On June 9, 1995, mother Colleen found herself facing the worst fear of any parent. Her daughter, Morgan Nick, was abducted from an Alma ballfield when only six years old. The only clue to how the child may have disappeared were witness descriptions of a red Ford pickup with a white camper parked nearby, that vanished at about the same time as Morgan.
While 26 years have passed since Morgan Nick became a missing child, a recent documentary has reawaken interest in the case. Read on to discover the story of Morgan Nick’s disappearance, and the crucial role that missing person assistance can play when a child is deemed missing and endangered.
With Friends at a Little League Ball Game
Morgan Nick’s mother had taken her daughter to attend a little league ball game in Alma, Arkansas in the evening of June 9. As the night set in, Morgan had joined friends in an innocent moment of fun as they tried to catch lightning bugs. At 10.45 pm, Morgan was seen standing close to her mother’s car. The young girl had stopped for a moment to empty sand from her shoes. The very next moment, she was gone.
In the hunt that ensued, witnesses revealed having noticed a man watching Morgan as she played with her friends. He was described as white, with a moustache and 1-inch beard, roughly 6 feet in height, with a medium to solid build, and estimated to be between 23 and 38 years of age. There were also reports of a red Ford pickup parked nearby that was mounted with a mismatched white camper. The truck was a short wheelbase vehicle with ageing paintwork, and the camper was said to be too short for the truck. While neither the vehicle nor man have ever been found or identified, the pickup and camper remain a central focus in associated missing person investigations today.
The Hope That Morgan Is Still Out There
At the time of her disappearance, Morgan was approximately 4 feet tall, weighing around 55 pounds, with blue eyes and blonde hair. Today, Morgan would be 24 years old, and while her appearance may have changed, visible silver caps on 5 of her molars may still remain as indicators to her identity. Over the course of each of the missing person investigations that have picked up the hunt for Morgan, thousands of leads have emerged, although none have brought the facts of what happened to the youngster to light.
A sizeable investigation conducted by both the FBI and local authorities continues, with a $60,000 reward offered to anyone with information that leads to the recovery of Morgan and the identification of those responsible for her abduction. Mother Colleen highlights that the authorities are still appealing for information about the truck, asking that anyone with recollection of the vehicle please “find the courage to call police and report anyone you might have known who drove a truck like that back in 1995.”
A Documentary Triggers New Leads
In April of this year, a documentary called Still Missing Morgan aired regionally. Following its debut, Colleen’s hope was reignited when 200 leads were called in, some of which had never been reported before. Morgan’s family are holding on to the belief that she may be alive and still out there, waiting to be found. The recent surge in interest following fresh publicity goes to show that it is never too late to uncover previously unseen clues. We can only hope that one may soon lead to the answers that Morgan Nick’s family so justly deserve.
Seeking Missing Person Assistance in Your Moment of Need
When a parent faces the stark reality of a missing child, there can be no doubt that they’ll want every pair of hands and every resource possible called into action. Beyond local and federal authorities, there are other places to which a family in the grips of such a crisis can turn for help. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offer additional support—as continues to be the case in the search for Morgan Nick. Meanwhile, a specialist firm like Lauth Missing Persons is not only equipped to turn dedicated and focused expertise to the task of locating your loved one, but they are also highly experienced in creating effective fundraising campaigns with Go Fund Me, giving families the upper hand as they drop everything, offer rewards, and act from the heart. If you, or anyone you know, is concerned about a person who may be missing, contact our team today to discover how we can help.
On a fateful day in February of 2004, 21 year-old Massachusetts university student Maura Murray disappeared without a trace. A car accident had taken place, and although witnesses statements had placed the young woman on Route 112 in North Haverhill, New Hampshire, the events that followed remain shrouded in mystery. Some seventeen years after her disappearance, missing person investigations continue the quest to discover what happened to Maura Murray, while her family hold out hope that she may one day return home.
A Kind-Hearted Honor Student
Maura Murray was born on May 4, 1982, to parents Fred and Laurie in Brockton, Massachusetts. The youngest of five children, Maura excelled both academically and in various athletic sports, while becoming known as a kind-hearted contributor to her local community. Graduating at the top of her class from Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, Maura continued on to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and then the University of Massachusetts where she was pursuing a career in nursing.
