Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Three beautiful girls on shopping trip to the mall go missing. What happened to Mary Rachel Trlica, Lisa Renee Wilson, and Julie Ann Moseley?

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

Three young girls dubbed the Fort Worth Trio, go shopping at a local mall but never return home. Mary Rachel Trlica, Lisa Renee Wilson, and Julie Ann Moseley were last seen in the mall. The car the girls were driving, a 1972 Oldsmobile 98, was left behind in the Sears parking lot at the mall, but the girls have not been seen since.What happened to the Fort Worth Trio?Joining Nancy Grace today: Kym Caddell - Neighbor & family friend who sent a letter to Crime Stories. Richard Wilson - Renee's father  Sandy Harkcom - Julie's aunt  Cloyd Steiger - 36 years at Seattle Police Department, 22-years homicide detective, & author of "Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer: Gary Gene Grant"  Sheryl McCollum - Forensic Expert & Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder Dave Mack - CrimeOnline Investigative reporter Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. A missing trio of young girls, age 9, 14, and 17. What do we know about their disappearance? How could three girls be overcome and kidnapped at once? When we say the names, it's not just them. There are moms, dads, sisters, and brothers with broken hearts waiting for answers. Julie Ann Mosley, Renee Wilson, Rachel Trelesa. One of these girls as young as nine years old, just gone?

What? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. the girl 17 year old rachel trelisa the former mary rachel arnold 14 year old renee wilson and nine-year-old julie ann mosley vanished december 23rd after telling their families they were going shopping their abandoned car was found that afternoon in a parking area of seminary south shopping center the next day the only major lead in the case developed when a handwritten note was received stating the three had gone to Houston. Police weren't sure if the note had been written freely. It has since been sent to the FBI lab in Washington for analysis.

Tuesday, a Justin man found some undergarments near a stream west of Justin near Texas Highway 157. They were not there Christmas Day. But Renee Wilson's parents examined the clothing and determined it did not belong to the missing girls. Some of our friends called us this morning and asked me if we'd heard about it on the news, and I told them no.

So then we called down here, and they told us we could come look at them. What happened when you looked at the clothing? They're not Renee's. They're not Julie's, I know. How do you know that? Renee doesn't have anything like that, and they're bigger. And Renee doesn't have anything that color of green, like the panties were.

I know it sounds crazy to a lot of people, but if you showed me underwear, I would know whether it belonged to my twins, 12 years old, John, David, and Lucy, because I buy their underwear. I know exactly what they have. I know when they outgrow their underwear. I know what sizes, what colors, the works. So when a mom says, no, those don't belong to my daughter, the mom knows. You were just hearing our friends at WFAA-TV. That was Mike Miller reporting on the so-called Fort Worth Trio. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Joining me, an all-star

panel, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter Dave Mack, the founder of the Cold Case Research Institute, forensic expert Cheryl McCollum. Cloyd Steiger, 36 years Seattle PD, 22 years homicide author. Seattle's forgotten serial killer Gary Jean Grant. You can find him at cloydsteiger.com. Special guests joining me. Kim Cadell. If it hadn't been for Kim, I wouldn't even know about this case. She reached me on Facebook.

Sandy Harcum, Julie's aunt, and Richard Wilson, Renee's dad. First, to Cheryl McCollum joining me. Cheryl, I want to get an understanding, a forensic understanding of the disappearance of these three girls. Very, very rare for three girls to go missing like this. It's extremely rare, Nancy. And what is shocking to me is they didn't plan this like days in advance. This was something that happened pretty quickly. And the nine-year-old literally

called her mom begging, can I please go? Can I please go to hang out with these teenage girls? So again, it wasn't something that people knew about for a few days. We know they made it to the mall. We know they shopped for Christmas presents because those were found in the car, which incidentally was locked when they found it. But there's no video of them. There's no, you know, fingerprints off the car that anybody has told us about. So at this point, all we have is a car. And then the next day, a letter shows up at Rachel's home addressed to her husband. To Sandy Harcombe, this is nine-year-old Julianne Mosley's aunt. Sandy, again, thank you for being with us. What happened that day? You've got two girls about two and a half years apart, Renee Wilson, Rachel Trelesa, 114, 117, and then you've

got your niece, Julianne Mosley. First, how did Julianne get hooked up with them on a trip to the mall? And did the girls all know each other? Rachel and Renee knew each other. And Julie lived across the street from Renee's grandmother. And Renee was there quite a bit. In fact, I thought Renee lived there until the girls disappeared because she was there quite a bit. In fact, I thought Renee lived there until the girls disappeared because she was, you know, there quite often. Also, Julie's older brother and Renee were going together, and he had given her a promise ring that morning. Rachel came by, asked Renee if she wanted to go,

