Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
E269: The Fort Worth Trio
0 Plays2 seconds ago
It was just two days before Christmas in 1974 in Fort Worth, Texas, a time usually filled with holiday cheer and last-minute shopping rushes. Seventeen-year-old Rachel Trlica, 14-year-old Renee Wilson, and 9-year-old Julie Ann Moseley headed to the bustling Seminary South Shopping Center with plans to pick up gifts and be home in time for holiday parties. They parked the car, ready for an afternoon of shopping. But as the hours ticked by, the girls never returned. When worried family members arrived at the mall that evening, a chilling scene awaited them: the girls' car was found abandoned in the parking lot, but Rachel, Renee, and Julie were gone.
Fifty years later, the disappearance of the Fort Worth Trio remains one of Texas's most inexplicable cold cases. How could three girls, ranging in age from a teenager to a young child, vanish without a trace from a public place on a busy day? Despite thousands of leads, extensive searches, and heartbreaking decades of waiting, the mystery endures.
Check out Gone Cold Podcast episodes on the case, presented from December 2020 through January 2021.
If you are interested in bonus content for our show or in getting some Coffee and Cases swag, please consider joining Patreon. There are various levels to fit your needs, all of which can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/coffeeandcases
Recommended
Transcript
Childhood Christmas Shopping Memories
00:00:00
Speaker
When I was younger, I remember the thrill of going Christmas shopping. My mom or my dad would give me money to buy gifts for other loved ones, and I would want to spend hours looking through all the stores in the local mall to find just the right present.
00:00:16
Speaker
It had to be meaningful, but it also had to fit into my small budget. It was difficult, but it was so exciting. When I was a teenager and started using my own money that I had earned from babysitting or in later years of high school from working at the local bank, I was even more conscientious and thoughtful.
00:00:37
Speaker
The work put into every dollar became more clear. Regardless of where the money came from though, given to me or earned, it never diminished the joy I felt in gifting.
00:00:50
Speaker
It
The Fort Worth Trio Mystery Intro
00:00:51
Speaker
made me just as excited for Christmas as the dreams of what I myself would receive. And it is likely with the same attitude that three young girls went to the mall two days before Christmas to pick up some last minute gifts.
00:01:06
Speaker
But these three young girls never got the joy of watching a loved one's face light up while opening their gift, nor to open any of their own, because they simply vanished.
00:01:19
Speaker
This is the case of the Fort Worth Trio.
Podcast Purpose: Unsolved Cases
00:01:58
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:02:18
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases Podcast, because, as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive.
00:02:31
Speaker
So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
Girls' Disappearance on Christmas Shopping Trip
00:02:36
Speaker
The morning of December 23rd, 1974 dawned in Fort Worth, Texas, just two days before Christmas, carrying the air of growing excitement for the holiday season.
00:02:48
Speaker
For three girls, Mary Rachel Trelisa, Lisa Renee Wilson, and Julianne Mosley, it began like any other day, but it wouldn't end that way.
00:03:01
Speaker
Their plan was simple, a last-minute Christmas shopping trip to the bustling Seminary South Shopping Center. But before I tell you about the day in question, I want to give you a brief description of the three girls involved in this week's case.
Profiles of Rachel, Renee, and Julie
00:03:16
Speaker
The oldest of the group, 17-year-old Mary Rachel Trelisa, was a married high school student at Southwest High School. Known by her middle name, Rachel, she stood five feet, six inches tall and weighed 108 pounds.
00:03:34
Speaker
She had long brown hair and green eyes. Distinctive features included a chipped upper front tooth and a small scar on her chin. She had been married to her husband, Tommy Trelisa, for about six months at the time, and she wore a wedding ring.
00:03:51
Speaker
The vehicle for the day's outing was Rachel's 1972 Oldsmobile 98, which she shared with her husband, Tommy. They only had one vehicle between them.
00:04:03
Speaker
And yes, sleuth hounds, I realize that Rachel is a bit young to already be married, but from my research, she had not had the best home life and several sources, including research done by Vincent on the Gone Cold podcast, who has done a deep dive on this case and interviewed several family members for his coverage, which I highly suggest you check out after you listen to this episode.
00:04:32
Speaker
Her father, Cotton, could be violent. So it makes sense to me when she felt she was in love that she would have been eager to get married and move to a house of her own.
00:04:47
Speaker
As a side note, Rachel's husband, Tommy, has some background that I'll go ahead and share now. First, Tommy had actually dated and been engaged to Rachel's sister, Deborah, prior to dating and marrying Rachel.
