TX TX - Julie Moseley, 9, Mary Trlica, 17, Lisa Wilson, 14, Fort Worth, 23 Dec 1974 #7

[beubeubeu]

Did this happen  before or  after "Preacher Melvin"?

If she was meeting Melvin at High School it had to be after, cause before she'd be attending Middle School.

 

[Brightchaser47]

His notes also say TT said SM's car was at Minot when he left for work and was there at Minot when he got back from work

Did ST ever mention seeing either SM or his car, when she was allegedly picking up her son that afternoon?

 

[beubeubeu]

If DA was at the mall parking lot from 11:30 pm til (?) and SM arrived at 5 something in the morning (which is what we've been told), DA would've only been at her parents' house for a few hours, which is a little different than all night.

In the version of the story that has him arriving sometime at night there may be no claim that DA & SM actually met in person at Minot home.

But there is (of course there is) yet another weirdness.
Cause people saw SM days prior and in the morning of 24th still in Fort Worth.
I can't tell if there are two vastly different stories about the same guy, or if there were two different guys.
One - DA's ex, trying to reconcile with her, who showed up days earlier and stayed.
And another one - who randomly showed up in the middle of the night, cause she vaguely invited him sometime before.

May be just my mistake, but SM wasn't questioned for years.
Why, if by so many accounts he was staying at one of the missing girls home on the day they went missing and got lost almost immediately after that?

Some couple showed up to visit TT on the 24th and one of them saw the note (without "The car is in Sears upper lot. Love Rachel" taped to the door").

And there is a piece of transparent tape visible on high resolution photo of the note (I remember cause I wondered if someone handled such important evidence so carelessly to tape it to something).

It'd make sense for DA & SM to go to Houston, and for DA to know that "she's going to catch it" if she will go. While obviously no forseen reason for Rachel, Renee or Julie to go there and catch anything.

TT claimed to see SM as he went back home before bowling. But that would be at the time when all families were alarmed. Yet somehow TT wasn't notified till 2,5-3 hours later.

Allegedly DA made several different stories about the events preceeding and following the disappearance but of course, it wasn't made clear anywhere what did she say right after it happened, in the days and weeks after. Few years may not sound as much considering the 49 years since it happened, but to be realistic weeks of drug abuse is enough to make a person have their memories all around the place, not to mention years.

And nobody's going to compare her first statements with other important whitnesses (potentially POI's) accounts cause nobody questioned them properly before old age (like with Sear's security chief) or possibly significant substance abuse (like with SM, VB) affected their memories. That's probably why it's so hard to figure who's lying cause of confusion, who's lying cause of the nature of pathological liar and unable to stop it, and who's possibly combination of one or two of those with the addition of being responsible for the disappearance.

We may be dealing here with confused pathological liar/s who tries/are trying to cover up their involvement hidden between many confused with time and affected by other issues and lying issues.
Whole team of investigators would have to work hard for long time to make sense out of it without a confession.

 

[Brightchaser47]

Maybe, but A's weren't nearly as close with W's as it's told, and they apparently weren't close enough to invite Rachel on that party so I doubt that.

If I'm not mistaken TT was bowling on a mixed league so RT should a went bowling with him.

If Rachel wasn't invited, maybe that's why.

 

[beubeubeu]

I wonder if that note got taped it on the Rachel's & TT's bedroom door with assumption that it's going to be clear for everyone that DA left the note but then someone saw it and cause girls went missing, immediately assumed that it must be left by Rachel and added that last sentence about the car and "Love Rachel" with some utterly dumb reason - like to actually make it look more serious than a note left at home. Or to stop cops from showing up cause SM may have some issues cause of that.

Or going crazy with it and having SM faking the note from DA and planning to force her to go with him, and later having DA assume that Rachel left it but faking it's way through postal service to prevent SM getting in trouble (or getting them all in trouble with drugs or guns or something) - leaving her without any actual knowledge about what happened but with all guilt and fear of lying about something so important, resulting with her going crazy, yet unable to tell what she did, cause figuring out that admitting anything would make her look even more guilty than all the contradictions.

I don't believe that's what happened, but that could explain some things.

 

[beubeubeu]

If Rachel wasn't invited, maybe that's why.

If she was invited someone should say something about it.

But even if she wasn't. Was 1974'th Texas going so hard for women's equality that mixed bowling leagues were expected to attend as usual? It's hard for me to imagine having enough spare time right before Christmas, even as unmarried 17yo. I'd have to be pretty damn hard into bowling to go.
Maybe they had guys only on that day.

If not, TT's behavior is indeed highly suspicious... Unless her going shopping meant that she's not going bowling.

 

[Brightchaser47]

If she was invited someone should say something about it.

But even if she wasn't. Was 1974'th Texas going so hard for women's equality that mixed bowling leagues were expected to attend as usual? It's hard for me to imagine having enough spare time right before Christmas, even as unmarried 17yo. I'd have to be pretty damn hard into bowling to go.
Maybe they had guys only on that day.

If not, TT's behavior is indeed highly suspicious... Unless her going shopping meant that she's not going bowling.

She had to have Renee back by 4:00 pm. I'd say she could've shopped, and still bowled, if things had gone as planned that day. That's assuming she  planned to bowl that evening.

 

[FW_Froggy]

If she was invited someone should say something about it.

But even if she wasn't. Was 1974'th Texas going so hard for women's equality that mixed bowling leagues were expected to attend as usual? It's hard for me to imagine having enough spare time right before Christmas, even as unmarried 17yo. I'd have to be pretty damn hard into bowling to go.
Maybe they had guys only on that day.

