Missing persons case from 1974 still a mystery after 3rd dive into Fort Worth-area lake
The third and final dive into a Fort Worth-area lake in search of answers to an 45-year-old mystery left a man empty-handed.
Rusty Arnold and a volunteer dive team have searched Benbrook Lake numerous times in hopes of finding evidence of what happened to three girls who went missing from the area in 1974. Rachel Trlica, 17, Lisa Renee Wilson, 14, and Julie Moseley, 9, disappeared from what used to be Seminary South Shopping Center in what has become one of DFW’s most maddening missing persons cases. Locally, the case has been dubbed the Missing Fort Worth Trio.
But for Arnold, the search is more than mere curiosity; Rachel was his sister.
“A lot of people care about this case,” Arnold said. “A lot of people care too much. They get so wrapped up in it, they don’t have a life anymore.”
When Arnold was 11 years old, his sister left home one afternoon near Christmas and never came back. The mystery of what happened to her and the two girls she went to the mall with has haunted Arnold, the girls’ families and the community for decades.
As an adult, Arnold turned his search for resolution outward. Five years ago, he started to focus on the 3,635 acres of Benbrook Lake, about 8 miles from where his sister was last seen. The search started on a hunch; the lake is near where the girls went missing and near a person of interest’s house. Using sonar, Arnold located three cars at the bottom of the lake.
In 2018, a four-person dive team came together with the sole purpose of helping Arnold search the three cars at the bottom of the lake. The team included local residents Jeff Burns, Dave Wardlaw, Wayne Spears and Jeff Burns’ cousin, Jason Burns.
On Sept. 22, 2018, the dive team pulled the first car from the water. On Oct. 13, 2018, the second car was dragged to the surface after two days of work. A forensic team determined neither car was related to the missing trio.
In September 2019, the dive team tried to pull up the third car, but after years underwater, the metal was too fragile and broke apart in their hands. They decided on a new strategy — instead of bringing the car to the surface to search it, they would search it themselves underwater.
Such a task is not as simple as it sounds. Diving in a lake is not the same as diving in an ocean. Divers call it “black water,” and say it’s like closing yourself inside a casket.
On the morning of July 17, Arnold and two divers got on a boat and set out to find the car. It took them two hours to locate it with sonar, and then they marked the spot with a buoy.
Wayne Spears dove through the black water and groped inside the car. Arnold said the metal was so fragile, Spears was able to rip the door off its hinges. They searched the car thoroughly, but found nothing. By 3 p.m., they were off the lake.
“I’m not surprised. I’m used to being let down like that,” Arnold said.
But that doesn’t mean he’s giving up. The team has already pinpointed several other local lakes to search for cars that could be related to the Missing Trio.
“As long as we got something else to do, I’m going to do it,” Arnold said.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