00:05:06
Speaker
Also, Tommy had a child with another woman and had time sharing. This meant that 17-year-old Rachel not only married young, but had become an instant mom in doing so.
00:05:19
Speaker
ah final detail to share here is that in December 1974, Deborah, Rachel's sister who had previously been engaged to Rachel's now husband, Tommy,
00:05:30
Speaker
was temporarily living with Rachel and Tommy as she was having difficulties with her then boyfriend. Tommy and Deborah have both maintained though that the relationship between them was not serious by the time Rachel married Tommy.
00:05:48
Speaker
Joining Rachel was her close friend, 14-year-old Lisa Renee Wilson. Like Rachel, she was known by her middle name Renee. Renee was fair-skinned, shorter than Rachel at 5 feet 2 inches, and weighed around 110 pounds.
00:06:03
Speaker
She had light, wavy brown hair and brown eyes. She also had a scar. Hers was on the inside of one of her thighs. That morning, Renee was dressed in bluish purple hip hugger pants and a pullover sweatshirt with sweet honesty emblazoned in green letters.
00:06:22
Speaker
She wore red and white sneakers. On her finger, she also wore a special ring. It wasn't a wedding band like Rachel, but Renee wore a promise ring with intertwining dolphins and a single clear stone.
00:06:37
Speaker
This promise ring held particular significance as her boyfriend, Terry Mosley, who lived across the street from Renee's grandmother where she was spending the morning, had just given it to her that morning.
00:06:51
Speaker
Renee and Terry had grown up together and their relationship had progressed beyond just neighborhood buddies into young love. This ring was meant as a symbol of that love and one that Terry was so excited to give Renee that he couldn't even wait until Christmas.
00:07:08
Speaker
Heck, he couldn't even wait until the Christmas party that they were both to attend that evening of December 23rd. He had gone over to Renee's grandmother's and given it to Renee early that morning before he left to visit a sick friend.
00:07:24
Speaker
The youngest and most last minute addition to the group was nine-year-old Julie Ann Mosley. She was Terry Mosley's, Renee's boyfriend's younger sister and a neighborhood child known to Renee's family. Remember that Renee's grandmother lived right across the street from the Mosley family.
00:07:45
Speaker
Julie was small for her age at four feet, to three inches, and she weighed 85 pounds. She had shoulder length, sandy blonde or light brown hair and blue eyes.
00:07:56
Speaker
Distinctive marks included a small scar under her left eye, a scar in the middle of her forehead and a round scar on the back of her calf. On the day she disappeared, she was wearing a red shirt, dark jeans, and red tennis shoes.
00:08:13
Speaker
Julie's inclusion on the shopping trip was a quote, total fluke, end quote, according to her brother Terry. Renee had initially wanted Terry to join them. This is her boyfriend.
00:08:27
Speaker
But he had decided to visit a friend who was going to the hospital that day instead. And he didn't really want renege on that commitment. Terry's sister Janet was also asked to accompany Rachel and Renee on the shopping trip, but she too declined to go.
00:08:44
Speaker
Terry had been out front of his house with his two sisters, Janet and Julianne, and also with a neighborhood friend when Rachel and Renee drove over to ask Terry and Janet specifically to go shopping.
00:08:58
Speaker
even though Terry and Janet declined. I did hear on the Gone Cold podcast that Janet and her friend had made arrangements that they would come to the mall around noon and meet up with Rachel and Renee then.
00:09:12
Speaker
When Terry and Janet's younger sister, nine-year-old Julie, overheard Renee talking about the mall trip, she desperately wanted to tag along, whining about how she wouldn't have anybody to play with if she stayed home and she didn't want to be alone.
00:09:29
Speaker
Renee agreed, but instructed Julie to get permission from her mother first. Julie called her mother, Rayanne Mosley, who was working for an electrical contractor at the time.
00:09:41
Speaker
Rayanne initially said no because Julie didn't have any money, but Julie, quote, kept on and kept on, end quote. Rayanne had just recently gotten this job and she knew it wouldn't look good to stay on the phone arguing with her daughter, so she eventually agreed.
00:10:00
Speaker
Rayanne had initially been hesitant because while she knew Renee and Renee's family, she didn't really know Rachel. When she thought about it more, though, she did trust Renee.
00:10:13
Speaker
So that's why finally, after a lot of convincing, Rayanne agreed that Julie could go, but she told her to be home by six o'clock.
00:10:24
Speaker
This decision to allow Julianne to tag along would tragically haunt Rayanne Mosley for the rest of her life. Her son Terry, Julianne's older brother and Renee's boyfriend, later stated, quote, my mom beat herself to death the rest of her life after saying yes that one time, end quote, according to an article by Fox 7 Austin written by Angela Shin.
