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

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It's hard to say if the jury was wrong in finding Wilhoit not guilty in the trial where Wilhoit was charged with attempted rape and shooting a woman.

There's so much info woven in and out and back and forth at the Carla Walker site that it was actually a little hard for me to read without backtracking often. The woman I think you're referring to with the above was Janelle K. If so, Wilhoit wasn't charged and tried for her attempted rape & shooting her 5 times in the head. Another man, Kenneth Miller, I believe was. He was the one who just walked out the court room and evaded them for something like 12 years until being caught in Las Vegas and returned to FW. He was found guilty & sentenced to 75 yrs in absentia. If that's the particular case and I am not forgetting another attempt assault in all that info!

It is written in that page tho, further down, that Wilhoit actually did confess to the crimes against Janelle K. He did so apparently because he was given immunity. (ugh)

It was also mentioned on that page that Wilhoit had said something regarding disposing of bodies (how to)... of course this was coming from another prison inmate so it's hard to assess such a thing in print... and there's the added irksome fact that it comes from yet another criminal.. who's to say.

Ret. Det. Terrell mentions that Rusty (as well as two of the mothers of our girls here) shared the letter with him and that he (Terrell) had it analyzed by the handwriting expert who determined it was not Wilhoit's handwriting... but I don't recall now what has been said here regarding the handwriting and if there was an inkling that it could have been Rachel's or Renee's maybe. I still need to go re-read here, obviously.

I don't know, I'm just not ready to dismiss Wilhoit. And it's definitely not due to the Walker page really. Terrell indicates by including the girls there that he still feels there's a link. He definitely feels Wilhoit killed Walker and attacked Janelle K. To be honest, there were several times in the reading of that page that I wanted to dismiss Terrell and his tenacity as unfortunately wrong but obsessed. In the end tho, I feel he's got something... but just not enough. So, I'm thinking Wilhoit's in the right area at the right time for this case with the added complexity of having criminal troubles following him and looming over his head like a black cloud.

Oh, regarding lost evidence in the Walker case. That was one of the excuses apparently given to Terrell when he asked about it (among about 5 other excuses, I think to simply put him off and not respond.) The Chief denied to Carla's family that any physical evidence had been lost. Again, who's to say?!

Anyway... it is indeed frustrating to think that this case (or any other for that matter) could go unsolved. Sigh, I'm off to begin re-reading this forum.
 
Thanks, snowme.

I think the info that Hutchins gave is bogus. In one of the newspaper articles it was reported that several family members set up a watch, and watched that car all night to see if the girls or anyone came back to that car. Now that makes lots of sense to me. If the police first decided the girls were runaways, then it would be up to the parents to do everything in their power until they could make believers of the police.

According to Hutchins he reported what he'd seen to the police, and never heard back, and didn't see the story in the papers anymore. So he waited until 2000 or 2001 to come forward again????....He had to have lived under a rock not to notice that story in the papers. I think he just wanted to be associated with the case in some way for a little fame. Either that or the police need to take a closer look at that guy.

He claims he worked in LE in the 60s, quit, and then went to work for Sears security. Security has always paid less than LE as far as I know, so why would he do that? Maybe he didn't quit. Maybe he was fired from LE or maybe he never worked in LE at all. There was at least one other report that the girls were seen with a security person. Maybe there's even more to it than that. Don't know.

I've been puzzling about several things. Somewhere I read that before the girls went shopping, Rachel had to drop off Tommy's little boy to the child's mother's house or apt. Then the girls went shopping. I've only seen that reported once.

Then I have read where the girls went to an Army Navy store to get some things out of layaway first before heading to the mall. The only way for someone to know that is they had to be told by one of the girls before the girls left on the shopping trip. Secondly, what was supposedly found in the car were some gift wrapped packages, and a sack with a new pair of jeans. Do they sell jeans at Army Surplus stores? I'm not aware of it if they do. If the jeans weren't bought at the surplus store, then what happened to the purchases from the surplus store? Were they in the trunk of the car?

