TX TX - Julie Moseley, 9, Mary Trlica, 17, Lisa Wilson, 14, Fort Worth, 23 Dec 1974 - #2

You don't believe in that best case scenario - that they could find human remains/belongings inside a car? Because it has been too long?

 

There is no glass, including front and back windshields. If there is anything in there, it will be lost from the turbulence created by hoisting them. Artifacts, human or otherwise likely will get caught up and be lost in the mud. The plan is to "wrap" them in tarps Technically; I don't see how it can be done - as described. If it were done very, very, very slowly - perhaps. The divers have about 45 minutes per dive to accomplish any part of the process. Probably 2 dives per day. Probably 3 days per car. The spectators that show up on the 22nd are in for a long, dull, disappointing experience.

 

They could be in the trunk, which is probably rusted shut.

 

Sounds like what would be needed is an archaeological team

 

I was on the boat when the vehicles were first located in July 2014. The Equusearch captain thought the second vehicle was a pickup truck based on the sonar image. The diver reported to the surface that it was a sedan, that the trunk was open. That "void" was misinterpreted by the person looking at the image. The first car found is upside down, submerged to the door handles in the muck, roughly 22' down. The third car is intact, roughly 45' down, but not on the bottom of the lake. Cars 2 & 3 are lodged on the limestone wall of the channel, one at a severe angle. The chassis' are caught on something. There are a lot of old concrete structures, steel reinforced piles with rebar sticking out in all directions. The only safe thing to do is take strong lights, the right cameras, in teams of two with a third on the surface recording and documenting as they dictate what they see. That is all the danger anyone should put themselves in. It's plenty. I think Rachel is in the trunk of a car. The other girls were in the back seat. I think the heartless bastard got behind the wheel started the car rolling with the door open -stepped out at the last second. shut the door, watched it continue over the bluff, knowing the girls had no hope of escape. IMO, all 3 drowned.

 

The "Evening" edition of The Fort Worth Star Telegram [Tues, 12.24.1974] printed the following: Section A, p.4

 

The "Evening" edition of The Fort Worth Star Telegram [Wednesday, 12.25.1974] printed the following: buried in Section C

 

The "Evening" edition of The Fort Worth Star Telegram [Thursday, 12.26.1974] printed the following:

 

Sounds like a few people had disappeared their cars over the years. A great way to do it too.

FYI, or just a laugh, take a look at the many suggestions for raising the Titanic
11 Questionable Suggestions for Raising the Titanic

 

It sounds as if (at least initially) the police did not believe the handwriting in the letter and the handwriting on the envelope were written by the same person. This is big because that essentially would be the main reason they believe that someone that knew the girls was involved.

 

Here is something else I didn't know..or at least if I did, then I forgot. But an employee at a bus depot remembers 3 girls inquiring about bus tickets to Houston and that the 3 girls fit the description of the missing trio. I wonder what LE truly thought about this information. It would be very confusing if it was just a coincidence especially after the letter was found. This could be some of the luck that the real abductor(s) needed to throw investigators off their trail...unless it was purposely meant to mislead, which would be very disturbing.

 

We know it was too soon for handwriting analysis so the officer was talking out of turn about the handwriting. He's just going off his own observation. The most interesting thing about this article is the fact that he was a juvenile officer. Another clear sign the police did not take the case seriously at the time.

 

The police specifically said they "weren't sure how reliable" that particular lead was. My guess is they thought the guy was just an attention seeker.

 

Detective Wilbanks would have no reason to state that the handwriting was Rachel's if at least her mother and sister had not "identified" it as such. As soon as the other families were shown the letter; suddenly those women questioned it.

 

FW_Cat, the hand writing analysis eventually came back as inconclusive, which means, if it wasn't Rachel's handwriting, it was probably pretty similar. That's not my point, though. My point is that the officer in the article likely went off of either family members opinion, as you suggested, or a glance at other Rachel writing samples. He then stated his opinion that the handwriting was a match as if it was a fact. Police officers shouldn't do that, especially when they're going on record to the press.

 

Wilbanks' statement was published in the evening edition of the Star-Telegram on Christmas Day, less than 24 hours from LE being shown the letter. He was relying on her family's identification - nothing else. They must not have hesitated. After the other girls parents started asking hard questions. Francis and Debbie weren't so sure....Wilbanks was a detective from the juvenile division. We can crucify the department some other time.

 

I'm not crucifying the department, just saying he was out of line stating the handwriting was a match. It forced the department to walk back his words years later. Mistakes happen and he made one. It was far from the only one FWPD made in those early days.

Bottom line is the results of the handwriting analysis were inconclusive.

I do assume the handwriting resembled Rachel's at the very least, but that's just an inference on my part given the circumstances. I also believe the hand writing is female, but that's based on my own observation.

 

Let's do crucify the department! I wasn't accusing you, LOL. Only wanted to point out that rabbit hole and set it aside. That whole piece; the "investigation" gives me a sharp headache whenever I think of it.

 

With even a possibility that the handwriting was Rachel's - LE should go searching in Houston. Or have to work on the assumption that there was foul play. I can imagine the other parents pushed hard on investigating the letter.

Of course we are all smarties in hindsight.

I would be curious to know then, FW Cat, what was your opinion on Dec 25, after reading the news? Or were you too young to pay attention?

 

Christmas Eve. 1974 - I was 19; 4 months pregnant. Wrapping presents and watching the 10 o'clock news. They showed the girls pictures. I was very confused. How did Debbie Arnold's little sister end up married to TT? My second thought was, "Tommy, what have you done?" It may surprise people to know this. Until I went on the internet in the spring of 2009 to take a look at the list of unsolved murders, "Cold Case Division" of FWPD, I had not read the newspaper. I watched what there was about the case on the nightly news. I had my baby in May 1975 and went on with my life. When I didn't find the girls on that FWPD website (there were dozens of others), I did a search on "Trlica" since that name was the more unique. That led me to missingtrio.com. That article by Mary Rogers, (date?) is the first one I ever read. Nothing was new. Nothing had changed in over 30 years. No new facts. I started making calls to different agencies once I formed an opinion. That July I tried to contact Dan James. The rest is posted here - somewhere. Then in 2016 a family member showed me his collection of newspaper clippings, in a box, in no particular order. I tried putting them in order with only the text as a guide in most cases. Sometimes, a handwritten date in the corner. So. The three articles I posted this week are the ones I can confirm according to the archives from the Central Library. Just last Wednesday - looking at the entire page I learned something I never expected. In the first 8 days; the number of times this story made the front page is ZERO. On the 8th day, the tiny article is buried in the obituary section. It made me profoundly sad to see the article "Families plead for return of missing girls in letter", in context, as well as the others. Very disturbing. Also, it is a time-warp experience to see ads for stores and businesses you'd forgotten all about. Bad trip down memory lane. It's tedious to read newspapers on microfilm. The reel ended with December 30th. The Library closes at 5pm. It's going to take a while to get this stuff in order. I'll roll it out as I get to it.