January 16, 2025 • 43 mins
Right now in true crime: Donna Adelson change on venue request, Slender Man assailant getting released.
In this weeks episode I will tell you about the disappearance of 3 girls from Fort Worth Texas in 1974. Rachel Trlica, Renee Wilson & Julie Ann Mosley all vanished into thin air on December 23rd 1974 while out doing some last minute Christmas shopping. The girls remain missing till this day, but their families continue to fight for justice. Lets unravel this one together
Sources for episode: https://www.talesfromtheunderworld.com/p/a-texas-mystery-the-unexplained-disappearance
https://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4255
This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. I do my best to thoroughly research all aspects of the cases I cover and use credible and publically available sources which I will always reference. The views and opinions expressed by me are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to conduct their own research and draw their own conclusions. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individuals, groups, or organizations. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Everything is alleged. All sources are cited above.
In this weeks episode I will tell you about the disappearance of 3 girls from Fort Worth Texas in 1974. Rachel Trlica, Renee Wilson & Julie Ann Mosley all vanished into thin air on December 23rd 1974 while out doing some last minute Christmas shopping. The girls remain missing till this day, but their families continue to fight for justice. Lets unravel this one together
Sources for episode: https://www.talesfromtheunderworld.com/p/a-texas-mystery-the-unexplained-disappearance
https://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4255
This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. I do my best to thoroughly research all aspects of the cases I cover and use credible and publically available sources which I will always reference. The views and opinions expressed by me are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to conduct their own research and draw their own conclusions. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individuals, groups, or organizations. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Everything is alleged. All sources are cited above.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All witnesses purchase of interest, and suspects are considered innocent
until proven guilty in a court of law. Welcome to
Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now
on true crime, and then together we are going to
work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go Hey, guys,
welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We
(00:22):
are going to go ahead and dive into right now
on true crime. So Donna Adelson, whose trial is coming
up here in a few months, has officially requested a
change of venue. And the primary reason behind this is
because there is so much attention and media and there's
(00:43):
also been other trials that have brought a lot of.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Media attention, podcast attention.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So her side is saying that she is not going
to be able to get a fair trial in Tallahassee.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So they have requested change a venue.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And anytime there's a request of change of venue, they
cite other instances where cases have received a outpouring.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Of media attention.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
In this particular one, they cited Brian Coberger because they
of course got his change of venue granted because there
was so much media attention surrounding the case and Essentially,
they want the change of venue because they want her
to have a fair and impartial trial and be able
(01:31):
to get a pull of jurors that might not know
about the Abelson's and all of the different transgressions that
have happened. But this case has spanned so much time
and there has been a lot of publicity surrounding it,
especially in Florida, not just Tallahassee, but Florida in general.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
There is four different trials.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
The trials, some of them have been very publicized, and
there's a lot of public knowledge about this case in general.
So I do think it's going to be hard for
them to find an impartial jury, but I think it's
going to be hard for them to find an impartial
jury wherever they go in Florida.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So we'll see what ends up happening with that.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Honestly, they probably will grant her a change of venue
just because in that you take away the likelihood that
there will be grounds for an appeal later on. If
she doesn't have a fair and impartial trial with a
fair and impartial jury, then it's more likelihood that an
appeal would be granted later on, and we obviously don't
(02:36):
want that. If she is guilty because all of this
is allaged. She has not been officially convicted yet. But
it will be interesting to see what ends up coming
out if they do grant the change of venue.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
But I will be sure to keep you guys updated.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
But yeah, the Donna Adison trial is going to be
happening this year. It is going to be probably very
interesting because there's also a lot of about the other child,
the other Adelson child, Rob Adelson, and his testimony and
him speaking on his mother's character and all that. They
(03:13):
have gone back and forth as to whether or not
that that will be allowed to be talked about in
the trial because Rob is estranged from his whole family.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It is a whole thing.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
He's probably the smartest Adelson in my opinion, and he
got away from his family, which makes him even smarter
again in my opinion. But it is going to be
interesting to see what all comes out and what if
we learn anything new in Donna's trial because there is
another layer to this, the murder for hire. The different
(03:48):
key players, Donna Adelson is the last one essentially, unless
Windy does get charged to face.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Trial for the murder for hire of Dan Markel.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
So it's going to be really interesting to see what
comes out, how the trial goes, if you learn anything
new and kind of where the jury ends up standing
with things. So I'll be sure to keep you guys
updated if anything more comes out in regards to.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
The change of venue.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
A random update on a case that I haven't thought
about in such.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
A long time.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
They announced a week ago after I already recorded right
now in True Crime that Morgan Geyser, who is one
of the two people that was arrested in the twenty
fourteen slender Man stabbing case, is going to be released
from a mental health facility. She was twelve at the
(04:46):
time of this horrific murder. She is now twenty two
years old. Her and her classmate and friend lured one
of their friends to the woods in Wisconsin, stabbed with
this girl nineteen times in order to please this online
fictional character called Slenderman.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Is a whole hot mess of a case.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
If you haven't looked into it, I suggest you look
into it. But this gal ended up being diagnosed with
early onset schizophrenia and now they are going to be
releasing her from this mental health facility. Now, the gal
who was attacked did suffer life threatening injuries. However, she
did survive, but they ended up charging Morgan and her
(05:31):
co conspirator with first degree attempted intentional homicide. So Morgan
was convicted of the charges, but she was found not
guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, and she
was sentenced to up to forty years in a psychiatric institution.
And now we are currently where we're at, and she
(05:54):
is going to be released. There are three psychologists who
have worked closely with more and testified to basically her
preparedness for a supervised release, and they are quoted as
saying at this point, I am in favor in support
of her petition for release. Specifically, I don't think she
currently poses a significant risk of substantial harm to herself, others,
(06:17):
or to property damage. And apparently she also had a
suicide attempt in twenty twenty one, but the psychologists have
testified that her mental health has improved significantly since then.
They say that she can be incredibly self critical and
have low self esteem, but she is well spoken and
(06:37):
incredibly bright.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
They also believe that she has a lot of potential
to reintegrate back into society.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
She has been discussing goals for her future, expressing interest
in becoming a librarian, and she wants to become a
therapist for people with substance abuse disorders. Now, like I said,
she was diagnosed with schizophrenia after stabbing, but over the
last two years she has not exhibited any psychotic symptoms
(07:06):
and she has been successfully weaned off of her medications.
She does exhibit symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety,
and autism, and she hasn't exhibited any suicide ideation since
twenty twenty one. So she will get the supervisor release
within sixty days. I guess they will attempt to help
(07:28):
her reintegrate into society.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I do hope that she is successful on the outside,
that she.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Is able to reintegrate and go on to live her
life in a normal way. But it definitely doesn't change
the fact that she did attempt to murder someone and
take someone's life when she was only twelve years old.
That one, it's a hard one for me, but I'll
continue to keep you guys updated. She is going to
be out in the next sixty days, and hopefully she
(07:56):
has a really solid and good support system surrounding her.
Because I do think regardless of any other issues. Being
a WAF and isolated in a system like that for
ten years of your life, it has to take its toll.
And she was twelve when she went away and now
she's twenty two, so it's going to be really interesting.
(08:18):
I like I said, I don't wish harm on anybody.
Hopefully that intense therapy that she's gone through and these
ten years will have paid off and she is ready
to reintegrate.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
But I will keep you guys updated. And with all
of that being said, we are going to call that
good for right now.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
In true crime, there's some other little, minuscule, tiny little
things going on in the true crime space, but nothing
major to report. A lot of Menanda's brothers talk, but
not enough to actually talk about it at the moment
because they haven't really made any decisions there. But as
more things come out, I will be sure to keep
(08:58):
you guys updated.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And we are going to go ahead and get into
today's episode.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Beyond the Shadows podcast.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
In the darkest corners of our universe live spaces where
even the light.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Won't go, places where terror in the unknown lurk always waiting.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Join Ryan and Scott on the Beyond the Shadows podcast.
