Digging stops after nothing found in Morgan Nick search

BOONEVILLE (AP) -- After hours of digging, police gave up the attempted search for a body on a private piece of land Tuesday night.

Police had used a backhoe to dig on the property near Booneville after giving considerable weight to a tip that a girl missing since 1995 might be buried there.

A police dog was also brought out in an attempt to find Morgan Nick, who disappeared from an Alma Little League Baseball Park on June 9, 1995. She was 6 at the time.

But police gave up the effort by about 9:30 p.m. and said they did not plan to return.

The tip, which included a name, led officers to Logan County. Because the tip was so specific, investigators decided to dig in an attempt to find the girl. Police have previously pursued thousands of empty leads.

Officers said the owner of the property searched Tuesday had nothing to do with the girl's disappearance

Morgan vanished after going to catch fireflies with two young friends. A man in a red pickup talked to the children moments before the 6-year-old vanished, but few solid clues have surfaced since.

Since the girl's disappearance, her mother Colleen Nick has helped set up a statewide abduction notification system and a support system for parents of abducted children. Nick also was appointed Tuesday to a state crime victims reparations panel.