Remember that LE stood around with their thumbs up their you-know-whats for days or weeks once the letter surfaced because they fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I'm not sure how soon the store clerks were interviewed.
IMO, Julie probably waited in the car, either alone or with CJG (if they had picked him up before that).
Fair point. I remember what LE did to this case, but I kept assumming that the dates of those insanely delayed interviews weren't when whitnesses actually started trying to recall what happened on 23rd of December 1974.
And that the timeline was kinda like this:
23.12.1974, afternoon - disappearance of the girls.
Evening - families calling whoever they could call to ask about girls whereabouts.
Night - families search the mall, asking people about the girls.
24th - news spreading through the neighbourhood.
25th - about the time when all friends, neighbours and acquaintances of the girls, their families, friends and neighbours were notified about their disappearance right away. Cause Christmas the very next day, family gatherings, so many occasions to exchange information and gossip.
26th, 27th - working days, and the time when I'd expect everyone to ask some questions, retrace their steps and try to realise if they saw the girls on 23rd or about the last time they saw them or what they heard about them.
If not like this, then I can't even imagine some random clerks (not even necessarily living in the area themselves, to be approached by some loon cop in late January, March or wherever they actually felt like doing something) to have the ability to recognise them on the pictures and still have any useful memory of seeing them on 23rd of December.
But it was covered by press and local tv then. Community was aware. And even if people bought the story in the letter...
Well, I don't know what kind of mentality people in Forth Worth had at the time, but I'd expect some outrage and annoyance for the girls who decided to just left their families for Christmas without a good reason to do so... - expressed by talking about it anyway, so still kinda spreading info about them disappearing.