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

On the Kelli Dae Wilson case, a bank camera at the drive thru deposit caught someone making the deposit that night. They just can't or won't say if it was Kelli or not.

txsvicki said:

I was a teenager in '73 and had a bad experience with a owner of a gas station. Not wanting to go into details, but he was a monster lunatic. I once knew his name, but have since forgot, and can't even remember for sure if it was '72 or '73. I don't know if he moved away from Lubbock or not, but thought it was kind of a coincidence that another horrible gas station owner about the same age was reported in Dallas/Ft Worth area about 4 hours away. If I knew the name of the Dallas person it might click if they are the same person.

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What a horrifying experience. Thank goodness you survived this. I would suggest asking Rusty through the trio website or asking Texas Sandman to ask Rusty.

BTW: You are not setup to receive private messages. I have a name I would like to run by you, but not on a public website. Perhaps you need to make more posts before you can receive private messages?

Justthinkin': I thought a lot about Rusty's theory that Rachel and Renee ran away and gave Julie to someone else and somehow Julie died and so on. To me there are several problems:

1. Renee just received and accepted a promise ring that very morning.
2. If Rusty's idea that Debra is involved was correct, I could understand Rachel remaining loyal to her sister because they were so very close, but the situation is very different for Renee. I would think when Renee realized she could NEVER see her parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends and new boyfriend again, she would resent the situation and she and Rachel's friendship would have broken down as they matured. At some point I think Renee would have returned and told police the truth. If she had participated in any way - such as hiding the body, she was underage - only 14 at the time, so I doubt she would be in much trouble. An adult would realize that. Between Debra passing two polygraphs and the lack of logic to Rusty's theory, I just don't see how this would work.
3. Asking multiple people to go shopping with them that day - these are not the actions of two people who are going to run away.
4. Renee's Christmas gift for Rachel's stepson - why bother or spend the money if you are running away?
5. Picking up layaway - why bother or spend the money if you are running away?

So for the above reasons, I feel certain that these girls were abducted by a stranger or someone they knew but should not have trusted. But I would be just as interested in reading your theory as to how this might work if the girls were runaways! You may well have thought of some stuff I haven't and with a cold case like this, the more thought we put into it, the more likely we are to be able to help these families somehow.

As to the airport - I think there is a lot of development going on in that area and many times that is how bodies are found. It is an interesting idea and I really enjoyed the article you linked here! That airport was the first one I ever flew into, btw - I was an infant and my parents lived in California at the time and my mom couldn't wait to show me off to her family, so she flew cross country with me to that very airport where her dad picked us up!

txsvicki, how horrible for you. Glad you got away.

Princess Rose, I did not mean the girls ran away. I'll have to go back and reread my post to see what I said exactly.

At the back of my mind has been how the girls were lured from the mall so when I read about the drag races at the abandoned airport, I thought, now thats something teenage girls might have found thrilling so perhaps off they went with a couple of guys. If there was a small crowd gathered out there then I thought perhaps when the girls weren't looking, Julie Ann could've been snatched. Then the girls would've wanted to hang around looking for her...okay, that theory is breaking down in my mind because the only way for them to get back to the mall & to report it to police is for them to go back with the guys who brought them there, and I truly think whoever they left with is who killed them all.

The other possible idea I had was that they were told there were going to be drag races out at GSW by someone they met at the mall, but in reality when they got there, there were no drag races, and that is possibly where they were killed. The drag races only being a trick to lure them away from the mall. An abandoned airport would provide a lot of ground for their killer or killers to operate undisturbed, especially one where there was no security personnel employed or if the killers happened to know how to get around the security guards.

Theories are good only so long as they are plausible, and the lure of drag races struck me as being plausible.

That old airport's lobby was a beautiful example of art deco architecture. I flew into GSW once because for some reason all the flights booked into Love Field were full, so GSW was the only choice available. I'd even forgotten about landing there because it had been so long ago. Vast difference in age here. I had a six month old on my lap for my flight.

Oh, now I understand what you're saying Justthinkin'. Well, I do think something like that could be a possibility. For example, one thing I thought was maybe someone approached them at the mall, claimed to be from a local TV or radio station and invited them to come to the station to do a special Christmas greeting for their family. I could see how a stranger could entice 3 young girls into leaving with him with a story like that. The drag races could be another similar possibility. Good thinking!

Do you think there is anyone who can tell me (via private message) what crowd or bars , clubs or hangouts Tommy and Rachel were frequenting then?
I knew and knew of alot of people back then and some were scumbags.

