‘I just can’t give up hope’: Fort Worth cold case families share their stories
Dave Ward was 8 years old the last time he saw his mother alive.
June Ward dropped him off at a Cleburne YMCA for a boxing tournament around 7 p.m. on Feb. 17, 1977. Sometime after midnight, the 25-year-old nurse was strangled by an unknown assailant in south Fort Worth.
Police speculated at the time that June Ward may have had car trouble, according to the Star-Telegram’s archives. Her white Chevrolet Laguna was abandoned on an Interstate 35W service road, not far from where her body was found.
Even though his mother’s murder hasn’t been solved, Dave Ward has found community in a group that‘s united by grief and a common cause. On April 19, dozens of Fort Worth cold case family members walked from the Charles H. Haws Athletic Center to the Tarrant County Courthouse with photos of their loved ones.
Thaw The Cold Cases isn’t connected with the Fort Worth Police Department’s Cold Case Unit, but the group aims to raise awareness about the city’s nearly 1,000 unsolved homicides and call for more resources to investigate them.
“If I can’t find who killed (my mom), she’ll be equally proud of me helping someone else,” Ward said.
The Missing
DeJuan Buchanan and Sheryl Buchanan want to know what happened to their brother, Thurlow Buchanan.
The 21-year-old O.D. Wyatt High School graduate was taking night classes at a trade school and planned to work at his uncle’s plumbing business. Then Thurlow abruptly vanished on Nov. 9, 1987. His new Nissan truck was found a few days later in Houston, but his family doesn’t think he drove it there.
Fort Worth police received a letter from a woman who said Thurlow was killed at a convenience store on Wichita Street. As far as the family knows, police never spoke with the woman in person. Sheryl Buchanan said she hopes DNA taken from the letter could lead them to the sender.
“(The) reality is, we keep getting older,” DeJuan Buchanan said.
Tracey White is looking for her sister, Melissa Crabill.
Crabill disappeared April 1, 1995 — less than three weeks before her 31st birthday. She was supposed to meet her husband for dinner to talk about a divorce, White said. He told her family she never showed up, and they haven’t heard from her since.
“She would have never left her 5-year-old son,” White said, her voice breaking with emotion.
Crabill’s family carried handmade posters that said “Someone knows something” and “Still missing, still loved, still searching!”
Asher Johnson remembers the night his twin sister, Typhenie Johnson, was kidnapped.
The 25-year-old Fort Worth resident disappeared Oct. 10, 2016, while talking with her ex-boyfriend outside her apartment complex. When she failed to come back inside, Asher Johnson went to look for her. He saw her ex-boyfriend, Christopher Revill, close the trunk of his car and drive away. There was no sign of Typhenie.
Revill was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and given a life sentence in 2019. Asher Johnson still doesn’t know what happened to his sister.
Another one of Revill’s ex-girlfriends, Taalibah Fatin Bint Islam, went missing in 2006. Her remains were found in March 2023. Revill hasn’t been charged in connection with Islam’s disappearance or death.
Janet Hensley wears a picture of her missing sister, Julie Ann Moseley, on a necklace.
Nine-year-old Julie left her house with 14-year-old Renee Wilson and 17-year-old Rachel Trlica on Dec. 23, 1974. The three girls were going to get some jeans out of layaway and buy Christmas gifts. Family members later found their car in the parking lot of Seminary South Shopping Center, which is today La Gran Plaza mall.
The Fort Worth “missing trio” is the city’s oldest unsolved case of its kind. Hensley continues to hope and pray that Julie and the other girls will be found alive.
“There’s still hope,” Hensley said. “It has happened before.”
The Murdered
Scotti Choice wants to know who killed his mother, Gloria Choice.
The 57-year-old mother and grandmother was found beaten to death in a vacant apartment at 5816 Boca Raton Blvd. on Dec. 9, 2005. A suspect was arrested in 2012, but police released him a short time later for lack of evidence.
“I just can’t give up hope that they’ll be able to find out what happened,” Scotti Choice said.
Jonah Krause never got to meet his grandmother, Rose Fromer.
The 50-year-old was shot outside her nightclub, the Country Connection on Alta Mere Drive, the morning of Aug. 23, 1992. Fromer’s killer has never been caught.
Her family found out about Thaw The Cold Cases through a chance encounter with one of the organizers. Jonah Krause proudly carried a flyer with his grandmother’s picture on the walk to the Tarrant County Courthouse.
“I feel like I know her,” Krause said.
Jan Webster feels like time is running out to find the murderer of her younger sister, Cheryl Lynn Springfield.
The 21-year-old was strangled with an electrical cord on Dec. 25, 1980, near the Christmas tree in her south Fort Worth home. Springfield’s little boy was in a nearby bedroom.
Webster has spent the past 44 years pushing for answers, but no suspects have been arrested. Springfield’s only child, Scott Allen Springfield, grew up without his mother and died July 28, 2023, at the age of 45.
“I keep saying the same story over and over and over again because nothing’s changed,” Webster said.
What are police doing?
Fort Worth police say they are taking steps to address the city’s unsolved homicides. A second full-time detective was recently added to the Cold Case Unit, making a total of two full-time detectives and two part-time reserve officers.
“Additionally, the department is exploring ways and has begun the process of digitizing evidence as one of the many progressive options to enhance the investigation of cold cases,” police spokesperson Tracy Carter told the Star-Telegram via email in February.
Breakthroughs in cold cases
Some families are hopeful that advanced DNA testing could solve their loved one’s case.
Melissa Highsmith’s babysitter picked her up the morning of Aug. 23, 1971, and never returned. The efforts of police, private investigators and the FBI proved fruitless. Finally Highsmith’s father, Jeffrie Highsmith, submitted his DNA to the genetic testing service 23andMe.
The database found a match to three grandchildren he didn’t know he had. A DNA test done on their mother identified her as the missing woman. In November 2022, Highsmith was reunited with her biological family.
Highsmith, who was 21 months old when she was abducted, grew up believing her name was Melanie and the woman raising her was her mother. She fled from an abusive home situation at 15.
“I didn’t even realize I was missing,” she told the Star-Telegram at the April 2023 cold cases walk.
Highsmith went from having no family to finding out she has four younger siblings. She said they are “doing double time” to make up for all the lost years.
“Every day I wake up, I’m still in awe,” she said.
In 2020, advanced DNA technology helped Fort Worth police solve the murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker. The Western Hills High School cheerleader was kidnapped from her boyfriend’s car on Feb. 17, 1974. Her body was found two days later in a ditch south of Fort Worth.
DNA taken from Walker’s clothing was badly degraded, but the profile built at Texas-based forensic laboratory Othram led investigators to Glen Samuel McCurley. He pleaded guilty to Carla’s murder in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison. McCurley died in 2023 from natural causes.
Two U.S. senators, John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Peter Welch (D-Vermont), introduced the Carla Walker Act in December. If passed, it would make federal funds available for advanced DNA testing.
Carla’s younger brother, Jim Walker, told Thaw The Cold Cases participants about the act and the likelihood that it will pass and be signed into law. He encouraged them to “keep making noise” and talk to their local politicians.
“Don’t give up hope,” Jim Walker said.
How you can help
Anyone with information about these cold cases is asked to contact the Fort Worth Police Department at 817-392-4339 or coldcase@fortworthpd.com.
Information on how to donate to the Fort Worth Police Department’s Cold Case Unit is found on the FWPD Cold Case Support Group website.
This story was originally published April 30, 2025 at 1:47 PM.
