TX TX - Julie Moseley, 9, Mary Trlica, 17, Lisa Wilson, 14, Fort Worth, 23 Dec 1974 - #1

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Yeah said:

Curtis Don Brown - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Wonder if this guy could be connected to the case in any way?
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I doubt it. The story is about Murderer Curtis Don Brown who has been in prison since killing a nurse in her home in 1986. Recent DNA evidence has linked him to the murder of another woman in Fort Worth in 1985, and police have now opened 18 other cold cases which he may have been involved in - all from the early 1980's.

Brown is now 46 years old and would have been only 15 or 16 when the three girls disappeared from the shopping center. Such an abduction of three young girls does not seem to fit his MO. It is also doubtful if other elements of evidence would fit Brown.

It would be interesting to know where he was at the time. Sometimes Inmate locators list previous incarcerations and convictions. Maybe such a website could provide an answer to his whereabouts and activities in December 1974.
 
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Ohhhh, for some reason I had it in my mind that their dissapearance happened in 1979......which wouldn't have been too much of a stretch, but 1974 is a much different story. Thanks for responding.
 
What intrigues me about this case is that several people close to it suspect that at least one of the girls is still alive, or at least was several years ago. I read up on it at the time, but I've forgotten a lot too.
 
I wonder what evidence they have to make them suspect that at least one girl is still alive? 30 years is a long time to go without making any kind of contact, even if the reason you disappeared was something awful.

Still, I suppose it has happened. Laurie Davern was missing for 20-some years, wasn't she? And she just left voluntarily.

I'm inclined to agree with T-Rex, who suggested earlier a scenario in which the youngest girl died and the others left to hide that fact. I feel like the child, at least, would not leave so easily from her home and not return for 30 years.
 
Mr. E said:
I wonder what evidence they have to make them suspect that at least one girl is still alive? 30 years is a long time to go without making any kind of contact, even if the reason you disappeared was something awful.

Still, I suppose it has happened. Laurie Davern was missing for 20-some years, wasn't she? And she just left voluntarily.

I'm inclined to agree with T-Rex, who suggested earlier a scenario in which the youngest girl died and the others left to hide that fact. I feel like the child, at least, would not leave so easily from her home and not return for 30 years.
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As you indicate, such a scenario is possible, but is it really all that probable? We are talking about three young girls here, not secret agents or con artists who are experienced at disappearing and assuming new identities.

The far more likely scenario is that all three girls were abducted by a person or persons who subsequently killed them. While one or more may have been kept alive for some period of time after that fateful day, it would probably have been at the whim of the abductor, rather than other circumstances.

Many well publicized cases are plagued with hoaxes perpetrated by individuals who want to get into the act in some manner. Crank callers, false confessions, false leads to police (whether intentionally false, or sincere persons who are only mistaken, or simply coincidences) are all part of what goes on during open investigations.
 
I'm bumping this with the 31st anniversary of their dissapearances coming up.
Rachel would be/will be 48, Lisa 45, and Julie 40. Someone out there knows what happened to them, their families have spent too many holidays without them. They deserve to know where they are.
 
2sisters said:
I'm bumping this with the 31st anniversary of their dissapearances coming up.
Rachel would be/will be 48, Lisa 45, and Julie 40. Someone out there knows what happened to them, their families have spent too many holidays without them. They deserve to know where they are.
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I'm fairly certain someone knows what happened to them, but without any evidence the police can't do anything about it.

I was about 12 or 13 when this happened, and lived in Dallas, Texas. My parents, and those of my friends, didn't want us venturing very far from home after that. We had a small shopping center near our house, and my friends and I used to walk up there and go to the drug store and the five & dime, but after this happened, we were forbidden to go there unless a parent went along.

Up until the time these three girls disappeared, my parents always felt it was pretty safe to let me go places with my friends. I guess they believed there was "safety in numbers". But when three girls were abducted together, that changed everything.:(
 
This is a case that I find so sad. As much as I would like to think one of the girls could be alive I find that hard to believe. The girls car was found right were they said they were going. In the car were items they had picked up from another store that had been on layway for one of the girls. This supports they went and were doing exactly what they said they were doing. If the older girls had other plans, such as doing drugs or running away I don't think they would have taken 9 year old Julie Ann with them. Had an x boyfriend or other known person decided to do something to one of the girls I find it unlikly he/she would choose to do it when that person is out with two other people. I think Richards scinerio "The far more likely scenario is that all three girls were abducted by a person or persons who subsequently killed them." is far more likley. I would be curious if there are records of other missing females at that time in Texas or unsolved and unexplained murders of females. What a sad case.

