Abducted child's mother now works for prevention.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

JUNCTION CITY - Arkansas mother Colleen Nick doesn't find much comfort in knowing that child abductions by a stranger are extremely rare.

Her 6-year-old daughter, Morgan, vanished eight years ago after going to catch lightning bugs at a ballpark while her mother watched a Little League game in a town about the same size as Junction City. The case remains unsolved.

Now Nick travels the country training local police departments on how best to respond when children go missing - and training parents how to protect their children from abduction.

As many as 3,000 to 5,000 children are abducted by nonfamily members each year, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Most of those are short-term, sexually motivated abductions, but 100 or more each year end in long-term abduction or death.

Morgan Nick was last seen about 10:45 p.m. on June 9, 1995, emptying sand from her shoes beside her mother's car in the parking lot of a park in Alma, Ark., according to a summary on her foundation's Web site. Witnesses reported seeing a man watching the girl as she was playing with other children. They also saw a red Ford pickup with a white camper that disappeared from the parking lot at about the same time Morgan did.

Junction City Police Chief Ken Hancock invited Nick to train his officers, after hearing her speak at a seminar at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He wants the training even though he knows of no unsolved child abductions in this town of 5,000. He wants his department to do all it can to keep things that way.

But he also wanted the community to benefit from her hard-earned wisdom. He particularly wanted them to hear Nick's message that parents - as well as children - need to resist peer pressure and remain true to their own standards.

"That was one of the main issues I faced the night my daughter was kidnapped," Nick said by phone, in advance of speaking at Junction City High School Tuesday night. "We were sitting on the bleachers together when some kids asked her to go catch lightning bugs. I told her it was late, it was dark, it was probably not a good idea. But other parents said, `Oh, it's perfectly safe - kids play here all the time.' '

Had she listened to her own instincts, that night would not have been the last time she saw her daughter. Nick said she remains hopeful that she will one day find her daughter, who would now be 15.

"I feel it with my heart and I believe that Morgan's alive," she said, noting that she was buoyed by last year's safe recovery of Utah resident Elizabeth Smart. "But what we want to do here is prevent other abductions from happening," she said.

Hancock said one way his department hopes to do so is by raising parents' awareness of Internet stalking of children.

"If we surveyed every home in this town in terms of what was going on regarding the Internet, I know there would be some inappropriate contact," he said. "That's certainly something that can be corrected or at least minimized with some education of parents."

COLLEEN NICK APPEARANCE

The mother of a missing child speaks to local parents

When: Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Where: Junction City High School gym

Information: Junction City Police Department, 998-1245; Morgan Nick Foundation, www.morgannick.com; National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, www.missingkids.com