Rebecca Ann Triska
Missing September 19, 1958 from Ambridge, Beaver County
Vital Statistics
Age at Time of Disappearance: 15
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 110 lbs
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Blue
Distinguishing Characteristics: Lots of freckles.
Clothing: Green cashmere sweater, black velvet slacks and black suede tie shoes.
DNA: Available
Nickname: Becky
Case Details
On the evening of Friday, September 19, 1958, Becky Triska, a sophomore at Ambridge High School, got two dollars from her father to go to a New Castle/Ambridge football game that was being played in New Castle. According to early news reports, one of Becky's friends didn't have enough money to make the trip, so the girls left Becky's house in Baden and headed down to the teen dance at the (former) Workingman's Beneficial Union building in Ambridge.
Becky left the dance at about 11:30pm. Some news reports say that she was going to catch a bus home. Others say that she told two of her friends that she was going to meet a girlfriend at the nearby Ambridge Theater. Two boys who happened to leave the dance around the same time spoke to Becky in front of the theater. She was alone, but an "older" man, they estimated around 35, was standing in the area and offered to give Becky a ride home. The boys commented that the man was too old to give Becky a ride and, they said, he walked away.
At around 11:45pm, Becky was seen in a car with an unidentified "older" male at the Route 88 Drive-In Restaurant in Harmony Township, just north of Ambridge and only a few miles south of Baden. She never made it home.
Police arrested an Ambridge man, Frank Senk, Jr, 26, when they learned that the car Becky was last seen in closely resembled Senk's car. Senk, at the time, was a parolee on a Florida morals charge. He denied knowing Becky, but refused to take a lie detector test. He was held on suspicion of a felony, while his car was sent to the Allegheny County Crime Lab. Investigators found some blood stains and strands of red hair in the car. An attempt was made to match the hair samples from the car against hair taken from Becky's hairbrush, but without the tools available today, it was never definitively proven that the hairs were Becky's. Senk stated that he had three nieces with red hair and the blood was his.
Additionally, Senk had an alibi. Police learned the identity of the girl that Senk had a date with on the night Becky disappeared. The girl told police that she and Senk had attended a football game in Aliquippa and had parted company between 11:30 and 11:45 that night. She also told police that she'd known Senk about a year - Senk had been fired from the store she worked at - but she did not know about his criminal past.
With no body and not enough evidence, Senk was released. He was never charged for Becky's murder.
In 1962, Frank Senk 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 of cancer sometime in the '90s. He was still in prison.
Rebecca Ann Triska was declared dead in 1967. Her date of death was recorded as September 19, 1965, seven years after she was last seen.
Her body has never been found.
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