Unfolding Events Leading to Disappearance
00:10:52
Speaker
The group had plans and deadlines. Renee wanted to be back by 4 p.m., long before the stipulated 6 p.m. for Julie, to have plenty of time to get ready for a Christmas party that she was going to attend with her boyfriend, Terry.
00:11:08
Speaker
She was so concerned with getting ready for the party, in fact, that she had left strict instructions for her mother to pick her up at 4 p.m. from her grandmother's house and not to be late.
00:11:20
Speaker
Rachel's brother, Rusty Arnold, also mentioned that they were not expected to be home until around 4 p.m. for a party. So I'm wondering if Rachel was to also attend this same party as well.
00:11:34
Speaker
For this reason, Julianne's curfew of 6 p.m. seemed no problem at all. The plans were now set. It would give the girls about four hours to rent up to all the stores they needed to shop at at the mall.
00:11:48
Speaker
The three girls had one stop to make before Seminary South Shopping Center, and then they would get there right in time to meet Janet and her friend at noon. You see, it was just a little before noon on December 23rd, 1974, that Rachel had picked up Renee and Julie in her Oldsmobile.
00:12:06
Speaker
Rachel's husband, Tommy, who worked at the same transmission shop as Rachel's father, had, according to Gone Cold, been picked up that morning for work by either Rachel's father alone or Rachel's mother and father together.
00:12:20
Speaker
They have vouched for that fact because, remember, Tommy and Rachel shared a car and Rachel had wanted to do some last-minute shopping in that car. According to information from Uncovered.com, when Rachel picked up Renee, Renee had brought a small gift-wrapped present for Rachel's two-year-old stepson, Sean, that her grandmother had bought to give to Rachel.
00:12:45
Speaker
After picking up Renee and then Julianne, that first stop they made was to a surplus store in Fort Worth, which has been described as an Army-Navy surplus store.
00:12:55
Speaker
They went there to pick up some layaway items, specifically jeans that either Rachel or Renee or both had placed on layaway. Some sources say Renee had the layaway. Other sources say it was Rachel.
00:13:08
Speaker
According to several interviews with Terry Mosley, though, it was Renee who had some jeans on layaway at the surplus store. So that's the version that I'm going to assume was true. Sources state that Renee changed into one of the two pair of jeans that she bought in the dressing room at the surplus store and that she placed her discarded jeans in Rachel's trunk.
00:13:29
Speaker
A worker at the surplus store recalled the girls and Renee picking up the layaway items. I'm also going to assume here that some form of identification or proof, even if it was just, hey, give me a description of your layaway items, would have been given for retrieval because my research states that this stop to the surplus store is the last verified sighting of the three girls.
00:13:58
Speaker
From the surplus store, the trio headed directly to their primary destination, the Seminary South Shopping Center at 4200 South Freeway in Fort Worth.
00:14:09
Speaker
Today, it is the La Grande Plaza or Fort Worth Town Center. Rachel parked her car on the upper level parking lot near the Sears outlet. Even then, the shopping center would have been a vibrant, bustling place, especially since it was just two days before Christmas.
00:14:27
Speaker
The mall hours were actually extended to 11 p.m. and it was likely The air inside would have been thick with the festive scents of seasonal candles and food court offerings, underscored by the murmur of shoppers, the rustle of bags, and perhaps the distant sound of carols, or at least talk of Christmas plans.
00:14:48
Speaker
Those details, though, would have been in contrast to the temperature on that day, which was unseasonably warm, going up to around 76 degrees.
00:14:59
Speaker
Several witnesses would later report seeing the girls inside the mall throughout the afternoon, although these sightings do remain unconfirmed. One young man, an acquaintance of Rachel's, claimed he saw the three girls in and the record department of a store inside the mall on the day they disappeared and that he had spoken briefly with Rachel.
00:15:21
Speaker
He also claimed another person appeared to be with the girls. Other eyewitnesses reported seeing them together inside the mall and even waving to a friend as they exited the building via Sears.
00:15:34
Speaker
However, the reason many of these sightings are thrown into doubt is because when Terry's sister Janet and her friend got to the mall around noon, they went to the previously decided upon location to meet up with Rachel, Renee, and Julianne, but the three girls never showed up.
00:15:51
Speaker
Had they been at the mall, as eyewitnesses said, we have to wonder why the trio didn't go to meet up with their friends. I mean, in a basic sense, we do know that the three made it into the mall from Rachel's car, which was left in the parking structure.