and Julie was there, and she wanted to go, and Julie was there, and she wanted to go. And she called my sister and just begged and begged and begged. My sister was at work, and she finally said, okay, just be home by 6. There were other kids there. Julie's older sister, Janet, was asked to go. There was an older girl even down the street that was asked to go. And the older girl had chores and she said, well, I'll just meet you there later. So it wasn't just, you know, those three, but there were a lot of kids that were invited that

day. So, you know, this was at a time where it was absolutely fine to go to the mall and walk around. Cheryl McCollum, I remember one of my first jobs was working at Sears at the mall. And I would be inside working and I would see groups of teens just wandering around, not getting in trouble, just going in and out of stores going to the candy store going to the food court it was a very innocent way to pass time and hang out right no question about it and nancy i want to tell you something else i've got a 16 year old and i've got a nine-year-old niece and my nine-year-old niece all she wants to do is be around caroline mum. She wants to dress like her, talk like her, do her hair like her. So I can totally see even where these teenagers would have fun letting her tag along. So this trip to the mall, looking at records, looking at clothes,

going and getting some Christmas presents, this was going to be a fabulous afternoon. To Dave Mack, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, exactly where is this? What's the name of the mall and where is it located? Okay, this is actually in Fort Worth, you know, in that Dallas-Fort Worth area. The mall at the time was a very popular shopping mall. You know, back in the day, we had big, big shopping malls, and this was one of those. It had one of the anchor stores was a Sears, which is where they parked. The mall's name was Seminary South.

They'd actually gone to an Army-Navy store on the way to the mall in Fort Worth. Then they arrived at the mall where, again, I said they parked at the Sears parking area into Seminary South Mall. Listen. Something's happened to them. I know it. It's just not like them.

They wouldn't have just run off. Nobody heard nothing from them. Well, nine days ago, I thought maybe they had just went somewhere, but now I don't believe they have. I believe they've been picked up by somebody and been held and that they've been hurt or something. You haven't given up hope? No, no hope give up. Just want them to come on back home. Meanwhile, police continue checking every possible lead. A reward fund has been established with the Forest Hills State Bank in an effort to prompt even more information.

Cloyd Steiger with me, 36 years Seattle PD, including homicide and author. Cloyd, the mall, you know, Cloyd, I've just been working on this book so hard, Don't Be a Victim, it comes out in June, and there is a whole chapter, one of the longest chapters and the one I had to research almost the most, was about out and about shopping at malls. Because it's, well, it looks so friendly. It is really full of pitfalls. A lot of people have been abducted from malls.

A lot of people have been victimized at malls. A lot of people have been victimized at malls. Now we know that they parked outside a Sears, which is one of the probably four big anchor stores in a mall. There's usually one at every corner, like a Macy's or at that time Belks or Sears. Long story short, that's where they parked. Cloyd, when I think about it, they were sitting ducks. Three young girls walking into the mall alone and then coming back out alone? Yeah, well, that's the same thing that attracts teenagers to malls is the same thing is what attracts predators to malls because it's what we'd call a target-rich environment. And whoever this is is somebody that I don't believe they went there targeting these three girls. I think it's probably looking for an opportunity, and they found one.

So that is the danger of malls and just hanging out. What we know is that Rachel's younger brother, Rusty, said the girls were expected home around 4 p.m. because there was going to be a party. But 4 p.m. came and went. The girls never expected home around 4 p.m. because there was going to be a party. But 4 p.m. came and went. The girls never showed up. Remember, we're just talking about a 9-year-old, a 14-year-old, a 17-year-old girl. When they didn't arrive, everyone started to get worried. Then the sun began to set.

The parents started getting home from work, and the girls still were not there. Richard Wilson, with me, Renee's father, gathered together himself, members of the neighborhood, and they drove that 10-minute trip to the mall to search for the girls. Richard Wilson, tell me about what happened when you got home from work that afternoon. Well, when I got home from work, my wife was already home, and she said Renee and them hadn't made it home, and she wanted to go down to the mall and look. Me and Judy went down to the mall and drove.

She went through the stores, and I drove all over that parking lot, and we found nothing. And she called the police. They wouldn't come out until after 11 o'clock when the mall closed. Why? That's the only thing they can tell you. Oh, my stars. Because the girls, I mean, I know they made it to the mall.