What is the actual estimated time the girls would've arrived at the mall? I feel sure they had been abducted by 4:00PM or else, Renee would've called her mom to let her know they were running late, and they'd be late for the party. My understanding is that her mom was to attend this same Christmas party.

We need more information to work with. If Texas had an open discovery law like Florida, this case would benefit from it as would so many others. Only the prosecution benefits from privacy policies whereas, the victims, the victim's families, taxpayers, truth, the whole justice system benefits from open file discovery.

In the meantime, LE really needs to issue a clear statement of known facts about this case that have been made public, eliminating any false info floating around, and releasing any new info they can.

If anyone runs across a web page with articles on this case from several newspapers, please post a link. Until then, I'll keep looking 'til I find it.

Some detectives had been assigned back in 2001 or 2000 to work this case again. I wonder if anyone's still actively working it.

Family members are usually the first suspects in a murder case until or unless the facts present a different story. Learned that from John Douglas's book, Mind Hunter. The reason why family is first suspected is that more people are killed by family members than by anyone else. If they can't be eliminated as suspects, they're going to remain on the list of suspects.
For whatever its worth I used to get slightly irregular Levis 501's at an Army Navy in Missoula for like 9.00 bucks a pair back in the 70's and early 80's.
 
For whatever its worth I used to get slightly irregular Levis 501's at an Army Navy in Missoula for like 9.00 bucks a pair back in the 70's and early 80's.

Thanks, Kline, that was helpful.

Tomorrow, I'm going to call Ft. Worth LE, and find out if anyone is still working this case. If we can do no more than just keep this in front of the public, that in itself is doing something useful.

Stella, don't know, could be. To me, the fly in the ointment is that letter. If that letter hadn't arrived, then I'd say the girls were more likely taken by a known perp/s operating in the area at the time. Carla Walker disappeared just shortly before these girls went missing, and that could indicate a serial killer at least passing through the area if he didn't stick around long.
 
This is probably hopelessly cold bu you never know. Terrel has some interesting info on the Walker Case and if Wilhoit is good for Walker, you have to consider the possibility of this case as well.

Much of know facts of the FT Worth 3 case point towards someone one of the girls knew. (The "clean" abduction in a public place, dispossed of bodies and, most notably, the letter, are all more suggestive of an an aquaintance rather than a stranger). This proves nothing. One possible explaination for the "clean " abduction is that the perp convinced the girls to let him in their car (rather than luring or forcing them into his car). It would be easy if they knew him but he could have forced his way in with a gun rather discreatly or he could have actually charmed his way in ( if he were clean cut and well spoken like Wilhoit). He would have needed to get the car back within a couple hours but I can imagine a number possiblities.

I suspect that many of the unsolved murders and disappearences of young women(and men) and be attributed to serial killers that have been incarcerated for other serious crimes. One approach might be to identify convicts whose's record suggests the possibility of other homicides and attempt to link them to crimes that occurred near where they once lived. Convicts who are infirm or near death might be willing to give full accountings of their past crimes.
 
I wonder what purpose the letter would have even served and why the perpetrator would have felt the need to write it. I said earlier that I imagine he didn't want the families to search for the girls right away, but if no trace of them has been found 34 years later then it doesn't seem likely they would have been at danger of being found within days of the crime.

Tommy insisted right away that Rachel didn't write the letter herself, and IMO that speaks to his innocence. If he'd written it you'd expect him to tell LE that it certainly did look like Rachel's writing.

The circa-2000 article on missingtrio.com said Rusty and P.I. Dan James believe only Rachel was still alive, but has Rusty ever said what year between 1974 and 2000 he thinks Renee died? Maybe we should be looking at Jane Does who would be about Renee's age at the time. Unless she somehow got a new SSN or her body was concealed, they couldn't have buried her as anyone other than a Jane Doe without a valid SSN for her death certificate, right?

To me, it sounds like Rusty and James think the girls joined a cult and there's not just one, but many people who were pressuring them not to return to Fort Worth. The cult theory is quite "out there" itself but it's easier for me to believe than the idea that someone has been holding them against their will and yet allowing them to come home, but not quite home, at Christmas.
 
