It wouldn't make sense for two girls who didn't even want to take a young neighbor shopping to then decide to take her with them when they ran away for a week. There is no way they ran away.
Every time that I watch one your videos (and others of the like) , I can't help but thinking: "My god, women sure waste a ton of money on makeup and dying their hair!" If only all that wasted money could go to a good cause, like spaying and neutering cats & dogs instead of being wasted on women that won't look any better no matter what they do to hide their faces and natural hair color.
@@baldwinwallace4926 What a horrificly rude comment to leave on the video of a RUclipsr with such a beautiful soul whose only goal is to help others. Perhaps you can find a more productive way to "dedicate" your own time to the causes you hold so dear.
Baldwin Wallace, you have no concern on what women can and cant do. She works her till bum off and then some. I mean really! Did you just come here see a beautiful successful woman looking amazing as always just to put her down.. You are in a hateful way. Im so sorry that your hurting this bad. Try to be a little open minded and have a great night.
Seems odd that the private investigator committed suicide a few years after looking into the case and ordered the files to be destroyed.....Was he being threatened by someone and feared his family/friends may be in danger if they followed in his research? Shame the files were destroyed.
METHOD ONE I was thinking the same thing. Wonder if the files from other cases were destroyed along with these. Be interesting to know. Being that the police considered them runaways I doubt they investigated the suicide as possibly having anything to do with the case. This case is very sad.
To be honest with you, I thought that he was involved with killing himself and having files destroyed!!! Maybe it wasnt a security guard..but rather a police officer!! Around busy time of shopping season, police would be more available during that time..and in 70s not many security guards were around like there is now!!
I think the PI was getting close. It is very suspicious that he would kill himself and order the files destroyed. Even if he were suicidal, why would he care about the files? Was his death even a real suicide?
The only explanation I can think of was he was depressed and felt like a failure with his research, maybe wanted it destroyed because he thought it would lead people the wrong way?
The suicide does look suspicious but it is not necessarily connected to the case of Rachel, Renee and Julie. Working on one single case would not support him for several years. I wonder what other cases he was working on and I suspect the answer would be found in one of those other cases.
One more thing, back in the day when students learned how to write actual snail mail, we were taught to fill out the envelope very formerly. Writing a person's full name, including their complete first name and middle initial, was not unusual. Great video! I'm a new subscriber. I really enjoyed it. Also, kudos for finding unique material!
The letter, "I know I'm going to catch it". But then "I" becomes "We" "We just had to get away" and "We're going to Houston" Then, " The car " Why isn't it, "My car" or " Our car" All of this seems very strange to me. I don't know, perhaps it's just my imagination. I do pray that this mystery will be solved. Great job doing these videos. Thank you for what you do. Mike Pardue
I don’t see the envelope and letter writing from the same person. The writing looks different to me, especially the “T”. I’m not sure you will see this but you’re the first person I found a comment about the letter. The envelope looks more like a man’s writing and the letter does look like a females, I write similarly. Maybe I’m wrong?
I was also wondering if that was the way that Rachel worded things. "I'm going to catch it". That is different to me- is that a common phrase for her? I hope they do get the answers soon- I have lost a daughter- but not knowing at all is a whole different level.
I watch so many true crime videos and I’m my psychology class this semester at university my teacher emphasized and we did a lot of experiments on how humans naturally assume the answer to something is hard and complex and we naturally dismiss the obvious/easy answer that’s true 99% of the time. It’s the best way to trick a human- give them a mystery with an obvious answer. So with true crime videos like this I honestly think that especially because no one saw a fit from THREE girls on a busy day at a mall, so they must have known their abductor, and someone knew clearly who Rachel was and where she lived and her spouses name, someone really close to these girls did this. Someone who knew they were going out. They’re hiding in plain sight I just have an overwhelming feeling and of course no one has caught on because that’s “too easy”!!! Just wanted to share that because it really messes with me haha
I like your angle on this but Rachel's address would of been on her driving license...well I would of assumed so, which could be the reason why only one letter was sent and not three individual letters. I do however agree about it being too easy and hiding in plain sight though.
In my book there are really two things that stand out as possibilities, the most likely (95%) is that they met up with an acquaintance by chance that day and went somewhere willingly, possibly to grab food. Things went south from there. The other is a bit on the wild side, but of all the wild stories I have heard over the years it is the only one that holds any water. Just take a casual look at the exploits of one James Debardeleben and tell me you can absolutely rule him out.
Could also be someone pretending to be a police officer. lt's also strange why the P.I comitted suicide and asked for his files to be destroyed, why not destroy the files first. This case appears so simular to so many other cases as in higher up organised crime.
I live in Fort Worth and did at the time. I remember this case well. These girls aren't hiding. One thing she missed was that two of the handwriting experts said that letter was written under great duress and her family said she never spelled her name that way. Also one of the witnesses said they were at a distance but thought one of the girls was being pulled into the truck by her hair and the guy had an arm around her neck and she was fighting him. Doesn't sound willing to me
My thoughts as well. If the two older girls decided to/or planned to run away, they would not have even taken the 9 year old to the mall with them. Or am I crazy?
I don't think they ran away but... I ran away at 10 or so with my best friend. We tried for hours to get the neighbor girl, who was about 5 to go home. We explained we were never coming back. We scared her. We yelled at her. She absolutely wouldn't go. We took her with us and got lost in a forest. So, so glad she was okay. So while it's super unlikely that they ran away with her, it's not impossible.
During the holidays, esp back in the day, the USPS gave priority to hand written letters. They would pull them out of the mail stream and work them first. It made them move very fast locally. So if the letter was posted near a distribution center, and her address was near a distribution center, it could arrive overnight, even in the 70's.
That's right, and I always hated it that low priority (or no action at all) was normal reaction from police if they suspected that missing children were runaways.
I have to congratulate you on the quality of this episode. Displaying the parking lot while explaining the circumstances and analyzing the letter with your mouse was very informative and clear.
Can you do a Hit's Home case for Alyssa Wiles? She was murdered in my home town of Duncan, Oklahoma by her boyfriend a few years ago. She was only 14. It is a good example for younger people and being safe while dating. Thank you!
That letter and the handwriting is fascinating. I've had a bit of training when I studied at University, and to me the envelope looks to have been written at two different times. The name is written in a different style to 'Fort Worth, texas' missing the loopyness that a T has in the letter. Also, you pointed out how the word 'see' in the letter looks like it was to be continued, it looks similar in movement as the line below when the letter says 'The car is...' so perhaps the person who wrote the letter wasn't fully educated, and was about to write 'sees' like they made have said in real life. Looking at the case as a whole, I would be curious to see if the husband had any enemies, people he worked with tat didn't like him, altercations he'd had. I didn't catch if he was older, and how much, but I would look at his associates, the lesser educated ones, one or more males who decided to abduct his wife, and took the other two because they were there. Sorry for the essay :) Your videos are wonderful x
Could also be a serial killer who wanted people to think she ran away so nobody would look for her and was asking her how to spell stuff and etc while she was still alive. Could be either!
I caught the inconsistency in the “T”s too. I know I may change my letters while writing but not my T’s, F’s or L’s. I agree that it looks like female writing. I wish the family finds closure. I think there may be a lot behind this considering the PI’s actions. If only his files were not destroyed. I bet whomever destroyed them also read them. Just saying, I sure hope they checked that out.
@Alice Buxton: Another thing to consider is this could have been a repeat offender & never completed their schooling (HS diploma) or had a learning disability of some kind (maybe undiagnosed?).
My best guess is that the little girl was forced to write this letter. My cursive looked exactly the same way at 9, mistakes and all. Rachel or the abductor more than likely told her what to write.
Ted Bundy abducted women in broad daylight. The 2 girls at the lake festival that he lured away from crowd asking them to help him with his boat? Like Gabby was saying, I’m sure the statistics of kidnapping in broad daylight are lower but it does happen. That is a terrifying thought
people tend to let their guards down in crowded places and during the day, because they can't imagine that anybody could take them with so many people around, hence people accepting rides or offering help in those situations way more easily than on a desolate street or at night!
@@maevek8624 So true. Such a terrifying thought though. We believe we are safe in the daylight in a crowded place but as the poster said, this is how Ted Bundy procured his victims....shudders. Their are so many serial killers wondering around at any one time that its hard to tell who is friend and who is foe.
People to this day get kidnapped in broad daylight. Lot of parking lot kidnappings still happening at malls and Walmarts as well as other stores. If people want to get away with it they seem to have found a way. Mostly this is how human trafficking keeps going. Unfortunately.
@@camvin575 their - belonging to them They're - they are There - place, destination, not attributed to living beings. Wondering - thinking Wandering - walking around. So what you're going for is "there are serial killers wandering around". One day I WILL be able to read a sentence on the internet only once and have it make sense!
@@teaspoonsofpeanutbutter6425 Seriously? That was your problem? You must have nothing else better to do then correct peoples grammar. I should feel sorry for you but I don't. You obviously got the gist of what I had to say though. Can't believe you had the time to break it down then write it and send it back to me. Praying for your mental health if this was such a big problem for you.
This has to be or at least 1 of thee MOST eerie & just downright haunting missing persons cases that I've ever heard of (cuz I have heard about it) to have 3 ppl to just up & walk outta ur life FOREVER never to be heard from again especially the 9 year old's Mom told her no at first is just soo scary to me
vxtorz very true. The abductor could’ve asked her for the address and she complied in hopes of them being let go if they cooperated. Being that for police the letter reinforced their theory of them running away maybe the abductor thought it would buy him/her some extra time to do whatever he planned to do with them.
We're addresses on DLs in the 70s?? I can't find the answer to that anywhere. ETA: I realize I'm late to the party, but this case is local to me and I'm absolutely obsessed!!
The abductors didn’t need Rachel to tell them her address or her husband’s name. If they had her, they also had her wallet. Who shops without their wallet? In the days before databases and "In case of emergency" contacts that are easily pulled up by any dispatcher in North America, there were these cards that came with a wallet when purchased. We always filled out those little cards. They were the only way for someone to know who your emergency contacts were or how to return your wallet to you if you accidentally left it in a public bathroom or a shopping cart.