00:16:10
Speaker
What I did not see in any of my research, though, were the times when these supposed sightings had occurred. Had they occurred also around noon, then perhaps all of these sightings could be true.
00:16:24
Speaker
If they were to have happened later than that, I'm more doubtful of the sightings because in my mind, they would have wanted to meet up with Janet and her friend, especially because Rachel and Renee had wanted Janet to join them just an hour or so earlier As the afternoon wore on, the scheduled return times came and went.
The Missing Girls and Initial Search Efforts
00:16:45
Speaker
Four o'clock passed and Renee did not arrive home to get ready for the Christmas party that she was so excited to attend. Six o'clock, Julie's curfew also arrived with no sign of the girls.
00:16:59
Speaker
The initial cheerful anticipation began to curdle into a quiet, then rapidly escalating dread. The families became increasingly concerned and began calling around, hoping maybe the girls had gone to one or the other's house or had lost track of time.
00:17:17
Speaker
Terry Mosley stayed home by the phone, designated as the contact person in case anyone called with information, while the rest of the family went out to search. Luckily, because of the curfews and the earlier planned return time, the families mobilized quickly.
00:17:35
Speaker
It was just shortly after 6 p.m. that family members traveled to Seminary South Shopping Center to look for the girls. It was there in the Sears upper level parking lot that they found Rachel's car.
00:17:49
Speaker
The car was locked, seemingly undisturbed, parked right where the girls had left it earlier that day. There seemed to be nothing disturbed around the vehicle either.
00:18:01
Speaker
No items on the ground to indicate there had been a struggle. Investigators would later come to believe that the girls made it back to their car at some point during the afternoon, presumably to drop off their purchases. But again, the specific timeline and what happened after they were supposedly seen inside the mall, it all remains shrouded in mystery.
00:18:24
Speaker
I also don't know if I believe that they did return to the car before they disappeared because none of the sources mentioned any bags from stores in the mall. I saw a mention of a gift in the back of the car, but that would likely have been the gift that Renee had brought with her for Rachel's young stepson.
00:18:45
Speaker
What seemed most important at the time, though, was that there was no sign of the girls. Panic began to set in among the families gathering at the mall. They stayed at the shopping center all night, waiting in desperate hope that the girls would simply reappear.
00:19:02
Speaker
Rachel's mother, Frances Langston, and her 11-year-old son, Rusty Arnold, went through every store in the mall before it closed, and they asked them all to page the girls over the intercom.
00:19:13
Speaker
but there was no response. Judy Wilson, Renee's mother, frantically called local hospitals and the police. As I mentioned before, the mall had extended hours that day until 11 p.m., which had a significant impact on the case.
00:19:30
Speaker
You see, the parents had asked for a security guard to come out to the car, but according to a family interview on Gone Cold, they were told he couldn't come out until all the stores were closed.
00:19:41
Speaker
In a poignant display of protection and despair, Richard Wilson, Renee's father, and a friend of his went down to the shopping center armed with shotguns guarding the car.
00:19:52
Speaker
They didn't want anyone to return and disturb it if there were any evidence there. When the girls still failed to turn up, the police were formally called.
00:20:03
Speaker
The case was quickly assigned to the youth division of the Fort Worth Police Department's Missing Persons Bureau. Like so many cases Maggie and I have covered, especially ones in the 70s as this case was, missing person cases, even those of youths, were not taken seriously from the get-go.
00:20:22
Speaker
In this case also, authorities initially treated the girls as runaways. This early classification as runaways significantly hampered the investigation as the case was not pursued with the urgency of an abduction in the crucial initial hours and days.
00:20:39
Speaker
Plus, even more critically in terms of evidence, The car was not immediately processed, nor was it thoroughly dusted for fingerprints. In fact, reporter David Thompson, in an article published on December 23rd, 2024, stated that the car was returned to Rachel's husband, Tommy, only a day later.
00:21:02
Speaker
The police took their initial findings to the local press, and the early morning edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1974, covered the story.
00:21:14
Speaker
But it stated that police had no reason to suspect foul play, though they did note that none of the girls had ever been reported as runaways before, and that their parents insisted that it was unlike them.
00:21:29
Speaker
We'll talk more about the family's feelings on this when we get to the theories.
00:21:41
Speaker
Then on the morning of December 24th, 1974, Christmas Eve, another strange and unsettling development occurred.
The Mysterious Letter and Its Doubts
00:21:50
Speaker
A letter arrived in the mail at Rachel and Tommy Trelisa's residence that was purportedly from Rachel herself.