I wonder what purpose the letter would have even served and why the perpetrator would have felt the need to write it. I said earlier that I imagine he didn't want the families to search for the girls right away, but if no trace of them has been found 34 years later then it doesn't seem likely they would have been at danger of being found within days of the crime.

Tommy insisted right away that Rachel didn't write the letter herself, and IMO that speaks to his innocence. If he'd written it you'd expect him to tell LE that it certainly did look like Rachel's writing.

The circa-2000 article on missingtrio.com said Rusty and P.I. Dan James believe only Rachel was still alive, but has Rusty ever said what year between 1974 and 2000 he thinks Renee died? Maybe we should be looking at Jane Does who would be about Renee's age at the time. Unless she somehow got a new SSN or her body was concealed, they couldn't have buried her as anyone other than a Jane Doe without a valid SSN for her death certificate, right?

To me, it sounds like Rusty and James think the girls joined a cult and there's not just one, but many people who were pressuring them not to return to Fort Worth. The cult theory is quite "out there" itself but it's easier for me to believe than the idea that someone has been holding them against their will and yet allowing them to come home, but not quite home, at Christmas.

I never thought of the cult idea. I suppose that does line up with what Rusty has stated.

So glad to see this thread staying alive. This case is baffling!
 
Umm. About the drug idea. That's a good one! I'll tell you why. My husband along with quite a few other people in this country are allergic to weed. My husband never tried it, but he walked into a room where other people were doing it and nearly died. They literally had to decide to call an ambulance for my husband, and did so even though it meant they would get into trouble. My husband was on the floor convulsing not from taking a drag, just from breathing it in.

Now, my question is what if someone asked the girls into the car to smoke some weed and this child was allergic? The nine year old could have died from just breathing it in, or if she tried it... Welp if the other two girls or whoever they were with were too scared of getting into trouble and didn't call an ambulance... Let's put it this way, the er doctor that saw my husband as a teen said if he had been in the room much longer he would have died from it.

If the little one died, and the two older ones knew that they were supposed to have taken care of her and protected her, and she died on their watch, would they have gone home? I doubt it. I wouldn't have as a teen. I would have been too scared. And the longer a person stays away the harder it becomes to come back or even to contact anyone.

Just a thought.
 
Wanted to post to bump this thread. Just read something on another thread I found quite interesting regarding profiling. If these girls were murdered, concealment of the murders seemed to be at the forefront of the perp's mind which means it's less likely they were the victims of a compulsive serial killer.

I have not yet called Ft. Worth LE though curiosity is getting to me as to why this missing trio is not currently listed as a cold case nor is Carla Walker's known murder. Can they do that, just delete unsolved cases?
Doesn't seem right at all.
 
Wanted to post to bump this thread. Just read something on another thread I found quite interesting regarding profiling. If these girls were murdered, concealment of the murders seemed to be at the forefront of the perp's mind which means it's less likely they were the victims of a compulsive serial killer.

I have not yet called Ft. Worth LE though curiosity is getting to me as to why this missing trio is not currently listed as a cold case nor is Carla Walker's known murder. Can they do that, just delete unsolved cases?
Doesn't seem right at all.


That is interesting re the profiling info.

I imagine the Walker case and our missing trio here are not on FW cold case page due to just web maintainance hassle or perhaps they rotate cases in and out of the page?? I would think that FW would have enough cold cases, actually, to fill several well-laid-out web pages. What's there looks like just a smattering... not sure how they chose. I was thinking they were newer cold cases but I did see several older ones... but none, I don't think, that were as old and stoney cold as the two (or technically 4) we've mentioned. For now, I'm willing to think it's just "not enough time to enter all the data" for all cold cases.

Let us know if & when you contact them, what you find out. I've begun reading thru everything here again already and decided I needed to take notes so I'm trying to take my time and be thorough (for my own sanity later, lol).
 
Thanks, snowme.

I think the info that Hutchins gave is bogus. In one of the newspaper articles it was reported that several family members set up a watch, and watched that car all night to see if the girls or anyone came back to that car. Now that makes lots of sense to me. If the police first decided the girls were runaways, then it would be up to the parents to do everything in their power until they could make believers of the police.

