I agree there are parts of the 'TT did it' theory that are weak, as you have outlined above.
However, I do not think TT can be completely ruled out. He had reasons to be angry with Rachel, his whereabouts for a large portion of that day have never been satisfactorily confirmed, e.g what on earth was going on for three hours from when he received the phone call at the Bowling Alley at 8.00pm and arriving at the Mall at 11.00pm ?? His wife of just a few months had just been reported missing !!
There is also the 'Runaway' Letter and envelope shambles on top of this.
Maybe he is innocent, but I do believe both he and DA know happened those three girls on that afternoon back in 1974. I would like for someone to convince me otherwise in case I am completely wrong.
FA, CA & DA's whereabouts have never been satisfactorily confirmed either. To be fair, pretty much nobody's were, except maybe Julie's mom.
It's way easier for me to find explanation for him and these (more 1,5 than 3) unaccounted hours - he may be calling from home, waiting by the phone, looking around outside the mall... there are many relatively reasonable things that a person facing the fact that spouse just went missing can do, and worrying about own alibi and joining others at the place that they're already searching isn't neccessarily the top of these.
What I have really hard time to explain is that gap between FA learning about the disappearance and calling TT. Cause who if not them would be the first people that Renee's parents would call? TT? But he's out bowling. So who can know how to find him better than A's?
But we don't know the dynamic there. It may also be as easy as FA not wanting to bother TT and cause him to be angry with Rachel for being so late in case that girls are just stuck somewhere.
Letter and envelope thing. Writing analysis are to faulible to work as proofs. If he only found it after two days then it's sketchy like hell, but did he? And was he under impression that it is very urgent and LE needs to get it asap, or told to show up with it at their location after Christmas?
DA just called him that cops want it. But A's home was pretty close to T's. Why not drive there immediately if it's so urgent. Why stay at the A's. None of the girls was living there, it was not where the letter arrived. Apparently cops weren't on it hard, like let's go there and check out theit mailbox, let's get that envelope now - so why would he?
It's not fair to expect him to be the most thoughtful of them all, including cops. It is suspicious, but not suspicious enough to zero in on him.
What makes you believe that TT & DA know what happened? What about FA & CA, do you also suspect them of knowing?
The only other candidates I have are 'CJG' who I believe was with the girls that day, but I don't think he could drive so I just can’t join the dots on that one. He got onboard westbound 747 (to quote a line from a song from that era) not long afterward, but I think that may have been for his own safety.
Maybe a bad associate of CA(a couple get mentioned in the Gone Cold podcast) ??...but then I come back to the letter and envelope situation, which brings me back to some sort of TT/DA involvement.
I haven't completely ruled out stranger abduction, but some sort of family dispute/domestic violence seems more likely with two girls in the wrong place at the wrong time.
All of the above is JMO with regard to this case, so feel free to shoot a few holes through it !!!
It'd be interesting to know more about Rachel and Renee. Were they going out alone, or accompanied only by other girls often?
Cause IMO there is a high possibility that they weren't. Renee's parents seemed to be alarmed pretty quickly. Could be cause they already learned that Julie joined them and was supposed to be back home as well, but could be also cause they always wanted to know where she is and with who. And Rachel, being still a highschooler and newly married, she could not have that many opportunities to go out without TT. She didn't have a car of her own. That would mean relying mostly on TT or asking for a drive somewhere.
If the case with both of them, then it could be someone who learned - from them, TT, A's or Rachel's relatives that they have this trip planned and for whom it was a rare opportunity to approach them without any parents or guys around.
Rachel seemed to be quite eager to invite more people. We knew of four. So four at least. Could be just cause she was polite and willing to give them a ride if they wanted to join. Or maybe cause she wasn't feeling very comfortably going out just with Renee, and having others around would set her more at ease?
