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- [00:14]
Teeth
What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Teeth.
- [00:17]
Daphne
And I'm your host, Daphne.
- [00:19]
Teeth
And you're listening to Going West.
- [00:21]
Daphne
Hello, everybody. Hope you're doing well. Big shout out to Shelly, Penny and Jessica for recommending today's case. This one is from the 70s. Some of you might be familiar with this one. It's a little bit more well known, but I didn't. I feel like a lot of those more well known cases somehow are the ones that I never know about or at least never really know the details to. And this is one of them.
- [00:44]
Teeth
Yeah, one of the most interesting aspects of this case is that there is a letter.
- [00:49]
Daphne
A letter.
- [00:50]
Teeth
There is a letter, A letter that was written to one of the people involved in this case. And speaking of letters, speaking of letters.
- [00:59]
Daphne
I feel like a good letter in a case is so fascinating. And that's why we both found our most recent bonus episode so, so interesting. Because it is called the Lead's Letterman and it's about this. I guess you can call him a serial killer, an extortionist who wrote letters to the police taunting them while holding girls hostage separately. It is such a crazy story. So if you're looking for more content after this episode ends, head on over to patreon.com goingwest podcast or join on Apple Podcasts for that and over 120 other episodes.
- [01:34]
Teeth
I want to say that that guy is probably like the English version of the Zodiac in some ways.
- [01:40]
Daphne
Yes, I was thinking the same thing for sure. It has less murder, but it is way lesser known as well. So check it out. Thank you guys for tuning into this episode. And without further ado, let's get into it.
- [01:51]
Teeth
All right guys, this is episode 459 of Going West. So let's get into it.
- [02:22]
Daphne
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. I feel like life is all about learning and growing, but sometimes you don't know where to look. Especially if you're not at the age of still being in school and being able to take classes. Classes. You don't know where to go to learn new skills. This is why I am absolutely obsessed with Masterclass, especially this holiday season. For a gift that's always on time and lasts a lifetime, you can't do better than Masterclass with masterclass, your loved.
- [03:11]
Teeth
Ones can learn from the best to become their best. I mean, they've got every option from breaking into the entertainment business with Martin Scorsese, learning new cooking skills with Gordon Ramsay, and even crafting compelling stories with James Patterson.
- [03:27]
Daphne
And you guys are going to love this one. Like there is even a masterclass on using behavioral science to read people from FBI criminal profiler John Douglas. So give your loved ones a year of learning with masterclass. Masterclass always has great offers during the holidays, sometimes to as much as 50% off. Head over to masterclass.com going west for the current offer.
- [03:52]
Teeth
That's up to 50% off at masterclass.com.
- [03:55]
Daphne
Goingest going west masterclass.com going west In December of 1974, just two days before Christmas, three girls, ages 17, 14 and 9, disappeared while shopping at a mall in Fort Worth, Texas. Fifty years into the investigation, thousands of leads have been followed up on and hundreds of people have been interviewed. But none of the girls have ever been found, even after a suspicious letter was sent to one of the girl's families. So what happened to them? And does the person responsible for their disappearance have more victims? These are the stories of Mary Rachel Arnold, Lisa Renee Wilson, and Julie Ann Moseley, also known as the missing Fort Worth trio. Mary Rachel Arnold, who went by her middle name, Rachel, that's what we're gonna call her today, was born on November 15, 1957, in Fort Worth, Texas, to parents Francis and Raymond. She joined older sister Deborah, and they were later joined by a little brother named Rusty. Rusty remembered fondly, quote, she was a wonderful girl, charming personality. All the guys loved her. She taught me how to play guitar. At the time of her disappearance In December of 1974, Rachel, who was just 17 and only a junior in high school, was newly married. And I know at this time in 1974, Texas law stated that you couldn't marry until the age of 21, actually. But with parental consent, girls could marry at 16 and men at 19, which is so strange because anybody can marry now without parental consent at 18. I feel like people got married younger there. I don't know. So that kind of surprises me that the law is, like, flipped.
- [06:32]
Teeth
Yeah.
- [06:32]
Daphne
It's kind of.
- [06:32]
Teeth
Kind of a weird thing that. Yeah. That you can get married when you're 16, as long as your parents say that it's cool.
- [06:39]
Daphne
Yeah, exactly. Which apparently they did. But anyway, so Rachel was married, and she and her new husband, Thomas or Tommy Treliz. Lisa, had tied the knot six months earlier when she was 16. Tommy was 22 and had a two year old son named Sean from a previous relationship at this time. So he already had a divorce under his belt, having married his first wife in 1971, so three years earlier. But after a few short years, they divorced. And then Tommy began dating Rachel's sister, Deborah Arnold. So after this whirlwind courtship between Tommy and Deborah, they became engaged, but broken off before they made it down the aisle. And then almost immediately after his relationship ended with Debra, he started dating and then quickly married her sister Rachel and the two moved in together.