According to Hutchins he reported what he'd seen to the police, and never heard back, and didn't see the story in the papers anymore. So he waited until 2000 or 2001 to come forward again????....He had to have lived under a rock not to notice that story in the papers. I think he just wanted to be associated with the case in some way for a little fame. Either that or the police need to take a closer look at that guy.

He claims he worked in LE in the 60s, quit, and then went to work for Sears security. Security has always paid less than LE as far as I know, so why would he do that? Maybe he didn't quit. Maybe he was fired from LE or maybe he never worked in LE at all. There was at least one other report that the girls were seen with a security person. Maybe there's even more to it than that. Don't know.

I've been puzzling about several things. Somewhere I read that before the girls went shopping, Rachel had to drop off Tommy's little boy to the child's mother's house or apt. Then the girls went shopping. I've only seen that reported once.

Then I have read where the girls went to an Army Navy store to get some things out of layaway first before heading to the mall. The only way for someone to know that is they had to be told by one of the girls before the girls left on the shopping trip. Secondly, what was supposedly found in the car were some gift wrapped packages, and a sack with a new pair of jeans. Do they sell jeans at Army Surplus stores? I'm not aware of it if they do. If the jeans weren't bought at the surplus store, then what happened to the purchases from the surplus store? Were they in the trunk of the car?

What is the actual estimated time the girls would've arrived at the mall? I feel sure they had been abducted by 4:00PM or else, Renee would've called her mom to let her know they were running late, and they'd be late for the party. My understanding is that her mom was to attend this same Christmas party.

We need more information to work with. If Texas had an open discovery law like Florida, this case would benefit from it as would so many others. Only the prosecution benefits from privacy policies whereas, the victims, the victim's families, taxpayers, truth, the whole justice system benefits from open file discovery.

In the meantime, LE really needs to issue a clear statement of known facts about this case that have been made public, eliminating any false info floating around, and releasing any new info they can.

If anyone runs across a web page with articles on this case from several newspapers, please post a link. Until then, I'll keep looking 'til I find it.

Some detectives had been assigned back in 2001 or 2000 to work this case again. I wonder if anyone's still actively working it.

Family members are usually the first suspects in a murder case until or unless the facts present a different story. Learned that from John Douglas's book, Mind Hunter. The reason why family is first suspected is that more people are killed by family members than by anyone else. If they can't be eliminated as suspects, they're going to remain on the list of suspects.

I used to live in Ft. Worth and was a Freshman in high school there when this case happened. I have always remembered it and it has always bothered me. I never met any of the people involved in the case, but I am familiar with the area and even had a friend who lived on the same street as one of the girls, so I do know about about the lay of the land and the places involved.

Back in 1975, Seminary South was the ONLY shopping mall in Ft. Worth. It was different from other shopping malls because it was one where the stores were clustered around an island of land with covered walkways and fountains - but the Mall part was essentially outdoors. I remember it was hot in summer and really cold in winter! This mall was located on the East side of Ft. Worth and bordered to the east by a highway. Across the highway was a dangerous, gang inhabited, crime ridden neighborhood. Nearer the mall was Southwestern Seminary, which still exists today. If you want to see the lay of the land, go to Google Earth and lookup Seminary South Library Ft Worth, TX. The library is just north of the mall parking lot. Over the years, the mall has been remodeled and enclosed and turned into an outlet mall (which failed) and now it has been converted into a "Lifestyle Center" with a Mexican theme and Latino cinema and shops that obviously cater to Latino customers. Back in 1975, the majority of middle class Ft. Worthians were moving to the Southwest side of Ft. Worth to get away from the uban blight and crime by the Seminary South area. These girls families were no exception and their families lived in the area that was bordered by Hulen Street and Trail Lake Drive. These were neat, relatively new 2000 - 3000 sq ft 2 - 3 bedroom middle class homes with 2 car garages and tidy yards.