00:21:59
Speaker
Most sources state that Tommy himself retrieved it from the mailbox. However, one source states that a private detective later believed it was Deborah who retrieved the letter.
00:22:10
Speaker
But in most cases, Deborah said she saw Tommy go to the mailbox, but she didn't see him get the letter out. However, when he came in and opened the letter, she saw the look of shock on his face.
00:22:24
Speaker
It was at this moment that Deborah immediately took the letter and envelope to her parents. Again, the letter was purportedly from Rachel herself, but everything about the letter was odd, from its contents to the physical letter itself.
00:22:42
Speaker
The envelope, oddly addressed in pencil, bore a formal address sent to Thomas A. Trelisa. This immediately struck Rachel's family as peculiar because she affectionately referred to her husband as Tommy.
00:23:00
Speaker
That was weird. I don't know what wife, let alone a young one, writing to her husband would write out the formal name, including middle initial. In the upper left-hand corner of the envelope, it just had the name Rachel, which was scrawled there.
00:23:18
Speaker
The stamp on the envelope had been canceled that very morning, December 24th, 1974. The postmark itself was frustratingly vague, containing no city and only ah I'll call it blurred, zip code that appeared to be 76083. Sleuthown's,
00:23:39
Speaker
that final number, three, seemed backward. potentially indicating a hand-loaded stamp, or perhaps it was a partial 8, and the other side hadn't been pressed down hard enough into the ink to fully imprint the number.
00:23:58
Speaker
Investigators assume the zip code could have been from Eliasville, Texas, or 76088 Weatherford, Texas. Looking at an image of the letter, the middle O might also not have been fully printed and could be, additionally, 76683 76688. Inside peculiar envelope single sheet paper, wider than the envelope itself.
00:24:21
Speaker
inside the peculiar envelope was a single sheet of paper wider than the envelope itself Unlike the envelope, which was written in pencil, the letter was written in ballpoint ink.
00:24:36
Speaker
The message read, quote, I know I'm going to catch it, but we had to get away. We're going to Houston. See you in about a week. The car is in Sears Upper Lot.
00:24:49
Speaker
Love, Rachel, end quote. The handwriting of the letter was described as, quote, childish scrawl, end quote, by law enforcement.
00:25:01
Speaker
It was signed just as the envelope with Rachel's name, but here on the letter itself, her name appeared to have been misspelled with the L written initially as a second lowercase e like R-A-C-H-E-E,
00:25:21
Speaker
but then had been gone over to correct that final e to the L that it should have been. I also want you to see the envelope and letter sleuth hounds because to me, the handwriting on the outer envelope and the handwriting on the letter are different.
00:25:41
Speaker
For example, the name Thomas Trelisa is written as a printed t followed by the name and cursive on the envelope but with the loop of the H starting near the bottom of the letter.
00:25:55
Speaker
In the letter itself, the word the is written with a cursive T and with the loop of the H's starting in the middle of the letter. Despite the letter being signed by Rachel,
00:26:10
Speaker
I'm using air quotes there. The families of the girls immediately and vehemently doubted its authenticity. Rachel's parents and Tommy publicly questioned if it was her handwriting.
00:26:23
Speaker
Handwriting experts from across the nation, including the FBI, were consulted over the subsequent decades, but yielded inconclusive results regarding the letter's legitimacy.
00:26:35
Speaker
I wonder also about the fact that the letter stamp was canceled on the same day it was received. Is that even possible? Apparently, it could be.
00:26:46
Speaker
Another theory suggests that the zip code actually reads 7603B, indicating that it was mailed from Fort Worth to Fort Worth.
00:26:59
Speaker
A United States Postal Service later declared that the letter had in fact been mailed from Fort Worth itself. And there was a post office near Seminary South that could have processed and delivered it the next day.
00:27:17
Speaker
But there are further questions. If the letter were written by Rachel, were the red flags of the formal address and the misspelling of Rachel's own name to be signs that she were truly in trouble?
00:27:31
Speaker
Did any of the girls know someone in Houston? And if traveling somewhere, why wouldn't she have taken her own car? And if this were a note for her husband because she knew he would need the car, why wouldn't she have dropped the car off at home rather than leaving it at the mall?
00:27:50
Speaker
Or better yet, call Tommy to explain this rather than mailing a letter." And even if Rachel didn't want to call, surely Renee would have called her boyfriend Terry to explain why she wouldn't be at the party or Julianne would have called to explain why she wouldn't be at home.
00:28:10
Speaker
But the letter said they'd be gone about a week until after Christmas. If this were the plan, then why have they gone Christmas shopping in the first place?