- [07:32]
Teeth
Wow, that is definitely a whirlwind. Tommy is basically going after everybody here.
- [07:36]
Daphne
Little, little awkward, but apparently it was not, which I'll get into shortly or we will get into shortly. But anyway, although she was a young bride, she was determined to finish high school. And Tommy recalled her aspirations of attending college as well. So everything was going great for her. She was continuing her education and she had recently gushed to a friend about how happy she was settling into her new married life. Naturally, Rachel and Tommy were living together at that point, having moved into a house on Minot Avenue, while Rachel continued her attendance at nearby Southwest High School. And one possible justification for Rachel getting married so young is that she was victim of an unstable home life purported by her father, Raymond. At the time of Rachel's disappearance, Deborah had also moved out. And this may have been why. But at the time, Raymond was battling stage four cancer and he died just six months after Rachel disappeared.
- [08:42]
Teeth
So during this episode, we're going to talk about the disappearance of three different girls. And the second one we're going to talk about here is Lisa Renee Wilson, who went by Renee, and she was born on August 29, 1960 to Judy and Richard Wilson. At the age of 14, Lisa had her first boyfriend and she was really looking forward to their first Christmas together. She was dating her 15 year old neighbor, Terry Mosley. And on the day that the girls vanished, she had received an exciting present from him in the form of a promise ring. So they did have plans to stay together and eventually get married when they were of age. Terry Moseley's family lived on the same street as Renee's grandmother. And his family knew Renee pretty well. Terry's little sister, Julie Ann Moseley was born on August 5, 1965 to parents Raeann and J.W. and Julie is going to be the third girl that we're going to be talking about that disappeared. Now. On the morning of Monday, December 23, 1974, 14 year old Renee was at her grandmother's house. When 17 year old Rachel Trelitsa, her friend, decided to head to the mall to complete some last minute Christmas shopping and pick up some gifts for her stepson. Remember, her husband Tommy does have a 2 year old son and this is because Rachel learned that her stepson would be joining them for Christmas that year and she just really wanted to make it extra special for him. And after 14 year old Renee accepted her boyfriend Terry's promise ring, she wanted to pick up a few gifts of her own. And then she had plans to attend a Christmas party with Terry that evening. She told Rachel that if they could plan on being home by 4pm so that she could get ready, she would come along. She also asked her boyfriend's little sister Julie, who was nine years old and at home and bored while her mother was working, if she wanted to come along too. Now initially, when Julie begged her mom for permission, Rae Ann said no. She just didn't think that this was a good idea. I mean at just nine years old, she was kind of wary of letting her daughter head out for the day with two teenagers, which is pretty understandable. She claimed that she knew Renee, of course her son's girlfriend, but that she had never met Rachel and would kind of prefer that her daughter stay home. But Julie pleaded with her mom to let her go and ran. Eventually gave in. She remembered later I knew Renee and her family so I finally decided the girls would be able to watch over Julie and I let her go.
- [11:11]
Daphne
Rachel asked her sister Debra if she wanted to come too. But Rachel, Debra and Tommy had stayed up in the wee hours of the morning playing cards and Debra just kinda wanted to stay home and keep sleeping. So yeah, again it is clear that there was no bad blood or awkwardness between the three of them despite Deborah and Tommy having dated and gotten engaged. And this proves especially true because at this time 19 year old Deborah was staying with Rachel and Tommy since she had just broken up with her boyfriend. The girls invited Renee's boyfriend Terry as well, but he had plans with a friend so Renee said that she would see him later for the Christmas party. And I know this is a lot of names that we're throwing around, a lot of connections, but to clear it up again, going shopping that day was 17 year old Rachel, her 14 year old friend Renee and Renee's boyfriend's 9 year old sister Julie. So Rachel headed out from her home on Minot street to where the girls were waiting on Gordon Street. And obviously this is all in the Fort Worth area, but they first headed to an army surplus store where Renee had a pair of pants on layaway. Then they drove to the Seminary south shopping center, which is now the Le Grand Plaza de Fort Worth. They arrived at the mall and parked Rachel's car around noon, heading inside the mall to shop for a couple of hours. You know, Rachel and Renee are having fun shopping and spending time together while getting these errands done. And of course, Julie is not buying anything. But I think when you're that age, just going to the mall or going out or doing something with a friend seems so exciting.
- [12:51]
Teeth
Yeah, of course. And they're older girls, too, so Julia's just, like, hyped that she gets to hang out with the teenage girls. The older girls.
- [12:57]
Daphne
Yeah.
- [12:58]
Teeth
And just go shopping for the day.