The Army Navy store was located in it's own building just a block or two away from Seminary South Shopping Mall and would have been a convenient stop along the way to the Mall for the girls. From their home, it would have taken them at least 20 - 30 minutes to reach Seminary South Shopping Mall. Despite the crime in the bordering neighborhood, this mall would have still been considered a safe place for a group of girls to shop during the day. But not at night. And, in 1975, Seminary South was the ONLY mall in the area.
 
I'm going to have dedicate the time to go back and re-read everything available. It's never "set" well with me about them supposedly having been seen in the truck with the mall security guy. sigh, it just doesn't make sense in a number of ways.

Just thinking aloud and making a note to myself really. It just feels like it's time for this case to have some clarity and true focus.

I, too, doubt the story about the mall security guard. But, I will say it was common practice for the mall security guard to drive you around the parking lots if you forgot where you parked your car. That is the ONLY reason I can think of for them to have been in his truck. If that even happened.
 
I'll keep looking for articles as well.

The mall must have been closed, possibly for hours, by 11:30 p.m. when the security guard said he saw the girls in a younger security guard's pickup. Presumably at this hour the lot was virtually empty, save for Rachel's abandoned car and whatever vehicle the parents were inside while they staked out her car.

The article said the two guards had a "run-in" and words were exchanged but then everyone laughed and they drove off. Er...with a background in law enforcement, would you allow one of your younger coworkers to cruise a deserted parking lot with three young girls who are out way past legal curfew? I can see him looking the other way while the younger guard cruised with the two teens he might have wanted to impress, but definitely not with a nine-year-old in the truck.


I wonder how many times during either guard's shift (the elder guard worked for Sears) the girls had been paged over the mall's intercom and whether the pages could be heard from inside the Sears store as well as the rest of the mall. If the older guard had heard the pages throughout the day and all three girls' names were mentioned, why wouldn't he have connected this to the three in the car?

A few more questions:

Was the younger guard a Sears employee or employed elsewhere in the mall? Did he work indoors or was his sole job to patrol the parking lot?

Exactly how much media attention did this case get? Were fliers posted at the mall where the older guard would have seen them on his rounds, or did police return to interview the guards? It's very hard to believe he assumed the girls had been found. Surely the guards must have discussed the disappearance on their lunch breaks or in the guard stations!

Because this was an outdoor type mall, I'm not sure there would have been a way to page them over the mall's intercom system back in 1975. Each store would have had their own system as well.

The case got a ton of media attention in the Ft. Worth area at the time it happened and almost every Christmas afterwards for many, many years. It was all over the Ft. Worth Star Telegram and Dallas Morning News newspapers. The Star Telegram would have had the majority of stories about the case. I remember watching news reports of it on TV every night. They even showed the girls car in the parking lot. After about 10 years, interest slacked off and then in 2001 it got media attention again.

Now, about the letter turning up the next day. It is actually possible. Ft. Worth's postal system was unusually fast. I once mailed out several thank you notes from my local post office around 7 pm on a Thursday and they arrived at the recipients houses the very next morning! The recipients called and told me this because they were so surprised!
 
I'll keep looking for articles as well.

The mall must have been closed, possibly for hours, by 11:30 p.m. when the security guard said he saw the girls in a younger security guard's pickup. Presumably at this hour the lot was virtually empty, save for Rachel's abandoned car and whatever vehicle the parents were inside while they staked out her car.

The article said the two guards had a "run-in" and words were exchanged but then everyone laughed and they drove off. Er...with a background in law enforcement, would you allow one of your younger coworkers to cruise a deserted parking lot with three young girls who are out way past legal curfew? I can see him looking the other way while the younger guard cruised with the two teens he might have wanted to impress, but definitely not with a nine-year-old in the truck.


I wonder how many times during either guard's shift (the elder guard worked for Sears) the girls had been paged over the mall's intercom and whether the pages could be heard from inside the Sears store as well as the rest of the mall. If the older guard had heard the pages throughout the day and all three girls' names were mentioned, why wouldn't he have connected this to the three in the car?

A few more questions:

Was the younger guard a Sears employee or employed elsewhere in the mall? Did he work indoors or was his sole job to patrol the parking lot?

