaker 1: I'm not a cat person, and the front of my
29:43
Speaker 1: shirt was covered in cat hair. Okay, I didn't pull
29:45
Speaker 1: the hair out of the cat. It transferred to me.
29:50
Speaker 1: When you find the roots of the hair still attached
29:55
Speaker 1: to all the hair, that tells me that in some
29:58
Speaker 1: form the hair was yanked out of the head.
30:01
Speaker 7: Yeah, so there's violence involved when you have the route
30:03
Speaker 7: there as well. So Yeah, there's I'm still just I'm
30:07
Speaker 7: still just going on the probability that the hair was
30:10
Speaker 7: there at all to begin with, So regardless of whether
30:13
Speaker 7: it's yanked and you have the root or not, I'm
30:15
Speaker 7: still this is just really pointing right at him.
30:20
Speaker 2: A red pickup truck spotted at the scene of Morgan
30:23
Speaker 2: Nick's abduction is tracked down. Will DNA found lead to answers.
30:31
Speaker 1: Who is this guy? Links? What's so amazing is the
30:37
Speaker 1: only way he was really tracked down is that, three
30:40
Speaker 1: months after Morgan disappears and she has never been found,
30:46
Speaker 1: he approaches another little girl with her family at a restaurant.
30:51
Speaker 1: I mean again to Robin Drake. The mo is startlingly similar.
30:58
Speaker 1: He doesn't care at the family is nearby. Therewith in eyeshot,
31:03
Speaker 1: remember the little brothers. The girl screams, the man takes
31:07
Speaker 1: off in a red truck, and that is at a
31:10
Speaker 1: restaurant with the brothers, and he still goes up to
31:14
Speaker 1: the little girl.
31:15
Speaker 7: Yeah, he's a born behavior and intensity of moving in
31:20
Speaker 7: on little children is escalating dramatically, and so he's definitely
31:26
Speaker 7: on a behavior arc and collision with even worse things
31:28
Speaker 7: that are to come.
31:29
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't know what you just said, behavior arc collision.
31:33
Speaker 7: What Yeah, so he has a pattern of behavior. Yeah,
31:37
Speaker 7: so he has a pattern of behavior of constantly going
31:40
Speaker 7: after little children. His brazenness of it is getting more
31:43
Speaker 7: and more escalated. For whatever reason, that's going sideways in
31:47
Speaker 7: his life. It's getting worse, and so it's going to
31:49
Speaker 7: continue to get worse.
31:50
Speaker 1: Before Are you actually trying to blame something in his
31:53
Speaker 1: life for what he's doing.
31:54
Speaker 7: Oh no, this is all a choice, one hundred percent. There's,
31:57
Speaker 7: as you've said numerous times on all your shows, now
32:00
Speaker 7: there's an evil of foot inside of him and he's
32:02
Speaker 7: making a choice to target little to girls.
32:04
Speaker 1: Doctor Jory Crawsin, I hear what Drake is saying. What
32:08
Speaker 1: is he talking about? The arc? The arc of the
32:11
Speaker 1: defendants behavior.
32:13
Speaker 13: Pedophiles, people that have sexual attraction to children or anybody.
32:18
Speaker 13: There's this anticipation that builds. Part of it is the
32:22
Speaker 13: stalking behavior. That's part of the drive and the choice. Okay,
32:27
Speaker 13: they start to get the sexual arousal and excitement from
32:31
Speaker 13: spotting a little girl like the one at the restaurant
32:34
Speaker 13: with her brother. I could imagine that would create a
32:38
Speaker 13: lot of excitement. The way he approached her. He was
32:41
Speaker 13: so brazen. Look at the freedom that he felt in
32:45
Speaker 13: talking with her and actually taking it to a sexual
32:49
Speaker 13: level and offering money. All of that is building this
32:53
Speaker 13: sexual excitement in him.
32:56
Speaker 1: That's the drive.
32:57
Speaker 13: And again that is choice you don't have to consider.
32:59
Speaker 13: So something that happened in his life or anything like that,
33:03
Speaker 13: that is a predatorial choice of the stalking behavior.
