The murders of Katherine and Sheila Lyon were the abduction, sexual abuse and murder of two sisters – aged 10 and 12 respectively – who disappeared from a shopping center in Wheaton, Maryland, on March 25, 1975.
Described as a crime which shattered the innocence of the suburbs of Maryland, the disappearance of Katherine and Sheila Lyon initiated one of the largest police investigations in the history of the Washington metropolitan area, although their fate would remain unknown for thirty-eight years, by which time their disappearance had long become a cold case.
A re-investigation of the sisters' disappearance in 2013 led detectives to charge a convicted child sex offender named Lloyd Lee Welch Jr. with the first-degree murder of the Lyon sisters. Welch was indicted for their murders in July 2015; he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in September 2017 via a plea bargain in which he admitted to participating in the girls' abduction, but not their sexual assault and murder. He was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 48 years' imprisonment.
The bodies of Katherine and Sheila Lyon have never been found, although authorities believe their bodies were burned and buried upon a remote mountain in Bedford County, Virginia. Furthermore, prosecutors have named other members of Welch's family – including his uncle – as persons of interest in the girls' abduction, abuse and murder, although no other individuals have been charged due to insufficient evidence.
Background Childhood Katherine and Sheila Lyon were born in Kensington, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., to John and Mary Lyon. The girls were two of four children and the only girls born to their parents, with an older brother, Jay, and a younger brother, Joseph, completing the family. The Lyon children lived in a close, middle-class household on Plyers Mill Road. Their father was a well-known and popular radio personality at WMAL-AM,Cold Cases: Famous Unsolved Mysteries, Crimes, and Disappearances in America p. 272 a local radio station operated by the then-owner of ABC affiliate WMAL-TV (now WJLA-TV) and the now-defunct Washington Star.Marple's Gretchen Harrington Tragedy: Kidnapping, Murder and Innocence Lost in Suburban Philadelphia p. 59
By 1975, the oldest Lyon sibling, Jay, was 15 years old; the youngest sibling, Joseph, was nine. Sheila was 12 years old, and Katherine ten. Sheila attended Newport Junior High School, and Katherine Oakland Terrace Elementary. Both sisters were days away from celebrating their thirteenth and eleventh birthdays and both had known their parents had planned to take them for a special meal for their birthdays. According to their mother, neither girl "[could] wait" for the upcoming occasion.
March 25, 1975 March 25, 1975, was the second day of school spring vacation; as such, the four Lyon children woke at approximately 10 a.m. Shortly after eating breakfast, the Lyon brothers visited a local basketball court; Katherine and Sheila opted to walk to the Wheaton Plaza shopping center (now Westfield Wheaton) to browse Easter exhibits and meet friends who frequently socialized at this location. Upon hearing of her daughters' plans, Mary Lyon suggested: "Why don't you stop off and get some pizza?" The sisters agreed, with Katherine lightheartedly remarking the price of a slice of pizza had recently increased from forty cents to forty-five-cents.
The girls left their home between 11 a.m. and midday; each had approximately $2 to her name (the equivalent of about $12.05 ), and both were told to be home by their 4 p.m. curfew. At the insistence of a friend, Mary Lyon later visited a bowling alley; she was driven to the bowling alley by her husband, who – working a night shift – woke at midday.
Disappearance The Wheaton Plaza shopping center was located approximately half a mile from the Lyon household. The sisters are believed to have intended to eat lunch at a popular pizza parlor within the shopping center named the Orange Bowl. Both girls were seen by eyewitnesses talking with an unidentified middle-aged man close to the Orange Bowl less than an hour after they are believed to have arrived at the shopping center; their older brother, Jay, later informed investigators he had seen his sisters eating pizza together at this same eatery, although his sisters were alone. Jay's sighting of his sisters is believed to have occurred after the girls had spoken with the middle-aged individual.
Shortly after 2 p.m., Katherine and Sheila were seen walking home from the shopping center. This would prove to be the final verifiable account of the sisters' movements. By 5:45, Mary Lyon had begun preparing the family's evening meal of fried chicken; she later recollected feeling slightly annoyed her daughters had not returned home by this time. This annoyance rapidly developed into panic, and by 7 p.m., police were notified of the girls' disappearance. An extensive search was immediately implemented and the Lyon family initiated a round-the-clock vigil whereby a family member would be invariably within arm's reach of the family telephone.
Police investigation Police rapidly determined the sisters' disappearance was involuntary, and an intense search to locate the children was immediately implemented.The Last Stone p. 2 House-to-house searches were conducted, numerous witnesses were interviewed and hundreds of public tips pursued. With the assistance of search and rescue dogs, an extensive search of terrain surrounding both the shopping center and the Lyon household was implemented; these search and rescue dogs did detect a trail the sisters had likely taken from the shopping center toward the perimeter of a parking lot adjacent to a department store close to the premises, although the trail ended at this location. Scuba divers also searched lakes and ponds and locations such as storm sewers, vacant lots, rivers and stream beds. Numerous civilian volunteers assisted these official searches, although all efforts proved fruitless. A reward of $9,000 was also offered for the sisters' safe return.