Heres a theory- it might be far fetched but it could make sense. What if rachel, had possibly lost her keys or something? And the man in the truck was a friend offering to give them all a ride home or something, so they didnt think much of it. But instead the man had very different intentions.
it's the name of thomas and the fact the killer knew where her parents lived that gets me... sure someone could have pried the information from her before killing them but if it was just a random attack, why bother?
@@beckymasoner7529 But he still would have had to know their first and last names to look it up so again either he knew them or pried the info from them before killing them, but why? why bother?
@@ThimbleFox350 how much "prying" is really needed to read someone's driver's license? Rachel drove to the mall - it's reasonable to assume that the carried a license. That has her address on it... The killer could have looked at it easily before or after killing them.
I definitely think it was someone who knew Rachel and her husband. And probably someone that still keeps tabs on what's going on or lives in the area because someone sent death threats when they realized family was still trying to find out what happened to the three of them. I hope they eventually figure out who did it. I do think this is one that seems like it should be solvable, so I'm kind of surprised that it still hasn't been.
I agree. There is no mention of testing the letter and car for fingerprints or latent DNA either which could yield useful findings. I'm sure they don't have access to the vehicle (or hey, maybe they do) but those things in theory could still be tested for DNA etc.
It could be that it was a friend of Thomas that told them there is going to be a huge party and Thomas will be there , instead he drugged their soft drinks and took them somewhere...
@@jantaljaard835 Oh thats a good theory but i doubt the 9 year old would want to go along with this, unless she really looked up to the two older girls and liked to follow their lead maybe?
Hi Gabby . Your question about why a busy mall during the day at Christmas? That time of year perhaps ..People are preoccupied. .busy rushing around ..Christmas is in winter in your country so even more so people may not be paying attention .. Busy car park ... though you would think people would've seen more . People are pretty self-absorbed and don't take much notice of others . Keep up the good work .. most of your stories aren't known outside of your country . Thankyou 🌹
It depends..if someone is acting odd it may catch ones attention..but true people are busy unless the perp..blends in...also too bad there were no camers yet..i realize camers werenot a thing yet..gradually it became a thing in the 80s the 90s till now just about everywhere
I feel like this case can totally be solved, it makes me so sad. I really hope someone comes forward with information, even if it's on their death bed:(
omg that picture of the P.I. was so scary. I was wondering why u kept it on the screen for so long 😂😂😂😂 he was getting closer and closer and staring at me lmaoo Ps; 40 minute video and take out!!! Thanks gabby. Keep up the good work
The letter couldn't have been writen a day before the disappearance because it states where the car is parked, unless one or more of the girls conspired with the abductor.
Thomas Bernosky why would either of the older girls conspire with the abductor? They were very close friends with no conflicts. I could see them doing what he/she told them to do in hopes of being let go. If the older girls planned to runaway with someone it’s doubtful they would’ve allowed the 9 year old to go with them. The abductor could’ve forced Rachel to write the letter or he/she wrote the letter after they were abducted. It’s a bit strange that more people didn’t notice something. Being that it was 2 days before Christmas the mall must’ve been crowded. Not to mention people cruising the parking lot looking for a parking spot.
@@mls617983 I only said it was a possibility the 17 (Married) female, may have, that is unknown, Taken into consideration the year 1974 there was plenty of weird very stupid behavior going on, hitchhiking for thrills, hippy communes, Cruising (driving while inebriated with car full of people) They didn't want the 9 year old but took her anyway, could have been a forced letter, but i would tend to agree written by a female, the question is what female and was it under duress or pre-planned, The only fact for sure is the post mark Dec 24,1974, next fact they are all gone, fact that the car was in the Sears parking lot all else is just theory
@nmezzadonna yes thats a real possibility, but when you mail a letter it generally takes 24hrs to be post marked, unless you walk into post office and request an immediate post mark, for like tax purposes, so no special (red) imediate post mark so was mailed at least on the day of the abduction Dec 23.
I always go by my first name, middle initial, last name, no particular reason, that just what I do, and I don't consider it to be unusual, any more than some people (men) always add "Sr" or "Jr" to their name - I don't but there isn't any great significance to why some people add a suffix.
@@micholakinola1053 very interesting...I was thinking perhaps he got close to the killer or killers and they killed him and staged it...but indeed...he could have been!
He ordered ALL his files destroyed. I have heard of attorneys that do that in Texas. It’s still odd but kind of an old fashioned way of doing it all. I don’t think he had anything on this case that is a big surprise anyway.
11:00 Question: if you see three young girls getting forced into a pickup truck wouldn't you at least try to help? Or get the liscense number? Or call the police at least? Why would you see that and then do nothing until who knows how long later when they are announced as missing.
Unfortunately, that sounds like a potential case of the Bystander effect. "Someone else probably saw this going on and they'll call the cops so, I don't have to."
That letter to me feels like it was written in a hurry. That thing next to the apostrophe is another apostrophe, carelessly placed and then scribbled out. The E's keep happening in double because when writing in cursive, e is such an easy and 'flowing' letter to do, i feel like the hand naturally wants to do those motions and when you are writing in a hurry, it's easy to accidentally repeat a motion without thinking; I do it all the time with my own name when I'm signing it in cursive and in a hurry. I think maybe whoever hurt them had been banking on the police considering the girls to be runaways, and when the police were second guessing this, the person hastily came up with this letter. Or, perhaps it was that when the police said that they believed they were runaways, the perpetrator was like "Oh woah that's a really good idea actually', and then hastily wrote this note and planted it to help fuel that theory. So it would be some one that was not only close enough to the girls that they would be able to have easy access to the mailbox, but would also be aware of the involvement of police and what the police were thinking about the case. But it's also some one that seems to have a formal relationship, at best, with Tommy. Hense the inclusion of the A, and adressing him as Thomas. I'll just say it: think it's possible it may have been a cop. A cop would have at hand the information of where the family lived, what thomas' name was, but it wouldn't be a close relationship obviosuly, so there is no warmness in this letter. They'd know when the fellow cops were starting to think maybe it's not really a runaway situation. A cop would have been able to drive up to the girls in a pick up truck and flash a badge to convince them to get inside, they would have trusted him. A cop would be able to avoid being looked at as a suspect or would be able to rely on other cops to 'protect their own'. Hell, a cop would probably be able to get close to the mailbox to plant the letter - should they be seen, no one's going to really question a police officer at a missing person's house. They're investigating. This is obviously speculation, but to me, I wouldn't be surprised if that is the situation.
HauntedSidhe you could very well be right about a cop abducting the girls. A cop could be involved in selling girls into prostitution etc. The mall and parking lot would’ve been too crowded to pull off a stranger abduction especially one that involved three girls. It really seems like it was someone they knew and trusted or someone they would automatically trust like a cop.
@@felicitymcconville4322 Ah! I'd read it had no return adress and thought that meant the post office wouldn'tve delivered it, but since it was at the post office, that just makes this even easier! Means the cop wouldn't have even had to have access to the house itself, just go to a post office.
Was it ever compared to her sister's writing? She lived there so she would know the address. I wonder if the sister didn't go with the girls because she knew what was to happen. No ex- fiance of my husband would live with my husband and me whether it was my sister or not. Did they dust the letter and the victim's car for fingerprints. What kind of vehicle did Rachel's husband drive? That would explain why they went with him.
This is exactly what I was thinking, if the sister was involved it would explain why she was there at the exact moment Rachel's husband received the letter, why the handwriting seems feminine and how the abductor knew they would be at the mall if the letter was for example written before the disappearance took place and why it seems written in a rush. It could've been the husband seen with the girl's in the car or a man hired by the sister. The fact that Rachel's husband was once engaged to the sister gives a possible motive to want to get rid of Rachel and the two other girls were unfortunate witnesses. But even if the sister is innocent I hope the three girls are found one day and given proper burials.
@@silentmoviequeen Sound a little overdramatic to me. Killing not just one but 3 because one of the three got into a relationship with your ex-boyfriend. I mean how could you even kill one? but then even get rid of 3. She also would have known how it would have been for the families. I don't believe she did this. She was also close to her so I can't believe she wanted her dead or anything like that. She could have chosen a different day when she found out that 2 others girls went with her. Or they could have easily only abducted 1 instead of all 3 if the men were completely dressed in dark or unrecognizable. or they could have dumbed the other 2 later on. And second the handwriting isnt necessarily female. I find this handwriting just as manly as it could have been a female. Handwriting is very hard to use as information. It could be the case that the person that wrote this letter isn't even involved with the disappearance as mostly the case is even in murder cases, There are crazy people that want attention or do a prank. This has happened before. But how did these people know the address to send to? I don't know. It might have been someone that knew the family or someone that knew the girls Classmate for example. It could have been anyone for that matter.
Great video! Love how much detail you give in these videos. I can’t imagine living so many years not knowing what happened to my loved one. Horrible. I lost my sister in 2016 to years of alcoholism and this has been hard enough, I can’t imagine not knowing what happened. “Olds-mo-beal” (Oldsmobile). They were still on the road when I was a kid. Now they are actual “antiques”. My sister had an Oldsmobile Cutluss that my dad painted light blue with a paintbrush in the early 80s....
I am literally 40 SECONDS in and heard a cat hissing and thought you added weird sound effects 😱 nope... It was my senior citizen cat fighting with our baby kitten 😒🙄😔😂
I think they picked Dec.23rd because it was so populated. Many people = less of a notice to a few faces. I agree on the handwriting looking feminine. I live in Texas and then, as now, I think the truck population vs car population, is twice or three times more. I've lived here since Aug.1st, 1983 and it's practically unheard of for 3 to be grabbed. That takes a lot of guts, and probably more than 1 abductor. Also, I've never heard the story of these 3, until your report today. So thank you for sharing & putting the spotlight on this cold case. I pray for the families affected 💔🙏😥
Wow I've never heard of this case, so ty for this video! Btw I love your channel, I look forward to ur videos every week... Keep up the great work girl! 🖤☺
also my boyfriend and i are long distance. when i mail him a gift or something or a letter ill always ALWAYS address it with his first name, middle initial, last name. obviously i know hes the only person living there with that name I just think its more personal and formal to send a letter with someones middle initial attached to it.
By the way, I am going with the theory you stated about them going back to the car and leaving to get back to the Mall with someone who they thought may have been a security guard giving them a ride. When you think about it, it makes the most sense. Why would they leave with someone when Rachel's car was apparently working and ride off somewhere? The scenario you stated makes perfect sense. I do not believe the sister or Rachel's husband had anything to do with it either. The letter looks as if it was something that was forced and it was probably Rachel who wrote it. Just a sad case and I pray for all that answers are finally found in this case.
