Overview

Last seen: December 23, 1974
Location: Seminary South Shopping Center, now the site of La Gran Plaza, Fort Worth, Texas
Age when missing: 17
Case status: Open / unsolved
NamUs: MP6744
NCMEC: 601926
Texas DPS case: A8602007

Mary Rachel “Rachel” Trlica disappeared while Christmas shopping with 14-year-old Lisa Renee Wilson and 9-year-old Julie Ann Moseley. Rachel’s locked Oldsmobile was found in the shopping center parking lot that evening with purchases inside. None of the three girls has been confirmed seen since. Texas DPS classifies Rachel’s case as “Endangered – Foul Play Possible.”

The disappearance has become known as the Fort Worth Missing Trio case and remains one of Fort Worth’s longest-running unsolved missing-person investigations.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Mary Rachel Trlica Disappearance: The 1974 Fort Worth Missing Trio Case

Brief Case Summary

Last seen: December 23, 1974
Location: Seminary South Shopping Center, now the site of La Gran Plaza, Fort Worth, Texas
Age when missing: 17
Case status: Open / unsolved
NamUs: MP6744
NCMEC: 601926
Texas DPS case: A8602007

Mary Rachel “Rachel” Trlica disappeared while Christmas shopping with 14-year-old Lisa Renee Wilson and 9-year-old Julie Ann Moseley. Rachel’s locked Oldsmobile was found in the shopping center parking lot that evening with purchases inside. None of the three girls has been confirmed seen since. Texas DPS classifies Rachel’s case as “Endangered – Foul Play Possible.”

The disappearance has become known as the Fort Worth Missing Trio case and remains one of Fort Worth’s longest-running unsolved missing-person investigations.

The Christmas Shopping Trip That Became a 50-Year Mystery

On December 23, 1974, 17-year-old Mary Rachel Trlica—who generally went by Rachel—planned a Christmas shopping trip in Fort Worth with her friend Lisa Renee “Renee” Wilson, 14. Nine-year-old Julie Ann Moseley joined them at the last minute after receiving permission from her mother.

Rachel was still a high-school student and had been married to Thomas “Tommy” Trlica for approximately six months. It was to be her first Christmas as a married woman. According to later family accounts, she was preparing for Tommy’s young son to spend Christmas Eve with them.

The girls reportedly stopped at an Army/Navy store, where Renee picked up jeans that had been placed on layaway, before going to Seminary South Shopping Center. Two pairs of jeans were later found in the trunk of Rachel’s car.

Accounts differ slightly concerning what time the girls left that morning. Contemporary reporting placed their departure at about 11:45 a.m., while Julie’s brother Terry Moseley has said he remembers them leaving closer to 10:30 or 10:45 a.m. What is clear is that Renee had plans later that day and was expected home well before evening.

Rachel Trlica’s Car Was Found at the Mall

By afternoon, the girls had failed to return.

As the hours passed, their families became increasingly concerned. At approximately 6 p.m., Renee’s father, Richard Wilson, and a neighbor located Rachel’s 1972 Oldsmobile 98 in the Seminary South parking lot near Sears. The vehicle was locked, the keys were gone, and belongings and Christmas purchases remained inside.

There was no confirmed trace of Rachel, Renee or Julie.

Texas DPS continues to list all three as having disappeared from Seminary South Shopping Center on December 23, 1974. Rachel’s state missing-person bulletin says the three never subsequently made contact with their families.

Various witnesses later claimed to have seen the girls after they reached the shopping center. Reports over the years have included allegations that three girls were seen entering or being forced toward different vehicles and another account involving a pickup truck and a security guard. Those accounts have not been publicly verified as establishing what happened to the trio.

The Mysterious Letter Signed “Rachel”

One of the most enduring pieces of evidence surfaced immediately after the disappearance.

A letter postmarked December 24 was delivered to Rachel’s home and addressed to her husband. The writer claimed that the girls had gone to Houston, would return in approximately a week, and told him where Rachel’s car could be found. It was signed with Rachel’s name.