As we pull back the curtain and peer into the darkness.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
We'll examine hauntings, true crimes, mysteries, UFOs, exorcisms, reincarnations, mysteries,
and all things dark.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Join us as we go beyond the shadows.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
All right, guys, today we are jumping in to a
brand new unsolved case. We recently had an anniversary pass
in this case and it popped up on Facebook. I
had not heard of it before, and I decided that
that was going to be the episode that I cover
this week. So this is the first official unsolved case
that I am covering in twenty twenty five. So today
(10:08):
I'm going to be telling you about the unsolved disappearances
of three girls back in nineteen seventy four in Fort Worth, Texas.
It is one of Fort Worth's oldest cold cases to date,
and the circumstances surrounding their disappearance leaves us with way
more questions than answers. But despite that, we are going
(10:30):
to discuss it and try to unpack it together. So
let's go ahead and dive right in. Our three missing
girls are as follows Mary Rachel True Lisa, who was
seventeen years old and by the name Rachel. I am
going to be referring to her as Rachel throughout the
rest of this episode. So Rachel was a high school
(10:52):
student in Fort Worth. She had a brother who was
named Rusty, and she also had an older sister named Deborah. Now,
Deborah was previously in a relationship with a man named
Tommy Trelisha, and they actually were even briefly engaged. However,
Deborah ended up saying it wasn't really a real engagement
(11:12):
and they ended up parting ways, which opened up the
door for Deborah's younger sister, Rachel, who had met Tommy
and instantly they hit it off and they ended up
getting married in nineteen seventy four, prior to Rachel starting
her senior year of high school, so when she was
still a junior, and Rachel's older sister, Deborah was living
(11:34):
with Rachel and Tommy at the time of her disappearance.
So Rachel and Deborah's dad was battling cancer and he
was notoriously a hot head, and Deborah and Rachel were
both afraid of him. I'm only speculating, but I'm sure
that this is part of the reason why Deborah ended
up moving in with Rachel and Tommy, So Tommy also
(11:55):
had a two year old son from a previous relationship.
He had been married and was now divorced, and Rachel
very much looked after Tommy Sunshan as her own, even
though she was super super young. The next girl we're
going to talk about is named Lisa Renee Wilson. She
also went by her middle name, so I'll be referring
(12:15):
to her as Renee. She was fourteen years old and
living in Fort Worth, and she was friends with Rachel.
Their families had been longtime friends, family friends, and they
would often go on camping trips together. So despite the
fact that Renee was fourteen and Rachel was seventeen, they
had a lot in common and they were good friends.
(12:38):
Renee had a boyfriend named Terry Moseley and they were getting.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Pretty serious, as serious as you can get.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
When you're fourteen, and the morning that the girls disappeared,
Terry had actually given Renee a promise ring. Julie Anne
Moseley was nine years old and was the younger sister
of Terry, who was Renee's boyfriend. Julie and Renee would
often spend time together since Julie was Terry's little sister,
(13:07):
but Julie didn't know Rachel Trelisha at all. However, soon
their lives would intersect and they would forever be known
as the fort Worth Trio till present day. So we
are on December twenty third of nineteen seventy four, and
what started as a simple plan to do some last
minute Christmas shopping has turned into.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
A decade long investigation.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Rachel and Renee had planned on going to the mall
that day to do some last minute Christmas shopping. Terry
Moseley was asked to tag along with the girls, but
he had already made plans to go visit with a friend.
Renee had planned to be back by four pm because
her and Terry had plans to attend a Christmas party
together later that evening.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Now, Julie, being a nine year old.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Two days before Christmas, super excited, wanted to get out
of the house, and I'm sure she thought spending the
day with Renee and Rachel at the mall sounded so
much fun, and she asked if she could tag along.
Renee of course obliged, but she wanted to get permission
from Terry and Julie's mom. So Terry and Julie's mom,
(14:16):
named ray Anne, initially was very hesitant because she didn't
know Rachel, but of course she trusted Renee with her daughter,
so she eventually gave in. And Rayne had told Julie
that she needed to be back by six pm, which
wouldn't be a problem because Renee wanted to be back
by four. So all of this was panning out perfectly
(14:37):
and there was going to be no issues.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
So shortly before noon on the twenty.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Third of December, Rachel picked Julie and Renee up in.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Her Odesmobile ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
They made a stop along the way at a surplus
store to pick up some items Renee had placed on layaway,
and in the later afternoon hours of December twenty third,
the girls would arrive at the mall the Seminary Said
Shopping Center.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
The Seminary South Shopping Center opened in nineteen sixty two.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
It was on eighty five acres of land and was
on the corner of a busy intersection. It had nine
thousand square feet of four space, and at this point
in time, it was the largest shopping center in Texas.
It eventually would change its name to fort Or Town
Center and would change its name once again in two
thousand and four to log Gram Plaza and catered to
(15:27):
a predominantly Hispanic population.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
It is still standing to this day. I will post pictures.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Rachel ended up parking her car on the top level
of the Seer's parking lot, and this is the last
confirmed detail investigators have about their moments that day. Four
o'clock PM came and went, six o'clock PM came and went,
and the girls did not return home. The families became
increasingly concerned, and they decided to drive to the shopping
(15:55):
center and look for the girls themselves and kind of
try to figure out what was going on.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Something must have happened.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
They do find Rachel's car still parked in the same spot.
The doors were locked, and the things that Renee had
bought from her stop at the surplus store were in
the car. There's also reports that the car was filled
with shopping bags meeting the girls had traveled to and
from the car with their belongings, but that is said
to be false, and the only other things in the
(16:23):
car were the things that Renee had picked up earlier
in the day, and there was a small wrapped present
that Renee had bought for Rachel's step son Sean for Christmas.
Once the families arrived, they pretty much immediately called police,
and they also went inside to search for the girls,
and they asked one of the workers there to page
(16:47):
the girls over the intercom, which was done with no
response from any of the girls. The family decided at
that point in time that they were going to file
missing persons reports. They called friends, they called local hospitals.
Nobody had seen the girls. Police had said that there
was no reason to suspect foul play. However, none of
(17:08):
these girls had a history of running away, so this
was very out of character for them, and one of
them was only nine nine years old, So yeah, we
are sure going to be suspecting foul play if two
teenage girls and a nine year old disappear. We're not
thinking they just plan this elaborate heist and ran away
(17:30):
under the ruse that they were going Christmas shopping at
the mall. Julie was nine. That makes absolute no sense.
They were making plans for later in the day. It
made no sense. And I'll say it again, when families
are concerned, law enforcement should believe them and follow through.
So the next day, which was Christmas, eve, the Star
(17:52):
Telegram reported on the girls being missing. That same morning, Tommy,
Rachel's husband received a letter in the mail and it
read 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 cars in Sear's upper lat
love Rachel, so at first glance it did seem that
(18:16):
investigator for right the girls have run away. But the
letter was addressed to Thomas Trelicia and Rachel only ever
called him Tommy. He was never called Thomas ever ever. Ever,
her name was also signed wrong. It appeared that the
person who had written it had spelled it r acchee
(18:38):
initially and then realized that they messed up and they
had to put the l over the e to correct it.
The letter was also written in ink, However, the envelope
was written out in pencil and the return address was
simply just Rachel. The postmark on the envelope was also
(18:58):
very bizarre. There no city listed, only a zip code
which ended up being smudged. They thought it could be
seven six h eight three, but the three stamped on
it was possibly backwards, so they weren't sure if it
was an eight or three or what was going on.
Investigators did their best to try to figure out where
(19:20):
it was postmarked, and the best that they could tell
is that it was either from Eliasville or Weatherford, which
were both in Texas. Now, Rachel's family did not believe
that Rachel wrote this letter, and the families of the
other two girls also did not believe that the girls
had run away and that this was a letter that
was actually handwritten by Rachel. Like I said, Renee was
(19:44):
making plans for the future. She wanted to be back
for the Christmas party at four o'clock. And why would
she kidnap a nine year old? That doesn't make any
sense at all. Rachel's mother, who is named Francis Langston,
is quoted as saying, a lot of people made think
that they left with someone they knew, But I'll always
think until the day I die that the girls were
(20:05):
taken end quote. FBI analysts have not been able to
prove or disprove that Rachel is the one who wrote
the letter. My gut personally is telling me that she
did not write that letter and it was sent in
an effort to stall the investigation or play into the
fact that the girls ran away. Because that is what
Fort Worth Police Department was already kind of putting out there.