00:28:23
Speaker
More powerful than the handwriting analysis was the family's deep intuition and knowledge of the girls. Quote, I know my daughter and I know those other girls and they are not runaways, end quote, stated Julie's mother, Rayanne Mosley, to Joe Nolan of Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
00:28:41
Speaker
Renee's mother, Judy Wilson, was equally adamant in an article for Victoria Advocate saying, quote, I could have told you that night that they didn't run away. Renee wanted to go to that party and nine-year-old is going to run off two days before Christmas.
00:29:00
Speaker
Everybody knows that, end quote. Sandy Harkam, Julie's aunt, echoed the sentiment in an interview with Angela Shen of Fox 7 Austin, asking incredulously, quote, why would they take a nine-year-old girl to Houston, end quote.
00:29:19
Speaker
Terry Mosley, also in an interview with Angela Shin, highlighted the timing, again saying, quote, most kids don't want to run off right before Christmas, end quote.
00:29:31
Speaker
I agree with all of these family members 100%. one hundred percent No nine-year-old is going to run off willingly only two days before Christmas.
00:29:42
Speaker
Some family members, like Rachel's mother, Frances Langston, believed from the beginning that the girls had been abducted. Frances told Benny Fisher of Fort Worth Star-Telegram, quote, a lot of people may think they left with someone they knew, but I'll always think, until the day I die, that the girls were taken, end quote.
00:30:03
Speaker
In one development, though this didn't happen until decades later, investigators did retrieve DNA from that letter. While some DNA was found on the letter, though, testing against databases and the DNA of the three girls yielded no match as of various points of the investigation, including between 2001 and 2010.
00:30:28
Speaker
The families actually felt the letter was likely a red herring, a cruel attempt meant to mislead investigators. And sadly, it seemed to support the initial police belief in their runaway theory.
00:30:43
Speaker
As the only piece of physical evidence in the case, the letter became the primary piece of evidence. With more recent advances in DNA technology, the families do hope for retesting using more advanced techniques, including familial DNA, to potentially identify the author.
00:31:04
Speaker
Questions also remain about whether other individuals who handled the letter, postal workers, family members who received it, were tested for DNA comparison. Terry Mosley told Dateline of the letter, quote, I don't understand the letter at all. The letter seems to me like it almost points to someone who knew them.
00:31:23
Speaker
People say it's to throw us off the track. Throw us off of what track?
Theories and Suspicions About the Letter's Origin
00:31:28
Speaker
There has never been any track. I don't know if we will ever know what happened, end quote.
00:31:36
Speaker
The fact that the letter though actually stated the car's true location in the Sears upper lot is a significant detail. If it were not written by one of the girls, how would the person who wrote it know where Rachel's car was unless the person had been watching them or they were taken while trying to get to their car?
00:32:00
Speaker
I also wonder why a perpetrator would even mention the car or its location unless, again, to throw off law enforcement as if the car itself were an important clue or a location and it wasn't.
00:32:14
Speaker
But if they were taken, why was there no ransom demand or any other indication that they were taken for a reason? Why write this letter or force one of the girls to write it?
00:32:28
Speaker
Some theories have pointed closer to home, suggesting a family member might have been involved in writing or arranging the letter, possibly to cover up their own involvement or misplace some suspicion.
00:32:41
Speaker
Rusty Arnold, Rachel's brother, reportedly initially suspected his sister Deborah might have been involved, an accusation that Deborah vehemently denies. More recently, a woman came forward claiming her father forced her to write the letter, providing details about her proximity to Renee's family and alleging her father was trying to cover something up.
00:33:03
Speaker
Police reportedly obtained her DNA for comparison to the DNA found on the letter. I didn't see anything about results. Other speculative theories include the possibility that the nine-year-old Julie wrote it due to the, quote, childish scrawl, end quote, that law enforcement noted and potential handwriting nuances.
00:33:26
Speaker
There's another theory that Renee wrote the letter and potentially made the mistake on the ending of Rachel's name resembling her own name. with an e E at the end. Like if she were writing fast, she's normally writing the e E at the end and perhaps did the same while writing Rachel's name and then later changing that final E to the L.
00:33:53
Speaker
A further rumor or theory is that Tommy was involved in some way. This theory especially grew in popularity after one handwriting expert said the handwriting on the letter and envelope shared similarities with Tommy's handwriting.
00:34:06
Speaker
But Rachel's parents have vouched that Tommy, left without a car since Rachel had it to go shopping, was at the shop working that day. I don't want to go too deeply into any of these particular rumors or theories because we have no proof of family involvement and they've been through enough already.