33:06
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what we know about Billy Jack Lynx,
33:09
Speaker 1: born and raised there in Crawford County, Arkansas, in the Army,
33:14
Speaker 1: worked for brand If Airlines in Dallas over ten years
33:18
Speaker 1: before coming back to Arkansas, settling in Van Buren. But
33:22
Speaker 1: he's charged with child sex abuse, pleads no contest, and
33:27
Speaker 1: gets a suspended sentence. Two years later, three months after
33:32
Speaker 1: Morgan disappears, he's charged with sex solicitation of a minor. Okay,
33:39
Speaker 1: do you see the problem here, Matthew Mangino, He had
33:42
Speaker 1: already taken a quote no contest a couple of years
33:47
Speaker 1: before on child sex abuse. No contest means I don't
33:53
Speaker 1: say I did it. I don't plead guilty or not guilty.
33:56
Speaker 1: I just take a reduced sentence and go on my way.
33:58
Speaker 1: Somebody let him off and then he goes and rapes
34:03
Speaker 1: and kills Morgan Nicks. Her body has never been found.
34:06
Speaker 1: But he was let off early on with no low contender,
34:10
Speaker 1: a new contest.
34:11
Speaker 9: Well, we don't know what the circumstances of that case are.
34:14
Speaker 9: You know, sometimes in these types of cases where you
34:17
Speaker 9: have young victims, they're reluctant to testify, you know, they
34:21
Speaker 9: don't want to sit in a court room in front
34:25
Speaker 9: of a group of people and talk about how they
34:28
Speaker 9: were victimized.
34:28
Speaker 1: Well wait, wait, it would be a cold day in
34:33
Speaker 1: HGBLEL before I let a guy charge with child molestation
34:41
Speaker 1: walk free. There's other ways to prove a child molestation
34:45
Speaker 1: other than just the child victim. There's circumstantial evidence surrounding it.
34:52
Speaker 1: There's outcry witnesses, there's potential medical physical evidence. Somebody dropped
35:02
Speaker 1: the ball, that's what happened. A child molestation charge was
35:05
Speaker 1: plat out shape to a nolo, a no contest, a
35:08
Speaker 1: nolo contenderary and then he goes right back out and
35:11
Speaker 1: starts molesting.
35:12
Speaker 10: Well, there's no question that.
35:15
Speaker 9: This young child would be alive today if there was
35:19
Speaker 9: a more vigorous prosecution in that case. But we don't
35:22
Speaker 9: know the circumstances. We don't know why he was allowed
35:26
Speaker 9: to enter a no contest plea, and a lot of
35:30
Speaker 9: times it is because there's a lack of evidence, there's
35:34
Speaker 9: a lack of the victim wanting to be to relive
35:39
Speaker 9: this victimization in a courtroom full of people. So those
35:42
Speaker 9: are factors, you know, whether we like them or not,
35:46
Speaker 9: they have an impact on the prosecution of cases.
35:49
Speaker 1: And what about Mom. Listen from our friends at KATV. Emotionally,
35:56
Speaker 1: I wasn't in real good shape then.
35:58
Speaker 16: But if I said it once, I've said a one
36:01
Speaker 16: hundred times. If we sit around and we're so upset
36:03
Speaker 16: and we cry all the time and nobody can get
36:05
Speaker 16: anything done, then we're not doing the best job that
36:07
Speaker 16: we can.
36:07
Speaker 1: For Morgan still fighting for justice for her daughter. Take
36:12
Speaker 1: a listen to what she had to say to our
36:13
Speaker 1: friend Oprah.
36:15
Speaker 16: I am the only person who can fight hard enough
36:17
Speaker 16: to bring Morgan home. I'm the only person who cares enough.
36:20
Speaker 16: And if I give up hope, then I become a
36:23
Speaker 16: victim as well as she, and I will not let
36:25
Speaker 16: her obdector win.
36:26
Speaker 1: I will find her and she will come home. That
36:28
Speaker 1: from our friends at five and Needs Doctor Monte Miller.
36:32
Speaker 1: You know, eyewitnesses can be confused. They may not have
36:37
Speaker 1: an advantage point, or there may be bad lighting, or
36:39
Speaker 1: they didn't have all their glasses, or they were distracted.
36:42
Speaker 1: You know what doesn't lie DNA. And there's no reason
36:46
Speaker 1: for Morgan Nicks, just six years old hair to be
36:50
Speaker 1: torn out by the roots and this guy's truck. No
36:53
Speaker 1: reason at all.