(20:28):
The families ended up offering a reward leading to information
that would lead to the girl's location. The families, of course,
never believed that the girls had run away, and every
did everything in their power to try to find the girls.
They distributed missing persons flyers and talked to as many
people as they could. They also had reached out to
(20:48):
some local newspapers in hopes that they would share the
story of the Fort Worth Trio, which.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
They soon became known as. Luckily, there were some tips.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
That came in, and one of them was of particular interest.
It was a boy who had claimed to be a
friend of Rachel, and he said that he saw three
girls that day at the mall in the record store,
and he said he even had spoken with Rachel. But
interestingly enough, he said the girls weren't there alone. Now,
I couldn't find much else about who this person was
(21:21):
that the girls were allegedly with, if it was a
male or a female, or any other details about this interaction.
The search ended up continuing and nothing much happened, as
law enforcement was still at this point convinced the girls
ran away. The families decided to hire a private investigator
who was named John Swain, and in April of nineteen
(21:43):
seventy five, he received a tip that the girls had
been murdered and dumped in Port Lavaca, Texas. He ended
up traveling there along with some volunteers to search for
anything that supported this theory, and after a grueling search.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
They ended up finding nothing.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
In August of nineteen seventy five, John had learned of
another lead that he felt was at least worth looking into.
It was about a twenty eight year old man who
had been working at a store in fort Worth and
had been making obscene and unwanted phone calls to girls
who had applied to jobs at the place he worked at.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
So he was essentially taking these.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Applications and harassing these women, or if they would list references,
then he would harass the references if they were female.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So he had been.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Calling a fifteen and eighteen year old set of siblings
for two years and harassing them. At this point in time,
he worked at the same place that Rachel had previously
applied to prior to the girl's disappearance, and he had
also lived in the same neighborhood, as Rachel's parents did
before she moved out when she married Tommy, so this
was the first semi solid lead, so they decided to
(22:56):
try to set this man up so they could at
least bring him in for questioning. John Swain is part
of all of this, so they ended up setting him
up under the ruse that a fifteen year old girl
who he was contacting wanted to meet him at the
local mall, so she talked him into giving her his name,
and then from there the police were contacted and John
(23:18):
Swam got involved.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And the plan was set into motion.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
If nothing else, if he showed up, it would allow
them to take him into custody because a twenty eight
year old man should not be meeting a minor in
a mall parking lot, and he had also been harassing
these two siblings, so if nothing else, they could take
him in and charge him with at least harassment. So
he ended up showing up, but he wasn't hour late,
(23:45):
so there was a lot of logistics to try to
get into place, but essentially they ended up taking this
guy into custody to talk to him about these harassment
things that he had been doing over the phone.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
He did have a record.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
He had been on probation for five years for indecent exposure.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So this guy was creepy.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
He felt nothing of dropping his pants in public and
exposing himself to people. His lawyer ended up getting him
out of jail pretty quickly. He did agree to a
polygraph test, but I'm unsure if that really ever happened.
Despite this being strange, nothing else ever really came of it,
and they were unable to tie him to anything.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
So that was another dead end in this investigation.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So we are now coming up on the one year
anniversary of the trio's disappearance.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
There are no new leads and no new information to
provide at this point in time.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
In March of nineteen seventy six, a man from Hawaii
who claimed to be a psychic wrote a letter to
the Fort Worth Sheriff and stated how the girls had
been killed and placed in brush along Texas twenty six
in Rushing Star. They again ended up doing a massive
search of the area and came up empty handed.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Again.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Detective Swain thought all of this was a total bunch
of crap, but of course they had to take it seriously.
Anything that they were led to they had to follow
through and be sure, because what if the one time
you don't follow through, it's actually a credible, reliable TI
In July of nineteen seventy six, the bones of three
(25:22):
people were found by an oil field worker in alvin Texas.
They initially thought the bones belonged to a male and
two females. However, it was then discovered that the bones
belonged to three females. Investigators ended up returning to the
scene in nineteen eighty one and they ended up finding
more bones, and at this point they were able to
(25:43):
positively identify them. Technology was not fantastic back then, especially
in those regards trying to identify bones, so it took
a lot of effort to figure out who these bones
belonged to. They ended up not belonging to the missing
three girls. John Swain ended up doing a press conference
(26:06):
in December of nineteen seventy six, and he said he
had been contacted by a man who was acting as
an intermediary for someone who may know the whereabouts of
the three girls, and he was asked by his contact
to publish and state that the informant would not be
charged or prosecuted. The info from the contact said that
(26:28):
the girls were outside Terran County, but they were unsure
if the girls were alive or dead, and the families
did believe at that point that the girls were deceased,
and the families just wanted to know where the remains
of the girls were and they begged for answers. So
for the next three years there wasn't hardly any movement
(26:51):
at all in this case. It wasn't until nineteen seventy
nine when John Swain died. So he was found by
his landlord's semi conscious.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
The landlord called nine to one one and John refused
to go to the hospital.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
He had been heavily drinking and taking drugs. Eventually everyone
left and after several hours his family had gone to
his apartment to check on him and they found him dead.
He overdosed, and they initially said it was an accidental overdose,
but they then decided that they were going to rule
(27:27):
it a suicide because he knew that he needed help
and he refused to get that help, meaning he likely
did not want to live any longer, which I think
is so said.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
He allegedly had been.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Going through a divorce and was depressed because of the
circumstances surrounding this. He had also been kind of having
a fall from grace. He had been arrested for a
public intoxication and the months prior, and there was also
talks about suspending his private investigator license. But he had
(27:58):
very much put a lot into finding the three girls.
He always had a feeling that the girls were still alive.
But a lot of other people looking from the outside
in thought that he took on the case for notoriety
and he took advantage of the grief of the three families. Now,
obviously he was a private investigator, so he had a
(28:19):
lot of information on the case, all the different tips
that they had followed through on everything.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So what happens now that he is dead.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So allegedly John Swain ordered all of his case files
on the Fort Worth Trio to be destroyed. Upon his death,
the files were burned, which mind blown, absolutely mind blown
by this. So everything that he had collected over the
course of the time he investigated the case were gone.
(28:50):
Nothing was given to the family or to police. And
this is, in my opinion, just super shady and it's
not okay. The poor family who had already been through
so much losing their daughters.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
And they now had to deal with this.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Everything that they had done, all the work that they
had done over the years, was just completely gone. So
in the spring of nineteen eighty one, investigators were called
back to Brazoria County to investigate some bones that were
found in a bog and they ended up not being
a match for the girls. In two thousand and one,
(29:29):
the case was officially reopened by the Fort Worth Police
Department and was assigned to a homicide detective. Now, according
to this homicide detective named Tom, he believes that the
girls left willingly from the mall with someone they recognized,
new or even trusted, and they do believe that there
(29:49):
was more than one person involved in whatever transpired with
these girls. The families have never given up on the sert.
In two thousand and eight teen, authorities retrieved two vehicles
that were sunk in Benbrook Lake which were said to
be connected to the case, but again this ended up
(30:10):
leading nowhere, at least from what I could find. In
twenty twenty three, Clear Channel collaborated with.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and they
ended up beginning a campaign to try to bring in
new leads and attention to the girl's case.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
They placed billboards of age progress photos of the three
girls across North Texas. This case has officially passed the
fifty year mark, with twenty twenty four anniversary passing recently.
That was fifty years and we still don't have answers
in this case. Anyone with information or potential leads is
(30:48):
encouraged to contact the Fort Worth Police Department by emailing
Cold Case at fort WORTHPD dot com.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Now, in my.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Research, I always go down these rabbit holes, and I
came across some things from the families which kind of
led me into this rabbit hole. So, despite this being
a fifty year old case, the families of these girls
very much still pressed for information and remember the girls fondly.