For the record guys, six things

1. The letter arrived on the 24th of December 1974. I was there.
2. Rachel and Tommy did not frequent bars. My sister did not drink. She
was 17 a jr. at Southwest High. Her dream was to become a P.E.
teacher.
3. She did not run away. I would have known.
4. L.E. determined that the letter was mailed from the sub post office that
was located on the side of the mall that the theaters are. They figured it
was dropped it was dropped into the drop box. In 1974 we did not have
all the massive of the people living in Fort Worth that we do now. It
was very common to mail something within the city limits and have it
delivered the same day or the next. I know that for a fact.
5. Somethings I have been thinking about. Rachel and Tommy went to
Galvaston for their Honeymoon. So it is quite possible they went through
Houston. That would have been June 8, 1974. This was their wedding
day. I can tell you also they bought 2 baby raccoons, a male and a
female, named them Rocky and Roxanne.
6. Tommy was an only child. Adopted by an older couple. They both died
within 1 year of each other. Tommy was left their estate. The house, 2
cars, including the one Rachel was driving. He was also left a sizeable
trust fund which he could not access until he was 25. So none of his wives
could get anything.

These are all FACTS.. Thanks

Thanks Deige, I didnt think Rachel could get in a bar, Did you go to Southwest too? I did.

Princess Rose said:

What a horrifying experience. Thank goodness you survived this. I would suggest asking Rusty through the trio website or asking Texas Sandman to ask Rusty.

BTW: You are not setup to receive private messages. I have a name I would like to run by you, but not on a public website. Perhaps you need to make more posts before you can receive private messages?

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I've enabled PM's. Tks.

deige said:

For the record guys, six things

1. The letter arrived on the 24th of December 1974. I was there.
2. Rachel and Tommy did not frequent bars. My sister did not drink. She
was 17 a jr. at Southwest High. Her dream was to become a P.E.
teacher.
3. She did not run away. I would have known.
4. L.E. determined that the letter was mailed from the sub post office that
was located on the side of the mall that the theaters are. They figured it
was dropped it was dropped into the drop box. In 1974 we did not have
all the massive of the people living in Fort Worth that we do now. It
was very common to mail something within the city limits and have it
delivered the same day or the next. I know that for a fact.
5. Somethings I have been thinking about. Rachel and Tommy went to
Galvaston for their Honeymoon. So it is quite possible they went through
Houston. That would have been June 8, 1974. This was their wedding
day. I can tell you also they bought 2 baby raccoons, a male and a
female, named them Rocky and Roxanne.
6. Tommy was an only child. Adopted by an older couple. They both died
within 1 year of each other. Tommy was left their estate. The house, 2
cars, including the one Rachel was driving. He was also left a sizeable
trust fund which he could not access until he was 25. So none of his wives
could get anything.

These are all FACTS.. Thanks

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Wow! That's alot of info we didn't have before. Thanks Deige. Keep the info coming!

Thanks, Deige. It is great to get some of these questions we've had cleared up!

Deige: Thank you so much for clearing up these questions. This kind of information is very helpful in establishing what happened.

It is interesting that the police figured out that the letter was actually mailed from the sub post-office at the mall.

I want to think over all that that could mean if Rachel wrote it or if someone else wrote it. Deige, did the police ever tell you what time of day the mail was picked up there at the mall? I'm wondering if the letter was written and sent BEFORE Rachel, Renee and Julie left the mall or if it could have been written and sent AFTER Rachel left the mall - which means the unsub(s) took Rachel, Renee and Julie and then came back to the mall to drop off the letter.

So I think there are actually 4 ways to consider the letter:

1. Written while at the mall by Rachel.
Notes on this:
Rachel would know where she parked.
Why was it addressed to Thomas?
Why Houston?
Written under duress - but why would this not be seen by others at the mall? Could they have been taken to a backroom?
Crime of opportunity - no specifically aimed at these girls.


2. Written while at the mall by an unsub.
Notes on this:
Unsub may have encountered the trio in the parking lot and knew where they parked.
Unsub may have followed them into the mall and followed them around. May have known one or more of the girls and interfaced with them at the mall.
Premeditated crime.

3. Written away from the mall by Rachel and then taken back to the mall to mail by the unsub.
Notes:
Written under duress.
Rachel attempting to signal she was in trouble.
Mention of Houston may have been trying to tell Tommy something about who had her.
Premeditated by unsub and focused on Rachel.

4. Written away from the mall by an unsub and then taken back to the mall to mail by the unsub.
Notes:
Had to have asked Rachel where she parked or followed them to the car and taken them from there.
Used Rachel's driver's license plus a phone book to get Tommy's name and address
Mailed the letter from the mall to fake a runaway situation, get time to leave the area.
This scenario makes me wonder if the unsub was visiting family in FW at Christmas and did this crime, then went back to Houston and the mention of Houston in the note was the unsub's way of sticking it to the police.

Everyone, can you help me think out these scenarios more? Anyone with some different ideas about them?

