Mr. Truly: When I noticed this boy was missing, I told Chief Lumpkin that "We have a man here that's missing." I said, "It my not mean anything, but he isn't here." I first called down to the other warehouse and had Mr. Akin pull the application of the boy so I could get--quickly get his address in Irving and his general description, so I could be more accurate than I would be.
Mr. Ball: Was he the only man missing?
Mr. Truly: The only one I noticed at that time. Now, I think there was one or two more, possibly Charles Givens, but I had seen him out in front walking up the street just before the firing of the gun.
Mr. Ball: But walking which way?
Mr. Truly: The last time I saw him, he was walking across Houston Street, east on Elm.
Mr. Ball: Did you make a check of your employees afterwards?
Mr. Truly: No, no; not complete. No, I just saw the group of the employees over there on the floor and I noticed this boy wasn't with them. With no thought in my mind except that I had seen him a short time before in the building, I noticed he wasn't there.
Mr. Ball: What do you mean "a short time before"?
Mr. Truly: I would say 10 or 12 minutes.
Mr. Ball: You mean that's when you saw him in the lunchroom?
Mr. Truly: In the lunchroom.
Mr. Ball: And you noticed he wasn't over there?
Mr. Truly: Well, I asked Bill Shelley if he had seen him around and he said "No."
Mr. Ball: Now, you told Chief Lumpkin that there was a man missing?
Mr. Truly: Yes; and he said, "Let's go tell Captain Fritz." Well, I didn't know where Captain Fritz was.
Was there a roll call?
The definitive answer is "No".
Truly himself states he didn't take a check of his employees. He states he saw a group of men stood around and noticed Oswald wasn't with them.
He makes the point that, other than Oswald, there were "one or two more" others missing. One was Givens, the other would have been Dougherty who, at this time, was wandering around the TSBD looking for Truly!
He states that Oswald's absence stood out because he'd seen him in the building shortly before, so why he would assume Oswald had left the building is hard to say.
There was no attempt at any search to locate Oswald. All Truly does is ask Shelley if he'd seen him. Shelley says no but, interestingly, Oswald is reported to have met up with Shelley just before he left the TSBD and it was actually as a result of a conversation with Shelley that Oswald decided to leave.
Maybe that's how Truly knew Oswald had left the building - because Shelley had told him that.
Whatever the case, Truly had no real reason to assume Oswald had left the building, there had been no roll call and no search for him.