Man last saw his missing daughter in 1974 in Fort Worth. He died never seeing her again

Richard Wilson last saw his daughter in 1974 in Fort Worth when she went missing with two other girls.

He died Wednesday never having seen her again.

The 83-year-old father of Lisa Renee Wilson, who disappeared when she was 14, died in Fort Worth while he was under hospice care. He died of natural causes.

That leaves only one parent of the three girls alive, and still wondering what happened to her daughter and her two friends, now known as the Missing Trio.

“It’s sad,” said Francis Langston of Fort Worth, the mother of Rachel Trlica, on Thursday after hearing the news of Richard Wilson’s death. She noted that Richard Wilson had been sick for some time. “He never believed his daughter was still alive. I don’t believe my daughter is alive, but one day, someone is going to find her.”

On Dec. 23, 1974, Trlica, who was 17, Lisa Renee Wilson and Julie Moseley, 9, went missing after shopping at what was then Seminary South Shopping Center, at 4200 South Freeway.

“It’s just so heartbreaking,” said Rusty Arnold, the brother of Rachel Trlica, on Thursday, concerning the news of Richard Wilson’s death. “I just called my mom and told her that I loved her.”

The mothers of Lisa Renee Wilson and Julie Moseley died in recent years without ever knowing what happened to their daughters.

On Dec. 23, Langston pointed out, it will be 48 years since her daughter and the two other girls disappeared.

“Before they went missing, our family and the families of the girls would go camping at places in Texas and Louisiana all the time,” Langston said. “It was what we did.”

For decades, friends and family members have looked everywhere for the girls, chasing down leads and asking questions.

They’ve dug at dozens of locations throughout Texas, searched creeks and even combed a swampy bayou near Port Lavaca near the Texas coast.

In recent years, divers searched Benbrook Lake, finding cars at the bottom.

No leads have been found.

Arnold created a website, missingtrio.com, and a Facebook page in hopes of finding clues.

“I really don’t believe they’re alive,” Richard Wilson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in a previous interview. “I would like to think otherwise, but it’s been so many years.”

The girls left home before noon that morning and stopped at an Army/Navy store to pick up Christmas presents that were on layaway.

Then they headed to the shopping center, which is now La Gran Plaza, and parked Trlicas’ Oldsmobile on an upper-level parking lot near Sears.

Rachel had asked others to go shopping, but only Julie and Renee made it that day. Rachel was a newlywed, having married Tommy Trlica in July of that year. Renee wore red and white sneakers and a pale yellow-green T-shirt with “Sweet Honesty” printed across the front.

In a 2009 interview with the Star-Telegram, Rayanne Moseley of North Richland Hills said her daughter called, begging to go with Rachel and Renee because she didn’t have anyone to play with that day.

“I knew Renee and her family, so I finally decided the girls would be able to watch over Julie, and I let her go,” Rayanne Moseley said in 2009.

Witnesses told police they saw the girls inside the shopping center during the day. Investigators believe the girls returned to the car during the afternoon.

The families have heard several stories about what happened after that. A witness reported some men hustled the girls into a pickup. Another witness said he’d seen a man forcing a girl into a van. Nothing has ever panned out.

The Oldsmobile was found at 6 p.m. on Dec. 23, 1974, right where they left it, locked with the presents inside.