In the months leading up to her disappearance, Maura’s behavior had shown signs of the unexpected. The slim built, brown haired, and blue eyed young woman had crashed her fathers car on the way to a party, causing some $8,000 in damage. She had also been arrested for using a stolen credit card number to order fast-food, although the charges were dismissed on the grounds of good behavior.
On the morning of the day that she would vanish, Monday February 9, Maura electronically submitted her homework, telling her professor that there had been a death in the family and that she needed to leave campus for the week—a statement that the family themselves couldn’t explain. She reached out to an accommodation provider in Stowe, Vermont, and the owner of a condominium in Bartlett, New Hampshire, where she and her family had forged positive memories in the past—although she didn’t make a reservation. Finally, she packed a bag with enough clothes and supplies to last several days, and left campus.
Strange Circumstances Unfold
At 3:15 pm Maura stopped at an ATM and withdrew $280—almost all of the money she had available to her—and visited in a liquor store, where she spent $40 on alcohol. Nobody who was interviewed over the course of following missing person investigations could explain why she left, or be certain of where she was going. Authorities revealed that she departed the area at around 4:30 pm in her 1996 Saturn, driving north towards New Hampshire.
At 7:27 pm that Monday evening, a local resident named Faith Westman reported to the police that a car accident had occurred near her home in Haverhill. Not long after this report, bus driver Butch Atwood indicates that he saw and spoke to Maura by the side of the road. Her car was in the ditch and the airbags had deployed, although Maura didn’t appear injured. Despite this, when Maura declined his help and told Atwood that she had already called AAA, his concern was piqued as the area is known for its poor cell reception. The bus driver returned home but contacted the police to report the incident.
A Missing Person In New Hampshire
When police arrived on the scene at 7:46pm, Maura’s car was locked, and she had vanished. A police officer, a state trooper, and eight firefighters searched the area for signs of the young woman. No traces of Maura have been found since that tragic evening, including cell phone or bank account activity. Speculation remains that someone local and able to traverse the nearby terrain may have taken the young woman, although no valuable leads have arisen.
On April 3 of 2019, authorities followed a tip from concerned private citizens who had used ground-penetrating radar to detect disturbed ground below the basement of a nearby property. When state police and FBI agents lifted the concrete floor of the basement, they found no sign of a crime. Because of the strange circumstances surrounding her vanishing, Maura Murray is considered to be missing and endangered. Despite her trail going cold after so many years, Maura’s family remain hopeful. They continue their campaign both through a tribute website and on Go Fund Me.
Seeking Support When Your Loved One Goes Missing
When an adult or child goes missing, time is of the essence. For those in need of assistance, the Lauth Missing Persons team bring more than two decades of experience and a proven track record to the table. Our dedicated investigators will waste no time in picking up the trail of your loved one. We jump straight into fieldwork, alongside working closely with a global network of NGOs such as Interpol’s I Familia, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. We also assist families in setting up Go Fund Me campaigns—facilitating an unimpeded search and access to reward funds—so that focus can remain simply on bringing loved ones home again. Learn more by visiting lauthmissinstg.wpengine.com or by contacting us today.
At 9:00 am on September 20, 1988, a hazel-eyed 19 year-old named Tara Leigh Calico set off on a bike ride from her home in the sleepy New Mexico town of Belen. Keen cyclist Tara had borrowed her mother’s neon pink Huffy mountain bike because her own was damaged. She was last seen at 11:45 am, making her way along Highway 47 in Valencia County. When Tara left home that morning, nobody could have imagined that she would soon be classed a missing person.
Tara Calico had made plans to play tennis with her boyfriend that afternoon. Having expected her home by lunchtime, Tara’s mother Patty Doel began to worry, and decided to set out in search of her daughter. Unable to find a trace of Tara, Patty contacted the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office. Missing person investigations quickly sprung into action, and police spoke to a witness that had seen a light-colored pickup truck driving alongside Tara. They discovered broken pieces of the young woman’s Walkman and cassette tape on the roadside, but no other signs or leads were forthcoming.