In the 70's Sears was like this a ramp more than a parking lot was always at front of store, I think for the tools and appliances being bought. We really didn't have driving security guards AT ALL in the 70's nor cell phones AT ALL. FYI it's unlikely there were any guards, especially at Sears, however at more of the high end stores there were undercover investigators for shop lifters. There were few people in the 70's but yes a mall would have been crowded in the Holiday season. I know this story well, so I appreciate the coverage. There is no way these killers wanted a 9 year old, I think they are all dead after all this time. Maybe Rachel wanted to get away from Tommy, maybe Rusty is right, I think the sister wrote the letter, I know I can copy my moms nearly precise.
I just made a similar assertion, prior to reading your post. I mean, I was born in 1982, but I don't remember seeing driving mall security until the early 2000's. Malls always had some security staff as far back as I can remember, but it was generally only one or two guys to keep groups of teens from accumulating at store fronts, or to deter shoplifters. I really don't think parking lot mobile security became a thing at most malls until after 9/11 when everywhere started increasing their security staff in the age of the terrorist attack.
Yay!!!! Gabby has a new video... snacks and a drink... and I'm in heaven! Keep up the hard work, girl, because your videos are always amazing! We love em'!!!
Yay Gabby uploaded. Thanks for the Evelyn Hartley case. You added Alot of info aswell. You're very knowledgable. I know this is going to be sad and frustrating. ❤️😢🌹🌺 Love you. There's so much more to these missing girls cases then just when they vanished. Thankyou for bringing awareness to the girls. Channels have done this case before but they just go straight to when they disappeared. They don't talk about their lives or interests. It's extremely sad. They trusted the wrong person. I guess in the 70s there wasn't stranger danger... It was love and peace etc
Yayyy! So glad to get this notification! Always so glad when Gabby uploads! 😊💜💋 Never heard this before, the suicide and destroying the case files really gave me chills! I think this case goes really deep! I got a really bad feeling when I heard you talk about the suicide! So sad all these years nothing came up, nothing solid anyway. Strange Case ! 😔
I agree that the letter seems to have been written by a female. I am thinking Rachel was forced to write the letter. And she may have purposely misspelled her name in the signature to tip off to the people that would read the letter after it was mailed to notice the misspelling of Rachel, which in hopes giving the reader(s) pause to believe Rachel was forced to write the letter. But unfortunately, the person forcing her to write the letter noticed it and tried to correct the spelling on the signature. With that theory in my mind, I feel the person(s) that abducted the girls, knew them and vice versa.
The post mark is the 24th, so it was mailed that day - the day after the abduction. So I don't think it was sent ahead of time in anticipation of the abduction. Too bad we don't have a sample of Rachel's normal writing.
For years I have been familiar with this case, the brother of Rachel, Rusty has a website devoted to it. You brought up some good questions about the letter that I never thought of. Why was the t in Texas in lower case and the street name. Why was the envelope in pencil and the letter in ink. Also Rusty has stated he believes Rachel is still alive and the other two are not, why is that? Honestly I have never seen that explained. By the way you did a great job covering this case.
Nichole Alderfer i was wondering that too.Is it because of the sighting from 1995 of Rachel that makes him think she still alive but since the others were not that they are dead. How could anyone know.
In terms of the letter and Rachel signing her name I think she could've easily messed up the L because when writing in cursive the letter e and l are very similar in shape and form so she could have written it quickly, realised her L looked very much like an e if she didn't make it longer and just went over it to make it taller. I've done this many times before when writing e and l in cursive so it doesn't seem that strange to me personally, however I do think someone could have forced her to write the letter possibly and being in a nervous state of mind made her hand writing different to normal. The 2 looking symbol above "we're" just looks like she put the apostrophe in the wrong place, scribbled it out and wrote it correctly (again something suggesting she wrote this in a hurried or frazzled state)
I live in Fort Worth. I remember learning that the Gran used to be a legit mall and doing research and stumbling on this case. It fascinated me because that area used to be really beautiful. Now it’s a super low income run down area. When I saw the title I thought of the case, turns out it was
A company bought the mall around 2004 and made reconstructions to suit the new residents of the area. The mall was doing horribly so they took out Macy and Dillard’s and added Burlington and Ross and the stores inside were now small family owned. After that they painted it orange and yellow. You can see some of the changes in the pics because they are the early transitional stages. Not going to lie it so weird seeing my city in a video
Hello, I'm a new listener to your amazing chanel. I work for the Post Office. Usually a letter that both addresses are the same city it usually takes about a day. Meaning I live in Ft. Worth I'm writing a letter to a friend who also lives in Ft. Worth the letter will take a day to arrive to them. Also Post Offices use to make multiple mail deliveries in the same day. Most cities received a morning mail delivery then they would receive an evening delivery. A lot of cities could also get mail deliveries up to six times in one day. I'm not for sure when the Post Office went to once a day delivery but in 1974 maybe Ft. Worth was still receiving at least morning and evening mail delivery.
A missing family member affects the fabric of the family in so many ways, big and small, that it's hard for people outside to comprehend...for the media it's a story...for much of the wider community it's a story made more interesting because the missing came from there...over the years it becomes a spooky story people tell each other for that enjoyable exercise of trying to pick apart a mystery...but at the heart of it there are hurting people who cannot and will not let go until they know what happened, until they bring their missing home. I hope your family finds Rachel.
Also weird question but did she ever get called Rachee as a nickname perhaps? That might explain that error. Also the mall might actually might be the best place because there are so many people and even if spotted you can blend in with the crowds.
Good episode 😊 Just a few things about the letter - That 2 under the h in catch is a scribbled out apostrophe. Whoever wrote the letter put the apostrophe on we're in the wrong spot and corrected themselves. Also, it was pretty common in the 70s and 80s to address envelopes formally, even to people you knew well. It was just what you got taught to do, so I'm not sure the way it's addressed is that significant. As for the different Ts, a lot of people develop a style of writing that's part cursive, part printing. My own hand writing is like this. Sometimes I'll write a letter one way and then in the next word I'll write it a different way. I'm not saying I'm right, this is just my thoughts on the letter.
Why did the PI kill himself and ask to burn the case files?! That keeps going through my head! It looks like a female wrote the letter for sure! Idk about you but if my sister married my ex husband I would have had an issue with it even if for a brief time! And the sister was living with him after they went missing? Idk if this one will ever get solved! So sad!
I agree. Since her sister was older and engaged to him, they were probably intimate. I cannot imagine a woman being okay with that, at least like you said it would have took some time. Her own brother suspected her!
Police officer that was investigating Toolbox murder cases committed suicide after the trial due to trauma of investigating those crimes. Maybe the same thing happened here. Maybe PI found out something terrifying happened to them, something that was worse than everything he ever worked on and it traumatized him. Unable to live with the facts that he found out he commited suicide. As for his plea to burn the case files, maybe he did not want anyone to go through what he did. Perhaps he thought it was better for people not to know what happened to them then to live with with the truth.
I find the fact that he wanted the files destroyed very very unsettling it just doesn't make any sense to me even after reading the comments it bugs me.
Omg it means so much to me you made this video. This is where I am from, it is extremely near and dear to my heart. Rachel’s brother Rusty is an amazing man who goes above and beyond to try and bring the girls home. I bought one of the sweatshirts that contributed to bringing the cars up from Benbrook lake and I wear it any chance I get. This case is my pet case. I care so much for the girls, and can’t fathom what could have possibly happened that day. My theory is that the girls got lured away by a stranger. Whether that person was someone pretending to be a cop/security guard, or just pretending to be a Good Samaritan. I think they went back out to the car as you said, then got into a vehicle. I don’t think Rachel wrote the letter. It was just a red herring to distract police and throw off the investigation. The 70s where such a hot time for serial killers and I believe they fell victim to one. Rachel’s husband Tommy has been ruled out, and he doesn’t talk about it much. I just hope with everything in my heart that their families get answers soon.
I actually really like it when my boyfriends younger siblings want to tag along with us. Him and I are twenty now, and his brother is twelve and his sister is ten. But I never get upset when they want to hang out with us, or just me. It’s really nice knowing his family likes me enough to have one on one time.
I love your videos because you always show respect and really try and provide us with all the information, I find it so inspiring how you take the time to research these cases and then make videos about them💗
I think -- The two most likely things, 1) Almost certainly it was a "set-up" of some type, based upon Rachel. It appears that many things point towards her husband. Deborah moves into their house and a few days later, Rachel is unexpectedly missing?? And he's already set up his alibi "sick friend in the hospital" with Deborah. Yeah, right. 2) A single pervert who is crusing the crowded parking lot in the daytime looking for someone to grab on the day before Christmas Eve is NOT going to try to grab a group. It would just be too dangerous. OTOH, could be something way unusual, 3) Going out of a limb here -- someone wants a group of girls - is trying to "put together an order"? Say a rich guy in Mexico wants to give a Christmas party for his nasty friends who like to be supplied with young females. He contacts the buyers of his drugs in a motorcycle gang in Texas and makes them an offer "$5000 for each girl 14 and under, untraceable" delivered to a house in Juarez on Christmas Eve. They snatch three, find one is too old so they kill her and dispose of her body, make Renee write the letter so Customs and Border Patrol won't be on the lookout, add a teegaged hooker from Dallas, a runaway from Abilene and a hitchhiker in Lubbock to the group, the group including the younger two get sold in Mexico and the evening after the party, their "use" is no longer valuable so they're disposed of in Mexico.
I just found your channel and subscribed. I watch a number of true crime and missing persons channels and knew right away that I needed to subscribe. I am close in age to Rachel and remember my mindset in the 70's. If someone drove up that I even casually knew or someone claimed to be a security guard, I would have jumped right in the truck. I cringe at the thought now of the dangers I put my self in. I have lived all my life in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. It breaks my heart to think that the families of the girls have no closure.