36:54
Speaker 15: Yeah, that's real clear. I mean, if they have hair
36:58
Speaker 15: that's been pulled out, suggest if their's skin on the hair,
37:03
Speaker 15: that's that suggests some violence and that it wasn't just
37:07
Speaker 15: hair that.
37:08
Speaker 3: Fell out like it normally does.
37:11
Speaker 15: In this case, it looks like the DNA that they
37:14
Speaker 15: ran was mitochondrial DNA, which would have been from the
37:17
Speaker 15: hair shaft rather than the skin tag. And I don't
37:20
Speaker 15: really understand why they would have done that, but you know,
37:24
Speaker 15: they got a good DNA profile and it identifies that family.
37:29
Speaker 15: It identifies Morgan's family and as somebody who's related to
37:32
Speaker 15: her mother, either one of the mother's siblings or one
37:35
Speaker 15: of the mother's children or someone or.
37:38
Speaker 1: The mother's mother.
37:41
Speaker 15: But they got a good DNA profile and.
37:43
Speaker 1: Dodger Monte Miller, You're absolutely right, But I'd like to
37:47
Speaker 1: point out differentiation here. For instance, in the case of
37:51
Speaker 1: Kelly Anthony, hair belonging to Kelly or someone that could
37:58
Speaker 1: be identified mitochondrially in that hair, it had to be
38:03
Speaker 1: either Kelly mitochondrial means on the mother's side of the family,
38:07
Speaker 1: Kelly the mother top Mom Casey Anthony, or the grandmother
38:12
Speaker 1: Cindy Anthony. Now, how do I know it wasn't either
38:16
Speaker 1: of the two elder because the hair was untreated. In
38:21
Speaker 1: other words, Cindy Anthony at the time had frosted hair,
38:26
Speaker 1: Top Mom Casey Anthony had her hair highlighted. This hair
38:30
Speaker 1: was pristine. That means it could only belong to one person,
38:33
Speaker 1: that being two year old Kelly. In this case, we
38:37
Speaker 1: know that the hair belonged to either Morganix or someone
38:42
Speaker 1: on the mitochondrial side. Her mother's hair, as you saw,
38:46
Speaker 1: was treated. The sibling had short hair. This hair was
38:53
Speaker 1: a long blonde hair. Air go, it belonged to Morganix,
39:00
Speaker 1: not rocket Science. And you said correctly that the hair
39:06
Speaker 1: being torn from the root suggests violence. But I pose
39:09
Speaker 1: to you another query, Doctor Monty Miller, And that query is,
39:13
Speaker 1: even if the hair was not attached to the nucleus
39:16
Speaker 1: the root, why would her hair have transferred and to
39:20
Speaker 1: this guy's pickup. No good reason. He's not a relative,
39:24
Speaker 1: he's not a family friend. He didn't give her a ride.
39:27
Speaker 1: Why would she be in his car?
39:29
Speaker 15: Yeah, I think the fact that the hair was in
39:31
Speaker 15: the car is important, and it clearly is hers based
39:35
Speaker 15: on the things that you've said, and the fact that
39:38
Speaker 15: there's nobody else from her family that could have possibly
39:40
Speaker 15: been in that truck.
39:42
Speaker 1: If you know or think you know anything anything more
39:47
Speaker 1: about the disappearance of this beautiful girl, Morgan Nicks, please
39:52
Speaker 1: dial Alma Arkansas PD. Four seven nine six three two
39:58
Speaker 1: three three three three repeat four seven nine sixty three
40:02
Speaker 1: to two three three three three. There is a sixty
40:07
Speaker 1: thousand dollar reward. We wait as justice unfolds, and now
40:14
Speaker 1: we stop to remember and American hero Sergeant Allen David Brandt,
40:19
Speaker 1: Fairbanks PD, just thirty four, shot and killed in the
40:23
Speaker 1: line of duty. Brandt served Fairbanks PD eleven years. Survived
40:29
Speaker 1: by grieving wife now widow, Natasha, children Fritz, Kate, Claire,
40:37
Speaker 1: and Belle. Four children sentenced to life without dad. American
40:43
Speaker 1: hero Sergeant Alan David Brandt. Thank you to all of
40:49
Speaker 1: our guests for being with us. Nancy Grace signing off
40:53
Speaker 1: goodbye friend,