I'm trying to think of any, even remotely similar, solved case that would not involve a serial killer and keep having hard time to come up with anything. Cause they have a kid with them. It's a lot of inconvenience to deal with a kid while aiming at a teenager, and the other way around. And we're talking 70's. Hundreds and thousands of examples how it wasn't hard to abduct young woman or a kid back then. Not so hard to do it with three people, but much easier with one, especially if the goal is to just kidnap a kid or pretty girl.
Different story if it'd be about specific girl or girls.
Hello fellow concerned about the trio friends. This is my first post on this site or anywhere else on this matter, please be kind. I have followed this case since the beginning. This was my neighborhood. I frequented SS many times most often to the GC Murphy record counter. I crossed paths with Renee in school. I am saddened that this case hasn't been resolved. I don't have much new to say but here it is: Times then were so different. Most girls didn't report assaults. Abuse wasn't as 'prevalent' or it was not reported or recognized. Girls were taught to not talk about certain things or it would reflect negatively upon them. The area was cross between being a safe place merging into a place of growing kidnappings and murders. I worked near and in Hulen Mall. I personally can vouch for the scary times we faced. I personally was approached by questionable people throughout these years. At 12yo, an adult distant cousin was to take me to the Benbrook Skating rink to his daughter. On the way, he took me to a field at Benbrook lake (location is why i mention it) and attempted to assault me. I escaped the car and headed toward distant lights. He got me back in the car and proceeded to take me to the rink. I assume because he would have to answer to family about me. I told his daughter about the event. Instead of being surprised, she was more curious about what took place. I'm not thinking this was his only offense. I never had to face him again. Don't even know if he's still alive. I also went to SHS. A friend of mine and I were leaving school one day, got in my car and two young adult males blocked my car in. I kept backing my car to the point that they must have thought I would hit them so they moved. They still followed us through the neighborhoods around the school until we found a driveway that went behind a house and we lost them. There were rumors of someone posing as a police officer and pulling over women. These are just a few such cases I experienced. With malls emerging, employees working at one had to go to their cars in the outlying parking lots. These buildings overall had a visual perspective only to the inside of the mall. One co-worker of mine got off work at HM and was kidnapped by a man who was in her car. Fortunately, he let her go when she got hysterical at a hotel room. I don't know if he was caught. Another classmate of mine was brutally murdered just blocks from the house we lived in when I was in middle school. Her suspected murderer is in prison in relation to another assault, but has not officially admitted to hers. We moved to another house in the same neighborhood. So, with all that said. On this case, there were so many things that could have happened. I find the infamous letter could have been staged either by someone close to Rachel or by a stranger. Either way, they were familiar with the area to know about the sub-post office at SS as opposed to someone randomly coming off I35 who was not familiar with SS and grabbing them. I find some family members of the girls behaviors to be strange, but explainable d/t the circumstances. SO, could a stranger kidnap three girls, most definitely. Alone? Most definitely. One could have seen them in the parking lot carrying packages and offered to take them to their car or down to the mall from the car (less likely) and not done so. This is possible especially if that person was posing as a trusted person or just a 'nice' person not necessarily someone they knew. One could have grabbed any of the girls and threatened her with a weapon and ordered all girls to enter a vehicle. Someone could have seen them at the Army store and stalked them. Any one or all of the girls could have been the focus of the event. I know in the discussions 'Virgil' had a sketchy alibi. It also seems IMO that some of the people/suspects who were questioned only had to say, 'I wasn't with them.' and they were dismissed as suspects. In any light of discovery, detective tecniques were not nearly as developed as they are today. As far as the theory that Rachel was killed in her home and the other two were witnesses, I don't believe this. If RW and the 9yo stayed in the car. The suspect could have just gone out and said, Rachel wasn't coming back out and take them home. As far as RW and the 9yo being in the house during an attack, the likelihood of the violence occurring with them present is low. As the suspect, would be being watched. So that's my 2 cents. I pray the answer will be found. Blessing to the families, friends and those who care about these precious girls.
Thank you for your insight. That's pretty much how I remember my 80's childhood but still managed to somehow forget to apply that while writing most of my posts here.
