Account
Jan 08, 2010
Mar 23, 2020
Rebecca
Triska
81
15
61 inches
110 lbs
White / Caucasian
Female
On the evening of September 19, 1958, Rebecca "Becky" Triska, a 15-year-old sophomore at Ambridge High School, disappeared, leaving her community in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, in a state of lasting concern. That night, she attended a dance at the Workingman's Beneficial Union in Ambridge with friends. At about 11:30 p.m., Becky left the dance. Shortly after, two boys who were also at the dance saw her outside a nearby theater where an older man, estimated to be around 35, offered her a ride. The boys intervened, telling the man he was too old for Becky, and he reportedly walked away. However, the last confirmed sighting of Becky was at approximately 11:45 p.m. at the Route 88 Drive-In Restaurant in Harmony Township. She was seen in a gold and white Plymouth in the company of an unidentified older male, and after that moment, she was never seen or heard from again. The investigation into Becky's disappearance quickly focused on a local man, Frank Earl Senk Jr., whose car matched the description of the one Becky was last seen in. Senk was a 25-year-old, married door-to-door knife salesman who was on parole for a morals charge from Florida at the time. When questioned, Senk denied knowing Becky but refused to take a polygraph test. A search of his vehicle by the Allegheny County Crime Lab uncovered blood stains and strands of red hair. Senk claimed the blood was his own and that the hair likely belonged to one of his three red-headed nieces. Due to the limitations of forensic science at the time, investigators could not definitively prove the hairs belonged to Becky. Senk provided an alibi, stating he was at a football game with a girlfriend on the night of the disappearance, and she confirmed they parted ways between 11:30 and 11:45 p.m. With no body and insufficient evidence to press charges in Becky's case, he was eventually released after being held for nine months. Years later, Frank Senk's name would be linked to another horrific crime. In 1962, he was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1961 beating death of 13-year-old Jane Benfield of Centralia. His death sentence was later commuted to a life sentence, and he died of cancer in prison in the 1990s, maintaining his innocence in Becky's disappearance. Despite the strong suspicion surrounding Senk, the case has remained officially unsolved. Rebecca Triska was legally declared dead in 1967, seven years after she vanished. Her body has never been found, leaving her family and community without definitive answers about what happened on that September night. The case remains a haunting example of a promising young life cut short, with lingering questions and a prime suspect who took any potential secrets to his grave.
Sep 19, 1958
Ambridge
Pennsylvania
Beaver County
No
26239
Beaver County Detective Bureau
Beaver
Pennsylvania
Beaver County
15001
Kim Clements
Detective Lieutenant
810 Third Street, Pennsylvania
7247738574
County
Law Enforcement
2011001061
2011-08-03
Beaver County Detective Bureau
Red/Auburn
Blue
Blue
05/25/2026