- [12:59]
Daphne
Absolutely. But by 5:30pm that day, the girls still hadn't arrived back home, which was a surprise to all of their families, who had been expecting them home over an hour earlier. Remember, Renee had even told Rachel that she could only come if they would be home by 4pm because she had that Christmas party. And since they were minors, their families headed to the mall to search for them. Very quickly there, they came upon Rachel's car, a 1972 Oldsmobile 98, still parked in the upper parking lot of Sears. Now, her car was locked, with Rachel's purchase still inside, remember, from the army surplus store. But the girls were nowhere in sight. The families then headed inside the mall, searching it from top to bottom, as well as calling friends of the girls and driving up the streets, scanning for them on foot. But when the searches didn't turn up a single clue, all three girls were reported missing. The families even stayed with Rachel's car all night, actually, just in hopes that maybe something happened and they could still return to their car. But they never did.
- [14:10]
Teeth
Now, several people at the mall that day remembered seeing them specifically Renee, because she was wearing a distinctive sweatshirt with the words sweet honesty printed on the front. However, there is some disagreement on the color of the sweatshirt. So some people believe that it was either a white crewneck sweatshirt with green letters or possibly a pale yellow T shirt with green letters. So pretty. Similar descriptions, but regardless of the coloring, the phrase was very distinctive and memorable. So it did stand out to some of these witnesses. But still, after mobilizing officers to the mall in Rachel's abandoned car, both investigators and the families of the girls were at a loss. It was as if they had just vanished inside that mall. But then, the next day, which was Christmas Eve, 1974, Rachel's husband, Tommy Opened up his mail, and he found a letter addressed to him, supposedly written by his new wife. The letter read, I know I'm going to catch it, but we just had to get away. We're going to Houston. See you in about a week. The car is in the Sears upper lot. Love, Rachel. But she had actually signed her name Rachee, and scribbled a cursive L to extend over the E. The letter was written in pen, and the paper was folded due to being too wide for the envelope, which was addressed in pencil. The letter was addressed to Thomas A. Trelitsa, which he was instantly suspicious of because Rachel usually referred to him as Tommy. She would have never said Thomas A. Trelitsa. So. Puzzled by this, Tommy said, the letter looks like Rachel's handwriting, but it sounds like she was forced to write it. He added, quote, I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown myself.
- [16:04]
Daphne
And the whole, I know I'm gonna catch it just means she knows she's gonna get in trouble for leaving. But, yeah, so out of character. Makes no sense. And to say, but we just had to get away, actually, that is the last thing that any of them wanted to do. Rachel was so looking forward to spending Christmas with her stepson for the first time and, you know, making it special for him. Like he said, Renee was excited for that holiday party that night that she had been planning on attending with her boyfriend. And then Julie is just a little girl who was barely allowed to go to the mall, let alone be swept away on a trip four hours southeast to Houston.
- [16:44]
Teeth
Yeah, and I think part of the thing that I think the killer or possibly the person that wrote this letter or forced Rachel to write this letter, it was kind of trying to, like, divert the situation by saying, hey, like, I know I'm gonna be in trouble for leaving. They have to kind of play it up and make it. And make it sound like it's real, you know, Like, I know I'm gonna get in trouble for this, but we just had to get away. It's like, no. Like, nobody believes that. I don't know why the perpetrator would think that anybody would be stupid enough to believe that.
- [17:14]
Daphne
But also, why wouldn't they take the car? Why would you abandon the car? Why wouldn't you take the car to Houston?
- [17:20]
Teeth
What? Right? That's literally like, what, did you take, a fucking taxi?
- [17:24]
Daphne
Like, or, like, a bus or whatever? Like. Or a train? Why would you not take your car, that is your car sitting in the parking lot, and then say, by the way, my car's at Sears.
- [17:34]
Teeth
Well, this is. Yeah, exactly. And this is why I don't understand why the perpetrator is doing this. Because it's just like he should know that they're going to find Rachel's car. Like, duh.
- [17:45]
Daphne
Well, then to point it out, though, in the letter would. Would, I think, make it more believable that she's like, hey, I left my car here, like, we'll see you in a week. I mean, it's. It's pretty smart to do this because it makes it look like this happened willingly, but, you know, sure.
- [17:59]
Teeth
But I just think anybody with half a brain would realize that, you know, two teenage girls and a nine year old are not going to just take off four hours to Houston.
- [18:10]
Daphne
I mean, I agree. And this is what the family thought. Unfortunately, it's not what the police thought originally, which is why it's so frustra. Frustrating. We're going to get into that in a minute, but let's talk a little bit more about the letter. Because Rachel's name was written in the upper left hand corner, but there was no return address. Now, the postmarked zip code in the stamp was blurry. Unfortunately, it did look like 76083. Now, Tommy believed it was possible that someone could have scribbled in the last two digits after stamping it. Also, the three looked like it may have been backwards, meaning that the actual zip code could have been 76038, which was Eliasville, Texas, a ghost town nearly two hours northwest of where the girls disappeared from. But if both numbers were actually eights, then it was coming from Weatherford, Texas, which is only about 30 minutes west of Fort Worth. But if it was in fact 76083, that would have been the zip code for Throckmorton, Texas, a town of just 700 people that is even farther northwest than Eliasville, about 2 hours and 15 minutes away from Fort Worth. And this is no longer an active zip code, by the way. So all of these options are just bizarre, especially since none of them were on the way to Houston, but actually in the opposite direction of Houston. Like I said, all going west. Going west or going west.