I don't know yet whether they made it inside the mall. For all I know, they've been missing since they first got there. If they were abducted in the parking lot before they ever went in. But do we know one way or the other, Richard, if they made it in the mall? Were they spotted in the mall? Yeah, they were supposedly spotted in a Murphy's store and a shoe store. And supposedly somebody, so we hear, was following them, a tall, skinny guy with a jacket on it, had California on it. So we know that really helps with the timeline, Cheryl, because we know they got in the mall and they probably wandered around. And I mean that in a good way. You know, when you don't have any real agenda,

you just go in. I can't even remember the last time I did not have a schedule or an agenda, but teens do that. They go in and one of them is nine and all they have to do is get home in time to go to a little party. So they're just kind of wandering around. I could just see them going to the food court, to the shoe store, looking in all the windows, going by Spencer's. Do you remember that poster place? I think it actually still exists. But I could see that. Nancy, I know Mr. Wilson, Renee's dad, was talking about what was going on that day. Well, the Trace Evidence podcast, The Disappearance of the Fort Worth Three,

Steve Pacheco specifically talks about whether or not the girls were seen in the mall. Take a listen to this. Several witnesses reported seeing the girls at the mall. When the girls failed to return home by 4 p.m., their families became concerned. And by 6 p.m., Rachel's younger brother, Rusty, was on the scene with his mother. They found the car locked up with Christmas presents inside. They went to every store in the mall, having the girls paged, but there was no response. Police were called, and when they arrived, they did a sweep of the mall.

Several witnesses gave conflicting accounts of seeing the girls in the parking lot in the company of a man. Now we know they made it in safely, so whatever happened originated either in the mall or on their way out of the mall. That makes a big difference in the timeline, Cheryl. It makes a huge difference, Nancy, but there was a young man that came forward in 1975 that said he ran into them at a record store and did see a man that he thought was following them or lingering around them but we also know there were christmas presents in her vehicle that was locked so we

can put them there no question about it back to richard wilson this is renee's dad renee just 14 years old when she goes missing so you get to the mall you can't find anything in the parking lot, but you see the vehicle, correct? No. Renee's kind of uncle came down there with us, and he went out and found that car because he was over there at Renee's grandmother's that day, and I think he spoke to him, and he found that car. And I'm understanding that Christmas gifts, this happens at Christmastime, were in the car and the car was locked, Richard? Yes, it was locked.

The Christmas gift that was in there was supposedly, so everybody says, was a gift that Renee had got for Sean, which is Tommy's little boy. I'm curious. Did they back it up with a receipt that would have been timed so they knew at what time the girls? No, she brought it from home. She brought that gift from home. Oh, see, that changes things.

Cheryl, did you get that? That changed everything. I got that. See, I didn't know that. I knew there was a gift in the car, but the fact that she didn't buy it in the mall, that hurts the case. It hurts the timeline I'm building in my head because if you buy something in the mall, it'll have the time and the date on the receipt. They can look that up. But if she brought that from home to give away, that doesn't help me with my timeline.

But we do know the car was locked. Okay, what does that tell me? It tells me most likely they were not abducted from the car because if they were taken on the way to the car and they had unlocked it, the kidnapper would not have neatly, you know, locked the car back. Back to Richard Wilson. So you get there that night, you can't find Heidner here of them. What happens next, Richard? Well, I drove down to a guy that wanted to date Renee, and I told him, nope, never happened. And I guess he decided it was easier to leave her alone than to mess with me. And I think it was the next day, the detective come

out to the house, said he had a phone call that those girls were sold in a well in Aledo. Do you remember that night, Richard? You come back from the mall and tell your wife, or you and your wife are talking about no clues. What was that first night like when you could not find your daughter? Okay, about one o'clock, I carried my wife home, picked up the Arnold's next-door neighbor, which was a friend of mine, closer than my own brother. He went down there with me, and we sat down there in front of Sears Garage

and watched that car all night. No security guards went by. Nobody came back to that car or nothing. Joining me right now, Kim Cadell, a neighbor, a family friend, who feels so strongly about this case, she contacted CrimeOnline.com and me on Facebook. Kim, tell me what you know about the case. I want as much information out there as possible. For those of you listening, we're talking about the case. I want as much information out there as possible.

For those of you listening, we're talking about the so-called Fort Worth Trio. It's just three little girls. Julianne Mosley, age 9. Renee Wilson, 14. Rachel Trillisa, just 17. Tip line, 817-469-8477. Repeat, 817-469-8477. Repeat. 817-469-8477. Kim Cadell, jump in. You know, that's the sad thing about the case is there's just no real facts out there to know.

For me, the biggest clue has always been the letter, you know, saying the girls have gone to Houston. Other than that letter, it seems like they just vanished and there just haven't been a whole lot of clues left behind crime stories with nancy grace Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. My sister and two of her friends went on a shopping trip to what was then Seminary South back on December 23, 1974. And all three of the girls just vanished. And we never saw them again. This has been a case that has weighed on these three families all of these years.

Listen. I've spent my entire adult life looking for my sister, and I will never stop. Today, we're going to know. We're getting the third car out, and we're going to know. We could be within three inches of the car and miss it completely. It's supposed to be a quick easy procedure but there's nothing quick and easy when you're doing a dive like this. Imagine laying in

a coffin and closing the door. The first six inches you see a green blur but past that it's pitch black. All you can hear is your bubbles. Nobody understands just how dangerous this dive is. It's a blackwater dive. You can't see your hand in front of your face. You were just hearing from our friends at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Divers renewing the search for the three girls

dive into the black water of a deep lake searching for any evidence that could relate way to the bottom of a lake. And let me tell you, before I had the twins, Sandy Harcum, this is Julie's aunt, I dived all over the world. Every time I got a day off of work, I would go somewhere and dive all the way down over 100 feet below sea level. And one thing I always hated was a lake dive or a night dive because you can't see. And it's very, very difficult to do.