I am the exact same age as Julie. The capital 'T' in the letter, "The car is parked" was a weird way that we made our T's back in the day, it's also different than the T's on the envelope. Honestly, I thought the handwriting looked more like a guy's handwriting. I received plenty of notes in school from guys who wrote like this, but also just the inconsistencies that you pointed out (lower case M in Minot, lower case T in Texas etc) just seems more like what a guy would struggle with. Now, I'm not being a sexist or picking on anybody, but when I went to school, penmanship was actually something girls usually excelled in, while the guys struggled. And this was something I remember hearing teachers even comment on. (We had actual handwriting classes that went on for years back in the 1970s.) Obviously, there are exceptions to every rule. Regardless, they were so obviously not runaways. Julie wasn't even supposed to BE there that day. How could they convince her to go with them? And most nine year olds would eventually miss their mom and their dog and their "things" and would come home, even if the older two wouldn't. I will never understand how police (in any state and any year) can dismiss cases like this as runaways. They put so little value on the lives of the people they were supposed to protect. So WHAT if they were runaways!? They were minors. Why were they not immediately out there looking for them? I cannot fathom.
I agree, the envelope looks like a male’s handwriting to me also! Most girls I knew wrote their T’s like the letter. I rarely saw it that way from a guy. We had cursive drilled into us but we started in the 70s adding those flourishes to F’s T’s L’s etc. I would get in trouble for it because it was not formal cursive writing. For sure if I anyone of us vintage ladies go missing and are forced to hand write a letter, odds are the police won’t understand it! My son was never taught cursive and he is 19!
So interesting and so sad. First of all, I love when you give your theories! I don't understand why people get upset about that!! That's what we come here for . To toss around ideas and hopefully learn something about a case we didn't know before we watched a video. Sheesh!! I think your security guard theory is a great one. It had to be someone who wouldn't attract attention taking THREE people in broad daylight. The letter is weird .. it does look female and maybe she wrote it purposely to not look like her own writing to send a message to Tommy to let him know she hadn't really gone by choice (if that makes any sense) . Is it me or since the envelope is written in pencil the abductor could have easily erased stuff. Does it look to anyone else like there were other marks that were possible eraser marks.... Maybe it's just the enhancements or the fact that it was a copy , I don't know it's just bizarre.
Hi Gabby, this is another tragic abduction case. I get very emotional and sad about too many missing young ones. I always thought the 70’s were safe. Even today I still have to watch my back. Have a wonderful and safe year. 🙏
Nice job as usual gabby. The answer to this is in the letter, it speaks volumes. The police have to look at that letter again. Hire someone to look at it again!
36:14 the squiggle is a common notation editors (and non-editors) use to delete or erase a mistake. The writer put the initial apostrophe "wer'e" and then realized their error, 'erased' that mark, and placed the apostrophe correctly: "we're" I can tell you spent a lot of time looking at this :) I think you had mentioned the letter was written in pen and the envelope addressed in pencil. Makes sense they corrected the error this way, since you can't erase pen. My mom is an editor, I do this commonly. I certainly remember being taught this in elementary school, so it's not just an editor thing. Gonna unpause and keep watching now, just wanted to answer while I was thinking about it.
This seems premeditated with the letter arriving the morning after they went missing. It would have been less than 24hrs when it arrived. I would have been looking closely at the shop owner. This is so sad and frustrating. I hope something comes of the 3rd car. I pray that one day the truth will be told and that the families will get an answer. The 1st private investigator killing himself and destroying his files is weard to. Did he really suicide?
This is what I thought. He dug too far and what he found disturbed him or he knew too much and the case files would incriminate someone so he was forced to say to destroy the files.
My two cents: I think the abduction and murders were opportunistic. Because the trip to the mall was unplanned and because the mall would be the busiest for scouting out victims, and the fastest most anonymous way out of town. I think the youngest may have been the target. Not finding a child unaccompanied by adults, this person's second choice was to take one accompanied by teens he could intimidate into a vehicle quickly. That, or there was more than one abductor and they were looking to take more than one girl. Whichever it was, I believe they haven't been found because they were taken out of city limits immediately. The letter was mailed on the road or at the mall. It was dictated (female handwriting but rough language) and used, perhaps to buy time, but i think more likely to keep the girls in line, have them think they'd be back, if they cooperated. I don't put much stock in witness statements, especially with so many trucks around. It could have happened in a van. And I'm so sorry it did ...it's an horrific story.
Never heard this case before. Like you some cases haunt me I think I can solve it too, which most true friends do or wish we could do. It means you are a caring person . I hope the family gets closure possibly from the car in the lake . Weird that there are 3 cars in one lake. I think it had to be someone who knew at least one of the girls because like you said shopping mall broad daylight so many witnesses and the report of them not appearing forced into the truck. Hopefully there will be updates soon. Keep up the wonderful work you do💙💙
Regarding the letter, also notice that the capital T’s in the address portion are written differently that the capital T in the line The car is in the upper… I am 58 and I write my T’s exactly like in the letter. Most every girl I know did. Most guys I know wrote their capital T’s like the address portion. It is not unusual to me that the entirety of Tommy’s name was written out including middle initial because that is how we were taught to fill out an envelope (I still do to this day) but it surprises me that the return address was just Rachel’s first name. She lived at the same address and we were taught to fill out the return address in full even if it was the same because if it got lost in the mail, it had a better chance to reach that address. It’s the dichotomy of following what was automatically taught and practiced in one portion of the address and not the other that hits weird. This case is fascinating and I truly hope it gets solved! I also wonder if they still have that envelope if it could be checked for DNA. Since DNA was not a thing, the envelope had a good chance that it was sealed by licking it.
I agree about the letter definitely female definitely odd . One thing you didn’t bring up was how weird the spacing was. Some words were really close together while others were extremely far apart it made no sense. I think that someone they knew offered a ride from there car to the store so they didn’t have to walk and it went bad.
The thing about spacing makes me think about dictation. We used to write a lot of it in my school time to improve orthography and when you get a sentence you write with the normal spacing, as you write normally and do bigger spacing in the pauses of the person that dictates. If she was being forced to write against her will, errors due to being nervous are also an explanation.
Even if she hated her younger sister, I doubt she'd be okay with a fourteen year old and nine year old girl also being killed. I don't think she had anything to do with it.
Wow I'd never heard of this case! It's so sad! Horrible! But I hope that bc of this new found coverage , someone or something comes to mind and something happens!!! Thank you Gab for taking the time in doing this!! You did it professionally and with such passion! The family would be proud
Why would anyone complain or get upset because you shared your personal views and opinions? I like to hear the theories of others. People see things in different ways and notice different things. It makes it more interesting. You keep on doing what you are doing! After all, you are the one making these wonderful videos and doing all the intense research. Love your channel!
It wouldn't make sense for two girls who didn't even want to take a young neighbor shopping to then decide to take her with them when they ran away for a week. There is no way they ran away.
I wonder if that was just opinion, the part about not wanting the child with them. I do agree with the improbability of running off with a child.
Every time that I watch one your videos (and others of the like) , I can't help but thinking: "My god, women sure waste a ton of money on makeup and dying their hair!"
If only all that wasted money could go to a good cause, like spaying and neutering cats & dogs instead of being wasted on women that won't look any better no matter what they do to hide their faces and natural hair color.
@@baldwinwallace4926 What a horrificly rude comment to leave on the video of a RUclipsr with such a beautiful soul whose only goal is to help others. Perhaps you can find a more productive way to "dedicate" your own time to the causes you hold so dear.
@@baldwinwallace4926 that wa unnecessary evil
Baldwin Wallace, you have no concern on what women can and cant do. She works her till bum off and then some. I mean really! Did you just come here see a beautiful successful woman looking amazing as always just to put her down.. You are in a hateful way. Im so sorry that your hurting this bad. Try to be a little open minded and have a great night.
Seems odd that the private investigator committed suicide a few years after looking into the case and ordered the files to be destroyed.....Was he being threatened by someone and feared his family/friends may be in danger if they followed in his research? Shame the files were destroyed.
METHOD ONE I was thinking the same thing. Wonder if the files from other cases were destroyed along with these. Be interesting to know. Being that the police considered them runaways I doubt they investigated the suicide as possibly having anything to do with the case. This case is very sad.
I agree it's very weird. I wonder if the family found him or if he offered his "services" to them?
To be honest with you, I thought that he was involved with killing himself and having files destroyed!!!
Maybe it wasnt a security guard..but rather a police officer!!
Around busy time of shopping season, police would be more available during that time..and in 70s not many security guards were around like there is now!!
I can't help but wonder if his death wasn't a murder staged as a suicide and the instructions to destroy the case left by the abductor
@@mls617983 I wondered if it was 'just the files from this case' or 'all his files in general' too. Guess we'll never know.
I think the PI was getting close. It is very suspicious that he would kill himself and order the files destroyed. Even if he were suicidal, why would he care about the files? Was his death even a real suicide?
I sincerely doubt it.
The only explanation I can think of was he was depressed and felt like a failure with his research, maybe wanted it destroyed because he thought it would lead people the wrong way?
The suicide does look suspicious but it is not necessarily connected to the case of Rachel, Renee and Julie. Working on one single case would not support him for several years. I wonder what other cases he was working on and I suspect the answer would be found in one of those other cases.
@@GrainneDhu Very good point.
Very strange
FORTY MINUTES?!?!?!? My Saturday is made! I just got my food delivery too!!
I too am watching this on Saturday. It's eerie noon here.
I know the usual 12,15, or 17 mins is just not enough
Her T-shirt did not say “Sweet Honestly”
It said “Sweet Honesty “ it was a perfume that we wore back in the 70’s
Oh that perfume!!! It was every where!
Yessssss!!!
I can't believe we liked that stuff. LOL Avon if I'm not mistaken.
One of the better aspects of this particular episode is that it's 40 minutes. Love the long format, keep up the good work.
One more thing, back in the day when students learned how to write actual snail mail, we were taught to fill out the envelope very formerly. Writing a person's full name, including their complete first name and middle initial, was not unusual.
Great video! I'm a new subscriber. I really enjoyed it. Also, kudos for finding unique material!
The letter, "I know I'm going to catch it". But then "I" becomes "We" "We just had to get away" and "We're going to Houston" Then, " The car " Why isn't it, "My car" or " Our car" All of this seems very strange to me. I don't know, perhaps it's just my imagination. I do pray that this mystery will be solved. Great job doing these videos. Thank you for what you do. Mike Pardue
I don’t see the envelope and letter writing from the same person. The writing looks different to me, especially the “T”. I’m not sure you will see this but you’re the first person I found a comment about the letter. The envelope looks more like a man’s writing and the letter does look like a females, I write similarly. Maybe I’m wrong?