- [19:42]
Teeth
Nice.
- [19:42]
Daphne
Going west or northwest instead of southeast. So that's a pretty big difference. And then again, just noting that they didn't have Rachel's car. Why would they be traveling in this direction but pointing police to. Or pointing the family. Sorry, and probably police to Houston. It just feels like a ruse.
- [20:03]
Teeth
Well, this kind of makes us wonder why the perpetrator was there at the mall that Day. Was it, you know, was it premeditated? Like he had been watching Rachel or Renee or something before? Was it a crime of opportunity? Was he just in the area? Was he just at the mall and saw an opportunity to take three girls? Like.
- [20:23]
Daphne
Well, it seems like some somebody did do something because, you know, Tommy, again, he did feel like Rachel wrote the letter herself, but that she was forced, whereas Rachel's family didn't even believe that she wrote the letter at all. So they are all thinking that somebody did abduct them from the mall and that they're being held against their will.
- [20:43]
Teeth
Well, I guess the reason why I'm asking this is because we're looking at those other two zip codes that are further away, like further out, and then there's one that's like about 30 minutes away, that's, you know, fairly close. So if that person, if the perpetrator had, you know, prior knowledge of this mall and had gone to this mall times before, I think that would make a lot more sense than just like, driving two and a half hours to go to some random mall that you've never been to to abduct three girls.
- [21:11]
Daphne
You're saying that they could be local and this could be their zip code, right?
- [21:15]
Teeth
Yes.
- [21:16]
Daphne
Yeah.
- [21:16]
Teeth
This is what I. This is what I'm thinking.
- [21:18]
Daphne
Yeah. I mean, it's definitely possible. It makes a lot of sense. But, you know, as we were saying a minute ago as well, unfortunately, you know, you're like anybody with half a brain. The investigation was. Was kind of cursed with a slow start because of this letter, because police were kind of assuming that the girls had left of their own volition, which I believe was certainly the goal of their believed captor.
- [21:42]
Teeth
Oh, absolutely.
- [21:43]
Daphne
Well, handwriting analysis over the years has proven to be inconclusive. But one source claimed that she matched Tommy's handwriting with the letter that was supposed to be Rachel's. So that's kind of weird. We're going to talk about Tommy a little bit more in a bit, but just kind of remember that, you know. So as the police commenced their investigation, not entirely unconvinced that the girls did not elect to go missing, they heard an account of an older woman who claimed that she had seen a young girl being pushed into a truck by a man and believed she saw a man and two girls inside the yellow truck. Already, this would make two men and three girls. The woman had actually been so alarmed that she told a retail employee in one of the department stores inside the mall about this interaction. But unfortunately, Fort Worth police were never Able to locate this woman to ask for her first hand account to get more details of what she saw.
- [22:44]
Teeth
Yeah, like she was just alarmed. She walked into a department store and was like, hey, I think I saw like some girls being abducted. And then she left before police got there. And they could just never find her again.
- [22:55]
Daphne
Yeah. So the employee told police, oh, this woman said this to me. And then they never found her. She never came forward. She might not even know about this case to this day, which is crazy because she could hold some very valuable information.
- [23:07]
Teeth
Yeah, I think that's kind of the shittiest part of this situation is that, you know, really all the department store employee could relay to the police was, hey, this is just what this woman said. I have no idea. Yeah.
- [23:17]
Daphne
And if she's even properly remembering it, you know.
- [23:20]
Teeth
Right. Yeah. Well, on Friday, December 27, 1974, a reward fund was established by a family friend of Renee's who offered her name only as Mrs. Kennedy. Though investigators were considering the possibility that the girls had, you know, left on their own volition, which is dumb. She discounted this from the jump. Mrs. Kennedy explained, quote, if those girls were going to run off, I believe they wouldn't take that little nine year old girl with them. I may be wrong, but in my heart I believe something has happened to them.
- [23:54]
Daphne
Yeah. This isn't just two young gals who want to see the world. They have a nine year old with them, one of the girl's boyfriend's little sisters. They wouldn't take her with them.
