Their car sat in the mall parking lot with the Christmas presents still inside. A letter arrived the next morning claiming one of them had run away — but the envelope and the handwriting told two different stories.
Rachel Trlica, 17, Renée Wilson, 14, and Julie Ann Moseley, 9, vanished from a Fort Worth, Texas, shopping center on December 23, 1974. More than 50 years later, none of them have ever been found.
A Christmas Shopping Trip
Rachel drove to pick up her friend Renée for an afternoon of Christmas shopping at the Seminary South Shopping Center. Julie Ann, a 9-year-old neighbor of Rachel's who lived across the street, asked to come along and was given permission by her mother. The girls promised to be home by 4 p.m.; Renée had a Christmas party to get ready for that evening.
A Car Left Behind
When the girls hadn't returned by early evening, their families went to the mall and found Rachel's car in the Sears parking lot, with the gifts they'd purchased still inside. Police initially treated the case as a runaway situation, a conclusion the families rejected from the start, noting it made little sense for the girls to leave their purchases and Rachel's own car behind if they'd left willingly.
Scattered, Unconfirmed Sightings
A few witnesses came forward describing sightings that day: a store clerk relayed a secondhand account of men pushing girls into a yellow pickup truck, though the woman who reported it was never located; another witness described seeing the girls in the back of a security patrol vehicle; and a man later claimed he'd seen the girls forced into a van, only to be told by another man it was a "family dispute" when he tried to intervene. None of these leads produced a confirmed identification.
A Disputed Letter
The morning after the disappearance, Rachel's husband of six months, Tommy Trlica, received a letter claiming to be from Rachel, saying she and the others had left for Houston and would return in about a week. Handwriting experts who examined it in the 1970s and 1980s reached inconclusive results, and the envelope showed an initial misspelling of Rachel's own name before being corrected. Both families maintained firmly that none of the girls had run away and that Rachel hadn't written the letter.
A Private Investigation That Went Nowhere
The families hired private investigator Jon Swaim in 1975 after police leads stalled. Swaim received a call from a man seeking reward money and, separately, an anonymous tip claiming the girls' remains were near Port Lavaca; neither lead produced results. Swaim died of a drug overdose in 1979, and his case files were destroyed.
A Family That Never Stopped Searching
Rachel's younger brother, Rusty Arnold, has spoken publicly about growing up under the weight of the case, saying he never believed Rachel wrote the letter attributed to her. The families endured years of cruel prank phone calls from people falsely claiming to be the missing girls, eventually forcing them to change their phone numbers.
Still Missing
More than five decades later, Rachel, Renée, and Julie Ann remain missing, and the case is still unsolved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have any of the three girls ever been found?
No. All three remain missing, and the case has never been solved.
Do investigators believe the girls ran away?
No. Despite the letter claiming Rachel had left voluntarily, both families and most investigators who've reviewed the case have never accepted the runaway explanation, given the circumstances the girls left behind.
Was the letter ever authenticated?
No. Handwriting experts who examined it in the 1970s and 1980s reached inconclusive results.