TX TX - William "Bill" Moore, 82, Pecan Plantation, 10 March 2012

[SeekingJana]

Article about search efforts for dear Mr. Moore in yesterday's Hood County News. 3 retired Texas Rangers are utilizing their time and expertise to try to find Mr. Moore while Lake Granbury is at a very low level.

The new searches have not yielded anything today, but sources quoted in this article say they will not give up on trying to find Mr. Moore.

http://hcnews.com/pages/page_one_news/rangers-search-by-air-water-for-missing-man/

Perhaps of note is his son's statement that foul play is all that remains if his remains cannot be found in the lake.
I do not agree with this assessment as there are MANY bodies of water in and around Hood Co. other than Lake Granbury. Pecan Plantation is a peninsula surrounded by the Brazos River. While it is normally not deep in the areas I can see around my house, there are likely deep areas of the river on the far side ( Ravenswood Drive area if anyone wants to see how large Pecan Plantation is and how it is situated on a satellite image or map).

It is not THOUGHT that Mr. Moore came back to the area of his home in Pecan, but there is a possibility that he did. The gate system and cameras are not foolproof... Trust me, they are far from foolproof.

Also, as I have indicated, this part of Texas and into the Hill Country counties has many lakes and manmade bodies of water.
I know of 3 new-ish developments in Granbury with private deepwater docks and boat launch facilities and not all are on Lake Granbury. Some are on man-made inlets which end up at Lake Granbury. There are also several major creeks which are wide and deep nearby. There is Rough Creek and there is a lake at Comanche Peak ( a nuclear power plant 10 miles from Pecan which is easily accessible by public roads). I don't remember the name of that lake but locals were talking about it being re-opened to fishermen for the first time since 9/11... If a boat on a trailer can get in then a truck could too.

Please pray for Mr. Moore and his son. There is always hope that he is alive until there is proof that he is deceased, but most of us do not think so because of his advanced age, and the fact I have stressed about how we are surrounded by many water- filled recreational areas.. So easy to take a wrong turn, to accelerate instead of brake, to become confused in advanced age.

In closing: Mr. Moore, I think of you every day. My friends and I grieve for you every time we get together here and the conversation turns to you being missing. I have never stopped looking for the glint of your truck cab in the water, in the rural countryside, wherever I go. I am looking for you, and I mourn your probable fate. I want you to be laid to rest. How wonderful it would be if you could be found alive but I hear that heaven is more wonderful than any place we can imagine.

 

[mahoolin]

Still thinking of you Mr Moore.

 

[SeekingJana]

I think of you every day, and every drive, ride, and flight I take around Hood Co., I'm always looking for your truck. You deserved more than you got when you went missing!! I wish I could have made a difference. I'm so sorry. God keep you close.

 

[SeekingJana]

Remembering Bill Moore and his family this holiday season.

There have been no new developments as far as I know. Our lakes and rivers are extremely low now, and he's not been found.

 

[SeekingJana]

Saturday, Dec. 28,2013

Hood County News co-headline " Son of missing Pecan man still hoping for answer".

The son of Bill Moore, Dave Moore, which whom Bill resided, was interviewed by our local HCN reporter, Mark Wilson.
This article is by subscription only ( or off the newsstand version) of the newspaper, so I will attempt to paraphrase the highlights.