What we know is that the hope is that somehow, some way, we're going to find evidence linking back to these three little girls. Sandy Harcum, Julie's aunt. At the time Julie goes missing, what were your first thoughts? I really couldn't tell you. I didn't know until the next day about 10 o'clock in the morning that they were gone. My mom called me and told me. and I said, well, you know, what do you mean they're gone? And she said,

they never came back from shopping. And it's just so hard to wrap your head around that. You know, I couldn't, I couldn't imagine. And she said, just whatever you do, don't call the house because you know, Ryan wants to keep the line open in case they do call. And something to think about, too, that day, it was a very warm December day. They didn't have coats, you know. And that mall also is not the mall that you think about today.

That mall didn't have a closure on it. The stores were all linked together, but in the center, it was open. There wasn't a top on it or anything. But as far as, I just couldn't imagine what had happened. You know, it just, things like that just didn't happen to our family. We were talking about three little girls that go missing on a trip to the mall. Back to Richard Wilson, Renee's father. So I'm imagining you over there by the Sears garage where they do the tires and all that,

and you're keeping your eyes trained on the vehicle that the girls were in when they came to the mall. What happened after that? I want to hear about the letter that was received. The letter that was received, I understand that Debbie carried it over to her mother's house, and they called the police. The police came out. Well, where's the envelope?

They had to go back to the house and find an envelope. And the envelope was supposedly mailed from Throckmorton and received the same day, and they supposedly got it about 10 o'clock in the morning. I think that it was hand-stamped at the little post office in Seminary South. And it was held on to. Because the old note don't fit the letter. It's not folded right.

You try to put it in there. The paper's not the right size to go in there. Let's call in forensic expert and the founder of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, Cheryl McCollum. Cheryl, let's talk for a moment about the letter and the significance of the letter. Apparently, there was no city name on the postmark, only a blurred postal service number. And it also appears that the 3 written on there, 76083, was backward, or was it an unfinished 8?

But whatever, the content of the letters is significant. What do we know, Cheryl McCollum? Well, he's right. When you look at how the letter itself is folded, it would not have fit in that envelope. That's one thing. The other thing, the envelope itself to me is a money tree. You can take the stamp off of that and try to get DNA off the back of it. You can try to get DNA off where

somebody would have in the 70s had to have licked it to seal it. You could also get a partial palm print where they put their hand down and was writing on the paper itself. Also fingerprints where they held it and attempted to mail it or run it through the you know stamp machine i think that's where they need to go the letter itself is also curious the person starts by saying i know i'm going to catch it but we had to get away they start with i and then immediately go to we but it's like the other two people aren't going to be in trouble for running away and what's so crazy is you're going to run away but you're not going to take your car you're not going to have any money you don't have anywhere to sleep or get food or anything like that it makes no sense the other thing that doesn't make any sense is the way the envelope

is addressed it's addressed very formal so it would appear like i know you know rachel recently was married but it looks like whoever addresses to her husband did so formally and used Thomas A. Her address is simply Rachel. When the three girls did not return, Fort Worth Police was called in. It was handed over to the Youth Division of the Missing Persons Bureau. Sadly, the girls were presumed to be runaways, which totally stalled the investigation. The next day, the very next day, a letter was received in the mailbox at Rachel's home that appeared to be written by Rachel.

See, that's the big part of this that is extremely significant. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The next day, Thomas Terlisa received a strange letter in the mail, alleged to have been written by Rachel, explaining that they had gone to Houston and would return in a week. The letter sparked controversy, with no one believing Rachel had actually written it, and even accusations that it had in fact been written by Rachel's sister, Deborah. As the years passed, Thomas would move away and sever all ties to the family. Deborah would become

a person of interest, at least in the minds of the family, and especially in the mind of her brother, Rusty. Dave Mack, what's it all about? Nancy, there's a very interesting relationship dynamic, okay? We were listening to the Trace Evidence podcast, The Disappearance of the Fort Worth Three, hosted by Steve Pacheco. Tommy was married to Rachel, but prior to marrying Rachel, Tommy was romantically involved with Rachel's sister, Deborah. They were involved enough that at one point in time, Tommy andbra were engaged. They broke up. Tommy then marries Debra's sister, Rachel. At the time of the disappearance, Debra had moved in with and was living with Tommy and Rachel. And it was the morning after the disappearance that the mysterious letter shows up and Debra and Tommy find that And Tommy fined that letter. A letter was received in the mailbox at Rachel's home that appeared to be written by Rachel.