(31:19):
I found a Daily Mail article which they spoke with
some of the girl's families. Rachel's brother Rusty said that
at one point in time, a woman had come forward
and told him that she's the one that wrote the letter,
the one that Tommy received that day. She lived a
few houses down from Renee, and that was true. It
(31:42):
was actually confirmed that she did live a few houses
down from Renee.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
She said that her dad had forced her to write
the letter, and he talked to her about what to
say to cover it up if anyone asked her about it.
She thinks that her dad was involved in the girls disappearing.
Rusty said that from what they could do, they pursued
it as far as they could, and he thinks that
they did end up getting her DNA to compare it
(32:09):
to that on the envelope, and they also had her
rewrite the letter, and a handwriting expert said that the
writing didn't match and she wasn't the writer of the
original letter. Now. Fran Frances Rachel's mother thinks that the
strongest lead that she received came from a man who
(32:31):
said he saw the girls in a van behind the
Seer store at the mall. She said that he had
been in from out of town and was in the
parking lot waiting on a friend. He said that he
saw Rachel and Rachel had kind of grabbed his door
and was asking him to help her, and he was
going to help her, but then basically was told by
(32:54):
one of the men that was with Rachel to mind
his own business, and he said, this is my wife.
You're meddling in a family matter. Just stay out of
our business. So at the same time, there were two
other girls who had exited the same van, but they
were quickly gathered and placed back in the van by
(33:15):
two other men.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
So this van is described as light blue.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Now, this man had contacted Rachel's family and actually had
to sit down with Rachel's mom and he said he
knows that.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
That is who he saw that day.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
And fran very much believes that this is the story,
this is what happened, because this man.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Never once wavered on his story. He was consistent from
start to finish.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
And I guess at one point they did want to
polygraph this man, but he had some cognitive memory deficits
as he got older, and they weren't able to do
the polygraph for that reason. But Francis very much believes
that this is what happened. The girls were kidnapped and
for whatever reason, they were kidnapped and then they ended
(34:05):
up being killed. And like I said, this man never
wavered in a story. He never changed details. He was
consistent from start to finish. Now, the girl's disappearances did
cost some riffs in the family, and of course with
the girls being missing, it has to be so much
on the families to try to navigate that and then
(34:26):
having it be unsolved and everything else that transpired.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
So Rusty and his.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Sister Deborah didn't speak for twenty years due to the case.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
There was even a.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Point in time where Rusty even said he thought Deborah
could have had something to do with it, but they
did prove that she wasn't involved in one way or another. Now,
there are some people that believe Tommy, Rachel's husband had
something to do with it, because he allegedly.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Went bowling the evening that his wife went.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Missing, and he remarried shortly after to another seventeen year old.
Now Franz said she didn't think he really cared about
Rachel being missing, and basically, they have nothing to do
with him and they don't want him in the.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
City limits of Fort Worth.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
He did pass both of the polygraph tests that he
was given. Now, I personally don't believe that Tommy is involved, but.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
There are those that do.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Now. Resty knows for a fact that the girls made
it to them all that day, but when they went
to leave.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
That is when he thinks something happened.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
He said that Fort Worth Police department treating them as
runaways for the first year severely hampered the investigation. They
didn't dust the car for prints or anything else. There
also was no security cameras because it was the seventies,
so there was no digital evidence of these.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Girls, no cell phone payings, no nothing.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Now, at one point the girls' families did believe that
the disappearance could be related to to that of another
woman who was local and a family friend named Lisha
and McGhee, and in January of nineteen seventy eight she
ended up vanishing after leaving a Christmas party and she
was later found in the trunk of her card capitated
(36:17):
in fort Worth. But I don't believe anything has ever
really come of this, or ever come of the two
cases being connected. They also spoke with Terry, who remembers
the girls fondly and knows that his sister would have
never went missing voluntarily two days before Christmas. She was
nine years old. She was so looking forward to Christmas.
(36:40):
She never would have gone off with these other two
girls voluntarily. And like playing Devil's advocate. Two teenage girls
aren't going to take a nine year old with them
and then essentially disappear into thin air. That doesn't make
any sense why they would do that, especially Renee asked
(37:00):
Terry and Julie's mom for permission for Julie to come
to the mall with them. Is that somebody that's planning
like this heist, crazy disappearance?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
It makes absolutely no sense to me that anyone investigators
thought that they disappeared on their own free will. So
Terry made a post recently on his Facebook that he
had he was kind of sharing a memory, and it
said that he had hosted a get together five years
ago in honor of the girl's disappearance. And he also
(37:35):
made a post for the fiftieth anniversary of the disappearance
that I am going to read that now. Well, today
makes fifty long years of waiting and wondering about the
missing trio. Julie, Renee, and Rachel y'all have all heard
the story and it hasn't changed in all of these years.
Fifty times their birthdays have come to pass, fifty Thanksgivings
and fifty Christmases. Nothing is easier, nothing is better. I
(37:59):
wish none of this had ever happened. It seems like
a lifelong nightmare. I choose not to have any real
celebration on this day.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
I just can't do it.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
I've included some photos of all three girls, a couple
of Renee and I, a couple of what family I
had left. One is from a very early interview, and
one is many years later, and finally my favorite photo
of Julie. Terry very much posts about the girls. He
lost so much that day, and I can't imagine the
(38:30):
pain he feels daily trying to navigate this, especially with
little to no movement in the case. The thing about
this case, with so many of the other ones I cover,
this case is solvable. Somebody knows something. More than one
person likely knows something. One person could have done this,
(38:51):
but there's chances that other people saw something or know
something and don't realize they know something, or the person
that did this told somebody and they know something.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Somebody knows something.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Probably more than one person knows something, And unfortunately, the
longer the years go on without any movement, the slimmer
the chances get of solving us.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
The person or people who.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Did this could be deceased by now, but these families
still deserve answers.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
They need to know what happened to these girls.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
In the Daily Mail article, they shared a photo which
I'll share on my Instagram and Facebook pages that Rachel's mom,
Frances puts three angels out each Christmas and memory of
the girls, and it is a beautiful picture.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I will be sure to share it.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
And Fran is the last remaining parent of the Fort
Worth trio. All the others have passed away without knowing
what happened to their daughters. Now, although this case maybe
fifty years old, the girls still hold a very special
place and everyone that knew them live and we all
want answers and justice for the girls. Once I learned
(40:05):
about this case and started digging in, I realized, like, people.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Probably don't talk about this case enough.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
I had never heard of it, and I consider myself
a pretty knowledgeable cold case person obviously it's what I do.
And I also live in Texas, so you would think
that I would have heard rumblings of this somewhere along
the way, but no, I had never heard.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Of it, and I'm so glad that I happened upon it.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
And once I started digging into it, I knew that
it was a case I had to cover, and I
wanted to cover it now because the fiftieth anniversary just passed.
So these girls deserve justice. Their families deserve justice. They
deserve to know what happened to their daughters, what happened
to the girls. Terry deserves to know what happened to
(40:52):
his girlfriend and his sister. There's so much here that,
like I said, it's solvable. The people just have to
come forward and let the investigators know what they know
and from there let nature take its course and the
girls can hopefully be found. So, like I said, neck
(41:15):
Mec did do h progress photos of the girls. I
will be posting those to social media and I'm going
to post a few other pictures some of the pictures
that Terry had posted on his social media.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
These three girls were all very young.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
They all they did was go Christmas shopping at a mall,
a seemingly busy shopping mall, in the middle of the day.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
What could have happened to them and who could have
done it? It could have been somebody that they knew.
It could have been under the guise of somebody that
they knew. But there is no way that they ran away.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
And they had this elaborate scheme of going to the
mall and taking Julie with them and then they were
just going to disappear.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
None of that makes any sense whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
The weird letter that was addressed to Tommy and the way
it was addressed to Tommy doesn't make any sense. Somebody
knows who wrote that letter, and somebody wrote the letter.
So this letter is so important to figure out the
origin of where did it come from, who wrote it,
where was it sent from?