1) The agency in charge is the Hood County Sheriff Department. Any tips on Mr. Bill More can be phoned in to Sheriff Deeds and his staff during business hours at 817-579-3316.
2) A former Texas Ranger has been working on the case for over a year. Upon his recommendation, sonar was used in Lake Granbury this year to try to locate the missing brown pick up truck belonging to Mr. Moore, as so many people ( myself included) believe he accidentally drove into deep water.
The sonar picked up 2 hits. One was a 1980 Volvo reported missing in 1989, the other was a large boulder underwater. Nothing else was found.
3) Sheriff Deeds says that NO TIPS have been received about Mr. Moore's whereabouts. NONE. He said he finds it hard to believe that from the large N. Texas Metro area, there would be no tips or leads, but there haven't been.
4) Family expresses sorrow at their second Christmas without Bill.
They say emphatically that he had no enemies, pretty much kept to himself.
5) Dave Moore, his son and with whom he resided in Pecan Plantation until he went missing, says he cannot formulate a theory on either foul play or accidental death. " We just don't know".
6) A memorial service is being planned.. Date unknown.
7) His pickup truck is a 1997 brown and silver Dodge Ram. It had a distinctive red reflective strip on the tailgate. He was last definitely seen leaving Pecan Plantation on one of our CCTVs at the gate. Destination was the nearest town, Granbury, approximately 15-20 minutes away ( depending upon route and speed).

Please pray for Mr. Moore to be found. I think of him every day.
I plan to attend his memorial service. This is an elderly man who had a long history in sales in Texas and had a very long and happy life with his wife. She died, and he moved in with his son here in our shared private community. Bill Moore disappeared without a trace on March 10, 2012.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Has the area experienced a major drought since 2012?

 

[SeekingJana]

VERY severe drought, and also the BRA ( Brazos River Authority, I didn't name them) has diverted water from Lake Granbury through Possum Kingdom Lake ( I didn't name that either).

This year was the prime year to search and 2014 will probably be similar, they are saying about the low water levels in our rivers, lakes and other bodies of water.

I want Squaw Creek looked at with sonar. Look on a map at the location of Pecan Plantation, then Squaw Creek. I think he might have gotten disoriented and ended up there, or perhaps was depressed following the death of his wife and ended his own life in what looks like " an accident".

( Domestic terrorists please stop reading here)

The ONLY thing is that Squaw Creek, or part of it, is close to Comanche Peak nuclear power plant, so there should be CCTV cameras in the area for security. Doesn't mean there are any security measures though-

 

[rizzo0904]

I can't find a pilots license for him. Would his address city be pecan plantation?

 

[SeekingJana]

The missing person, Mr. William Moore, was not known to be a pilot. His son, David Moore, was the owner of the house. I expect that David Moore is a pilot.

Zip code is 76049. Town is Granbury TX.

 

[rizzo0904]

What Was bills role in aviation? What did he do at the hangar? Just trying to learn more about him.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

This article said he had gotten lost before: http://thetomballblogger.blogspot.com/2013/09/william-moore-82-year-old-still-missing.html

He might have taken a wrong turn and gone into the water.

 

[SeekingJana]

If Mr. Moore did drive into a body of water in Granbury, his truck must have made it to the very deepest part. A woman missing since 1979 is believed to have been found this past week in the truck she disappeared in at that time.
Lake Granbury water levels are so low, the truck was finally visible.

Sonar and divers had tried to find her, too, but failed.
I think Granbury needs to invest in better sonar equipment!

Hoping Mr. Moore's remains are found so he can be laid to rest.

 

[SeekingJana]

Not many details available at present. Part of a pickup truck, the cab, was found in Lake Granbury today.( The other truck which was found in the low-level lake contained the remains of Helen Holladay, who was positively ID'd forensically by dental records earlier today.)

No info was printed about the make, model, color, or any other descriptive identification of the second truck. One source said " Truck cab was empty".

Please pray for Mr. Moore and his family.

 

[SeekingJana]

OK, it's time to say it. The water in and around Granbury and Pecan Plantation was around 11 feet low this spring. Worst drought in this county in many many years.
IF Mr. Moore had accidentally driven into a body of water, his truck would have been exposed. It was not.

This points to possible foul play. The known facts are few. His wife had passed away at some time prior, and he had moved in with his son and daughter in law. The son said that he and his dad were close, that in addition to living in the same house, they spent time together in the home's attached airplane hangar, where the son apparently had or has an airplane for his recreational use. Our Airpark is very large and the homes do have hangars. It is all private, but the son said that they left the door to the hangar up and that they sat and drank coffee and watched the air traffic and talked over the newspaper every AM.