See, that's the big part of this that is extremely significant. Whether it was or it wasn't, it appeared to be written by Rachel. But yet, the addressing on the front, as Cheryl pointed out, was to, it was very formal. Like if someone wrote me that knows me and they put to the Honorable Nancy A. Grace Esquire, who knows me that would write that? That's what you formally put on the end of a letter to a lawyer. So it seems as if this was not written by Rachel, but it was purportedly written by Rachel. The letter was written in ink, but the addressed envelope was written in pencil. The letter was written on a sheet of paper that was wider than the envelope.

That's what everybody's trying to say about how it wouldn't have fit into the envelope, but if you folded it over, you can make it fit in there. It was addressed formally, as I said. Also, what we know, Rachel, the word Rachel was written in the upper left-hand corner of the envelope. It appeared to be initially misspelled, as the L in her name was written like a lowercase e, but it had been gone over again to form a correct L. The postmark did not contain a city,

only a blurred zip code that appeared to be 76083. But the 3 looks backward, like it was applied by a hand-loaded stamp. That is what Richard Wilson was trying to explain. We assume that zip code was meant to be either 76038, which comes from Eliasville near Throckmorton, Texas, or 76088, which comes from Weatherford, Texas. Back at the time of the letter, handwriting experts across the nation looked at the letter, including the FBI, but every time the results seemed to come back inconclusive.

Now, back to Richard Wilson, Renee's father. What did the letter say? Well, I'd like to say one more thing about that postmark. Okay. I can come up with five more letters with exactly the same postmark. What are they? Where are they? They're in a friend of mine's house.

It was like, I think, invitations by one of her kids and other things. I have a copy of all of those letters. I'm trying to figure out what exactly the contents of the letter said. Okay. The letter just says, going to Houston, be back in about a week. I know I'm going to catch it. And then it just says, Rachel, there's not much there. Well, that doesn't even make sense. 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 car is in Sears Upper Lot. Love, Rachel. The person that put that car in that lot had to know that the letter he wrote. Exactly. That had to be the person that was there because they knew where the car was parked. Cheryl McCollum, Director of Cold Case Research Institute, forensic expert.

We're learning a lot. We know Rachel did not write the letter, number one. We know that it may not have truly been addressed. I'm not convinced it even went through the mail. Was it marked, Cheryl, as if it had actually gone through the mail, or could it have been hand-delivered? Okay, straight up. If you are at a business that has one of the machines where you can just hand load a bunch of letters. Let's say you take 50 of them and you just run these through and take them home and put your Christmas card in it and then mail it. That could have happened. And what I want to be real clear about.

Did it actually go through the mail? That's my question. We don't know that. Somebody could have taken envelopes home is what I'm saying. And it may have appeared that they had gone through the mail that's my question we don't know that somebody could have taken envelopes home is what i'm saying and it may have appeared that they had gone through the mail that's what i'm saying we don't know richard did the envelope look like it went through the mail or could it have been stamped and hand delivered yeah it looked like it went through the mail because it's okay these other four or five letters or envelopes.

Got it. Got it. Okay, that is significant because that letter came within like 72 hours of the girls missing or less. That means the letter was sent almost immediately after the girls go missing, Cheryl. So this person. Yeah, I know, Nancy. You got to hear me out. Okay, go.

This is what I'm trying to tell you. Cheryl. So this person, I know Nancy, you got to hear me out. Today in today's time, it's going to take three days for that letter to get there in the seventies. It could have taken a week. There is no way if you kidnap somebody at four o'clock and mail a letter that their family's going to get it the next morning in the mail, especially December 23rd with all the added Christmas cards and that sort of thing. I call bogus on that. I think it was hand-stamped. That's what I'm saying, guys. But this is significant, whether this went through the mail

or whether somebody made it appear it went through the mail and delivered. That's what I'm saying. Now, we also know the 10 cent stamp had been canceled that morning, December 24. What does that mean? It was canceled. That mean it was stamped by a mail, but it could have been hand stamped. The significance of that, let me circle back to you, Richard, is that if it was hand delivered, that means this is somebody that knows you guys that circled back to the home to leave that letter. And I'm picking up on something Cheryl said. This went out immediately.

Could it really have gone through the mail and arrived? Say they go missing. How many days passed before the letter came in, Richard? The next day. Uh-uh. No. No. No. Do you see the problem with that, Cloyd Steiger? I'm focusing on the letter because I don't have anything else to focus on. And plus, this is written by the perpetrator.

These girls didn't write this letter. Yeah, there's no question about that. And you're exactly right. Cheryl is exactly right. You're not going to get it the next day, especially right before Christmas in a town like that. It doesn't do that today. So it certainly didn't do it in 1974. Let's follow what our theory is to the logical conclusion. The logical conclusion is that somehow the perpetrator could get away from the girls because you know they were not in the car when that letter was delivered all the way

back to their home. He had them somewhere or they were already killed. But he circles back to the home. This is not random. Why? If you randomly kidnap somebody, and let's just say you rape them and you kill them, or you just kill them, or you rob them and you kidnap them, you want to get away, get rid of the evidence as fast as you can. You're not going back to the house to leave some bogus letter. This is not random. Do you hear me, Cheryl?