But this is elephant in the room. With soulcrashing majority of physical and sexual assaults all it took for an offender to get away with it was to just act like it never happened. In highly unlikely scenario of a girl being brave and naive enough to try to speak up or report it, they were still going away with it saying that girl is lying or/and asked for it - and then she was the one in trouble.
We... I kept assumming that "something" happened, so either some dispute or violence that ended up with accidental death of one of the girls or maybe the goal was to sexually assault one or all of them and murders happened just to cover it up and avoid getting caught.
It's possible like many, many scenarios here, but would it be the mindset of an violent guy or a sexual offender - I'd say yes, but only IF HE ALREADY DID TIME (or suffered some serious consequences) FOR SAME THING BEFORE.
Cause if not, why?
Let's say first time violent outburst. Some dispute, physical violence, no serious harm meant. No need to murder anyone over it. It'd be like 90-95% that absolutely nothing will came out of it.
Same thing but resulting with accidental death of one of the girls. If accidental, it may not even end up with any serious jail time. Who in the right mind, even sociopathic right mind would choose guaranteed death penalty (if caught) over... what it'd be? 2 years at worst? And what kind of "just violent" guy would switch into cold blooded murderer in a blink of an eye? It doesn't happen, unless somehow, something would increase the stakes much, much higher - and even with that guy would be a wreck afterwards.
Not that many people are up for unplanned multiple murders for convenience. Pretty much no one except serial killers and some previously incarcerated with the attitude of "no way, I'm not going down for this again, this time nobody's going to get a chance to speak up".
One more scenario, with girls accidentally whitnessing some serious drug deal or a crime, tightly connected to TT and DA knowing about it but being too scared to speak up for 50 years.
But wouldn't it be much easier to scare these girls than those two? DA seemed to be much more rebelious, running away from bad home situation, staying away without jumping into an early marriage. Rachel was described as "feisty", but she seemed to be doing things more by the book, getting married with parents approval, I'd think that she'd could be much easier to scare and force to keep silence than DA or TT.
I'm talking too much again.
But this is a big thing I think.
The area was cross between being a safe place merging into a place of growing kidnappings and murders. (...) There were rumors of someone posing as a police officer and pulling over women. (...) I find the infamous letter could have been staged either by someone close to Rachel or by a stranger. Either way, they were familiar with the area to know about the sub-post office at SS as opposed to someone randomly coming off I35 who was not familiar with SS and grabbing them.
The letter, it mentions "
Seairs upper lot" - and it was said that it wasn't how girls or pretty much anyone, apart from people working at the mall (or possibly being in close enough conntact to one of them to catch that phrase) would reffer to the mall's parking lot.
And it was mailed from the post office at the mall.
Forged by someone who didn't bother at all or didn't bother much with faking Rachel's handwriting.
If we could add to that also the fact that Renee or/and Rachel were rarely going out without parents, adults or TT - then instead of odd, unusual circumstances we'd get rare opportunity to attack in the area where perp would feel comfy and confident.
I don't know if we can, but I see it as likely.
I'd like to know if anyone who could learn about this planned trip from Rachel, Renee, A's, TT, DA, Renee's parents, Renee's boyfriend or Julie's mother was employed at the mall, at the time, sometime earlier, or even working there as it was under construction.
They most certainly could leave the mall with someone they trusted but why would they? Trust is one thing and time is another - and they had Julie, eager to check out the mall with them, and tight schedule.
Going anywhere else could get Renee in trouble. She just got almost engaged to Julie's brother. She likely wouldn't be thrilled with prospect of failing her mother's trust by taking Julie somewhere else without her knowledge and permission.
So... someone posing as an authority figure? Likely.
Could be someone unrelated to them at all.
And that could explain why TT got the letter.
It's highely unlikely that Julie had any documment with her home address on it. Same with Renee. She could maybe have some form of ID with her, but Rachel...
Rachel could have a piece of mail with TT's address on it in her purse, along with something that'd allow random stranger to figure out that TT is her husband.