Speaker 2 (42:27):
So many unanswered questions in this case, and there has
to be answers.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Eventually, answers have to come out, and we need to
figure out where these girls are.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
So that is today's episode.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
I hope you guys enjoyed this little journey I took
you on with the fort word trio.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
I want to remember them. I want their families to
know that.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
There are still people out there who care about them
and want them to be found and want to keep
the story out there. Fifty years is a hell of
a long time to not have answers, especially when it's
your family. Not knowing has to be the hardest thing
in the world to.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Go day to day and not know.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
So if any of the members of Rachel Renee or
Julie's family are listening to this, I want you to
know that there are people out there who still care
and who want to find your family and want answers,
and that is the whole reason I did this episode.
So I will see you guys next week for a
(43:31):
brand new Unsolved case, and I hope you have a
great weekend ahead and stay safe.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Bye.
All witnesses purchase of interest, and suspects are considered innocent
until proven guilty in a court of law. Welcome to
Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now
on true crime, and then together we are going to
work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go Hey, guys,
welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We
(00:22):
are going to go ahead and dive into right now
on true crime. So Donna Adelson, whose trial is coming
up here in a few months, has officially requested a
change of venue. And the primary reason behind this is
because there is so much attention and media and there's
(00:43):
also been other trials that have brought a lot of.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Media attention, podcast attention.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So her side is saying that she is not going
to be able to get a fair trial in Tallahassee.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So they have requested change a venue.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And anytime there's a request of change of venue, they
cite other instances where cases have received a outpouring.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Of media attention.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
In this particular one, they cited Brian Coberger because they
of course got his change of venue granted because there
was so much media attention surrounding the case and Essentially,
they want the change of venue because they want her
to have a fair and impartial trial and be able
(01:31):
to get a pull of jurors that might not know
about the Abelson's and all of the different transgressions that
have happened. But this case has spanned so much time
and there has been a lot of publicity surrounding it,
especially in Florida, not just Tallahassee, but Florida in general.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
There is four different trials.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
The trials, some of them have been very publicized, and
there's a lot of public knowledge about this case in general.
So I do think it's going to be hard for
them to find an impartial jury, but I think it's
going to be hard for them to find an impartial
jury wherever they go in Florida.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So we'll see what ends up happening with that.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Honestly, they probably will grant her a change of venue
just because in that you take away the likelihood that
there will be grounds for an appeal later on. If
she doesn't have a fair and impartial trial with a
fair and impartial jury, then it's more likelihood that an
appeal would be granted later on, and we obviously don't
(02:36):
want that. If she is guilty because all of this
is allaged. She has not been officially convicted yet. But
it will be interesting to see what ends up coming
out if they do grant the change of venue.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
But I will be sure to keep you guys updated.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
But yeah, the Donna Adison trial is going to be
happening this year. It is going to be probably very
interesting because there's also a lot of about the other child,
the other Adelson child, Rob Adelson, and his testimony and
him speaking on his mother's character and all that. They
(03:13):
have gone back and forth as to whether or not
that that will be allowed to be talked about in
the trial because Rob is estranged from his whole family.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It is a whole thing.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
He's probably the smartest Adelson in my opinion, and he
got away from his family, which makes him even smarter
again in my opinion. But it is going to be
interesting to see what all comes out and what if
we learn anything new in Donna's trial because there is
another layer to this, the murder for hire. The different
(03:48):
key players, Donna Adelson is the last one essentially, unless
Windy does get charged to face.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Trial for the murder for hire of Dan Markel.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
So it's going to be really interesting to see what
comes out, how the trial goes, if you learn anything
new and kind of where the jury ends up standing
with things. So I'll be sure to keep you guys
updated if anything more comes out in regards to.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
The change of venue.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
A random update on a case that I haven't thought
about in such.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
A long time.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
They announced a week ago after I already recorded right
now in True Crime that Morgan Geyser, who is one
of the two people that was arrested in the twenty
fourteen slender Man stabbing case, is going to be released
from a mental health facility. She was twelve at the
(04:46):
time of this horrific murder. She is now twenty two
years old. Her and her classmate and friend lured one
of their friends to the woods in Wisconsin, stabbed with
this girl nineteen times in order to please this online
fictional character called Slenderman.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Is a whole hot mess of a case.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
If you haven't looked into it, I suggest you look
into it. But this gal ended up being diagnosed with
early onset schizophrenia and now they are going to be
releasing her from this mental health facility. Now, the gal
who was attacked did suffer life threatening injuries. However, she
did survive, but they ended up charging Morgan and her
(05:31):
co conspirator with first degree attempted intentional homicide. So Morgan
was convicted of the charges, but she was found not
guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, and she
was sentenced to up to forty years in a psychiatric institution.
And now we are currently where we're at, and she
(05:54):
is going to be released. There are three psychologists who
have worked closely with more and testified to basically her
preparedness for a supervised release, and they are quoted as
saying at this point, I am in favor in support
of her petition for release. Specifically, I don't think she
currently poses a significant risk of substantial harm to herself, others,
(06:17):
or to property damage. And apparently she also had a
suicide attempt in twenty twenty one, but the psychologists have
testified that her mental health has improved significantly since then.
They say that she can be incredibly self critical and
have low self esteem, but she is well spoken and
(06:37):
incredibly bright.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
They also believe that she has a lot of potential
to reintegrate back into society.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
She has been discussing goals for her future, expressing interest
in becoming a librarian, and she wants to become a
therapist for people with substance abuse disorders. Now, like I said,
she was diagnosed with schizophrenia after stabbing, but over the
last two years she has not exhibited any psychotic symptoms
(07:06):
and she has been successfully weaned off of her medications.
She does exhibit symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety,
and autism, and she hasn't exhibited any suicide ideation since
twenty twenty one. So she will get the supervisor release
within sixty days. I guess they will attempt to help
(07:28):
her reintegrate into society.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I do hope that she is successful on the outside,
that she.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Is able to reintegrate and go on to live her
life in a normal way. But it definitely doesn't change
the fact that she did attempt to murder someone and
take someone's life when she was only twelve years old.
That one, it's a hard one for me, but I'll
continue to keep you guys updated. She is going to
be out in the next sixty days, and hopefully she
(07:56):
has a really solid and good support system surrounding her.
Because I do think regardless of any other issues. Being
a WAF and isolated in a system like that for
ten years of your life, it has to take its toll.
And she was twelve when she went away and now
she's twenty two, so it's going to be really interesting.
(08:18):
I like I said, I don't wish harm on anybody.
Hopefully that intense therapy that she's gone through and these
ten years will have paid off and she is ready
to reintegrate.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
But I will keep you guys updated. And with all
of that being said, we are going to call that
good for right now.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
In true crime, there's some other little, minuscule, tiny little
things going on in the true crime space, but nothing
major to report. A lot of Menanda's brothers talk, but
not enough to actually talk about it at the moment
because they haven't really made any decisions there. But as
more things come out, I will be sure to keep
(08:58):
you guys updated.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And we are going to go ahead and get into
today's episode.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Beyond the Shadows podcast.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
In the darkest corners of our universe live spaces where
even the light.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Won't go, places where terror in the unknown lurk always waiting.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Join Ryan and Scott on the Beyond the Shadows podcast.
As we pull back the curtain and peer into the darkness.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
We'll examine hauntings, true crimes, mysteries, UFOs, exorcisms, reincarnations, mysteries,
and all things dark.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Join us as we go beyond the shadows.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
All right, guys, today we are jumping in to a
brand new unsolved case. We recently had an anniversary pass
in this case and it popped up on Facebook. I
had not heard of it before, and I decided that
that was going to be the episode that I cover
this week. So this is the first official unsolved case
that I am covering in twenty twenty five. So today
(10:08):
I'm going to be telling you about the unsolved disappearances
of three girls back in nineteen seventy four in Fort Worth, Texas.