Hello, I am a longtime reader of these forum posts and I've always been very intrigued by this particular case as I am a native of the North Texas area. I wasn't born until 1979, so I don't remember when this actually happened but my parents sure do. My mom told me that right around that time period there were quite a few murders in the area involving young women. I've analyzed this case over and over and am just as puzzled by it as everyone else seems to be. Perhaps (as someone else here suggested) they were approached by someone who claimed to be from a tv station or a radio station and the girls trusted this person and went with him. Remember, back in those days people were ALOT more trustworthy of others unlike now where everyone is constantly on guard of anything suspicious. I pray for the sake of these girls' families that somebody comes forward and confesses something or that the girls bodies' are found (worse case scenario) so that all the pain and anguish will end once and for all.
BTW, when I was a teenager in the 1990s, I once had a man approach me at the mall and he asked if I could come with him because he was 'conducting an interview' and that he was 'with the local news'. I was by myself and I *knew* not to trust this person, but he was very clean cut and seemed very friendly. I had heard of guys trying this stunt with teenage girls at malls and knew NEVER to trust someone with a story like that. I got out of there FAST (and made sure security guards were close by). However, as I said before, back in 1974, people were probably alot more trustworthy and if someone cunning presented a scenario like that to the girls, it's very possible something like they could have gone with him (or them). Just something to consider.

Okay, heres a thought, there were basements at the Mall , on the South Side under the shoe store ,music storeand drug store was a large one, they had at times a radio station, large hair salon?(razors edge) ,large public restrooms , offices ,there were events held in there too. Also on the west side under a jeweler , clothes stores and part of Murphys. There were more offices and a bowling alley. Both basements had entrances in the inner mall area and a smaller one on the outer southern side. I dont know if there was a way to get from one basement to the other underground. In one of these was the security office, I believe it was the western side where the bowling alley was. For the most part these areas were deserted and there were predators in the restrooms sometimes(long story)..Back when we frequented the mall, I dont think there was more than two Mall security guards there at a time, and I believe sometimes only one. dont ask why I knew that.(continued)

Suppose one of the guards was a sicko, He accuses one of the girls of a false shoplifting crime. He takes them to the basement , which very well could have been deserted at the time except for the security office. I dont know when the bowling alley went out of business, but they could have been taken down there w/o drawing attention. Maybe he's working a long shift. Maybe theres a way to keep them locked up. He's surely got paper , envelopes and time to get the letter composed and mailed at the box in the mall. So he sneaks them out after dark? maybe after the cops leave if they came to the mall at all. He's at the opposite side of the mall he could have got them out in the middle of the night or even the next morning or who knows? Just a possibility

Or if theres two of them , maybe they were both in on it.

Kaiser, I was thinking this same thing today. I'm sure security had access to maintenance rooms, and even security may have had a storage room.

Ya gotta wonder if LE ever checked those things out. Surely they would have, but then again, I read somewhere, they didn't even check Rachel's car for fingerprints.

Outside of Rachel, Renee, and Julie Ann, Walker that same year, and Martin the year before, were there any other girls that went missing within this time frame? The next one I find on Doe Network is 1983, Kathy Mae Brownfield Goad.

sometime between 1979 and 1985 there was a number of rapes and murders in the TCU area that scared everyone , my wife even packed a gun for awhile, but these were not in anyway similar to the trio. I myself dont think Carla Walkers death could have been done by whoever snatched the trio.

Kaiser
Yes I went to Southwest too. For almost 35 yrs I have thought of scenario after scenario, what ifs and hows but your idea about security and the basements really made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It brings together other things that we've been told over the years, such as the girls were seen with a security guard in his truck. If it happened that way, maybe he was offering to take them to the car and never did. Your thoughts opened possibilities I hadn't considered before and believe me I thought I had thought about all possibilities. I totally forgot about the Razors Edge, the Radio Station and offices. How old are you Kaiser? I am 54. You must be older than I because I don't remember the bowling alley. Would like you know your name to see if I know you from Southwest.

Most mall security teams have a "holding room" or cell for shoplifters. I have wondered myself if the trio may have been held in that room if there was one at Seminary South. It would be helpful if we could find some former Seminary South employees from that time period to ask them about this and what they knew of the security guards. For one thing, I'm wondering if the mall hired some temporary security guards for the Christmas season due to the longer hours (plus the regular security guards wanting to take vacation time) and if they did, if this temporary employee may have been involved in the trio's disappearance.

I futher wonder if any of the security guards may have resigned shortly after the trio's disappearance, or only have been hired on to work through December 23 or 25th. I still believe the word Houston is very important in that letter. What it means is difficult to determine, but I believe it has some kind of meaning beyond what is written in that letter.

Deige, wish you would enable PMs.

I got to thinkin this morning that for whoever killed your sister, Renee and Julie Ann, this was not his first murder/s. It is so typically a serial killer's ploy to extract girls or children from malls, and there are scenarios where a stranger could abduct 3 girls. A mall security person is a strong possibility in my mind.

I really like Kaiser Sousa's idea of them being questioned for shop lifting, not that it was true, but that it was a good way to get the girls out of the public eye by taking them somewhere for questioning that would give the perp opportunity. He could have separated them in rooms if that's a possibility. I'm still struggling with it being a single perp though.

If we try to put ourselves into the mind of a killer back then, he would've known the police would initially do nothing, and decide the girls were runaways. Knowing that fact alone would buy him more time.

When did the police first truly begin their investigation after taking the report the girls were missing?