The son, David Moore, or Dave Moore, has now admitted that foul play must be considered. ( quote is from the Hood County News, paid subscription part only).

 

[rizzo0904]

David is a pilot, his medical has expired. His address isn't at an airpark though, it's at a golf course surrounded by LOTS of water.

 

[rizzo0904]

It looks like there is a dam, north of the air park. The river near Bill's home is dry; the river near the son's home is much, much larger. Could he have driven into that section of river?

 

[SeekingJana]

It looks like there is a dam, north of the air park. The river near Bill's home is dry; the river near the son's home is much, much larger. Could he have driven into that section of river?

Yep, the dam is what made Lake Granbury large and the Brazos River more shallow many years ago. You are looking at the back gate of Pecan when you are looking at the dam.
Being from the Deep South, too, I'm used to a body of water the size of the Tennessee River or the Mississippi River myself.However, Texas doesn't have a lot of natural rivers and lakes which are huge, especially not in N.TX after the drought we are now recovering from.
Read back. I think your Google Earth might be cached. When Bill went missing, he and his son lived in Pecan Plantation. His son still lives in the same house. It is not a sub-division, it is a huge private community located on a large peninsula. Unincorporated Hood County land. Approx. half is bordered by the Brazos River, which is currently flowing very well and in which many experienced kayak and swimmers have drowned since I've lived here, and half is bordered by Lake Granbury, which is also now back up to boating levels, and the city is building a new boat ramp and city pier. Lake Granbury is always deeper than the Brazos River in Hood Co.
There is no " dried up" body of water anywhere near Pecan Plantation where Bill used to live, which was with David, who still lives in Pecan Plantation.
This was documented in ALL the news reports as being in "Pecan Plantation". Pecan has 2 golf courses and lots of water. Water all around me LOL.

To all who might be interested in this man's missing case- I realized something this weekend. True, the guards get our radio frequency tag logs as we leave and then re-enter the gates at Pecan, but there is not good video of the drivers. I went in and had a look at the video at all gates. I couldn't recognize my spouse, only one of our BMWs. So, it's theoretically possible that someone else drove the brown truck out with the RF tag on the windshield.. Possibly returned through the resident gates in the truck and then stored it in a garage, or dumped it out in our very rural parts of the county and had a helper who picked the driver up. The helper would have needed his or her own RF Pecan Plantation gate sticker to avoid being questioned about why they were in Pecan. Guards and a gate stop everyone who doesn't have an activated RF sticker.

It's just an angle I had never considered before. They probably, actually most likely, never really ID'd Mr. Bill Moore in the truck, they ID'd the truck, and the RF Code specific to that member ( We have to sign for our RF stickers with VIN of vehicle, visual description, proof of insurance, proof of ownership, driver's license, our Pecan resident ID) was logged in our gate computer system logs.
There is a way to get back in using a vehicle without a RF sticker on the windshield. Depending on who's manning the guard stations, it is sometimes possible to wave a Pecan ID card at them and be let through. ( I don't think we pay the guards nearly enough).

In some missing cases, the vehicle is found and there is no person. In this case, we have neither person nor brown truck, the distinctive older brown truck Bill Moore drove out our gates, never to return. And now, if he did return, he would not find his son here.
They always say look at the people closest to the victim.
I've looked at the HCAD property records. Dave Moore, the only named relative of Bill Moore, and the one he was living with at the time he and his truck disappeared. is not a POI and he still lives in the pricate community of Pecan Plantation. . ( His name and location is also in the public domain through both the Hood County News and the Star- Telegram in Fort Worth. He was also in news media at the time of the disappearance and again, recently).