I was also wondering if that was the way that Rachel worded things. "I'm going to catch it". That is different to me- is that a common phrase for her? I hope they do get the answers soon- I have lost a daughter- but not knowing at all is a whole different level.
How incredibly cruel to call the families of these poor girls pretending to be them. What the hell is wrong with people?
I watch so many true crime videos and I’m my psychology class this semester at university my teacher emphasized and we did a lot of experiments on how humans naturally assume the answer to something is hard and complex and we naturally dismiss the obvious/easy answer that’s true 99% of the time. It’s the best way to trick a human- give them a mystery with an obvious answer. So with true crime videos like this I honestly think that especially because no one saw a fit from THREE girls on a busy day at a mall, so they must have known their abductor, and someone knew clearly who Rachel was and where she lived and her spouses name, someone really close to these girls did this. Someone who knew they were going out. They’re hiding in plain sight I just have an overwhelming feeling and of course no one has caught on because that’s “too easy”!!! Just wanted to share that because it really messes with me haha
I like your angle on this but Rachel's address would of been on her driving license...well I would of assumed so, which could be the reason why only one letter was sent and not three individual letters.
I do however agree about it being too easy and hiding in plain sight though.
In my book there are really two things that stand out as possibilities, the most likely
(95%) is that they met up with an acquaintance by chance that day and went somewhere willingly, possibly to grab food. Things went south from there.
The other is a bit on the wild side, but of all the wild stories I have heard over the years it is the only one that holds any water. Just take a casual look at the exploits of one James Debardeleben and tell me you can absolutely rule him out.
Could also be someone pretending to be a police officer. lt's also strange why the P.I comitted suicide and asked for his files to be destroyed, why not destroy the files first. This case appears so simular to so many other cases as in higher up organised crime.
@@justtruth5855 Yea it almost sound he did not even commit suicide, maybe it's a coverup
I live in Fort Worth and did at the time. I remember this case well. These girls aren't hiding. One thing she missed was that two of the handwriting experts said that letter was written under great duress and her family said she never spelled her name that way. Also one of the witnesses said they were at a distance but thought one of the girls was being pulled into the truck by her hair and the guy had an arm around her neck and she was fighting him. Doesn't sound willing to me
Even if they, for some strange reason, decided to run away, they wouldn't have taken a 9 years old child with them.
My thoughts as well. If the two older girls decided to/or planned to run away, they would not have even taken the 9 year old to the mall with them. Or am I crazy?
@@beckymasoner7529 Nope, you're not crazy.
I agree.
True, having a 9 year old would be a great burden for them if they decided to run away.
I don't think they ran away but...
I ran away at 10 or so with my best friend. We tried for hours to get the neighbor girl, who was about 5 to go home. We explained we were never coming back. We scared her. We yelled at her. She absolutely wouldn't go. We took her with us and got lost in a forest.
So, so glad she was okay.
So while it's super unlikely that they ran away with her, it's not impossible.
During the holidays, esp back in the day, the USPS gave priority to hand written letters. They would pull them out of the mail stream and work them first. It made them move very fast locally. So if the letter was posted near a distribution center, and her address was near a distribution center, it could arrive overnight, even in the 70's.
That's right, and I always hated it that low priority (or no action at all) was normal reaction from police if they suspected that missing children were runaways.
Especially when Weatherford is around 20 minutes from Ft. Worth.
I have to congratulate you on the quality of this episode. Displaying the parking lot while explaining the circumstances and analyzing the letter with your mouse was very informative and clear.
I know. This is one of her very best.
Blonde looks great on you! Love your videos. You're so respectful 💗
Can you do a Hit's Home case for Alyssa Wiles? She was murdered in my home town of Duncan, Oklahoma by her boyfriend a few years ago. She was only 14. It is a good example for younger people and being safe while dating. Thank you!
That letter and the handwriting is fascinating. I've had a bit of training when I studied at University, and to me the envelope looks to have been written at two different times. The name is written in a different style to 'Fort Worth, texas' missing the loopyness that a T has in the letter. Also, you pointed out how the word 'see' in the letter looks like it was to be continued, it looks similar in movement as the line below when the letter says 'The car is...' so perhaps the person who wrote the letter wasn't fully educated, and was about to write 'sees' like they made have said in real life. Looking at the case as a whole, I would be curious to see if the husband had any enemies, people he worked with tat didn't like him, altercations he'd had. I didn't catch if he was older, and how much, but I would look at his associates, the lesser educated ones, one or more males who decided to abduct his wife, and took the other two because they were there.
Sorry for the essay :) Your videos are wonderful x
Could also be a serial killer who wanted people to think she ran away so nobody would look for her and was asking her how to spell stuff and etc while she was still alive. Could be either!
I caught the inconsistency in the “T”s too. I know I may change my letters while writing but not my T’s, F’s or L’s. I agree that it looks like female writing. I wish the family finds closure. I think there may be a lot behind this considering the PI’s actions. If only his files were not destroyed. I bet whomever destroyed them also read them. Just saying, I sure hope they checked that out.
@Alice Buxton: Another thing to consider is this could have been a repeat offender & never completed their schooling (HS diploma) or had a learning disability of some kind (maybe undiagnosed?).
Alice Buxton sane thing I said. Couldn’t have been written by the same person none of the letters are consistent
My best guess is that the little girl was forced to write this letter. My cursive looked exactly the same way at 9, mistakes and all. Rachel or the abductor more than likely told her what to write.
Ted Bundy abducted women in broad daylight. The 2 girls at the lake festival that he lured away from crowd asking them to help him with his boat?
Like Gabby was saying, I’m sure the statistics of kidnapping in broad daylight are lower but it does happen. That is a terrifying thought
people tend to let their guards down in crowded places and during the day, because they can't imagine that anybody could take them with so many people around, hence people accepting rides or offering help in those situations way more easily than on a desolate street or at night!
@@maevek8624 So true.
Such a terrifying thought though.
We believe we are safe in the daylight in a crowded place but as the poster said, this is how Ted Bundy procured his victims....shudders.
Their are so many serial killers wondering around at any one time that its hard to tell who is friend and who is foe.
People to this day get kidnapped in broad daylight. Lot of parking lot kidnappings still happening at malls and Walmarts as well as other stores. If people want to get away with it they seem to have found a way. Mostly this is how human trafficking keeps going. Unfortunately.
@@camvin575 their - belonging to them
They're - they are
There - place, destination, not attributed to living beings.
Wondering - thinking
Wandering - walking around.
So what you're going for is "there are serial killers wandering around".
One day I WILL be able to read a sentence on the internet only once and have it make sense!
@@teaspoonsofpeanutbutter6425 Seriously? That was your problem? You must have nothing else better to do then correct peoples grammar.
I should feel sorry for you but I don't.
You obviously got the gist of what I had to say though.
Can't believe you had the time to break it down then write it and send it back to me.
Praying for your mental health if this was such a big problem for you.
This has to be or at least 1 of thee MOST eerie & just downright haunting missing persons cases that I've ever heard of (cuz I have heard about it) to have 3 ppl to just up & walk outta ur life FOREVER never to be heard from again especially the 9 year old's Mom told her no at first is just soo scary to me
OH MY GOD, YOU COVERED THE FORT WORTH THREE???? I've been planning on covering it on my podcast but my favourite youtuber covering it is even better!
What's the name of your podcast? I'd love to listen to it!
Yeah, whats the name of your podcast?
This case is maddening! Thank you for your hard work!
Renee is my cousin. I was 10 when she came up missing.
Sorry this happened to your cousin and the other two girls. I hope this case will eventually be solved.
So sorry! It must have been devastating to witness the grief and pain so young. God Bless You!
I am so sorry. What do you think happened?
I am so sorry for your loss.
Sorry Randall, I know that's gotta really suck man, what do you think happened, if ya don't mind sharing that with us?
Gaby, Rachel's driver's license may have had her address on it. Just a thought.
vxtorz very true. The abductor could’ve asked her for the address and she complied in hopes of them being let go if they cooperated. Being that for police the letter reinforced their theory of them running away maybe the abductor thought it would buy him/her some extra time to do whatever he planned to do with them.
We're addresses on DLs in the 70s?? I can't find the answer to that anywhere.
ETA: I realize I'm late to the party, but this case is local to me and I'm absolutely obsessed!!
Tosha Graves yes, they did, drivers licenses have pretty much always been the same as far as I know.
Did they ever pull up the third car?
Can't seem to find an update
The abductors didn’t need Rachel to tell them her address or her husband’s name. If they had her, they also had her wallet. Who shops without their wallet? In the days before databases and "In case of emergency" contacts that are easily pulled up by any dispatcher in North America, there were these cards that came with a wallet when purchased. We always filled out those little cards. They were the only way for someone to know who your emergency contacts were or how to return your wallet to you if you accidentally left it in a public bathroom or a shopping cart.
Heres a theory- it might be far fetched but it could make sense. What if rachel, had possibly lost her keys or something? And the man in the truck was a friend offering to give them all a ride home or something, so they didnt think much of it. But instead the man had very different intentions.
it's the name of thomas and the fact the killer knew where her parents lived that gets me... sure someone could have pried the information from her before killing them but if it was just a random attack, why bother?
@@ThimbleFox350 back then, addresses were in phone books. I remember them being in the phone book where I lived clear up thru the late 80's.
@@beckymasoner7529 But he still would have had to know their first and last names to look it up so again either he knew them or pried the info from them before killing them, but why? why bother?
@@ThimbleFox350 how much "prying" is really needed to read someone's driver's license? Rachel drove to the mall - it's reasonable to assume that the carried a license. That has her address on it... The killer could have looked at it easily before or after killing them.
The only thing I have against this theory is this: if they lost the car keys, how did the shopping bags ended up in the car?
I definitely think it was someone who knew Rachel and her husband. And probably someone that still keeps tabs on what's going on or lives in the area because someone sent death threats when they realized family was still trying to find out what happened to the three of them. I hope they eventually figure out who did it. I do think this is one that seems like it should be solvable, so I'm kind of surprised that it still hasn't been.
