Fort Worth Missing Trio

Case background and investigation

Mary Rachel Trlica, 17, Lisa Renee Wilson, 14, and Julie Ann Moseley, 9, have been missing since December 23, 1974. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the three were last seen at Seminary South Shopping Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Rachel, who used her middle name, was a married high school student; according to Wikipedia's summary of the case, she had been married to Tommy Trlica for about six months and was driving a 1972 Oldsmobile 98.

FOX 7 Austin, which interviewed Julie's brother Terry Moseley in 2025, reported that the girls set out to shop for Christmas, visiting an Army/Navy store and then the mall. Wikipedia's account, which draws largely on Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporting, says Julie asked to go along at the last minute and that Renee wanted to be home by about 4 p.m. for a party. They did not return. The car was found that evening in a parking lot at the mall, and the same account says gifts the girls had bought were inside.

The following day a letter arrived at the Trlica home. It was signed with Rachel's name and said, in substance, that the girls had needed to get away, were going to Houston, and would be back in about a week. NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth reported that the families regarded the note as suspicious because Rachel's name was misspelled in the signature. According to Wikipedia, handwriting examinations, including one by the FBI, were inconclusive. The families have consistently rejected the idea that the girls ran away; Terry Moseley told FOX 7 that no one in the families believed the letter.

Wikipedia's account describes numerous leads over the following years, none of which produced a result: a private investigator hired by the families organized searches in 1975, and skeletal remains found in Brazoria County in 1976 and 1981 were compared with the girls' records and excluded. The same account says Fort Worth police assigned the case to a homicide detective in January 2001, and that two cars raised from Benbrook Lake in 2018 yielded nothing connected to the case. These details rest on Wikipedia and were not confirmed independently.

In November 2024, NBC 5 reported that the families wanted the letter tested to determine who wrote or handled it. Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes told the station that the department would review cold cases for evidence that could be submitted for additional testing. NCMEC marked the 50th anniversary of the disappearance, and FOX 7 reported in January 2025 that the organization continues to publish age-progressed images of the three.

No one has been charged, and no public source reviewed identifies a suspect. Anyone with information is asked to call the Fort Worth Police Department at 817-335-4222 or NCMEC at 1-800-843-5678.