A Mysterious Polariod Is Discovered
Almost a year later, in June of 1989, a shopper made an alarming discovery in Port St. Joe, Florida. Some fifteen hundred miles from where Tara Calico had gone missing, the woman found a polaroid photograph in the parking lot of a Junior Food Store. She’d noticed the small printed picture after a white Toyota van pulled away from the parking spot. To her alarm, the woman realized that it depicted a young woman and a little boy, bound and gagged in the back of a van, so she called the police.
Local police immediately began searching both for the van and the possible captives suspected to be within it. Road blocks were set up around the area, but the vehicle was never found. Having both gone cold, the two cases were not connected until July 28, when Tara’s father Joel received a call from a friend who had seen the Polaroid image on a Current Affair television show.
The Sheriff’s apartment agreed that the girl in the image shared a likeness with Tara, although they couldn’t be sure. Simultaneously, the case of missing 9 year-old, Michael Henley, was also tied to the photograph. The boy had vanished in April of that year when hunting with his father around 75 miles from the location of Tara’s disappearance.
Uncertainty And Poor Communication
The Polaroid was analyzed by both the FBI and Scotland Yard, with the former concluding that it wasn’t Tara, and the latter concluding that it was. Michael Henley’s parent’s were convinced that the Polaroid depicted their son, but their suspicions were dispelled when the boy’s remains were found in 1990, not far from where he had gone missing. Mother Patty pointed out that the girl in the image shared the same scar as Tara on the back of her right shoulder. A book by one of Tara’s favorite authors was also visible beside the girl in the van.
Adding to the anguish of Tara’s parents, two more Polaroids appeared in the years that followed; one blurrily depicting a young woman’s face, and a second showing a bound young woman with an unidentified male on an Amtrak train. The identity of the individuals in all three Polaroids has never been confirmed.
As the search continued, a diversity of false leads led missing person investigators on several wild-goose-chases in their hunt for Tara Calico. In 2008, Valencia Sheriff Rene Rivera claimed that he knew what had happened to Tara, describing witness accounts of two teenage males seen harassing Tara before knocking her from her bicycle with their vehicle. Rivera indicated that they may have disposed of her body having killed her by accident, but refused to name the suspects citing a lack of evidence. Tara’s father Joel was reportedly greatly distressed that no arrests were made.
Reaching Out For Additional Missing Person Assistance
In their quest to discover what happened to their daughter, Tara’s parents never gave up hope. Each year, they brought Tara gifts and kept her room ready, just in case she ever returned home. Tragically, both Patty and Joel passed away without ever learning what happened to their daughter. Tara’s siblings and friends continue to search for answers.
For those who face the immense burden of a missing loved one today, there are more options available when it comes to seeking missing person assistance. The team here at Lauth Investigations are ever-ready to turn expertise, cutting edge resources, and more than two decades of experience to following the trail of your missing loved one. We can also assist with establishing effective Go Fund Me campaigns, so that friends and family members can focus on the search rather than fretting about finances. New resources such as Interpol’s I Familia database also aid us in taking missing person investigations international. To discover more about how we can assist, contact our team today.
A majority of Americans have enjoyed the life-long comforts of total border security and homeland security that protect them from the threats of the outside world. Of course, most people remember where they were on 9/11 when the nation experienced a foreign terrorist attack on American soil for the first time in 60 years. However, the devastation that war conflict can bring to a nation has hundreds of unseen ripple effects. One of those is the searches for individuals who have gone missing in war conflict or during occupation by a foreign entity. When a loved one goes missing in a war zone, their family should always consider the expertise of an international missing person investigator to ensure that no important leads are missed in the search.
It may be difficult for Americans to wrap their heads around the numbers of missing person cases that can be yielded as the result of military conflict. When a loved one goes missing in a war zone, the odds of their family getting answers through typical channels are very low. The International Commission of Missing Persons (ICMP) reports that over 20,000 people remain missing in Sri Lanka following the conclusion of their civil war. Likewise, in Columbia, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) calculates the number of missing persons at 80,000 in Columbia following decades of civil war. Regardless of the conflict or the location, you can expect to find cases of tens of thousands of missing persons that have been entered into international databases.