- [24:04]
Teeth
Yeah, it's just so not believable. Well, the next day, which was Saturday, December 28, 1974, Renee's mom Judy released an open letter that read that they do not believe that you have voluntarily run away. But if you have, we beg you to come home immediately or telephone so that someone can come after you. We're all behind you 100% and there is nothing that we will not do for you. A special plea is made to any unknown person for these girls release if they're being held against their will so that they may be reunited with their loved ones. In the weeks following the disappearance, the families passed out tens of thousands of flyers and community efforts, generated hundreds of tips. But still there was no sign of them, nor any indication of what had happened after they parked Rachel's car that day. Then, six weeks after their disappearances, a call came into Julie's mom, Rae Ann, from a caller who claimed to be nine year old Julie. And this is kind of crazy because you would assume that this mother would know what her daughter sounds like, right? Well, around 11pm that night, the phone rang and a voice on the other end supposedly said mama. When raeann asked who the caller was, she responded that she was Julie. And even raeann felt confident that she spoke to her daughter that night, saying, I'd be willing to swear it was her. And this was never confirmed, and the conversation didn't continue so that she could glean more information. Well, months passed and the investigation stalled to the anguish of the families as well as the community who was terrorized by suspicions of a serial killer that was stalking the area. After about two years, Tommy petitioned for a divorce and moved away from Fort Worth, betrothed to another woman. He also withdrew the reward money that he initially offered and strangely, he moved to Throckmorton, Texas, one of the possible origin points for the mysterious letter supposedly written by Rachel.
- [26:27]
Daphne
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Teeth
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Teeth
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Teeth
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- [31:18]
Daphne
Now although some have looked at Tommy Sideways, police weren't putting weight into his involvement. And instead, they investigated a suspicious man who had interviewed Rachel for a job in the weeks before she went missing. According to multiple other women who applied to work at the store that he operated, he called and harassed them, making all of them feel uncomfortable in the aftermath of their introduction. However, he was never proven to be connected to Rachel's disappearance, and it's unknown if Rachel even received any threatening phone calls from him because nobody reported hearing about such in 1975. So the year after the girls vanished, the frustrated families, just fed up with waiting for answers from the authorities, pooled their resources and consumed, assaulted a private detective. They hired a guy named John Swaim, who was very outspoken about the case and quite public about his search efforts. But John was a bit of a loose cannon, to put it lightly, plying police for previous undisclosed tips and information and speaking candidly again about his search efforts, but with his clients and the media. One tribute to his life read that he, quote, drank heavily, dressed smartly, and some say he could talk himself into the arms of a woman as easily as he could get past doors. Others were unable to enter.
- [32:45]
Teeth
He kind of sounds like that typical suave 1970s detective like Starsky and Hutch or something.
- [32:52]
Daphne
Yeah, I mean, but it's like he's. People don't have really nice things to say about him. Like, it doesn't sound like this is a compliment.
- [32:59]
Teeth
No, no, no. Definitely not complimentary implements here.
- [33:01]
Daphne
Well, it gets a little worse, though. But law enforcement started to kind of actually fear that his approach to the case would hinder their investigation. And John was very much already at odds with them when, after receiving a ticket for public intoxication, John spent months sending photographs to the Fort Worth police of their vehicles parked illegally and basically insisting that they be ticketed as well. Like, he was very.
- [33:28]
Teeth
That's hella petty.
- [33:29]
Daphne
Yeah. Petty, bitter guy. One police captain said with distaste, quote, I did not approve of his ethics, morals, or his conduct because they were in direct conflict with mine. I had no respect for him or the manner in which he conducted his business. But despite their reservations, John was generating some tips.
- [33:53]
Teeth
Well, he claimed to have a credible tip from Port Lavaca, Texas, which is over five hours south of Fort Worth on the Gulf of Mexico. John had reason to believe the girls had been dumped in a bayou, so he spearheaded a search of the area, but nothing was found. John also said that an unidentified man had been calling him and attempting to blackmail him for money in exchange for the locations of these missing girls. But this Tip didn't lead anywhere either. Then in 1979, after four years on the case, John Swaim took his own life. After a disturbance at his apartment building. He was found by police semi conscious with a bottle of Quaaludes and a bottle of whiskey. So they confiscated the pills and left. They didn't think he was going to continue drinking or taking pills. But hours later, when his ex wife and siblings found he wasn't answering the door, police were summoned yet again and this time John was found deceased inside with more pills and whiskey by him. One former employee of his remarked, it only amazed me he lived as long as he did. He had a lot of enemies. A Fort Worth attorney who crossed professional paths with John added, you'd have to be crazy to trust Swaim. He burned everyone he came into contact with. And sadly, these preconceived notions turned out to be correct when John took all of his findings with him when he died as ordered by his estate, all documents corresponding to his investigations were to be destroyed after his death. So if he did have any key evidence here, neither the police nor the families would ever be privy to it.
- [35:42]
Daphne
Which I guess he has the right to decide to do that. But it kind of feels cruel, you know, like you're working for these families, you're trying to help them. Why would you want all of this destroyed after your death instead of just giving that information quietly to the family or to the police so they can pick up where you left off?
- [35:59]
Teeth
Yeah, I really, really don't understand the decision here because like you're saying if John was onto something, if there was anything, you know, all of that is now gone and no one will ever know.