I hear you, Nancy, and I agree with you. This person not only took the time to know where the victim's car is at, that means they watched them park. They knew where the car was. They knew her address. They knew her husband's formal name and used it. With me is Julie's aunt, Sandy Harcum. Sandy, what do you make of it? I think the letter was supposed to throw everybody

off. And it makes no sense, like you said, because a complete stranger that's going to abduct three girls, it's not going to take the time to sit and write a letter and send it to the family. I mean, they're going to get them and go. So that letter was kind of a smoking, well, not a smoking gun, but a smoke screen. And it worked for a while because that's what the detective used every time you ask them what's going on with the case. Well, they ran away. Here's the letter. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The next day, the only major lead in the case developed when a handwritten note was received stating the three had gone to Houston.

Police weren't sure if the note had been written freely. It has since been sent to the FBI lab in Washington for analysis. You were just hearing our friends at WFAA-TV. You know another really important part about this letter is that when Tommy, he came to his place, when Tommy picked up the letter out of the mailbox, nothing else was in the mailbox. No Christmas cards, no bills, no flyers, nothing. Which, if they had been thinking straight, they would have printed, they would have dusted that mailbox for prints.

And the letter. And the letter. And the DNA. Do we know? I'm just throwing this out there. Do we know Richard Wilson? Richard is Renee Wilson's dad. His girl was 14 years old when he gets home from work and finds out

Renee never came home from the mall. His life has been torn apart since this happened. You know, when I cover a case like this, I just have to go get in my car and go straight over to the school. And sometimes I've even looked in the window at the children. They go, there's mom again in the parking lot. I can't help it. When I think of what Richard Wilson and the other parents of these girls have been through,

14 years old, 9 years old, 17 years old, Richard, it really strikes me that there was nothing else in that mailbox. That's because the mail hadn't even come yet. And the mail don't run that early over here because I live approximately four blocks from Tommy's house. I get my mail anywhere from 5 to 7 o'clock at night. Me too. I see them out 5, 6, 7 o'clock at night delivering the mail. You know

what? I'm not knocking them, but I can tell you this. I also do not get mail at 10 o'clock in the morning. Okay, Cheryl, we can go on and on and on about this, but what does it mean? It means that whoever put the letter in the mailbox, if in fact it was ever in the mailbox, and it wasn't placed there by somebody that was in that home, because here you've got to look at Tommy. If this was a real investigation, you have to look at him first. Well, I've already looked at him, but you know what? That's a very good point. Let's look at Tommy. Go ahead. Where was he that day, Cheryl? You got to look at Tommy. You know, why you, of all three families, three different addresses, three different girls, why'd the letter come to you? That's significant.

Then you look at why the letter does not fit the envelope. It doesn't appear that it was folded and put into that exact envelope. When it was taken over to the other house, the envelope wasn't even brought with it. Why not? You could take everything. So I'm telling you, the money tree here is on the back of that stamp and on the inside of the seal.

Somebody had to lick that to seal it if it was ever sealed. To Richard Wilson, Renee's dad, do we know, Richard, if a DNA analysis has been done on the stamp or the seal? Yes. But they say the DNA does not match.

Nobody that they found it with yet. That, I don't know. Now, Sandy or Kim, one may know that. Yeah, let's find out. Kim Cadell, what do you know? We just had a meeting with the chief of police and the detective, and they say that there's just not enough DNA on the family, Deborah, and they've run the DNA. What they're saying now is because I would like for this to go to the Paragon Lab in Virginia, where they can actually do a composite of the person's, you know, from the DNA. They said there's just not enough left on there anymore to do that.

But they have tested the DNA and supposedly ruled out a number of people. I find it interesting, Cloyd Steiger, that she's saying, Sandy Harcum is saying, and I have no reason to believe she is not correct because she's just come out of this meeting with authorities that the dna doesn't match any of the family or the people they they secure dna from but back to cheryl's question it needs to go into codas the national dna data bank and it needs to be put in uh ancestry Ancestry What is it? Ancestry.com 23andMe There is the Data bank used by The Golden State Killer Detectives

Which was a public data bank What about that What do we have to do to make that happen? Well it does have to be a complete Profile but my question would be How long ago did they do the DNA? It advanced so much in the last couple of years that smaller amounts you can get more with. And so that would be my first question.