It is one of Fort Worth's oldest cold cases to date,
and the circumstances surrounding their disappearance leaves us with way
more questions than answers. But despite that, we are going
(10:30):
to discuss it and try to unpack it together. So
let's go ahead and dive right in. Our three missing
girls are as follows Mary Rachel True Lisa, who was
seventeen years old and by the name Rachel. I am
going to be referring to her as Rachel throughout the
rest of this episode. So Rachel was a high school
(10:52):
student in Fort Worth. She had a brother who was
named Rusty, and she also had an older sister named Deborah. Now,
Deborah was previously in a relationship with a man named
Tommy Trelisha, and they actually were even briefly engaged. However,
Deborah ended up saying it wasn't really a real engagement
(11:12):
and they ended up parting ways, which opened up the
door for Deborah's younger sister, Rachel, who had met Tommy
and instantly they hit it off and they ended up
getting married in nineteen seventy four, prior to Rachel starting
her senior year of high school, so when she was
still a junior, and Rachel's older sister, Deborah was living
(11:34):
with Rachel and Tommy at the time of her disappearance.
So Rachel and Deborah's dad was battling cancer and he
was notoriously a hot head, and Deborah and Rachel were
both afraid of him. I'm only speculating, but I'm sure
that this is part of the reason why Deborah ended
up moving in with Rachel and Tommy, So Tommy also
(11:55):
had a two year old son from a previous relationship.
He had been married and was now divorced, and Rachel
very much looked after Tommy Sunshan as her own, even
though she was super super young. The next girl we're
going to talk about is named Lisa Renee Wilson. She
also went by her middle name, so I'll be referring
(12:15):
to her as Renee. She was fourteen years old and
living in Fort Worth, and she was friends with Rachel.
Their families had been longtime friends, family friends, and they
would often go on camping trips together. So despite the
fact that Renee was fourteen and Rachel was seventeen, they
had a lot in common and they were good friends.
(12:38):
Renee had a boyfriend named Terry Moseley and they were getting.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Pretty serious, as serious as you can get.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
When you're fourteen, and the morning that the girls disappeared,
Terry had actually given Renee a promise ring. Julie Anne
Moseley was nine years old and was the younger sister
of Terry, who was Renee's boyfriend. Julie and Renee would
often spend time together since Julie was Terry's little sister,
(13:07):
but Julie didn't know Rachel Trelisha at all. However, soon
their lives would intersect and they would forever be known
as the fort Worth Trio till present day. So we
are on December twenty third of nineteen seventy four, and
what started as a simple plan to do some last
minute Christmas shopping has turned into.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
A decade long investigation.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Rachel and Renee had planned on going to the mall
that day to do some last minute Christmas shopping. Terry
Moseley was asked to tag along with the girls, but
he had already made plans to go visit with a friend.
Renee had planned to be back by four pm because
her and Terry had plans to attend a Christmas party
together later that evening.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Now, Julie, being a nine year old.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Two days before Christmas, super excited, wanted to get out
of the house, and I'm sure she thought spending the
day with Renee and Rachel at the mall sounded so
much fun, and she asked if she could tag along.
Renee of course obliged, but she wanted to get permission
from Terry and Julie's mom. So Terry and Julie's mom,
(14:16):
named ray Anne, initially was very hesitant because she didn't
know Rachel, but of course she trusted Renee with her daughter,
so she eventually gave in. And Rayne had told Julie
that she needed to be back by six pm, which
wouldn't be a problem because Renee wanted to be back
by four. So all of this was panning out perfectly
(14:37):
and there was going to be no issues.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
So shortly before noon on the twenty.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Third of December, Rachel picked Julie and Renee up in.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Her Odesmobile ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
They made a stop along the way at a surplus
store to pick up some items Renee had placed on layaway,
and in the later afternoon hours of December twenty third,
the girls would arrive at the mall the Seminary Said
Shopping Center.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
The Seminary South Shopping Center opened in nineteen sixty two.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
It was on eighty five acres of land and was
on the corner of a busy intersection. It had nine
thousand square feet of four space, and at this point
in time, it was the largest shopping center in Texas.
It eventually would change its name to fort Or Town
Center and would change its name once again in two
thousand and four to log Gram Plaza and catered to
(15:27):
a predominantly Hispanic population.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
It is still standing to this day. I will post pictures.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Rachel ended up parking her car on the top level
of the Seer's parking lot, and this is the last
confirmed detail investigators have about their moments that day. Four
o'clock PM came and went, six o'clock PM came and went,
and the girls did not return home. The families became
increasingly concerned, and they decided to drive to the shopping
(15:55):
center and look for the girls themselves and kind of
try to figure out what was going on.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Something must have happened.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
They do find Rachel's car still parked in the same spot.
The doors were locked, and the things that Renee had
bought from her stop at the surplus store were in
the car. There's also reports that the car was filled
with shopping bags meeting the girls had traveled to and
from the car with their belongings, but that is said
to be false, and the only other things in the
(16:23):
car were the things that Renee had picked up earlier
in the day, and there was a small wrapped present
that Renee had bought for Rachel's step son Sean for Christmas.
Once the families arrived, they pretty much immediately called police,
and they also went inside to search for the girls,
and they asked one of the workers there to page
(16:47):
the girls over the intercom, which was done with no
response from any of the girls. The family decided at
that point in time that they were going to file
missing persons reports. They called friends, they called local hospitals.
Nobody had seen the girls. Police had said that there
was no reason to suspect foul play. However, none of
(17:08):
these girls had a history of running away, so this
was very out of character for them, and one of
them was only nine nine years old, So yeah, we
are sure going to be suspecting foul play if two
teenage girls and a nine year old disappear. We're not
thinking they just plan this elaborate heist and ran away
(17:30):
under the ruse that they were going Christmas shopping at
the mall. Julie was nine. That makes absolute no sense.
They were making plans for later in the day. It
made no sense. And I'll say it again, when families
are concerned, law enforcement should believe them and follow through.
So the next day, which was Christmas, eve, the Star
(17:52):
Telegram reported on the girls being missing. That same morning, Tommy,
Rachel's husband received a letter in the mail and it
read 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 cars in Sear's upper lat
love Rachel, so at first glance it did seem that
(18:16):
investigator for right the girls have run away. But the
letter was addressed to Thomas Trelicia and Rachel only ever
called him Tommy. He was never called Thomas ever ever. Ever,
her name was also signed wrong. It appeared that the
person who had written it had spelled it r acchee
(18:38):
initially and then realized that they messed up and they
had to put the l over the e to correct it.
The letter was also written in ink, However, the envelope
was written out in pencil and the return address was
simply just Rachel. The postmark on the envelope was also
(18:58):
very bizarre. There no city listed, only a zip code
which ended up being smudged. They thought it could be
seven six h eight three, but the three stamped on
it was possibly backwards, so they weren't sure if it
was an eight or three or what was going on.
Investigators did their best to try to figure out where
(19:20):
it was postmarked, and the best that they could tell
is that it was either from Eliasville or Weatherford, which
were both in Texas. Now, Rachel's family did not believe
that Rachel wrote this letter, and the families of the
other two girls also did not believe that the girls
had run away and that this was a letter that
was actually handwritten by Rachel. Like I said, Renee was
(19:44):
making plans for the future. She wanted to be back
for the Christmas party at four o'clock. And why would
she kidnap a nine year old? That doesn't make any
sense at all. Rachel's mother, who is named Francis Langston,
is quoted as saying, a lot of people made think
that they left with someone they knew, But I'll always
think until the day I die that the girls were
(20:05):
taken end quote. FBI analysts have not been able to
prove or disprove that Rachel is the one who wrote
the letter. My gut personally is telling me that she
did not write that letter and it was sent in
an effort to stall the investigation or play into the
fact that the girls ran away. Because that is what
Fort Worth Police Department was already kind of putting out there.
(20:28):
The families ended up offering a reward leading to information
that would lead to the girl's location. The families, of course,
never believed that the girls had run away, and every
did everything in their power to try to find the girls.
They distributed missing persons flyers and talked to as many
people as they could. They also had reached out to
(20:48):
some local newspapers in hopes that they would share the
story of the Fort Worth Trio, which.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
They soon became known as. Luckily, there were some tips.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
That came in, and one of them was of particular interest.
