Megan Nichols: Missing from Fairfield, IL (SOLVED)

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OCTOBER 5, 2023: “He found out his best friend was a murder suspect — and then wore a wire for the FBI“

OCTOBER 11, 2020: Police arrested Brodey Ian Murbarger, 24, on October 7, 2020, for the murder of Megan Nichols.

FEBRUARY 4, 2018: The body of Megan Nichols was found on December 26, 2017, and later identified as belonging to Megan Nichols. May she finally rest in peace. 🙁

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This is a newer case – from 2014. I have one main reason for writing it. I want more exposure to Megan because I don’t feel her case is getting the attention it deserves.

On July 3, 2014, 15-year-old Megan Nichols vanished from her Fairfield, Illinois home and has not been seen since. Her mother, Kathy Jo Hutchcraft, last saw her daughter around 10:30 p.m. at their home, which Megan also shared with her step-dad, Jerod Hutchcraft. At 11:15 p.m., Kathy headed to bed and decided to walk into Megan’s room and give her a kiss goodnight.

Megan wasn’t there.

Kathy reported her daughter missing at 1:00 a.m. on July 4, 2014.

Kathy later found a note from Megan saying she would never be happy at home and that she had to leave. She also instructed her family not to look for her. In addition to the note, Megan’s cell phone was still at home and wiped clean.

Police collected surveillance videos from local businesses and discovered Megan had withdrawn money from a local bank while on her bicycle before her disappearance. This led authorities to believe Megan ran away from home initially. However, Kathy insists Megan was happy at home and would not do something like that.

Early in the investigation, police believed Megan might have gone to Oklahoma to meet her biological father, Jackson Nichols. However, after interviewing him, they do not believe he knows of Megan’s whereabouts.

There have been several sightings of Megan since she went missing, but she has not been found.

Police Agency:
Fairfield Police Department
618-842-2151
Case #: 0704201401232
or
the NCMEC at 1-800-The-Lost
NCMEC Case # 1234891

True Crime Diva’s Thoughts

I do not believe Megan is a runaway. Most teens run away because of an unhappy and/or abusive situation at home. This was not the case for Megan. I think that if she had left on her own accord, she would have made contact with her family by now, and she hasn’t.  Megan had many friends and was close to her family, so there really isn’t a reason for her to run away unless she was hiding something she was ashamed of, like pregnancy or sexual assault. Maybe she was; we don’t know.

Megan withdrew money, but left her phone and clothes behind? What about her purse? Any other personal belongings?

So she withdrew money. Big deal. Yes, it does make me wonder why she did that, but it doesn’t mean she would run away from home. Maybe she was going to make a purchase. Maybe that cash is tied in somehow with someone who took her. For example, maybe Megan met someone online and used the cash to see him. Or she was going to buy something from a person she met online.

And the note? You can’t rule out that she could have been forced to write it.  The note itself doesn’t sound like Megan. According to her mom, she was very happy at home. I think people who knew her the best would know.

Megan’s phone was left behind and wiped clean. This could be because she was receiving strange calls and messages from an unknown person. If she did not leave of her own free will, the abductor could have cleaned up the phone for her.

Even if she did perform the factory reset on her phone herself, that alone does not delete everything from a phone. She would have to encrypt the phone first, assuming she had an Android, and then perform a factory reset. At least that’s how it was when Megan disappeared. Would Megan have known to do this? I doubt it. If she had an iPhone, that includes hardware encryption, making it harder to recover data. Seeing how she was initially labeled a runaway, did the police even bother to check her phone with forensic software?

Most kids have access to a computer or tablet at home. Did LE check any such items at Megan’s house?

Like with all missing person cases, the rumor mill goes out of control. Some people think her boyfriend at the time knows where she is, even though he’s denied that this whole time. Others believe her biological dad knows her location. In one forum, a poster said that her biological father, Jackson Nichols, was a sex offender, so I checked it out. He is a non-compliant child sex offender in Illinois, resulting from an incident when he was 18. His victim was 14. I looked him up online, and he is now a comedian or entertainer. I don’t think he has anything to do with Megan’s disappearance, but you never know.

Some also think her own mother knows more than she’s saying; however, I do not believe that at all.

Here’s my theory on what happened to Megan. I think it’s possible that Megan was in contact with someone online who was posing as a “friend” to lure her offline. This person could be a human trafficker or just some lone individual.

I personally think it could be a sex trafficking case.

At the time of Megan’s disappearance, she was slim, had blonde hair, and was only 15. Prime taking for a sex trafficker. Blonde American girls sell for quite a bit of cash in the human trafficking market overseas. If Megan had blue eyes instead of hazel, she would sell for even more.

A website called backpage.com is a hub for traffickers to post ads for people looking for girls. It’s like craigslist, only sleazier.  I checked it out and noticed there is a Carbondale section. Carbondale is not very far from Fairfield. Maybe Megan met someone through there for a modeling gig or something like that. Traffickers are also known to approach young girls on the streets, even in smaller communities, posing as a modeling scout. Maybe something like that happened to Megan.

I just hope Megan is found soon. But if she is a victim of human trafficking, that will probably never happen. Part of me hopes she ran away. At least then, there’s a better chance she’s still alive.