And if they have a partial, they can eliminate people by direct comparison. But you have to have the full profile. But I wonder how long ago they did this. They may need to try to do it again. Guys, I have investigated and prosecuted literally thousands of felony cases. I have covered literally thousands of cases of missing people, adults, and children, unsolved homicides, violent crimes. After all the cases, after speaking to all the victims, all the police, all the witnesses over years, my question is, what can we do about it? I don't want to just sit back and report on it. I want to take action. And I know you must feel

the same way. You don't want to just hear about crime. You want to do something about it and do something to stop it. And here is the news. We have all worked so hard to bring to you Don't Be a Victim, Fighting Back Against America's Crime Wave, a brand new book. After interviewing literally hundreds of crime victims and police, we put our knowledge into Don't Be a Victim. You can pre-order now. Go to crimeonline.com. crime stories with nancy grace the next day the only major lead in the case developed when a handwritten note was received stating the three had gone to houston police weren't sure if the note had been written freely it has since been sent sent to the FBI lab in Washington for analysis. It's just hard for me to believe the only thing we have to go on is that letter.

Back to Richard Wilson, Renee's father. You believe you know who wrote the letter? Who? Tommy. How? Deeds to houses, letters to a judge asking for some of the inheritance, you know, comes back to the same one. Do you all have just a second? I mean, I would like to say just one thing real quick. So when I sent that information, all the handwriting samples that Mr. Wilson is talking about, which was known to be written by Tommy, like they were legal documents. And a girl came forward and gave us like a two-page letter. And when that came back from Wendy Carlson that Thomas Trulisa authored those documents, the cold case detective told Mr. Wilson, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is it came back from DPS because they had their, they told Mr. Wilson that Tommy wrote the envelope, but DPS did not agree that he wrote the letter.

And then the detective wanted me to call her and give her a phone number, and I called her. We had a 45-minute discussion. Same thing. Tommy wrote the envelope. It was confirmed by DPS. And then when Sandra and I had our meeting, they clearly said, nope, that's not what it said. Y'all misunderstood. And there was no misunderstanding.

And they just rat-ass lied. Tommy wrote the letter. Or the envelope. Have you ever confronted him? Oh, yes. I told Tommy one time, I know where you're at because the police called me and told me that they had sent, called Tommy so many times but he won't answer them and he won't call them back. And when he came to Fort Worth

he called me and I told him I know where you're at Tommy and I'm going to be out there in a minute only two I only one of us is going to walk away and he ran down to the police department police department called me back and told me I know Tommy did it but I can't prove it he has no. He can pass lie detector tests as fast as I can throw them at him. And he said, if you ever get in any trouble over that boy, call me first. As of right now, Tommy or anyone else has not been named a person of interest or a suspect in this case. Let me go back to Richard Wilson. This is Renee's dad. Richard, do you believe that

the mall and the mall employees were canvassed thoroughly? I really doubt it because that detective that got this case, in my opinion, he was useless. Why? Why? He came to my house, I think it was the next day, and told me those girls were thrown in a well. He was going to check it. And I thought, well, I'm going to follow this bird. And when he went out of my house, he went up the street. My pickup was parked across the street. I went down the street about two blocks and cut back to the street and got behind him, and I followed him to a coffee shop. And I sat across the street at a barbershop, and he stayed in there about 30 minutes, come out, went down Hemphill, went down to City Hall, called me a little later,

said there was nothing to it. But there wasn't nothing to it because I know there's not no well in that coffee shop. You know, Mr. Wilson, you remind me so much of my dad. I wish I could just reach through this microphone and get to you. What can you tell me, Mr. Wilson, about a woman who told a store clerk that she saw one or more men getting girls to go into a pickup truck? We never could locate that woman.

But that's what was told to a clerk. What other clues emerged to Dave Mack, investigative reporter, Crime Online? Nancy, there have been a number of eyewitness accounts, but they seem to conflict with one another. Early on in the investigation, there was a former police officer who was working security for Sears at the time. And he actually, his name is Bill Hutchins, I believe. And he said that he at that night at 1130, the night they went missing, that he actually saw a security truck with a security guy dressed in uniform in the front seat sitting right next to the driver and another little bit older girl in the middle of that and then on the far side next to the passenger door, an older girl. And he told police this at the time, said that he actually questioned, what are you doing out here? And he said that they kind of blew him off and then went on about

their way. And he told police the next day. They never followed up. He's told the story a couple of different times and it never led anywhere. And the last time was in 2001 when they reopened the case. And Mr. Hutchins again said, hey, this is what I saw that night. Again, there were other stories that came out of this from, again, I'm putting air quotes around eyewitnesses, because there were other people who claimed that they saw the girls being physically pushed into a van on the day they went missing. Yeah, and there was another eyewitness that saw a girl, says he saw a girl being forced into a van, and he asked the guy, hey, what are you doing the guy says it's a family matter but out and he has repeatedly stated that the family's extremely frustrated with the investigation hire a private eye, John Swaim. Swaim discovers a 26-year-old man making a string of obscene phone calls in the area and had worked for a store in Fort Worth where Rachel had applied for a job just before Christmas.