Exactly how much media attention did this case get? Were fliers posted at the mall where the older guard would have seen them on his rounds, or did police return to interview the guards? It's very hard to believe he assumed the girls had been found. Surely the guards must have discussed the disappearance on their lunch breaks or in the guard stations!

In 1975, there was no curfew in Ft. Worth and many kids and high school kids would stay out or sneak out their bedroom windows and stay out to all hours.

Carla Walker - the rumor around the high schools was that she and her boyfriend were actually making out in the car at the time they were attacked. The parking lot they were in was for a bowling alley located on the south side of the Benbrook Traffic Circle. According to the story I hear, they had left the car doors unlocked. The killer merely opened the door and wailed away at the boyfriend with a baseball bat. The boyfriend was badly injured and obviously attacked from behind, so, there is no way he could be considered a suspect. As to why he moved from the area, frankly, Ft. Worth doesn't have that many job opportunities compared to other cities. I'm sure he moved for the same reason I and most of my friends moved - to live in a place with job opportunities.

4- 5 years later the police did suspect there was a serial killer in Ft Worth who was attacking and killing young women at that time. There were several disappearances of young women from around the TCU and Hulen Street areas over the course of a few months. I've never seen proof that any of those cases were solved. I do know the head of one of the young women was found in the duck pond by the frat houses at TCU by some children (reported in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram.) The police formed a special task force to investigate the disappearances, but they just ended, rather than being solved. My thought is the perp was arrested for something else.
 
I, too, doubt the story about the mall security guard. But, I will say it was common practice for the mall security guard to drive you around the parking lots if you forgot where you parked your car. That is the ONLY reason I can think of for them to have been in his truck. If that even happened.

Yes, and I'm thinking it was 10 or 11 pm (or closing time for the mall) that they were supposedly seen in that truck (if I'm recalling correctly) so it just wouldn't line up with the girls time of arriving there and the time they'd have needed to spend to do their shopping and be back home (and one of them attend a party).

I'm glad you've offered some local familiarity here. It's late so I'm going to have to come back tomorrow and drink in your posts! I've been meaning to come back and at least bump this thread up - if not get in a little reading time.. and just haven't been able to squeeze it in.
 
Did anyone ever contact FW LE?

I have not. I did attempt an email thru the missingtrio.com site but I believe it was no longer valid. In any event, no response.

I also attempted a contact (email) of the retired detective on Carla Walker's case. After reading there I thought perhaps he could give me better or perhaps more current insight into why he felt enough of a connection with our missing three girls here to have included a small discussion of their case on the Carla Walker page. Again, no response.

Hopefully I will be able to set aside some time this week to put a little time in on this.

I'm so glad to see this thread move... it's definitely not forgotten by me.
 
Yes, and I'm thinking it was 10 or 11 pm (or closing time for the mall) that they were supposedly seen in that truck (if I'm recalling correctly) so it just wouldn't line up with the girls time of arriving there and the time they'd have needed to spend to do their shopping and be back home (and one of them attend a party).

I'm glad you've offered some local familiarity here. It's late so I'm going to have to come back tomorrow and drink in your posts! I've been meaning to come back and at least bump this thread up - if not get in a little reading time.. and just haven't been able to squeeze it in.

I was trying to think what else I remember at the time. I believe that it was very cold that Christmas, possibly even a bit icy in the days after the disappearance of the trio. The reason that matters is because if it is icy in the DFW area, it's super hard to drive here. People don't have snow tires or chains and generally, if it ices over, the schools and many businesses close and everyone just stays home and off the roads. I seem to recall seeing newscasts at the time and seeing their car on the newcasts in the parking lot at Sears and I believe it was raining.
 
Is "I know I'm going to catch it" something that a kid would have said? I've heard of it, but it seems very distinctive...
 
I was about the same age as Rachel but from Dallas. We always said "I'm gonna get it" rather than "catch it". Maybe it was one way in Ft. Worth and another in Dallas or maybe a class difference in matters of speaking. Not meaning to sound snobby here; you know what I mean.
 
Either way, it sounds feminine. Written by a right hander when Rachel is a lefty.
 
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