Becky Ann Triska (NamUs MP #4608)

By: Shane Lambert

Rebecca Ann Triska: missing since the late evening of September 19th, 1958.

"was last seen around 23:45 in a car with an unidentified older male at the Route 88 Drive-In Restaurant in Harmony Township, just north of Ambridge, Pennsylvania on September 19, 1958"
"She had gone to a teen dance in Ambridge with friends. Becky left the dance at about 23:30."
"Police arrested an Ambridge man when they learned that the car Becky was last seen in closely resembled his car."
The man's alibi "told police that they had attended a football game in Aliquippa and had parted company between 23:30 and 23:45 that night. With no body and not enough evidence, he was released. He was never charged for Becky's murder." changed Alliquippa to Aliquippa
"In 1962, this same man was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1961 beating death of 13-year old Jane Benfield of Centralia, Columbia County. His death sentence was later commuted to life. He died in prison of cancer in the '90s."

The man's name who was a suspect was Frank Earl Senk;
The football game that Senk attended with his date was likely a high-school football game between the Aliquippa Indians and a team known as Erie Strong Vincent. The DoeNetwork says that Senk and his date attended a game in Aliquippa. The game between the Indians and Erie Strong Vincent is the only one I could find for that night.
I found recaps of this football game in newspapers from September 20th, 1958 and the days after. I was hoping to find start and end times for the game and exact playing location, however, I did not find those details in this sparsely reported on football game. I can say that most of the games I came across started at 8pm but sporting events vary on their length. Websleuths could research this game to try and find an end time and playing venue, details that might help with figuring out Senk's timeline on the night in question (Aliquippa 46, Erie Strong Vincent 7);
The name of the venue where Rebecca attended a teen dance was called "Workingmen's Beneficial Club"; in the journalism from the time she was reported to have left at 11:20pm and was then seen at a restaurant at 11:45pm (last sighting);
Authorities searched Senk's parents' farm for her body (Jan 22nd 1962; News Herald, front page);
Abduction by vehicle luring was Senk's method in the Jane Benfield case that he was convicted for:

Aliquippa High School and Harmony Township are not far from one another, although the Ohio River is between them;
That being the case Senk's 'alibi,' whose name I couldn't find, works against him in my opinion as she places him in the area of Triska's disappearance at about the time of her disappearance
While the evidence against him was hardly conclusive his criminal record says plenty about him;
One sloppy article (it said Triska disappeared from her home instead of the dance) I read stated that hairs found in Senk's car were in fact determined to be Triska's; most other sources said that the tests could not positively claim that;
With Senk in the area according to his 'alibi,' his criminal record, his car matching the description of the car Triska was seen in, and with the hair in his car that might have been Triska's it seems this case isn't the most mysterious when it comes to missing people; her fate might be assumed but where she lays is still unknown.

Rebecca Ann Triska

NamUs MP #4608 · Wed, Apr 19, 1967 – Page 7 · The Evening Review (East Liverpool, Ohio) · Newspapers.com

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