I agree. There is no mention of testing the letter and car for fingerprints or latent DNA either which could yield useful findings. I'm sure they don't have access to the vehicle (or hey, maybe they do) but those things in theory could still be tested for DNA etc.
It could be that it was a friend of Thomas that told them there is going to be a huge party and Thomas will be there , instead he drugged their soft drinks and took them somewhere...
@@jantaljaard835 Oh thats a good theory but i doubt the 9 year old would want to go along with this, unless she really looked up to the two older girls and liked to follow their lead maybe?
Agreed. I think Rachel was there target.
Hi Gabby .
Your question about why a busy mall during the day at Christmas?
That time of year perhaps ..People are preoccupied. .busy rushing around ..Christmas is in winter in your country so even more so people may not be paying attention ..
Busy car park ... though you would think people would've seen more .
People are pretty self-absorbed and don't take much notice of others .
Keep up the good work .. most of your stories aren't known outside of your country .
Thankyou 🌹
I agree. I was thinking back to when I'm shopping and I don't know if I could pinpoint details like that.
Also, and abductor may be thinking about what they want for Christmas and they want a girl or 3.
It depends..if someone is acting odd it may catch ones attention..but true people are busy unless the perp..blends in...also too bad there were no camers yet..i realize camers werenot a thing yet..gradually it became a thing in the 80s the 90s till now just about everywhere
Heart wrenching, I can imagine the whole these missing girls left behind in their families.😪
Another longer vid, you are spoiling us :D never heard of this case, always strange a group of people go missing... like the Springfield 3
I feel like this case can totally be solved, it makes me so sad. I really hope someone comes forward with information, even if it's on their death bed:(
Hold up! I just got a notification from Gabby. Don't disturb me.
You are very caring about the cases and the victims and their families .thank you
Never heard about this before and now I can't stop thinking about it.
omg that picture of the P.I. was so scary. I was wondering why u kept it on the screen for so long 😂😂😂😂 he was getting closer and closer and staring at me lmaoo
Ps; 40 minute video and take out!!! Thanks gabby. Keep up the good work
The letter couldn't have been writen a day before the disappearance because it states where the car is parked, unless one or more of the girls conspired with the abductor.
I doubt the nine Yr old would...
@@julz3tt3 i concour, but the 17 year old was driving and could have , as well as know where to park in advance
Thomas Bernosky why would either of the older girls conspire with the abductor? They were very close friends with no conflicts. I could see them doing what he/she told them to do in hopes of being let go. If the older girls planned to runaway with someone it’s doubtful they would’ve allowed the 9 year old to go with them. The abductor could’ve forced Rachel to write the letter or he/she wrote the letter after they were abducted. It’s a bit strange that more people didn’t notice something. Being that it was 2 days before Christmas the mall must’ve been crowded. Not to mention people cruising the parking lot looking for a parking spot.
@@mls617983 I only said it was a possibility the 17 (Married) female, may have, that is unknown, Taken into consideration the year 1974 there was plenty of weird very stupid behavior going on, hitchhiking for thrills, hippy communes, Cruising (driving while inebriated with car full of people) They didn't want the 9 year old but took her anyway, could have been a forced letter, but i would tend to agree written by a female, the question is what female and was it under duress or pre-planned, The only fact for sure is the post mark Dec 24,1974, next fact they are all gone, fact that the car was in the Sears parking lot all else is just theory
@nmezzadonna yes thats a real possibility, but when you mail a letter it generally takes 24hrs to be post marked, unless you walk into post office and request an immediate post mark, for like tax purposes, so no special (red) imediate post mark so was mailed at least on the day of the abduction Dec 23.
37:00 maybe they got his address from the phone book and he was listed as Thomas A Tribea?
I always use my mom's legal full name instead of nickname, so it's possible that's why it was addressed that way...
My thoughts exactly. Before google, phone books were where you looked for addresses.
@@tedirogers
9lllll
Or from her driver's license. That doesn't explain the middle initial, but it was my first guess.
I always go by my first name, middle initial, last name, no particular reason, that just what I do, and I don't consider it to be unusual, any more than some people (men) always add "Sr" or "Jr" to their name - I don't but there isn't any great significance to why some people add a suffix.
Why would someone order all the case files be destroyed prior to committing suicide🤔 Very odd
Very fishy!
He probably was the killer
@@micholakinola1053 very interesting...I was thinking perhaps he got close to the killer or killers and they killed him and staged it...but indeed...he could have been!
He ordered ALL his files destroyed. I have heard of attorneys that do that in Texas. It’s still odd but kind of an old fashioned way of doing it all. I don’t think he had anything on this case that is a big surprise anyway.
Unless it was a coverup and he didnt really commit suicide but it was murder because he came too close
This case makes me feel really unsettled. I want answers. I want to figure it out. I can’t imagine how their poor families feel ☹️
elissabethbby92 me too its so heart breaking :(
As a mother of a child who went missing and whose body was found...I can imagine the hell these families are going through.
I feel the same way.
11:00 Question: if you see three young girls getting forced into a pickup truck wouldn't you at least try to help? Or get the liscense number? Or call the police at least? Why would you see that and then do nothing until who knows how long later when they are announced as missing.
Unfortunately, that sounds like a potential case of the Bystander effect. "Someone else probably saw this going on and they'll call the cops so, I don't have to."
Didn't one guy say he stepped in ..but was told to back off it was a family issue .?
Bystander effect. They think someone else will intervene
That’s what I thought too, it’s so stupid
I was so wondering the same thing.
So glad you're covering this case. Looking forward to seeing your input on this one.
That letter to me feels like it was written in a hurry. That thing next to the apostrophe is another apostrophe, carelessly placed and then scribbled out. The E's keep happening in double because when writing in cursive, e is such an easy and 'flowing' letter to do, i feel like the hand naturally wants to do those motions and when you are writing in a hurry, it's easy to accidentally repeat a motion without thinking; I do it all the time with my own name when I'm signing it in cursive and in a hurry. I think maybe whoever hurt them had been banking on the police considering the girls to be runaways, and when the police were second guessing this, the person hastily came up with this letter. Or, perhaps it was that when the police said that they believed they were runaways, the perpetrator was like "Oh woah that's a really good idea actually', and then hastily wrote this note and planted it to help fuel that theory. So it would be some one that was not only close enough to the girls that they would be able to have easy access to the mailbox, but would also be aware of the involvement of police and what the police were thinking about the case.
But it's also some one that seems to have a formal relationship, at best, with Tommy. Hense the inclusion of the A, and adressing him as Thomas.
I'll just say it: think it's possible it may have been a cop. A cop would have at hand the information of where the family lived, what thomas' name was, but it wouldn't be a close relationship obviosuly, so there is no warmness in this letter. They'd know when the fellow cops were starting to think maybe it's not really a runaway situation.
A cop would have been able to drive up to the girls in a pick up truck and flash a badge to convince them to get inside, they would have trusted him. A cop would be able to avoid being looked at as a suspect or would be able to rely on other cops to 'protect their own'.
Hell, a cop would probably be able to get close to the mailbox to plant the letter - should they be seen, no one's going to really question a police officer at a missing person's house. They're investigating.
This is obviously speculation, but to me, I wouldn't be surprised if that is the situation.
The letter was postage stamped so had to go in the mail so could not have just been placed in the letter box
HauntedSidhe you could very well be right about a cop abducting the girls. A cop could be involved in selling girls into prostitution etc. The mall and parking lot would’ve been too crowded to pull off a stranger abduction especially one that involved three girls. It really seems like it was someone they knew and trusted or someone they would automatically trust like a cop.
I agree with the cop theory, maybe it was someone's relative. Why would the investigating officer want the evidence to be destroyed otherwise?
@@felicitymcconville4322 Ah! I'd read it had no return adress and thought that meant the post office wouldn'tve delivered it, but since it was at the post office, that just makes this even easier! Means the cop wouldn't have even had to have access to the house itself, just go to a post office.
@HauntedSidhe: Not having a return address wasn’t implemented until either the 80’s (after The Unabomber) or after 9/11.
Was it ever compared to her sister's writing? She lived there so she would know the address. I wonder if the sister didn't go with the girls because she knew what was to happen. No ex- fiance of my husband would live with my husband and me whether it was my sister or not. Did they dust the letter and the victim's car for fingerprints. What kind of vehicle did Rachel's husband drive? That would explain why they went with him.
This is exactly what I was thinking, if the sister was involved it would explain why she was there at the exact moment Rachel's husband received the letter, why the handwriting seems feminine and how the abductor knew they would be at the mall if the letter was for example written before the disappearance took place and why it seems written in a rush. It could've been the husband seen with the girl's in the car or a man hired by the sister. The fact that Rachel's husband was once engaged to the sister gives a possible motive to want to get rid of Rachel and the two other girls were unfortunate witnesses. But even if the sister is innocent I hope the three girls are found one day and given proper burials.
Sorry, but to DATE, let alone MARRY someone to whom my sister had been engaged?! Ew! No way!!!
@@silentmoviequeen Sound a little overdramatic to me. Killing not just one but 3 because one of the three got into a relationship with your ex-boyfriend. I mean how could you even kill one? but then even get rid of 3. She also would have known how it would have been for the families. I don't believe she did this. She was also close to her so I can't believe she wanted her dead or anything like that. She could have chosen a different day when she found out that 2 others girls went with her. Or they could have easily only abducted 1 instead of all 3 if the men were completely dressed in dark or unrecognizable. or they could have dumbed the other 2 later on. And second the handwriting isnt necessarily female. I find this handwriting just as manly as it could have been a female. Handwriting is very hard to use as information. It could be the case that the person that wrote this letter isn't even involved with the disappearance as mostly the case is even in murder cases, There are crazy people that want attention or do a prank. This has happened before.
But how did these people know the address to send to? I don't know. It might have been someone that knew the family or someone that knew the girls Classmate for example. It could have been anyone for that matter.
Great video! Love how much detail you give in these videos. I can’t imagine living so many years not knowing what happened to my loved one. Horrible.
I lost my sister in 2016 to years of alcoholism and this has been hard enough, I can’t imagine not knowing what happened.
“Olds-mo-beal” (Oldsmobile). They were still on the road when I was a kid. Now they are actual “antiques”. My sister had an Oldsmobile Cutluss that my dad painted light blue with a paintbrush in the early 80s....