Americans do face confusion in missing person cases following some form of natural disaster, such as the collapse of the apartment building in Florida that left dozens unaccounted for in the immediate aftermath of the incident. It took weeks for rescue crews to sift through the wreckage and identify remains of those missing following the collapse, and provide families with answers in the matter of their loved one’s fate. However, this tragic event was just that—a singular event. Imagine the impact of multiple buildings collapsing, all within days of each other, and how the problem can further be exacerbated for families who cannot account for their loved one’s recent whereabouts. These situations are only further compounded when a loved one goes missing in a war zone. In areas where residents are experiencing a high volume of military/war action, it can be impossible to find clues to their disappearance. A perfect example of a pervasive pattern of war conflict is the state of Palestine, where the region has experienced hundreds of incidents of violence perpetrated in the name of sovereignty over the state. Regardless of what side of the conflict you stand on, you’ll find families on both sides who have lost loved ones in the chaos of the occupation, and still need closure in those disappearances.
Families often seek the expertise of at least one independent missing person investigator when their loved one goes missing in war. These investigators are typically private investigators who have international license to practice. These private investigators have specialties in international investigations and have diverse methodology in approaching these cases. Private investigators are most famous for their skip-tracing services, which is an industry term for locating a person based on their footprint in the public record. The same methodology these private investigators apply to skip tracing can also be applied to the location of people missing in war zones. Private investigators also possess the boots-on-the-ground mentality and the autonomy from any state or national organization that might hinder them from following leads in a case. When a lead goes outside the country where the person is reported missing, there are no bureaucratic issues preventing a private investigator from following that lead.
If you have a loved one who has gone missing in a war zone, please reach out to Lauth Investigations International for a free consultation on how our investigators can help your family get closure. We have a glowing A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and regularly receive 5-star reviews from grateful families. Call at 317-951-1100 or visit us online at www.lauthmissinstg.wpengine.com
This July, Police confirmed that an additional £350,000 has been allocated to continue the search for internationally missing person Madeleine McCann. Only two months earlier, parents Kate and Gerrie released a statement on the Find Madeleine website, marking the 18th birthday of their daughter. Thanking all who continue to send the family positive messages, the statement read: “We hang on to the hope, however small, that we will see Madeleine again. As we have said repeatedly, we need to know what has happened to our lovely daughter, no matter what. We are very grateful to the police for their continued efforts.”
Madeline, Missing Since 2007
More than fourteen years have passed since Madeleine “Maddie” McCann went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz—a resort on the southern coast of Portugal. Madeleine and her siblings were sleeping while her parents dined with friends at a restaurant a couple of blocks away. The adults took turns going to check on the children, and when mother Kate McCann’s turn arrived, she found that her three-year-old daughter had vanished.
A sizeable and costly international missing person search has ensued in the years since Madeleine’s disappearance involving efforts from a number of European authorities spread across several countries. Speculation swirled around the case as police searched for a man seen carrying a child near the apartment—only to discover it was a false lead—and Portuguese police admitted that vital forensic clues may have been lost due to procedural failings at the scene of the disappearance. The missing girl’s parents were briefly named as suspects in the case, although their “arguido” status was lifted in 2008.
The Continuation of Operation Grange
In 2011, the UK Government launched Operation Grange in an effort to try to bring closure to the case. Two years later, British detectives announced that they had identified 41 potential suspects in the international missing person case, triggering the Portuguese police to reopen their investigation. The following year, in 2014, detectives travelled from England to Portugal to continue the search amid rumours of planned arrests, however no new developments were revealed.
Another “significant line of inquiry” was reported to have emerged in 2017, however no results were yielded. Authorities shared that Operation Grange had so far cost British taxpayers £12.5million. Three years later, in June of 2020—following yet another extension of funding—police identified convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner as a suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann. The 43-year-old German native is currently serving a sentence in his home country for drug related charges.