 

[SeekingJana]

The third anniversary of Mr. Moore going missing has just passed. The Hood County News, our local newspaper, has just now ( for the first time I believe) posted a PHOTO of Mr. Moore taken shortly before he disappeared.
There is also updated info on the searches done last summer when both the Brazos River and Lake Granbury were at extremely low levels.

http://hcnews.com/pages/news/pecan-man-still-missing-after-three-years/

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Is there a map of the route to the store?

 

[SeekingJana]

Is there a map of the route to the store?

Hi, JJ. Thanks for your interest in Mr. Moore's case.

IF you use a Google map with close resolution ( it's a short trip), you can find Pecan Plantation on the peninsula that has a squiggly line indicating the Brazos River. The only way in or out is over either our privately owned bridge to the front gate ( We, the PPOA, our HOA, had it built before we moved here and each household is paying for the bridge in our monthly dues assessment), or you will notice a " back gate" and exit from Pecan that takes one almost immediately over the BRA dam ( Brazos River Authority).
The back gate entrance/ exit takes a person down a two lane road for a short distance in an area called " Mambrino". Then, one hits the highway 144 and goes straight into Granbury downtown square, or turns onto Hwy 377 bypass, which is where the auto ( plane) parts store was ( O'Reilly's).

The route most of us take is not that route. We leave via the front gate, take Acton Hwy. through the very small crossroads of Acton. TX, which is also on a very winding 2 lane road ( both roadside areas have those white crosses with plastic flowers to commemorate people who died near that place on the road), then turn left at the one stop light in Acton, and end up at 377 business bypass further east than the Mambrino route takes a person, and turns left to go into the business section that has the above- mentioned auto parts store Mr. Moore's son believed he was going to.
You can map these two convoluted routes out if you would like. Oh, and there is also a dog leg of an old road into Granbury from Acton.. we never go that way because it is 2 lane, slow traffic, lots of 4 way stop signs, just slow and cumbersome but an older person MIGHT take the " old road" out of habit. The newer 4 lane highway has been built since we moved here 13 years ago.

I was under the impression that employees at O'Reilly's had reported seeing and talking with him. The airplane part was not in stock. Also, he was said to be in Braum's, a lovely smallish ice cream parlor, sandwich shop with some dairy items and speciality grocery items for sale in short aisles.
I believe a Pecan resident told me about O'Reilly's and Braum's. It is not stated in the sheriff's dept. latest release that he reached ANY destination... so I don't know.

All of the business areas on the 377 bypass are extremely close to Lake Granbury. I could drive straight out of my parking space at my doctor's office and would cross a short grassy level area and end up IN the lake. ( Very unsafe to not have fencing or visual barriers at a medical complex, IMO.)

Likewise, there is a very lovely multi- story set of " twin" buildings which are relatively new as one is traveling into downtown Granbury which have apartments that are owned or rented by the elderly, one a Senior apartment complex, the other, an assisted living facility. I had wondered if he might know people from Pecan who had moved to one or the other facilities and stopped by to see them. The buildings are adjacent to the shoreline of Lake Granbury and the terrain there is also quite flat. The last time I was in the area, I noticed that there were no barriers there, either. There are security cameras on the premises. Not sure if anyone mans them, or if they are for emergency use if a resident is missing.

You asked a simple question and my answer is long, because the route from Pecan into Granbury is not a straight shot by any means.
All that has been released to the public is that he was seen on camera at the gates in Pecan leaving and not returning.
Most of us have thought his body in his truck was in the water somewhere.

There's also the possibility that Mr. Moore thought his son needed the airplane part sooner rather than on " Granbury time" and that Mr. Moore drove to a neighboring town's auto part store looking for it, such as to Weatherford, TX or to Benbrook, TX. Both are easier and closer than Fort Worth and without the same traffic volume.
He could also have gone west to Stephenville TX, a town I know nothing at all about and cannot discuss possible road hazards or off- road hazards associated with an elderly person driving to the town, never having been there.