It was a boy who had claimed to be a
friend of Rachel, and he said that he saw three
girls that day at the mall in the record store,
and he said he even had spoken with Rachel. But
interestingly enough, he said the girls weren't there alone. Now,
I couldn't find much else about who this person was
(21:21):
that the girls were allegedly with, if it was a
male or a female, or any other details about this interaction.
The search ended up continuing and nothing much happened, as
law enforcement was still at this point convinced the girls
ran away. The families decided to hire a private investigator
who was named John Swain, and in April of nineteen
(21:43):
seventy five, he received a tip that the girls had
been murdered and dumped in Port Lavaca, Texas. He ended
up traveling there along with some volunteers to search for
anything that supported this theory, and after a grueling search.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
They ended up finding nothing.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
In August of nineteen seventy five, John had learned of
another lead that he felt was at least worth looking into.
It was about a twenty eight year old man who
had been working at a store in fort Worth and
had been making obscene and unwanted phone calls to girls
who had applied to jobs at the place he worked at.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
So he was essentially taking these.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Applications and harassing these women, or if they would list references,
then he would harass the references if they were female.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So he had been.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Calling a fifteen and eighteen year old set of siblings
for two years and harassing them. At this point in time,
he worked at the same place that Rachel had previously
applied to prior to the girl's disappearance, and he had
also lived in the same neighborhood, as Rachel's parents did
before she moved out when she married Tommy, so this
was the first semi solid lead, so they decided to
(22:56):
try to set this man up so they could at
least bring him in for questioning. John Swain is part
of all of this, so they ended up setting him
up under the ruse that a fifteen year old girl
who he was contacting wanted to meet him at the
local mall, so she talked him into giving her his name,
and then from there the police were contacted and John
(23:18):
Swam got involved.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And the plan was set into motion.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
If nothing else, if he showed up, it would allow
them to take him into custody because a twenty eight
year old man should not be meeting a minor in
a mall parking lot, and he had also been harassing
these two siblings, so if nothing else, they could take
him in and charge him with at least harassment. So
he ended up showing up, but he wasn't hour late,
(23:45):
so there was a lot of logistics to try to
get into place, but essentially they ended up taking this
guy into custody to talk to him about these harassment
things that he had been doing over the phone.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
He did have a record.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
He had been on probation for five years for indecent exposure.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So this guy was creepy.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
He felt nothing of dropping his pants in public and
exposing himself to people. His lawyer ended up getting him
out of jail pretty quickly. He did agree to a
polygraph test, but I'm unsure if that really ever happened.
Despite this being strange, nothing else ever really came of it,
and they were unable to tie him to anything.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
So that was another dead end in this investigation.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So we are now coming up on the one year
anniversary of the trio's disappearance.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
There are no new leads and no new information to
provide at this point in time.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
In March of nineteen seventy six, a man from Hawaii
who claimed to be a psychic wrote a letter to
the Fort Worth Sheriff and stated how the girls had
been killed and placed in brush along Texas twenty six
in Rushing Star. They again ended up doing a massive
search of the area and came up empty handed.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Again.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Detective Swain thought all of this was a total bunch
of crap, but of course they had to take it seriously.
Anything that they were led to they had to follow
through and be sure, because what if the one time
you don't follow through, it's actually a credible, reliable TI
In July of nineteen seventy six, the bones of three
(25:22):
people were found by an oil field worker in alvin Texas.
They initially thought the bones belonged to a male and
two females. However, it was then discovered that the bones
belonged to three females. Investigators ended up returning to the
scene in nineteen eighty one and they ended up finding
more bones, and at this point they were able to
(25:43):
positively identify them. Technology was not fantastic back then, especially
in those regards trying to identify bones, so it took
a lot of effort to figure out who these bones
belonged to. They ended up not belonging to the missing
three girls. John Swain ended up doing a press conference
(26:06):
in December of nineteen seventy six, and he said he
had been contacted by a man who was acting as
an intermediary for someone who may know the whereabouts of
the three girls, and he was asked by his contact
to publish and state that the informant would not be
charged or prosecuted. The info from the contact said that
(26:28):
the girls were outside Terran County, but they were unsure
if the girls were alive or dead, and the families
did believe at that point that the girls were deceased,
and the families just wanted to know where the remains
of the girls were and they begged for answers. So
for the next three years there wasn't hardly any movement
(26:51):
at all in this case. It wasn't until nineteen seventy
nine when John Swain died. So he was found by
his landlord's semi conscious.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
The landlord called nine to one one and John refused
to go to the hospital.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
He had been heavily drinking and taking drugs. Eventually everyone
left and after several hours his family had gone to
his apartment to check on him and they found him dead.
He overdosed, and they initially said it was an accidental overdose,
but they then decided that they were going to rule
(27:27):
it a suicide because he knew that he needed help
and he refused to get that help, meaning he likely
did not want to live any longer, which I think
is so said.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
He allegedly had been.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Going through a divorce and was depressed because of the
circumstances surrounding this. He had also been kind of having
a fall from grace. He had been arrested for a
public intoxication and the months prior, and there was also
talks about suspending his private investigator license. But he had
(27:58):
very much put a lot into finding the three girls.
He always had a feeling that the girls were still alive.
But a lot of other people looking from the outside
in thought that he took on the case for notoriety
and he took advantage of the grief of the three families. Now,
obviously he was a private investigator, so he had a
(28:19):
lot of information on the case, all the different tips
that they had followed through on everything.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So what happens now that he is dead.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So allegedly John Swain ordered all of his case files
on the Fort Worth Trio to be destroyed. Upon his death,
the files were burned, which mind blown, absolutely mind blown
by this. So everything that he had collected over the
course of the time he investigated the case were gone.
(28:50):
Nothing was given to the family or to police. And
this is, in my opinion, just super shady and it's
not okay. The poor family who had already been through
so much losing their daughters.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
And they now had to deal with this.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Everything that they had done, all the work that they
had done over the years, was just completely gone. So
in the spring of nineteen eighty one, investigators were called
back to Brazoria County to investigate some bones that were
found in a bog and they ended up not being
a match for the girls. In two thousand and one,
(29:29):
the case was officially reopened by the Fort Worth Police
Department and was assigned to a homicide detective. Now, according
to this homicide detective named Tom, he believes that the
girls left willingly from the mall with someone they recognized,
new or even trusted, and they do believe that there
(29:49):
was more than one person involved in whatever transpired with
these girls. The families have never given up on the sert.
In two thousand and eight teen, authorities retrieved two vehicles
that were sunk in Benbrook Lake which were said to
be connected to the case, but again this ended up
(30:10):
leading nowhere, at least from what I could find. In
twenty twenty three, Clear Channel collaborated with.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and they
ended up beginning a campaign to try to bring in
new leads and attention to the girl's case.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
They placed billboards of age progress photos of the three
girls across North Texas. This case has officially passed the
fifty year mark, with twenty twenty four anniversary passing recently.
That was fifty years and we still don't have answers
in this case. Anyone with information or potential leads is
(30:48):
encouraged to contact the Fort Worth Police Department by emailing
Cold Case at fort WORTHPD dot com.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Now, in my.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Research, I always go down these rabbit holes, and I
came across some things from the families which kind of
led me into this rabbit hole. So, despite this being
a fifty year old case, the families of these girls
very much still pressed for information and remember the girls fondly.
(31:19):
I found a Daily Mail article which they spoke with
some of the girl's families. Rachel's brother Rusty said that
at one point in time, a woman had come forward
and told him that she's the one that wrote the letter,
the one that Tommy received that day. She lived a
few houses down from Renee, and that was true. It
(31:42):
was actually confirmed that she did live a few houses
down from Renee.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
She said that her dad had forced her to write
the letter, and he talked to her about what to
say to cover it up if anyone asked her about it.
She thinks that her dad was involved in the girls disappearing.
