It has now been a year since anyone has seen or heard from Megan Nichols, a Fairfield, Ill. teen who went missing from her home on the evening of July 3, 2014. Megan was 15 at the time. Her mother, Kathy Jo Hutchcraft, reported her missing around 1 a.m. on the Fourth of July last year.
Friday night, family, friends and members of the community gathered at the First Baptist Church in Fairfield for a prayer circle and balloon launch to mark the one-year anniversary of her disappearance. It was the second community prayer service for Megan since she vanished, and police say they are no closer to finding her than they were a year ago.
What police know for sure is that surveillance video from a local bank showed her riding her bicycle up to an ATM and withdrawing money shortly before her reported disappearance.
With evidence of the cash withdrawal and some notes left at home, police were convinced in the beginning that she had simply run away from home.
But, as authorities interviewed and re-interviewed family members, current and former boyfriends and classmates, the case became more puzzling. Fairfield Police Chief Keith Colclasure thought at one point that if things were bad at home, Megan may have tried to reach out to her biological father, David Jackson Nichols.
As it turns out, the search for Megan’s father wouldn’t be easy. He was an “out of compliance” sex offender and it would take the resources of the U.S. Marshals Service to track him down. Located in Oklahoma, Marshals questioned Megan’s father and found no evidence that he knew anything about her whereabouts.
Leads about Megan’s whereabouts have poured in from around the country, said Chief Colclasure. At one point, a woman in custody in an out-of-state jurisdiction claimed she was Megan. Police said she bore a striking resemblance to Megan. A further investigation revealed the woman made up the story after reading about the case on the Internet … another dead end.
Tipsters have spotted girls looking like Megan in bus stations, restaurants, shopping malls and truck stops. Every lead has been followed up with zero results.
Then, this spring, Colclasure reached out to Illinois State Police detectives to take a fresh look at the case. A team of seasoned detectives re-interviewed everyone close to Megan, executed search warrants at a number of locations, and even re-interviewed Megan’s biological father. The results were the same — no credible information about Megan’s whereabouts or clear details about the night she disappeared emerged.
A $5,000 cash reward is being offered for information leading to the location of Megan. The money came from a series of cookouts and bake sales. A Prayer Circle for Megan Facebook page has more than 5,200 members as the search for the search for the missing teen continues.
Family and friends continue to pray for Megan’s safe return. Unfortunately, leads about Megan’s whereabouts have slowed to a trickle.
No one likes to discuss it, but investigators have entered Megan’s DNA and dental records into a national database in the event she is the victim of foul play. If you have any information about the whereabouts of Megan Nichols, you are asked to call the Wayne County Crime Stoppers Hotline at 618-842-9777.