- [36:11]
Daphne
Well, in the spring of 1976, the remains of two young girls were discovered in the swampland of Brazor county, which is just south of Houston, in an area which is now infamously known as the Texas Killing Fields because the remains of over 30 women and girls have been recovered from this vicinity. This is also kind of a well known story that I don't know very much about, but maybe we'll, we'll cover it sometime. If you guys want to hear it, let us know.
- [36:40]
Teeth
I think we have talked about it like kind of briefly in an episode here and there, but we haven't like dove deep into the story exactly, but.
- [36:48]
Daphne
Like definitely willing to. So in 1981, the remains of these particular bodies were finally proven to be those of 12 year old Brooks Bracewell and 14 year old Georgia Gere. Now, though these murders were never officially Solved. They are believed to be two of many victims of depraved serial killer Edward Harold Bell, who confessed to the murders of the girls while serving a prison sentence. But like many guys do, he later recanted this. So we're not sure which is true, if he did it or not. But at the very least, those two bodies that they found were not bodies in relation to the Fort Worth missing trio. But the same year that Brooks and Georgia were identified. So seven years after Rachel, Renee and Julie disappeared, another witness came forward to say that he believed he had seen the abductions of the three Fort Worth girls at the mall that day. Though why he waited so long to report it is still a mystery.
- [37:48]
Teeth
I mean, that's. That's kind of crazy to me that you would wait that long.
- [37:51]
Daphne
Well, that's why, you know, it kind of. It kind of gives you pause, you know? Like, he says that he witnessed three girls being forced into what he described as a van, though the other eyewitness had claimed that it was a pickup truck. Remember the woman who talked to the employees? She said it was a yellow pickup truck.
- [38:07]
Teeth
Right.
- [38:07]
Daphne
So it's hard to know which of them is correct, if. If either of them are. Are correct, you know, if either of these are connected to the case. So. But this man, this witness said that he even stopped to ask the man if everything was okay, but that the man involved in the confrontation brushed it off as a family dispute. So I could see why you wouldn't report it at the time, if that's what you're being told. You know, maybe you're assuming these are the guys daughters and everything is fine, even though it doesn't appear to be. You know, it's like maybe there's a little disagreement between father and girls.
- [38:42]
Teeth
Right? I mean, if this person is telling you that it's a family dispute, I mean, what. What are you supposed to do? Like, most people would just be like, okay, well, I'm not gonna get involved in that, you know?
- [38:52]
Daphne
Yeah. Yeah. So then that's kind of like the one thing that you could say to make somebody probably walk away.
- [38:58]
Teeth
Right? So I guess I do understand. But. But also, if, you know, if this person lived in the area, they could easily read the news and go. Or see it on the news and go, well, there's three girls missing from this mall. Maybe that wasn't a family dispute.
- [39:13]
Daphne
Well, yeah. So why did it take him seven years to come forward? Unless he didn't live in the area and he didn't hear about it until much later. But then also, how could you possibly remember something like this so many years later? Like, do you remember. Remember some random conversation that you had seven years ago, even if it was a little weird enough for you to wonder, hey, I'm going to talk to this guy, cuz I. I think he might be abducting these girls. But if it's. If you put it off as a family dispute enough for you not to actually go to the police.
- [39:45]
Teeth
Yeah.
- [39:45]
Daphne
Are you really going to remember that seven years later? I don't know. I don't think I would. But that's me.
- [39:49]
Teeth
I totally get where you're going with that. Like, if. If I think that. Yeah. It didn't seem to be alarming enough for him to do anything about it, so I don't know why he would keep it in his mind.
- [40:00]
Daphne
Yeah, exactly.
- [40:01]
Teeth
You know what I mean? Like, I don't know.
- [40:03]
Daphne
Well, sadly, the years continued to pass with no answers in the case of the missing girls. But it felt clear that they did not run off on their own like that letter had suggested in 2001. So 27 years after the girls vanished, another witness came forward to claim that he had also seen the girls in the parking lot that day. But he added a new detail. They had been seen in the back of a security patrol car for the. The malls. I almost said the man's the malls. Sorry, security detail.
- [40:35]
Teeth
And that's. This kind of sounds like this could be an option because these are three young girls. Typically, young people see police officers or security as, you know, some sort of authority figure.
- [40:49]
Daphne
Like trustworthy.
- [40:50]
Teeth
Yeah, trustworthy, maybe. So it's possible.
- [40:53]
Daphne
Well, I think this is a really interesting witness statement because we have to think about how this would happen anyway, if we're thinking about the girls, possibly, you know, because obviously they weren't abducted from the middle of the mall in front of a bunch of people. So maybe you could assume that while they're in the parking lot heading back to Rachel's car, they're taken by. By somebody. But there's three of them. Obviously they're all very young, but what are the chances that all of them would be able to be picked off like that and without one of them being able to run or find help or, you know, get somebody else's attention, which makes you think either, A, there was more than one person involved, or B, it could be something like this where they were maybe apprehended. Maybe the security patrol officer is saying, hey, I saw you shoplifted, and that's like all a ruse. Come into the car, you know, I'm taking you down. You know what I mean?
