Latest news with #MorganNick
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Chasing Fireflies: A Morgan Nick Special airs this Sunday on 479 First
ALMA, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A 2-hour long special looking back on 30 years of searching for Morgan Nick airs this Sunday on 479 First and on the air June 9 and 10. 'Chasing Fireflies: A Morgan Nick Special' will be live on the 479 First app on Sunday, June 8, at 7 p.m. Part 1 will air live on Monday, June 9: KNWA at 4 p.m. KXNW at 6 p.m. FOX24 at 10 p.m. Part 2 will air live on all three channels on Tuesday, June 10 at times to be announced. Click to find KNWA/FOX24/KXNW on the 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Connecting the DNA dots: How new technology led to breakthrough in Morgan Nick case
THE WOODLANDS, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — For the first time, viewers are getting a behind-the-scenes look at the forensic lab credited with cracking the decades-old Morgan Nick case. Six-year-old Morgan was abducted from a River Valley ballpark nearly 30 years ago. Her body was never found. But earlier this year, the Alma Police Department announced they were certain Billy Jack Lincks, a man who died in prison, was responsible for her disappearance. The breakthrough came from a single hair found in Lincks' truck, decades after Morgan went missing. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children uses forensic artists to help save lives 'Somehow it stayed there, that piece of hair to be vacuumed up. That's incredible,' said Kristen Mittelman, Chief Development Officer at Othram Labs. 'The first thing we do is we extract DNA from the rootless hair. It goes into the lab for a DNA library to be sequenced. In this case, we compared it to a family sequence.' Next Monday, June 9, marks the 30th anniversary of Morgan Nick's disappearance, and a two-hour special titled Chasing Fireflies will air in two parts on June 9 and 10, offering an in-depth look at the case, featuring investigators, forensic experts, Morgan's mother Colleen and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. The special will also be available early on Sunday from 7 to 9 p.m. on the streaming app 479 First. Watch in the video player above. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children uses forensic artists to help save lives
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — As the 30th anniversary of the disappearance of Morgan Nick approaches, one organization dedicates themselves to helping law enforcement bring home missing children. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is the largest child protection service in the country. In 2024, they aided in over twenty-seven thousand reports of missing children. That number is good for a 91% overall recovery rate in cases involving missing children. According to NCMEC, the organization does this in a variety of ways. Including issuing AMBER Alerts, protecting children from sexual exploitation, and using age progression imaging to assist in finding missing children, among other things. Senior forensic artist at NCMEC, Christi Andrews, said that the opportunity to help save the lives of children is her main goal. Plan Bentonville enters phase two of long-term development for city 'It's a fascinating job. To use art to help find missing children and identify deceased children was never on my radar,' Andrews said. 'I don't think most artists would anticipate that they would be doing something like that. To use my skills in that way is so rewarding.' When a child is missing for over two years, their picture may not be an accurate depiction of what they currently look like. In those long-term cases of missing children, forensic artists create age progression and facial reconstruction images to help identify the individuals. This past year, one hundred and forty-one children were recovered from the use of age progression images. Andrews said, getting the images out consistently helps in the recovery process. 'The more eyes we have on these images, the better. That's a higher chance. It's just odds, you know, it's a higher chance of somebody seeing the image and recognizing that child,' Andrews said. 'That's what we want at the end of the day, to get these children home and give a child their name back.' For more information on NCMEC and the work they do, visit their website at Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