Due to the fact two children had disappeared as opposed to one, investigators suspected more than one individual may have been involved in their abduction. Suspecting a likely sexual motive behind the sisters' abduction, several known pedophiles and sex offenders were questioned in the weeks following their disappearance; all were eliminated from the inquiry upon verification of their alibis.
Family efforts The Lyon family themselves immediately pursued all tangible methods to locate their daughters, including conducting searches around their neighborhood, and printing and distributing missing persons flyers in addition to pursuing leads generated by psychics. Both the family and police received numerous calls from hoax callers, attention-seekers and extortionists claiming to be holding the girls for ransom in the immediate aftermath of their disappearance. One of these calls was received from an anonymous male caller on April 4, 1975; this individual demanded that John Lyon leave a briefcase with $10,000 (the equivalent of about $60,200 ) inside an Annapolis courthouse restroom. With approval from police, the girls' father left $101 (the equivalent of about $608 ) inside the briefcase as directed by law enforcement officials, but the briefcase was never claimed. This individual later called John and said he had seen too many police around the courthouse and thus did not attempt to retrieve the ransom. In response, John said he would only follow further instructions if he heard his daughters' voices. This anonymous caller never attempted to re-initiate contact.
Eyewitness accounts "Tape recorder man" A neighborhood boy known to both sisters reported to police that he had seen the girls seated on a bench outside the Orange Bowl speaking with an unidentified man at approximately 1 p.m. The man had been approximately six feet in height, well-groomed, conservatively dressed, aged between 50 and 60 and wearing a brown suit and was carrying a briefcase with a tape recorder inside. According to this witness, both the Lyon sisters and other children present spoke into a microphone the man was holding, believing their voices were to be broadcast live upon a local radio station. The witness's description of the man carrying a briefcase outside the eatery led authorities to view the unknown person as a prime suspect in the case; he became colloquially referred to by investigators as the "tape recorder man." Two composite drawings of this individual were created.
Younger male suspect A friend of the sisters – a girl slightly older than Sheila named Danette Shea – also described to detectives how shortly before the sisters were last seen within the shopping center, a young, long-haired man had followed and stared at Shea and her friends for so long and so intently that one of her friends had confronted him, stating: "Why don't you take a picture of us? It'll last longer!" Shea had also observed this individual leering at the Lyon sisters. These sightings occurred at approximately the same time as the sisters and other children had spoken into the older man's microphone.
A police sketch artist also created a composite drawing based on this eyewitness's description; this depicted a white male in his late teens or early 20s, approximately , with notable acne on his face, scars on his left cheek, somewhat shabbily dressed, and wearing a light-colored Peters Jacket. Shea's eyewitness description contrasted sharply with the initial, middle-aged suspect. Aside from the major differences in facial features, hair and clothing, the young male leering at the sisters and the middle-aged man encouraging children to speak into his microphone were several decades apart in age.
The composite drawing of the younger male suspect, however, appears not to have been widely disseminated as investigators devoted greater focus upon tracing the middle-aged man holding the tape recorder, whom several eyewitnesses reported having seen in the vicinity of the shopping center on the day of, and day prior to, the sisters' disappearance. Nonetheless, investigators followed subsequent public reports from several individuals who said they recognized either or both of the individuals within the composite drawings.Marple's Gretchen Harrington Tragedy: Kidnapping, Murder and Innocence Lost in Suburban Philadelphia p. 60
Investigative timeline By the week following the Lyon sisters' disappearance, investigators had interviewed and corroborated enough eyewitness accounts to establish a timeline of the sisters' movements on the afternoon of March 25. This timeline of the children's movements prior to their disappearance was released to the public: 11 a.m. to midday: Katherine and Sheila leave their home to visit the Wheaton Plaza shopping center, having promised their mother to return home by 4 p.m. 1 p.m.: A neighborhood child – a friend of both sisters – sees the girls sitting together outside the Orange Bowl speaking to an unidentified middle-aged man. : The girls' older brother, Jay, enters the shopping center to purchase a kite. He observes his sisters, alone, eating pizza at the Orange Bowl. : The final verified sighting of the sisters occurs when a friend observes Katherine and Sheila walking westward down a street from the shopping center to their home. 4 p.m.: The curfew set by their mother passes; the girls are expected home and do not arrive. 7 p.m.: Police are called and an active search for the sisters is implemented.
Lloyd Welch