- [41:47]
Teeth
I was going to say that sounds like something pretty plausible. I mean, the only. The only way that I could see this perpetrator having complete control over three young girls is maybe if he had a gun and he was. And they were all kind of in one enclosed area and he's threatening, you know, get in the car, I'm going to shoot one of you, or something like that.
- [42:08]
Daphne
Yeah. And they're young and scared. I mean, there really are multiple scenarios that could be true. But regarding this security patrol car, for anybody wondering, police had questioned all the security guards on duty that night, but they all denied any knowledge of what happened to Rachel, Renee, and Julie. So again, was. Was this somebody who was falsely remembering, since at this point, this one, we're saying the other one was seven years later. This is almost three decades later.
- [42:35]
Teeth
Yeah, nearly 30 years.
- [42:36]
Daphne
Yeah. 27 years, like, is a long ass time. So were they making it up? Were they wrong? I don't know. This is. This is very interesting, especially because this is even less alarming than, hey, is that guy abducting those girls? Oh, it's a family dispute. This is three random girls in the back of a patrol car. That could be very normal.
- [42:57]
Teeth
Sure.
- [42:57]
Daphne
Why is this sticking out so much, so much later? But in the 50 years since they vanished, multiple sightings have been reported of the girls, in addition to the letter that Rachel supposedly sent and the eerie phone call to Julie's mom. But no communication or sighting since their disappearance has been confirmed.
- [43:19]
Teeth
Well, that same year that that final tip or that final witness came forward, which was 2001, the case was officially reopened by the Fort Worth Police Department. This time, the police were more candid with their findings over the past two decades and hoped that this would embolden someone to come forward with more information. And in a bombshell revelation for the case, law enforcement announced that they believed the girls left the mall with someone that they knew and trusted and were focused on the accounts of 20 witnesses.
- [43:53]
Daphne
Which if they went with somebody they knew and trusted, that could also explain how they all got into a car. Then why leave her car behind? Still so many questions.
- [44:02]
Teeth
There is a lot of questions. Well, they also announced that they were confident that the letter had been sent from Fort Worth and that the girls had been held somewhere after their abduction and had known their captor or cap doors, or at least, you know, one or two of the girls. Did investigators believe that they had left them all with only one person, but that More than one person had been involved. They have narrowed their search down to five persons of interest, but none have officially been named to the public, even By December of 2024, when we're recording this episode. Disappointed in the slow march toward justice, Rusty Arnold, who, again is Rachel's little brother, has taken over the public search efforts in the recent decades. Rusty eventually teamed up with another private investigator, Dan James, who had been following the case closely since one year after it occurred, Purely of his own volition and curiosity. He was just very interested in the case. And actually, in 1999, Dan even offered $25,000 of his own money as a reward. That's how invested he was in this case. He later divulged that he has received death threats from people who want him to stay away from this case, though he would not publicly name the origin of the threats or why such threats were being thrown his way. For a while, Rusty held out hope that his sister had been kept alive because there were still alleged sightings of her in the Fort Worth area every single holiday season. But as we know from many other cases that we've inspected on this show, false sightings are very common. Just in general, as recently as 2000, Rusty claimed that he and Dan had reason to believe that she was still alive 26 years later, meaning that she would have been 43 then, but that the other two girls had been murdered. He has since changed his tune, though, and believes that they are all deceased.
- [46:02]
Daphne
Well, after getting wind of a tip that a car involved in the abduction was at the bottom of nearby Benbrook Lake, Rusty crowdsourced a grassroots campaign to have divers search that lake for evidence and pull the cars from the bottom of it. He spent three years funding for the dive, writing. It's now been over 40 years long since that horrible day. And I've been looking for my sister and her two friends my entire adult life. It's been a long and hard 40 years, and my family has been torn apart. It's time to put this to rest. So he was clearly very hopeful that this could bring real answers and to kind of try to put this into perspective. The lake is located just over 10 miles, or 16 kilometers from the shopping center, so very close by. And actually, multiple cars were pulled from the water in 2018 from the shore. As he watched the cars emerging at the surface again, very hopefully hopeful that this could bring solid leads. Rusty said thoughtfully, maybe someday, somewhere, we'll meet again. Well, get this. Allegedly, one of the cars that they found belonged to one of the five persons of interest in the case, one of the five people that police have yet to name publicly. There is also some online speculation that one of these cars belonged to Tommy Trelitz, Lisa, remember, 17 year old Rachel's husband. But this has not been proven. We just want to mention it because there, there is a lot of discourse about this online because apparently one of his cars went missing around the time that the girls disappeared. So that's kind of interesting I think, but there's really nothing to back up those suspicions for real yet.