00:34:28
Speaker
I personally don't feel the handwriting instead of a nine-year-old. I don't even know if I would call the handwriting childish scrawl in the first place. And if it were written by Renee, that also doesn't make sense to me.
00:34:43
Speaker
Why would she even care to write a letter, especially pretending to be Rachel, to let Tommy know where the car was?
Family's Struggle and Police Frustration
00:34:50
Speaker
In the days and weeks that followed, the family took their search public.
00:34:55
Speaker
They distributed missing person flyers throughout Texas and contacted newspapers across the country to spread awareness. A reward fund for information was established.
00:35:06
Speaker
As the initial investigation stalled and the runaway theory persisted, the families became increasingly frustrated with police. Even though the family never believed the runaway theory, family interviews note that they actually went to the bus station after a week and sat there, waiting to see if the girls got off the bus from Houston.
00:35:28
Speaker
As they had always suspected, though, the girls didn't show up. They knew the girls hadn't run away. Why didn't the police feel the same? It was frustrating.
00:35:40
Speaker
This frustration led them to hire private investigators to work the case. Several investigators have been involved since the trio disappeared. At this point, I'd like to share with you several more details.
00:35:55
Speaker
Some were leads explored as potential links in the case. Some were reported sightings of one or more of the girls. And others are of potential theories.
Witness Reports and Leads
00:36:07
Speaker
In 2001, a former Fort Worth police officer and security guard who had worked at the Seminary South Sears outlet came forward claiming that he saw the three girls with a young male security guard inside a pickup truck around 11.30 p.m. on the night of the disappearance.
00:36:26
Speaker
This witness, Bill Hutchins, claimed the girls appeared relaxed and were willingly in the vehicle, laughing and talking before the security guard drove away with them.
00:36:37
Speaker
He said he contacted police a few days after the disappearance, but that investigators did not follow up with his lead until April 2001.
00:36:49
Speaker
Police reportedly located this security guard, but he denies that the girls were ever in his vehicle that evening. Still years after the girls went missing in 1974, but far closer to the actual disappearance than the sighting I just spoke about.
00:37:05
Speaker
Another witness in 1981 claimed to have seen a man forcing a girl into a van in the parking lot. He told the witness it was a quote, family dispute, end quote.
00:37:20
Speaker
This man, the eyewitness, who was in town to visit his sister for Christmas, saw the girl being forced into the van and the man forcing the girl purportedly said that the woman he was forcing was his wife and that the visiting man needed to mind his own business.
00:37:38
Speaker
Another woman also told a store clerk she saw three girls being forced into a yellow pickup truck near a grocery store. However, this witness could never be located by police.
00:37:52
Speaker
Other early leads and developments included women's clothing found in Justin, Texas in early 1975 that were investigated as possibly belonging to the girls, but were determined not to be theirs.
00:38:06
Speaker
A night watchman at Alcon Laboratories near the mall reported seeing a car with three women and two men pull into the driveway on the night of the disappearance, but this lead didn't pan out.
00:38:20
Speaker
A ticket agent at the bus depot reported that three girls inquired about trips to Houston and other locations the morning after the disappearance. But the reliability of this information is uncertain, though this lead explains why the family had gone to the bus station and were waiting just in case this particular lead turned out to have some truth to it.
00:38:43
Speaker
Six weeks after the girls disappeared, Julie's mother received a mysterious phone call around 11 p.m. from a person who said, Mama, moaned, and claimed to be Julie.
00:38:57
Speaker
Investigators believe this was likely a cruel prank. Other prank calls came in claiming to be Renee. One of these calls to Renee's parents was traced to a 14-year-old girl who admitted to several prank calls pretending to be Renee, but she always denied the Julie call.
00:39:18
Speaker
Frustrated with the official police investigation, the families, as I mentioned before, hired private investigators. The first, John Swaim, in 1975. Swaim actively pursued leads and reportedly forced investigators to allow him access to case files.
00:39:35
Speaker
His work garnered national headlines. Among his investigations was a man reportedly making obscene phone calls in the area. This man had worked at a store where Rachel had just applied for a job and had previously lived near her family's home.
00:39:53
Speaker
It was discovered that this man used his job position to obtain information about young female job applicants or their references with six women reporting crude calls.
00:40:07
Speaker
However, this lead ultimately also did not yield results. The private investigator also organized searches based on tips, notably leading a search with 100 volunteers under bridges in Port Lavaca, Texas in April 1975 after receiving a tip that the girls' bodies were there.