mjak
 
mjak said:
This is a case that I find so sad. As much as I would like to think one of the girls could be alive I find that hard to believe. The girls car was found right were they said they were going. In the car were items they had picked up from another store that had been on layway for one of the girls. This supports they went and were doing exactly what they said they were doing. If the older girls had other plans, such as doing drugs or running away I don't think they would have taken 9 year old Julie Ann with them. Had an x boyfriend or other known person decided to do something to one of the girls I find it unlikly he/she would choose to do it when that person is out with two other people. I think Richards scinerio "The far more likely scenario is that all three girls were abducted by a person or persons who subsequently killed them." is far more likley. I would be curious if there are records of other missing females at that time in Texas or unsolved and unexplained murders of females. What a sad case.

mjak
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There has long been speculation that the sister of one of the missing girls was involved. She denies it, of course, and obviously the police don't have any evidence to prove otherwise. From what I've read, she and her family don't have a good relationship. Whether that came about as a result of this tragedy, or whether it was always that way is unknown.

I know there have been other cases of girls missing from shopping areas, but I don't know if those disappearances occurred in Texas or not.
 
I find it hard to believe that the Sister of one of the girls could be responsible for the dissapearnce of all three. I just can't come up with a motivation for her to have gotten rid of all three girls. Why would she have done something to an innocent 9 year old child? the cumstances surrounding the dissapearnce just does not add up to me as a crime of jelousy or sisterly foul play. Sounds more like an opportunistic abduction situation to me.

mjak
 
They had to have left with someone they knew and I'd be curious about her sisters whereabouts that day. A stranger abduction seems unlikely seeing as there were 3 of them. It doesn't seem like on opportunistic person would try for 3 girls so there would need to be more than one abductor If it were a stranger and a group of girls getting abducted by another group of people would draw alot attention in theory. To me it seems that someone they all know has the answers to where they are and what happened to them.
 
mjak said:
I find it hard to believe that the Sister of one of the girls could be responsible for the dissapearnce of all three. I just can't come up with a motivation for her to have gotten rid of all three girls. Why would she have done something to an innocent 9 year old child? the cumstances surrounding the dissapearnce just does not add up to me as a crime of jelousy or sisterly foul play. Sounds more like an opportunistic abduction situation to me.

mjak
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The sister's name is Debra. Here is a snippet about her:

Debra is more candid. "I know he [her brother] blames me. I know he thinks I had something to do with it. . . . Rusty thinks this letter that Tommy got the next day - he thinks I wrote it. . . . I didn't write this letter. I don't know who did. I don't know what happened to my sister. Maybe white slavery. That's the only thing that makes sense to me," she says. "I have nothing to hide."

Link: MissingTrio.Com - Dedicated to Three Fort Worth Girls Missing since 1974
 
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A stranger or two strangers with a gun would probalby not have much of a problem getting two teenagers and a 9 year old to get into a van or car with them.

mjak
 
mjak said:
A stranger or two strangers with a gun would probalby not have much of a problem getting two teenagers and a 9 year old to get into a van or car with them.

mjak
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That's true, but please keep in mind that this was a busy shopping center, and the sight of one or two strangers armed with a gun would probably have gotten someone's attention. You know how it is when a mall is crowded during the Christmas shopping season, and you drive slowly through the parking lot trying to find a place to park. You are looking at every car you approach to see if anyone is getting ready to leave. So it just doesn't seem likely, to me, that these three girls were abducted in that manner.
 
But a person sitting in a vehicle if discreet, could show gun or knife to the girls, and not draw others attention if the girls didn't put up an outcry. Or if they had a good story, they may have convinced the girls to get into the vehcile.
 
This discussion is very similar to one on the thread for the Lyon Sisters, Sheila and Kate, who went missing from a Wheaton, Maryland Shopping Center exactly three months after the three girls from Fort Worth disappeared. None of those girls has been found. I wonder if there was any connection, or if the first incident might have provided the idea for the later one.
 
I think this was a Van abduction type that happened in the parking lot. Perhaps parked next to them. Two guys grab two and the third tries to help the others, you have all three, in the van, held at gunpoint or knife and drive away. I am not going to dwell on the what happened next theory. The Maryland girls probably were approached when they were walking away from the mall by the man they had made friends with the microphone. He may have talked them into getting in the car. Kids were alot more naive in the 70's than they are now.
 
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