- [47:49]
Teeth
But yeah, nothing really else to connect there.
- [47:52]
Daphne
Still kind of interesting though. But unfortunately no evidence was left behind inside the cars. And even though one of them is believed to be tied to one of those, you know, five alleged people of interest, none of the cars were able to link the alleged perpetrator to the girls. Especially since the cars were made at various times both way before and after they went missing. So even if one of these cars does belong to one of the men believed to be involved, there was no actual evidence in any of the cars that was like, oh, this is the sweatshirt that Renee was wearing that day or anything like that.
- [48:29]
Teeth
Yeah. No. No physical evidence or anything like that.
- [48:32]
Daphne
Right. Or like blood or any. Anything that could point to a crime. So Rachel's older sister Deborah once publicly claimed that Rusty suspected that she wrote the letter. I know there has been some disagreements across families, but she protested and said that she certainly did not. And Deborah's own guess was that her sister had been trafficked. Over the years, the case of the Fort Worth missing trio has been connected to many other murders. But to this day, no concrete connections have been made.
- [49:05]
Teeth
Now, as can be expected, there was and there still is a massive amount of speculation in this case. And one of the theories is that Rachel was pregnant and perhaps her abductor killed her. To eliminate this, Dan James, the second private investigator to take on the case, claimed that he uncovered evidence that Rachel's father had been sexually abusing her and her sister. He mused that it was possible that she was newly pregnant after being raped by her father and that Raymond either killed her or had her killed to keep this a secret. However, because he was suffering terminal cancer at the time, this seems a little bit unlikely. But it doesn't stop people from wondering if he was somehow pulling the strings in she and the girls disappearance. Rachel's brother Rusty has continued his efforts to find a sister and her friends and claims that he will do so for as long as it takes. He estimates that he has personally chased down hundreds of leads. None of Them leading back to his sister. He also admitted that these searches have led to many accusations, like claiming that he's a fraudster, and has also led to various burned bridges. I mean, Rusty has even chased down, like, some of the most ridiculous and absurd theories just to rule them out.
- [50:25]
Daphne
Of the girl's six parents, only one remains alive, and that's Rachel's mom, Frances, in November of 2022. So about two years before we're recording this, Shortly before his death, Renee's dad Richard said, I really don't believe they're alive. I would like to think otherwise, but it's been so many years. Frances agreed with him and acknowledged that the family members made their peace with the girl's fate a long time ago. She says, quote, I don't believe my daughter is alive, but one day someone is going to find her. So they all hold out hope for resolution and justice. And the remaining family members still believe that the girls bodies and the identity of the murderer will be revealed one day last Christmas. So in 2023, Rusty announced on the Fort Worth Missing trio Facebook that he had decorated his yard with three angels, one for each of the girls. They would now be 67, 64 and 59 years old. If you have any information about the abduction of the Fort Worth missing trio, please call the Fort Worth Police Department at 817-335-4222. Thank you so much, everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.
- [51:59]
Teeth
Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. Hopefully one day these three girls will be found. It's just terribly tragic that things like this happened, especially before there were, you know, security footage and parking lots and stuff like that. It just seems like people were taking advantage of these opportunities.
- [52:18]
Daphne
Yeah, I just wonder how much police have on these five persons of interest because obviously there's an entire investigation happening that with information that we're not privy to. So they could be really, really close. They could be really, really far. Like, we don't know exactly where they are in this, but it does seem like they have five pretty good people on their hands. But what worries me is the amount of time that's passed. And I feel like, you know, investigations back in that day were so different that if you didn't do it properly in the beginning, sometimes you don't have enough evidence to ever figure it out. So, yeah, hopefully they do. And this case, we'll see resolution.
- [52:59]
Teeth
I think one of the things that makes it really frustrating and hard is the fact that there was really no DNA evidence left behind. Like There was nothing that they could collect and save for, like, later technology and DNA testing. Like today.
- [53:13]
Daphne
Well, exactly, because it's just like the family thought earlier when we talked about this when they first went missing. Like, it was if they just vanished inside the mall. Like, there's. There are multiple witness sightings. But they're different from the others. You know, they're. None of them are exactly the same. So many of them came forward so many years later. So. So there's really nothing to go off of.
- [53:33]
Teeth
Yeah, yeah. We don't even know if they were abducted in that parking lot or somewhere else.
- [53:38]
Daphne
Yeah. If somebody they trusted drove them out of the area. Area. If it was a security patrol person, if they were pulled into a vehicle by multiple people. Like, again, there's so many options here, but check out the photos that we posted on our socials. Let us know what you guys think of this case, and we will see you next Tuesday with a whole new episode.
- [53:55]
Teeth
Also, don't forget to check out the Letterman of leads on our bonus episode series on Patreon and on Apple. All right, guys, so for everybody out.
- [54:05]
Daphne
There in the world, don't be a stranger.