Those Hunting for Madeleine Hold Onto Hope
In what many consider to be the most widely known international missing person search of all time, rumours continue to cause confusion. Last year, Kate and Gerrie McCann issued a statement to address reports that the German authorities had informed them of proof that Madeleine was deceased. News of a letter containing such information turned out to be false, and the parents shared with their online following that the circulation of such misinformation had “caused unnecessary anxiety to friends and family and once again disrupted our lives.”
While the emergence of a new suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann is yet to provide clear answers to all who are closely following the case, an air of hope remains, and the international outpouring of public support for the McCann family continues to remind of humanity’s capacity for compassion—even in the face of such a terrible loss. Thomas Lauth and his team at Missing Persons Investigations Worldwide strive to bring you the latest insight on people missing abroad, as well as providing guidance on what to do when your loved one goes missing overseas. As an expert in missing children and adults worldwide, international private investigator Thomas Lauth offers assistance to those urgently looking for much needed answers. If you require support in locating a missing person, contact our team today.
While the role of an international private investigator usually revolves around people missing overseas, at times a mystery arises in another form all together. Such was the case when, in 2016, sisters Annie and Robin Korkki were found dead on the same hotel bed in the Seychelles. Both from Minnesota, U.S., the pair had been enjoying the holiday of a lifetime. When their sudden deaths both shocked and fascinated the world, it became the task of those at the helm of the case to deconstruct the perplexing circumstances that surrounded the sisters’ death, and provide much needed answers to both their family and the public.
An Unexplained Loss Of Life
On the 15th September of 2016, Annie and Robin Korkki had arrived at the Maia Luxury Resort and Spa in the Seychelles, having already journeyed through Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar. Rounding off their Africa trip with a stay at this exclusive holiday destination—where rooms are reported to have cost $2,000 a night at the time of their visit—the two women were seen making the most of the decadent setting, relaxing in the hotel’s bars.
On the night of September 21st, Anne “Annie” Korkki and Robin Korkki—37 and 42 years of age respectively—were helped by a butler to return to their room at the end of the evening. Locking the door behind them, what happened to the sisters next remains partially unclear. The following morning, as the hours passed, resort staff noticed that the door remained locked, tried to wake the women, and then reported their concern to local police. Upon investigating, the authorities discovered both of the Korkki sisters lying motionless on the bed and quickly identified them as deceased.
A Series of Strange Circumstances
News of the tragic deaths of Annie and Robin Korkki soon reached the international media, and reports emerged that medications were taken from the room as part of the investigation, but that the room was undisturbed with no signs of struggle, and that no illegal substances had been discovered. Initial postmortem results revealed that Annie Korkki’s lungs were full of fluid—described as acute pulmonary and cerebral edema—while only Robin’s lungs had been effected. While these indicators gave some clue to the circumstances of the two women’s deaths, what had triggered these symptoms remained a mystery.
Speaking with the Chicago Tribune, a forensic pathologist shared that any number of things could have caused the edema, including drugs or poisons. And yet, both of the sisters were in good health, seasoned travelers, and upstanding citizens—with the elder working as a financial trader in Chicago and the younger at a JPMorgan Chase in Denver. As media interest continued to swirl around the concerning case, the Korkki family arrived on the islands and coordinated with the local authorities and U.S. embassy to arrange bringing the bodies of their loved ones home, all the while hoping to find answers.
Some Clarity But a Sadly Sombre Conclusion
Months after the passing of Annie and Robin Korkki, a conclusive toxicology report was finally released in December of 2016. The police concluded their investigation, announcing that both Korkki sisters had died following a lethal combination of codeine, morphine, and alcohol. Their statement shared that the deaths of the sisters were determined to be accidental. While this final revelation in the Korkki case brought at least partial of closure to the sisters’ story, a degree of mystery will always remain as to how such a tragic loss of life could have come to pass. Thomas Lauth and his team at Missing Persons Investigations Worldwide strive to bring you the latest insight on people missing abroad, and guidance on what to do when your loved one goes missing overseas. As an expert in missing children and adults worldwide, international private investigator Thomas Lauth offers the highest caliber of assistance to those who need it most. If you require support in locating a missing person, contact our team today to learn more.