Turns out he was using his position to get information from young women who had applied for a job. And on all their applications, they would have their home addresses. Six women who applied at the store had been getting those obscene phone calls. He also once lived in the neighborhood of Rachel's parents. In the end, that suspect, nothing ever came of him. There have been hundreds of volunteers that have searched. There have been skeletons that have been found in a field that were compared to dental records and x-rays,

not the girls. Psychics have pointed to oil wells. Nothing. We also know that a volunteer diver dragging cars from Benbrook Lake, possibly tied to the so-called Fort Worth missing trio. Listen. On the shore at Benbrook Lake,

divers were ready to brave the murky deep, searching for concrete answers. We're going to bring those cars up. We're going to put this part of it to rest, whether they're there or whether they're not. Rusty Arnold was just 11 years old when his big sister Rachel disappeared. The family's had missing persons posters printed up

and a reward fund established. WFAA has covered the case from the beginning. She was 17 and days before Christmas, she drove to a Fort Worth mall with her friend Renee and nine-year-old Julianne Mosley. Something has happened to him. I know it. There have been countless leads and theories,

including a letter purportedly from Rachel that said the trio suddenly decided to go to Houston, but they have never been found. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE.

RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE.

RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. RUSTY BELIEVES THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE. Next month, they plan to pull them out and look inside. I think we all know what I'm hoping to find. You were just hearing from our friends at the Fort Worth Star Telegram. It was a very dangerous dive. The car's nearly 40 feet down in pitch black water. To Dave Mack, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, what happened with the dive? Well, they actually were able to get two of the, there were three cars that were found at the bottom of the lake. They were able to bring up and they were able to get a piece of the other one, but it was just two.

It was falling apart as they brought it up and they actually injured a couple of divers in that last dive and called it off after that but the end result was none of those cars were tied directly back to this case. The case has now been reopened and assigned to a homicide detective. He believes the girls left the mall with someone they trusted. He says that they were at one point seen with one individual but believed there was more than one person involved. To Kim Cadell, what do you make of it? I definitely think it was somebody that they knew and trusted. And with Sandy, I do believe that that letter, you know, to throw the investigation off by a little bit of time. To Sandy Harcum, Julie's aunt. Sandy, what do you believe happened?

Well, again, I believe that they did involve someone that the older girl knew and that Julie and maybe even Renee were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't know that they were taken from the mall. It could have been that they went somewhere in the car place at the wrong time. I don't know that they were taken from the mall. It could have been that they went somewhere in the car, something happened, and whoever drove the car back to the mall and left it there. And finally, to Richard Wilson. Richard, what do you believe happened? I really don't know.

Dave Mack, what is the theory cops are working with? Nancy, the basic thing they're looking at is that other than the girls running off of it, they actually went willingly with somebody they knew. Ostensibly, they believe that Rachel might have known the individual and that they left with her then. But all the years later, Nancy, we're left with not much more than they knew the day after they got the letter. It's just been sitting there for all these years. And as Mr. Wilson pointed out at the very beginning, the first detective placed on the case didn't seem to follow up anything. As a matter of fact, do you know they never fingerprinted the vehicle? They, to my knowledge, they didn't do anything with the car.

They didn't do any kind of investigation. Could I say something? Yes, jump in. My sister and I went a couple of months later to the police department. I mean, it was one of the many times that we had gone, but just to see how the investigation was going and the detective told us, and I'm going to quote that well at this time we're really not looking because easter's coming and we think they're going to be found with the easter eggs meaning people are out and about and they're going to find them to cloy's tiger what if anything can be done now well you know short of like cheryl said, the DNA being redone or done more carefully on the envelope, this is a frustration because you have no body, you have no physical evidence at all other than that letter.

And unless somebody comes across the bodies somewhere and they haven't in 40-some years, so the odds are they're not, I don't know what else you could do. But I think the best route would be to take that DNA and do some genealogy on it. That may be your only hope. And to Cheryl McCollum, you are the founder of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute. What can be done now? Nancy, I think you can also go back and talk to every single person again. The family can go back and say, hey, now that we're talking, I did notice

that X never searched for them or X never seemed concerned or X wanted to move past it and make, you know, everything better and just say, hey, you know, they're going to turn up or whatever. It is odd to me that somebody that would be a stranger that would kidnap three young women would send something with potential evidence on it telling people where to find the car. That just doesn't ring true for any reason. And if you kidnap three people and you're by yourself, which is hard to do, one of them would have run it. So it's difficult for me to believe that you've got three people in a car by force alone, and then within an hour you've supposedly mailed some letter using two different writing instruments and you just happen to have an envelope and you happen to have a way to hand load it, you happen to have a stamp.

I mean, none of this rings true. I mean, it just doesn't. There's something very wrong with the story they're trying to get us to believe. And I'm talking about the perpetrator. You're listening to an I Heart podcast.