If not, TT's behavior is indeed highly suspicious... Unless her going shopping meant that she's not going bowling.

The bowling league is a contract. You sign up a team of 4 people 2 guys and 2 girls to bowl every Sunday at 6;30 for like 32 weeks. The same team of people bowl every week. Rachel was a member of a team with TT and two other people. There are NO invitations she is a member of the team. You signed a contract so if you don't show up to bowl you still have to Pay. If someone doesn't show up you can get a substitute or bowl that person blind for that day.

 

[Brightchaser47]

The bowling league is a contract. You sign up a team of 4 people 2 guys and 2 girls to bowl every Sunday at 6;30 for like 32 weeks. The same team of people bowl every week. Rachel was a member of a team with TT and two other people. There are NO invitations she is a member of the team. You signed a contract so if you don't show up to bowl you still have to Pay. If someone doesn't show up you can get a substitute or bowl that person blind for that day

Thanks for explaining that (for those of us who don't bowl). But was mixed league always on Sunday, or was that just an example? Rachel went missing on a Tuesday. And what does "bowl a person blind that day" mean?

 

[Brightchaser47]

If she was meeting Melvin at High School it had to be after, cause before she'd be attending Middle School.

I was ruling out the possibility that "Preacher Melvin" was the rapist.

 

[Ozoner]

I was ruling out the possibility that "Preacher Melvin" was the rapist.

If Preacher Melvin was the rapist, then I think that it was a statutory rape and the story about being attacked by an older man in a pickup was a cover story (which wouldn't surprise me).

FW_Cat had me convinced that TT was the killer, but now I'm more like 50/50 between TT and Melvin.

 

[Brightchaser47]

- the main source of the story with Rachel meeting with Melvin at school and accepting a diamond ring from him,

Okay, but why was Rachel talking about Melvin with adult male neighbour from all the people?

Do we know it was actually him, and not his wife, who was the source of this?

 

[Brightchaser47]

- husband of a woman who's account is placing A's car in their driveway for the "whole day" and the main reason why TT's story about that day seems so questionable, making her and DA the only two people in this whole case that aren't contradicting each other on everything (both are saying that CA was at home and wasn't driving anywhere, despite of not claiming to see him at all).

So you're saying how can either of those two be certain CA was home, if they didn't actually see him at home? Well, if the car didn't move, and no other cars were seen there, I'd say the man was home (unless he'd spent the night elsewhere, which is unlikely). It's far more likely that TT was lying.

 

[jetsfanjohn]

Do we know it was actually him, and not his wife, who was the source of this?

Do we have any concrete proof that 'Melvin' even existed ? I can't help but wonder if he was invented after the fact.

 

[Brightchaser47]

Do we have any concrete proof that 'Melvin' even existed ? I can't help but wonder if he was invented after the fact.

We definitely need to settle that. If he  was an actual person who groomed and stalked Rachel, he needs to be looked at as potential rapist and/or abductor/killer (IMO).
If he was a piece of fiction, then it was another "misdirect" to throw out...

 

[T rex]

Do we have any concrete proof that 'Melvin' even existed ? I can't help but wonder if he was invented after the fact.

What I find weird about the Melvin story is it is very similar to the circumstances/ arrangement of DA,TT and Rachel. But I find this entire case weird.

 

[Brightchaser47]

What I find weird about the Melvin story is it is very similar to the circumstances/ arrangement of DA,TT and Rachel. But I find this entire case weird.

That's an interesting comparison. It could be fabricated, but that would mean the neighbor guy was in on it, if (as  beubeubeu said), he was the primary source.

 

[Esdaniel]

Why would it be weird that no customer of the transmission shop has been publicly identified?
The people who had transmissions repaired in the 1970s are going to be a small part of the population, older in age, probably not following this case, and may not recall exactly where a car was serviced 50 years ago.

Respectfully, I would have to disagree. I think more people would be inclined to remember having work done at a mom and pop shop, whether good or bad experiences.
That whole industry, especially those located on Sylvania, Riverside, Beach and surrounding areas, were all a very close knit community. Many shops refer customers to one another and contact out some work to be done different places. We would send some thing to Fort Worth Gear and Axle and vice versa almost daily.

That being said, I spent this past weekend asking around to various people I know that were active in the business during the 60's through today and none of them recall Arnolds Transmission nor CA himself. Sorry this only adds mystery to an already convoluted story.

 

[beubeubeu]

The bowling league is a contract. You sign up a team of 4 people 2 guys and 2 girls to bowl every Sunday at 6;30 for like 32 weeks. The same team of people bowl every week. Rachel was a member of a team with TT and two other people. There are NO invitations she is a member of the team. You signed a contract so if you don't show up to bowl you still have to Pay. If someone doesn't show up you can get a substitute or bowl that person blind for that day.

What about Mondays then?
They were there together on Sunday, so was it another league match on Monday?

 

[T rex]

That's an interesting comparison. It could be fabricated, but that would mean the neighbor guy was in on it, if (as  beubeubeu said), he was the primary source.

He may be our primary source but who was his source and when did he hear this? Before or after?

The only reason I can think of that TT would suspect DA's ex-boyfriend is that Rachel must have known him. In fact I'll go a step more and say she must have had some kind of dealings with him or connections to him. Is there a pattern here? I'm wondering if the whole Melvin story is just some kind of allegory of their lives. JMO.

I feel like they're trying to tell us a story in the first-person but they're really omniscient. They have the answers.