00:40:30
Speaker
No trace of the girls was found during this search. And John Swain, the private investigator, died in 1979 from a drug overdose, ruled suicide.
00:40:43
Speaker
Unfortunately, upon his death, he reportedly ordered that his case files be destroyed. To this day, it is unknown if his files contained any legitimate information.
00:40:57
Speaker
Over the years, various discoveries initially thought to be connected to the case turned out to be unrelated. Three skeletons found in Brazoria County in 1976 were determined not to belong to the girls.
00:41:09
Speaker
More bones found in Brazoria County in 1981 were also unrelated. Later, in 1999, Rusty Arnold engaged the services of another private investigator, Dan James.
00:41:23
Speaker
James and Rusty Arnold investigated witness reports claiming Rachel and Renee had been seen alive at stores and at a gas station in the initial days after their disappearance.
00:41:35
Speaker
Based on these accounts and others reportedly seeing Rachel around Fort Worth during Christmas as recently as 1998, James and Rusty developed a belief that while Renee and Julie are deceased, that Rachel could still be alive, perhaps being kept from her family by an unidentified person or persons.
00:41:59
Speaker
In continued investigative efforts spurred by Rusty in 2018, two cars were pulled from Benbrook Lake due to a potential connection to the case, cars that had gone missing around the time that the girls did as well.
00:42:13
Speaker
But these efforts also yielded no results related to the trio. Despite the widespread searches, the involvement of multiple private investigators and the pursuit of various leads, including the use of psychics, the efforts to locate the girls remained fruitless for decades.
00:42:32
Speaker
But the case of the missing trio never truly went cold in the hearts of their families. Thankfully, in January 2001, the case was officially reopened and assigned to a homicide detective, Tom Botcher.
Impact on Families and Continuing Search
00:42:46
Speaker
Detective Botcher reportedly believes that the girls left the mall with someone they trusted and that more than one person was likely involved in their disappearance. There are a handful of individuals that he suspects could be involved.
00:43:02
Speaker
However, the identity of these suspects has not been made public. The disappearance of the Fort Worth trio has had a profound and lasting impact on the families. It has caused deep heartache and grief.
00:43:15
Speaker
Sadly, all of the girls' parents, except for Rachel and Rusty Arnold's mother, Fran Langston, have passed away without knowing what happened to their daughters. Rayanne Mosley, Julie's mother, reportedly struggled with the decision to let her daughter go that day for the rest of her life.
00:43:32
Speaker
Rayanne even lost her job due to taking off too much time to search for her nine-year-old daughter, Julie. Rayanne passed away in 2014.
00:43:44
Speaker
Richard Wilson, Renee's father, died in 2022, never having seen his daughter again and believing, per an interview with Star-Telegram, that his daughter and her friends were no longer alive, even though he would love to believe otherwise.
00:44:00
Speaker
The case has reportedly caused divisions within the Arnold family due to differing opinions on what may have happened. Surviving friends and family members like Rusty Arnold and Terry Mosley continue to actively search and advocate for answers decades later.
00:44:17
Speaker
They've organized searches, maintained websites and social media groups, and participated in campaigns to raise awareness. As you can imagine, the holiday season, particularly Christmas, remains a difficult time for the families.
00:44:31
Speaker
Terry stated that Christmas doesn't shine as bright for him any longer. Fran Langston, Rachel's mother, places three angels on her lawn every year at Christmas time to symbolize the girls.
00:44:43
Speaker
Terry struggles with the pain and is continuing to try to learn to live with it. This case is not just a collection of facts and theories. It represents a deep, enduring wound for multiple families who have spent half a century wondering what became of their loved ones.
00:45:03
Speaker
They deserve answers. They deserve closure. If you have any information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, please come forward. The Fort Worth Police Department can be reached 817-335-4222.
00:45:17
Speaker
three three five four two two two or 817-392-4307. four three zero seven Or you can email coldcase at fortworthpd.com.
00:45:33
Speaker
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children can be contacted 1-800-THE-LOST, the law one eight hundred eight four three five six seven eight Finally, i want to again thank Vincent Strange of the Gone Cold podcast for his empathy and his thoroughness in his coverage.
00:45:52
Speaker
I urge you, sleuthounds, if you want to know more about this case, to check out his multi-part coverage. Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee in Cases Podcast, to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode.
00:46:09
Speaker
As always, follow us on Twitter at Cases Coffee, on Instagram at Coffee Cases Podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeincasespodcast at gmail.com.
00:46:20
Speaker
Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon. Stay together.
00:46:32
Speaker
Stay safe. We'll see you next week.