Rachel’s relatives did not believe the message adequately explained her disappearance. Investigators eventually submitted handwriting associated with the letter for FBI examination. According to later reporting, repeated handwriting examinations were inconclusive, and investigators determined that handwriting on the envelope did not match any of the three missing girls.

The promised return never happened.

Rachel, Renee and Julie did not turn up in Houston, and no confirmed communication from any of them followed. The letter consequently became one of the central mysteries of the case rather than evidence that they had voluntarily left Fort Worth.

Early Investigation and Searches

Police initially treated the disappearance more like a potential runaway situation than the apparent long-term abduction case it would become. The case was first handled through the department’s Youth Division and was later assigned to homicide and major-case investigator George Hudson.

Investigators checked bus stations, interviewed witnesses and pursued reports of possible sightings. Yet the investigation repeatedly returned to the same problem: authorities could establish that the girls had gone shopping and that Rachel’s car remained at the mall, but they could not establish what happened next.

Within roughly a week of the disappearance, investigators publicly acknowledged reaching a dead end at the shopping-center parking lot.

Searches continued elsewhere in Texas. In 1981, investigators searched an area of Brazoria County after human remains and bone fragments were discovered, but the remains were ultimately determined not to belong to Rachel, Renee or Julie.

Decades of tips, searches, interviews and theories have followed without locating the girls.

Did the Girls Leave With Someone They Knew?

One of the more significant investigative theories to emerge is that Rachel, Renee and Julie may have left Seminary South with someone they recognized or trusted.

A current case summary maintained by Solve the Case states that police officials have said investigators came to believe the girls left the mall with a trusted individual and were subsequently harmed. The same listing shows Rachel’s case as open and was last updated May 19, 2026.

That theory is important, but it does not identify a proven offender. No person has been publicly established as responsible for the disappearance, and allegations or suspicions involving particular individuals should not be treated as established fact.

A 2026 A&E Crime + Investigation report similarly stated that no suspects have been named in the disappearance.

Renewed Attention to the Fort Worth Missing Trio

The case has periodically received new public attention in hopes that someone who knows what happened will finally come forward.

In May 2023, Clear Channel, the Texas Center for the Missing and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children launched a North Texas billboard campaign displaying age-progressed images of Rachel, Renee and Julie. Family members said they hoped the renewed visibility would generate new information.

At the 50-year mark in December 2024, Fort Worth police spokesperson Buddy Calzada told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the department still received theories concerning the disappearance. He said cold-case investigators must determine whether information amounts to a genuine lead, and emphasized that the central difficulty remains the absence of strong evidence.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children continues to maintain an active poster for Rachel. It lists her as missing from Fort Worth since December 23, 1974, displays an age-progressed image, and connects her disappearance with Julie Moseley and Lisa Wilson.

Latest Public Investigation Information

The most recent substantial public reporting available through July 2026 does not announce an arrest, identification of a suspect, recovery of remains or a forensic breakthrough.

In an A&E Crime + Investigation story originally published in December 2025 and updated July 16, 2026, Terry Moseley said police had told him the investigation remains active, although he was unaware of detectives being materially closer to solving it. Fort Worth police did not respond to A&E’s request for additional comment for that story.

A separate case database updated May 19, 2026 continues to mark Rachel’s case open.

Official public databases also continue to carry her as missing. Texas DPS lists the case as Endangered – Foul Play Possible, while NCMEC continues to publish Rachel’s current missing-child poster and age progression.

Therefore, the latest verifiable public status is that the disappearance remains an active, unresolved missing-person case, with authorities still dependent on credible information that can be independently corroborated.

More Than Five Decades Without Answers

Rachel would now be in her late sixties. NCMEC lists her current age as 68 and continues to distribute an age-progressed image showing how she may have appeared later in life.

The passage of more than half a century has not resolved the central questions: How did three girls disappear from a busy shopping center two days before Christmas? Who mailed the letter attributed to Rachel? Did the girls willingly leave with someone they knew, or were they abducted? And where were they taken afterward?

For their surviving relatives, those questions have remained unanswered since December 23, 1974.

Anyone with credible information should provide it directly to law enforcement or NCMEC rather than attempting to confront or publicly accuse individuals connected to the case.