You’re so cute thank u for covering these cases so passionately and keeping these young girls names out there. Never forget 💜
I am literally 40 SECONDS in and heard a cat hissing and thought you added weird sound effects 😱 nope... It was my senior citizen cat fighting with our baby kitten 😒🙄😔😂
I heard that to.... Right as she was saying "Missing person case from Texas" I heard a cry or a moan or something, so weird.
I think they picked Dec.23rd because it was so populated. Many people = less of a notice to a few faces. I agree on the handwriting looking feminine. I live in Texas and then, as now, I think the truck population vs car population, is twice or three times more. I've lived here since Aug.1st, 1983 and it's practically unheard of for 3 to be grabbed. That takes a lot of guts, and probably more than 1 abductor. Also, I've never heard the story of these 3, until your report today. So thank you for sharing & putting the spotlight on this cold case. I pray for the families affected 💔🙏😥
I look forward to your videos each week! You have fast become one of my all time favorites on youtube!
Wow I've never heard of this case, so ty for this video! Btw I love your channel, I look forward to ur videos every week... Keep up the great work girl! 🖤☺
also my boyfriend and i are long distance. when i mail him a gift or something or a letter ill always ALWAYS address it with his first name, middle initial, last name. obviously i know hes the only person living there with that name I just think its more personal and formal to send a letter with someones middle initial attached to it.
New subscriber really like your videos. Your always respectful and very informative
By the way, I am going with the theory you stated about them going back to the car and leaving to get back to the Mall with someone who they thought may have been a security guard giving them a ride. When you think about it, it makes the most sense. Why would they leave with someone when Rachel's car was apparently working and ride off somewhere? The scenario you stated makes perfect sense. I do not believe the sister or Rachel's husband had anything to do with it either. The letter looks as if it was something that was forced and it was probably Rachel who wrote it. Just a sad case and I pray for all that answers are finally found in this case.
In the 70's Sears was like this a ramp more than a parking lot was always at front of store, I think for the tools and appliances being bought. We really didn't have driving security guards AT ALL in the 70's nor cell phones AT ALL. FYI it's unlikely there were any guards, especially at Sears, however at more of the high end stores there were undercover investigators for shop lifters. There were few people in the 70's but yes a mall would have been crowded in the Holiday season. I know this story well, so I appreciate the coverage. There is no way these killers wanted a 9 year old, I think they are all dead after all this time. Maybe Rachel wanted to get away from Tommy, maybe Rusty is right, I think the sister wrote the letter, I know I can copy my moms nearly precise.
I just made a similar assertion, prior to reading your post. I mean, I was born in 1982, but I don't remember seeing driving mall security until the early 2000's. Malls always had some security staff as far back as I can remember, but it was generally only one or two guys to keep groups of teens from accumulating at store fronts, or to deter shoplifters. I really don't think parking lot mobile security became a thing at most malls until after 9/11 when everywhere started increasing their security staff in the age of the terrorist attack.
Yay!!!! Gabby has a new video... snacks and a drink... and I'm in heaven! Keep up the hard work, girl, because your videos are always amazing! We love em'!!!
Yay Gabby uploaded. Thanks for the Evelyn Hartley case. You added Alot of info aswell. You're very knowledgable. I know this is going to be sad and frustrating. ❤️😢🌹🌺 Love you. There's so much more to these missing girls cases then just when they vanished. Thankyou for bringing awareness to the girls. Channels have done this case before but they just go straight to when they disappeared. They don't talk about their lives or interests. It's extremely sad. They trusted the wrong person. I guess in the 70s there wasn't stranger danger... It was love and peace etc
Yayyy! So glad to get this notification! Always so glad when Gabby uploads! 😊💜💋
Never heard this before, the suicide and destroying the case files really gave me chills! I think this case goes really deep! I got a really bad feeling when I heard you talk about the suicide! So sad all these years nothing came up, nothing solid anyway. Strange Case ! 😔
I agree that the letter seems to have been written by a female. I am thinking Rachel was forced to write the letter. And she may have purposely misspelled her name in the signature to tip off to the people that would read the letter after it was mailed to notice the misspelling of Rachel, which in hopes giving the reader(s) pause to believe Rachel was forced to write the letter. But unfortunately, the person forcing her to write the letter noticed it and tried to correct the spelling on the signature. With that theory in my mind, I feel the person(s) that abducted the girls, knew them and vice versa.
i feel like maybe renee wrote the letter? which could possibly explain why “rachel” was spelt with two e’s at the end originally.
The post mark is the 24th, so it was mailed that day - the day after the abduction. So I don't think it was sent ahead of time in anticipation of the abduction. Too bad we don't have a sample of Rachel's normal writing.
That in and of itself is very strange. Actually seems unrealistic.
yay so excited to watch this 40 minute video!!! thanks for the hard work you’ve put into this case, can’t wait to hear about this trio
For years I have been familiar with this case, the brother of Rachel, Rusty has a website devoted to it. You brought up some good questions about the letter that I never thought of. Why was the t in Texas in lower case and the street name. Why was the envelope in pencil and the letter in ink. Also Rusty has stated he believes Rachel is still alive and the other two are not, why is that? Honestly I have never seen that explained. By the way you did a great job covering this case.
Nichole Alderfer i was wondering that too.Is it because of the sighting from 1995 of Rachel that makes him think she still alive but since the others were not that they are dead. How could anyone know.
In terms of the letter and Rachel signing her name I think she could've easily messed up the L because when writing in cursive the letter e and l are very similar in shape and form so she could have written it quickly, realised her L looked very much like an e if she didn't make it longer and just went over it to make it taller. I've done this many times before when writing e and l in cursive so it doesn't seem that strange to me personally, however I do think someone could have forced her to write the letter possibly and being in a nervous state of mind made her hand writing different to normal.
The 2 looking symbol above "we're" just looks like she put the apostrophe in the wrong place, scribbled it out and wrote it correctly (again something suggesting she wrote this in a hurried or frazzled state)
I live in Fort Worth. I remember learning that the Gran used to be a legit mall and doing research and stumbling on this case. It fascinated me because that area used to be really beautiful. Now it’s a super low income run down area. When I saw the title I thought of the case, turns out it was
A company bought the mall around 2004 and made reconstructions to suit the new residents of the area. The mall was doing horribly so they took out Macy and Dillard’s and added Burlington and Ross and the stores inside were now small family owned. After that they painted it orange and yellow. You can see some of the changes in the pics because they are the early transitional stages. Not going to lie it so weird seeing my city in a video
Another video I will be watching while I’m at work I cannot miss your videos!
You can get peoples addresses in the phone book, they could’ve gotten their address from there.
Back then you could that is true.
Hello,
I'm a new listener to your amazing chanel. I work for the Post Office. Usually a letter that both addresses are the same city it usually takes about a day. Meaning I live in Ft. Worth I'm writing a letter to a friend who also lives in Ft. Worth the letter will take a day to arrive to them. Also Post Offices use to make multiple mail deliveries in the same day. Most cities received a morning mail delivery then they would receive an evening delivery. A lot of cities could also get mail deliveries up to six times in one day. I'm not for sure when the Post Office went to once a day delivery but in 1974 maybe Ft. Worth was still receiving at least morning and evening mail delivery.
Rachel was my cousin. I never got to meet her but my family is still obsessed over the case to this day. It is so wild.
I’m so sorry for your family’s loss, and I hope your family is granted truth and solace.
Very sorry to hear that.
A missing family member affects the fabric of the family in so many ways, big and small, that it's hard for people outside to comprehend...for the media it's a story...for much of the wider community it's a story made more interesting because the missing came from there...over the years it becomes a spooky story people tell each other for that enjoyable exercise of trying to pick apart a mystery...but at the heart of it there are hurting people who cannot and will not let go until they know what happened, until they bring their missing home. I hope your family finds Rachel.
This is one of my favorite videos of yours. Idk, the way you laid everything out and explained everything was perfect.
Omg how does she not have more subs
Also weird question but did she ever get called Rachee as a nickname perhaps? That might explain that error. Also the mall might actually might be the best place because there are so many people and even if spotted you can blend in with the crowds.
It looks to me that they started writing "Rachul" but then corrected it.
Good episode 😊 Just a few things about the letter - That 2 under the h in catch is a scribbled out apostrophe. Whoever wrote the letter put the apostrophe on we're in the wrong spot and corrected themselves. Also, it was pretty common in the 70s and 80s to address envelopes formally, even to people you knew well. It was just what you got taught to do, so I'm not sure the way it's addressed is that significant. As for the different Ts, a lot of people develop a style of writing that's part cursive, part printing. My own hand writing is like this. Sometimes I'll write a letter one way and then in the next word I'll write it a different way. I'm not saying I'm right, this is just my thoughts on the letter.
Have to say I love Gabby's voice. I could listen to it all day.
Why did the PI kill himself and ask to burn the case files?! That keeps going through my head! It looks like a female wrote the letter for sure! Idk about you but if my sister married my ex husband I would have had an issue with it even if for a brief time! And the sister was living with him after they went missing? Idk if this one will ever get solved! So sad!
I agree. Since her sister was older and engaged to him, they were probably intimate. I cannot imagine a woman being okay with that, at least like you said it would have took some time. Her own brother suspected her!
Police officer that was investigating Toolbox murder cases committed suicide after the trial due to trauma of investigating those crimes. Maybe the same thing happened here. Maybe PI found out something terrifying happened to them, something that was worse than everything he ever worked on and it traumatized him. Unable to live with the facts that he found out he commited suicide. As for his plea to burn the case files, maybe he did not want anyone to go through what he did. Perhaps he thought it was better for people not to know what happened to them then to live with with the truth.
I find the fact that he wanted the files destroyed very very unsettling it just doesn't make any sense to me even after reading the comments it bugs me.
Omg it means so much to me you made this video. This is where I am from, it is extremely near and dear to my heart. Rachel’s brother Rusty is an amazing man who goes above and beyond to try and bring the girls home. I bought one of the sweatshirts that contributed to bringing the cars up from Benbrook lake and I wear it any chance I get. This case is my pet case. I care so much for the girls, and can’t fathom what could have possibly happened that day. My theory is that the girls got lured away by a stranger. Whether that person was someone pretending to be a cop/security guard, or just pretending to be a Good Samaritan. I think they went back out to the car as you said, then got into a vehicle. I don’t think Rachel wrote the letter. It was just a red herring to distract police and throw off the investigation. The 70s where such a hot time for serial killers and I believe they fell victim to one. Rachel’s husband Tommy has been ruled out, and he doesn’t talk about it much. I just hope with everything in my heart that their families get answers soon.