Rusty said that from what they could do, they pursued
it as far as they could, and he thinks that
they did end up getting her DNA to compare it
(32:09):
to that on the envelope, and they also had her
rewrite the letter, and a handwriting expert said that the
writing didn't match and she wasn't the writer of the
original letter. Now. Fran Frances Rachel's mother thinks that the
strongest lead that she received came from a man who
(32:31):
said he saw the girls in a van behind the
Seer store at the mall. She said that he had
been in from out of town and was in the
parking lot waiting on a friend. He said that he
saw Rachel and Rachel had kind of grabbed his door
and was asking him to help her, and he was
going to help her, but then basically was told by
(32:54):
one of the men that was with Rachel to mind
his own business, and he said, this is my wife.
You're meddling in a family matter. Just stay out of
our business. So at the same time, there were two
other girls who had exited the same van, but they
were quickly gathered and placed back in the van by
(33:15):
two other men.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
So this van is described as light blue.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Now, this man had contacted Rachel's family and actually had
to sit down with Rachel's mom and he said he
knows that.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
That is who he saw that day.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
And fran very much believes that this is the story,
this is what happened, because this man.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Never once wavered on his story. He was consistent from
start to finish.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
And I guess at one point they did want to
polygraph this man, but he had some cognitive memory deficits
as he got older, and they weren't able to do
the polygraph for that reason. But Francis very much believes
that this is what happened. The girls were kidnapped and
for whatever reason, they were kidnapped and then they ended
(34:05):
up being killed. And like I said, this man never
wavered in a story. He never changed details. He was
consistent from start to finish. Now, the girl's disappearances did
cost some riffs in the family, and of course with
the girls being missing, it has to be so much
on the families to try to navigate that and then
(34:26):
having it be unsolved and everything else that transpired.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
So Rusty and his.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Sister Deborah didn't speak for twenty years due to the case.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
There was even a.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Point in time where Rusty even said he thought Deborah
could have had something to do with it, but they
did prove that she wasn't involved in one way or another. Now,
there are some people that believe Tommy, Rachel's husband had
something to do with it, because he allegedly.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Went bowling the evening that his wife went.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Missing, and he remarried shortly after to another seventeen year old.
Now Franz said she didn't think he really cared about
Rachel being missing, and basically, they have nothing to do
with him and they don't want him in the.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
City limits of Fort Worth.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
He did pass both of the polygraph tests that he
was given. Now, I personally don't believe that Tommy is involved, but.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
There are those that do.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Now. Resty knows for a fact that the girls made
it to them all that day, but when they went
to leave.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
That is when he thinks something happened.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
He said that Fort Worth Police department treating them as
runaways for the first year severely hampered the investigation. They
didn't dust the car for prints or anything else. There
also was no security cameras because it was the seventies,
so there was no digital evidence of these.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Girls, no cell phone payings, no nothing.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Now, at one point the girls' families did believe that
the disappearance could be related to to that of another
woman who was local and a family friend named Lisha
and McGhee, and in January of nineteen seventy eight she
ended up vanishing after leaving a Christmas party and she
was later found in the trunk of her card capitated
(36:17):
in fort Worth. But I don't believe anything has ever
really come of this, or ever come of the two
cases being connected. They also spoke with Terry, who remembers
the girls fondly and knows that his sister would have
never went missing voluntarily two days before Christmas. She was
nine years old. She was so looking forward to Christmas.
(36:40):
She never would have gone off with these other two
girls voluntarily. And like playing Devil's advocate. Two teenage girls
aren't going to take a nine year old with them
and then essentially disappear into thin air. That doesn't make
any sense why they would do that, especially Renee asked
(37:00):
Terry and Julie's mom for permission for Julie to come
to the mall with them. Is that somebody that's planning
like this heist, crazy disappearance?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
It makes absolutely no sense to me that anyone investigators
thought that they disappeared on their own free will. So
Terry made a post recently on his Facebook that he
had he was kind of sharing a memory, and it
said that he had hosted a get together five years
ago in honor of the girl's disappearance. And he also
(37:35):
made a post for the fiftieth anniversary of the disappearance
that I am going to read that now. Well, today
makes fifty long years of waiting and wondering about the
missing trio. Julie, Renee, and Rachel y'all have all heard
the story and it hasn't changed in all of these years.
Fifty times their birthdays have come to pass, fifty Thanksgivings
and fifty Christmases. Nothing is easier, nothing is better. I
(37:59):
wish none of this had ever happened. It seems like
a lifelong nightmare. I choose not to have any real
celebration on this day.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
I just can't do it.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
I've included some photos of all three girls, a couple
of Renee and I, a couple of what family I
had left. One is from a very early interview, and
one is many years later, and finally my favorite photo
of Julie. Terry very much posts about the girls. He
lost so much that day, and I can't imagine the
(38:30):
pain he feels daily trying to navigate this, especially with
little to no movement in the case. The thing about
this case, with so many of the other ones I cover,
this case is solvable. Somebody knows something. More than one
person likely knows something. One person could have done this,
(38:51):
but there's chances that other people saw something or know
something and don't realize they know something, or the person
that did this told somebody and they know something.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Somebody knows something.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Probably more than one person knows something, And unfortunately, the
longer the years go on without any movement, the slimmer
the chances get of solving us.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
The person or people who.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Did this could be deceased by now, but these families
still deserve answers.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
They need to know what happened to these girls.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
In the Daily Mail article, they shared a photo which
I'll share on my Instagram and Facebook pages that Rachel's mom,
Frances puts three angels out each Christmas and memory of
the girls, and it is a beautiful picture.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I will be sure to share it.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
And Fran is the last remaining parent of the Fort
Worth trio. All the others have passed away without knowing
what happened to their daughters. Now, although this case maybe
fifty years old, the girls still hold a very special
place and everyone that knew them live and we all
want answers and justice for the girls. Once I learned
(40:05):
about this case and started digging in, I realized, like, people.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Probably don't talk about this case enough.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
I had never heard of it, and I consider myself
a pretty knowledgeable cold case person obviously it's what I do.
And I also live in Texas, so you would think
that I would have heard rumblings of this somewhere along
the way, but no, I had never heard.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Of it, and I'm so glad that I happened upon it.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
And once I started digging into it, I knew that
it was a case I had to cover, and I
wanted to cover it now because the fiftieth anniversary just passed.
So these girls deserve justice. Their families deserve justice. They
deserve to know what happened to their daughters, what happened
to the girls. Terry deserves to know what happened to
(40:52):
his girlfriend and his sister. There's so much here that,
like I said, it's solvable. The people just have to
come forward and let the investigators know what they know
and from there let nature take its course and the
girls can hopefully be found. So, like I said, neck
(41:15):
Mec did do h progress photos of the girls. I
will be posting those to social media and I'm going
to post a few other pictures some of the pictures
that Terry had posted on his social media.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
These three girls were all very young.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
They all they did was go Christmas shopping at a mall,
a seemingly busy shopping mall, in the middle of the day.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
What could have happened to them and who could have
done it? It could have been somebody that they knew.
It could have been under the guise of somebody that
they knew. But there is no way that they ran away.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
And they had this elaborate scheme of going to the
mall and taking Julie with them and then they were
just going to disappear.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
None of that makes any sense whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
The weird letter that was addressed to Tommy and the way
it was addressed to Tommy doesn't make any sense. Somebody
knows who wrote that letter, and somebody wrote the letter.
So this letter is so important to figure out the
origin of where did it come from, who wrote it,
where was it sent from?
Speaker 2 (42:27):
So many unanswered questions in this case, and there has
to be answers.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Eventually, answers have to come out, and we need to
figure out where these girls are.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
So that is today's episode.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
I hope you guys enjoyed this little journey I took
you on with the fort word trio.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
I want to remember them. I want their families to
know that.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
There are still people out there who care about them
and want them to be found and want to keep
the story out there. Fifty years is a hell of
a long time to not have answers, especially when it's
your family. Not knowing has to be the hardest thing
in the world to.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Go day to day and not know.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
So if any of the members of Rachel Renee or
Julie's family are listening to this, I want you to
know that there are people out there who still care
and who want to find your family and want answers,
and that is the whole reason I did this episode.
So I will see you guys next week for a
(43:31):
brand new Unsolved case, and I hope you have a
great weekend ahead and stay safe.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Bye.
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