I actually really like it when my boyfriends younger siblings want to tag along with us. Him and I are twenty now, and his brother is twelve and his sister is ten.
But I never get upset when they want to hang out with us, or just me. It’s really nice knowing his family likes me enough to have one on one time.
I love your videos because you always show respect and really try and provide us with all the information, I find it so inspiring how you take the time to research these cases and then make videos about them💗
I think --
The two most likely things,
1) Almost certainly it was a "set-up" of some type, based upon Rachel. It appears that many things point towards her husband. Deborah moves into their house and a few days later, Rachel is unexpectedly missing?? And he's already set up his alibi "sick friend in the hospital" with Deborah. Yeah, right.
2) A single pervert who is crusing the crowded parking lot in the daytime looking for someone to grab on the day before Christmas Eve is NOT going to try to grab a group. It would just be too dangerous.
OTOH, could be something way unusual,
3) Going out of a limb here -- someone wants a group of girls - is trying to "put together an order"? Say a rich guy in Mexico wants to give a Christmas party for his nasty friends who like to be supplied with young females. He contacts the buyers of his drugs in a motorcycle gang in Texas and makes them an offer "$5000 for each girl 14 and under, untraceable" delivered to a house in Juarez on Christmas Eve. They snatch three, find one is too old so they kill her and dispose of her body, make Renee write the letter so Customs and Border Patrol won't be on the lookout, add a teegaged hooker from Dallas, a runaway from Abilene and a hitchhiker in Lubbock to the group, the group including the younger two get sold in Mexico and the evening after the party, their "use" is no longer valuable so they're disposed of in Mexico.
I just found your channel and subscribed. I watch a number of true crime and missing persons channels and knew right away that I needed to subscribe. I am close in age to Rachel and remember my mindset in the 70's. If someone drove up that I even casually knew or someone claimed to be a security guard, I would have jumped right in the truck. I cringe at the thought now of the dangers I put my self in. I have lived all my life in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. It breaks my heart to think that the families of the girls have no closure.
Katie, I know! We thought we were so invincible then!
Love you and this channel girl!
I am the exact same age as Julie. The capital 'T' in the letter, "The car is parked" was a weird way that we made our T's back in the day, it's also different than the T's on the envelope. Honestly, I thought the handwriting looked more like a guy's handwriting. I received plenty of notes in school from guys who wrote like this, but also just the inconsistencies that you pointed out (lower case M in Minot, lower case T in Texas etc) just seems more like what a guy would struggle with. Now, I'm not being a sexist or picking on anybody, but when I went to school, penmanship was actually something girls usually excelled in, while the guys struggled. And this was something I remember hearing teachers even comment on. (We had actual handwriting classes that went on for years back in the 1970s.) Obviously, there are exceptions to every rule. Regardless, they were so obviously not runaways. Julie wasn't even supposed to BE there that day. How could they convince her to go with them? And most nine year olds would eventually miss their mom and their dog and their "things" and would come home, even if the older two wouldn't. I will never understand how police (in any state and any year) can dismiss cases like this as runaways. They put so little value on the lives of the people they were supposed to protect. So WHAT if they were runaways!? They were minors. Why were they not immediately out there looking for them? I cannot fathom.
I agree, the envelope looks like a male’s handwriting to me also! Most girls I knew wrote their T’s like the letter. I rarely saw it that way from a guy. We had cursive drilled into us but we started in the 70s adding those flourishes to F’s T’s L’s etc. I would get in trouble for it because it was not formal cursive writing. For sure if I anyone of us vintage ladies go missing and are forced to hand write a letter, odds are the police won’t understand it! My son was never taught cursive and he is 19!
So interesting and so sad. First of all, I love when you give your theories! I don't understand why people get upset about that!! That's what we come here for . To toss around ideas and hopefully learn something about a case we didn't know before we watched a video. Sheesh!!
I think your security guard theory is a great one. It had to be someone who wouldn't attract attention taking THREE people in broad daylight. The letter is weird .. it does look female and maybe she wrote it purposely to not look like her own writing to send a message to Tommy to let him know she hadn't really gone by choice (if that makes any sense) . Is it me or since the envelope is written in pencil the abductor could have easily erased stuff. Does it look to anyone else like there were other marks that were possible eraser marks.... Maybe it's just the enhancements or the fact that it was a copy , I don't know it's just bizarre.
Hi Gabby, this is another tragic abduction case. I get very emotional and sad about too many missing young ones. I always thought the 70’s were safe. Even today I still have to watch my back. Have a wonderful and safe year. 🙏
Amy Yoshikawa The 70’s and 80’s were a time when serial killers roamed the country. The number of serial killers peaked in the late 80’s
Nice job as usual gabby. The answer to this is in the letter, it speaks volumes. The police have to look at that letter again. Hire someone to look at it again!
I just started binge watching your videos yesterday! I’m obsessed!
Ree Ferlong aw thank you!!
Your makeup is so on point today.
36:14 the squiggle is a common notation editors (and non-editors) use to delete or erase a mistake. The writer put the initial apostrophe "wer'e" and then realized their error, 'erased' that mark, and placed the apostrophe correctly: "we're"
I can tell you spent a lot of time looking at this :) I think you had mentioned the letter was written in pen and the envelope addressed in pencil. Makes sense they corrected the error this way, since you can't erase pen.
My mom is an editor, I do this commonly. I certainly remember being taught this in elementary school, so it's not just an editor thing.
Gonna unpause and keep watching now, just wanted to answer while I was thinking about it.
Love watching your videos ☺ Connecticut here
Yay a fellow Nutmeger.
Loving the longer videos 😍😍😍 great job 😁
This seems premeditated with the letter arriving the morning after they went missing. It would have been less than 24hrs when it arrived. I would have been looking closely at the shop owner. This is so sad and frustrating. I hope something comes of the 3rd car. I pray that one day the truth will be told and that the families will get an answer. The 1st private investigator killing himself and destroying his files is weard to. Did he really suicide?
This is what I thought. He dug too far and what he found disturbed him or he knew too much and the case files would incriminate someone so he was forced to say to destroy the files.
I love the fact that you, shauna rae and brooke makenna give your opinions. Plz keep doing so, it's more interesting than a recitation of info.
Yassss a long video! I’m here for it 🙌🏽
My two cents: I think the abduction and murders were opportunistic. Because the trip to the mall was unplanned and because the mall would be the busiest for scouting out victims, and the fastest most anonymous way out of town. I think the youngest may have been the target. Not finding a child unaccompanied by adults, this person's second choice was to take one accompanied by teens he could intimidate into a vehicle quickly. That, or there was more than one abductor and they were looking to take more than one girl. Whichever it was, I believe they haven't been found because they were taken out of city limits immediately. The letter was mailed on the road or at the mall. It was dictated (female handwriting but rough language) and used, perhaps to buy time, but i think more likely to keep the girls in line, have them think they'd be back, if they cooperated. I don't put much stock in witness statements, especially with so many trucks around. It could have happened in a van. And I'm so sorry it did ...it's an horrific story.
Never heard this case before. Like you some cases haunt me I think I can solve it too, which most true friends do or wish we could do. It means you are a caring person . I hope the family gets closure possibly from the car in the lake . Weird that there are 3 cars in one lake. I think it had to be someone who knew at least one of the girls because like you said shopping mall broad daylight so many witnesses and the report of them not appearing forced into the truck. Hopefully there will be updates soon. Keep up the wonderful work you do💙💙
Regarding the letter, also notice that the capital T’s in the address portion are written differently that the capital T in the line The car is in the upper…
I am 58 and I write my T’s exactly like in the letter. Most every girl I know did. Most guys I know wrote their capital T’s like the address portion. It is not unusual to me that the entirety of Tommy’s name was written out including middle initial because that is how we were taught to fill out an envelope (I still do to this day) but it surprises me that the return address was just Rachel’s first name. She lived at the same address and we were taught to fill out the return address in full even if it was the same because if it got lost in the mail, it had a better chance to reach that address. It’s the dichotomy of following what was automatically taught and practiced in one portion of the address and not the other that hits weird. This case is fascinating and I truly hope it gets solved! I also wonder if they still have that envelope if it could be checked for DNA. Since DNA was not a thing, the envelope had a good chance that it was sealed by licking it.
Rachel had so much in common with me.... same birthday, same height, same eye and hair colour and same chipped tooth... wtf also im 17
Longer videos, big fan. The extra time really gives you more opportunity to get into these cases and flesh things out. Good stuff.
Your so gorgeous ❤️ Forever my favourite RUclipsr and RUclips channel 😘
I agree about the letter definitely female definitely odd . One thing you didn’t bring up was how weird the spacing was. Some words were really close together while others were extremely far apart it made no sense. I think that someone they knew offered a ride from there car to the store so they didn’t have to walk and it went bad.
Or it could have been a male trying to make his writing look like a woman wrote it.
The thing about spacing makes me think about dictation. We used to write a lot of it in my school time to improve orthography and when you get a sentence you write with the normal spacing, as you write normally and do bigger spacing in the pauses of the person that dictates. If she was being forced to write against her will, errors due to being nervous are also an explanation.
Wow. So who did the bones belong to and what happened to them?
Yeah did the bones solve another case?
I was wondering the exact same thing.
I tried to find out online but couldn't find anything. : /
really enjoying the longer videos
I feel like...her sister wrote the letter...she would know the address, she would know Thomas's full name 🤔
Even if she hated her younger sister, I doubt she'd be okay with a fourteen year old and nine year old girl also being killed. I don't think she had anything to do with it.
Def the sister Deborah had something to do with this
Wow I'd never heard of this case! It's so sad! Horrible! But I hope that bc of this new found coverage , someone or something comes to mind and something happens!!! Thank you Gab for taking the time in doing this!! You did it professionally and with such passion! The family would be proud
BTW, great job on this (as usual!) XOXO
Why would anyone complain or get upset because you shared your personal views and opinions? I like to hear the theories of others. People see things in different ways and notice different things. It makes it more interesting. You keep on doing what you are doing! After all, you are the one making these wonderful videos and doing all the intense research. Love your channel!