Lyon Sisters Murders: Minister, Relatives Blamed In Kidnappings

WHEATON, MD – The convicted sex offender soon to go on trial for the kidnapping and murder of two Montgomery County sisters has told investigators multiple stories of what might have happened to the girls — from saying a minister took the Lyon sisters to accusing relatives of kidnapping and raping the girls to saying he helped plan their abduction. And in one interview with investigators Lloyd Lee Michael Welch Jr. even wondered "what's gonna happen to me?"

Forty-two years ago, Sheila Lyon, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10, vanished after a trip to a Wheaton mall. An attorney for Welch has filed a motion asking that his Sept. 12 trial be moved from Bedford County Virginia because publicity will not allow a fair hearing; a judge hasn't ruled on the request.

The sisters were last seen walking home from the mall in March 1975. The bodies of the missing girls have never been found. Prosecutors in Montgomery County have charged Welch, who is locked up in a Delaware prison, with the first-degree felony murder of the girls. A judge ruled in January that prosecutors may seek the death penalty in the case.

Local and federal investigators interviewed Welch several times while he serves time for child sex crimes in a Delaware prison. His response contradict his own statements and accuse both unknown suspects as well as at least two family members. WTOP reviewed the statements, part of the court documents recently filed ahead of the trial.

In October 2013 Welch said a minister put the girls in a car near the mall, while in 2014 he said an unknown person put the girls in a car; later said his nephew led them from the mall; and in another interview said he and a girlfriend babysat the sisters during their captivity.

In May 2015 Welch reportedly told authorities he knew where the girls were killed, although a specific site isn't mentioned. And he weighed talking with investigators against what he might gain, WTOP reports.

“I know I should be worried about the girls, the family, puttin’ it to rest and stuff like that but you also gotta look at it, I’m a survivor,” Welch told a Montgomery County detective, WTOP reports. “… I’ve also gotta think of me …, what’s gonna happen to me?”

A judge ruled June 30 that the girls’ parents and two brothers may testify in the trial, and remain in the courtroom during the entire trial to watch the proceedings, WTOP reports. No decision has been made on whether the trial will be moved out of the community, which is home to Welch's extended family, and where investigators believe the girls were slain.

The only physical evidence of the girls' bodies appeared to be a tooth found on a remote Virginia mountain. But investigators have lost that piece of potential evidence that was listed in court documents ahead of the trial.

Two of the most grisly pieces of evidence expected in the trial are the tooth and witness accounts of bloody bags that smelled like death, which police believe may tie Welch to the victims. But WTOP reports that the tooth has been lost while in the custody of the Bedford County Virginia Sheriff’s Office; it went missing before experts could test it to see if it came from one of the girls.

A representative for the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office declined to talk with WTOP on how the tooth disappeared. Both sides of the case are under a gag order imposed by a judge, so prosecutors and defense attorney aren't commenting on the development.

The trial date for Welch has twice been pushed back. The original trial for Welch was Oct. 18, 2016, but a new trial date of April 2017 was set so his attorneys can wade through hours of interviews the suspect gave with police. In February it was delayed again and Welch's new trial date is Sept. 12, 2017.

Montgomery County authorities believe the girls were taken to Taylor’s Mountain in the rural Virginia county – where members of the Welch family live and own land – and their bodies burned and hidden. In February 2015, investigators said they believed the girls were taken by the convicted sex offender and later sexually assaulted by his uncle, Richard Welch Sr., according to court documents. Investigators have searched for traces of the sisters in Bedford County. The area is the one-time home for both Welch men, authorities said.

The listing of the tooth as evidence earlier this year was the first time investigators mentioned finding any human remains. Whether the tooth belongs to one of the missing girls is not specified in court documents.

READ ALSO:

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• Bags Burned Smelled Like ‘Death’ Says Lyon Sisters Witness
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• Investigators Return to Mountain in 40-Year Search for Lyon Sisters
• Missing Lyon Sisters: Police Search Virginia Mountain for Remains
• Sex Offender Admits Taking Lyon Sisters: Court Records

'Smell of Death'

According to affidavits in the case, a relative of Lloyd Welch told police that in the spring of 1975 he came by a house on Taylor’s Mountain unexpectedly with a duffle bag of bloody clothes that he wanted the relative to launder, reports WUSA.

A cousin, Henry Parker, also told detectives he helped Lloyd Welch burn two 60- to 70-pound duffle bags stained red and smelling of decay, reports The Washington Postciting a search warrant. The bags smelled like “death,” Parker said in court documents.

Parker told the Post in an interview that he didn’t know what was in the bags that were burned on Taylor’s Mountain. He told the newspaper he didn’t see the Lyon sisters.

Other family members warned Parker to stay away from Lloyd Welch, saying: “He’s trouble. He’s trouble all the way around.”

Family Members Suspected of Knowing Case Details

Investigators have repeatedly said they suspect Lloyd Welch’s relatives of knowing about his actions or those of his uncle, Richard Allen Welch Sr. of Hyattsville. The elder Welch has not been charged in the case, and although he has been named a person of interest in the case, he has consistently denied any wrongdoing. He has not been charged in the Lyon case, and his daughter says that her father is innocent.

Patricia Ann Welch said that several extended family members who live in the Bedford County, Virginia, area have lied to the grand jury. A conspiracy to hide the fate of the Lyon sisters was formed in 1975 when relatives at Taylor’s Mountain failed to report what happened, she said.

“Yes, he did it, I think he did it 100 percent,” Patricia Ann Welch of Hyattsville, the daughter of Patricia and Richard, told WTOP and The Washington Post in July 2016 of the charge against her cousin. “Lloyd has done it to other people, that’s what he’s in jail for. Lloyd has molested other kids. I think he’s implicating my dad because he’s the only one left alive.”

Patricia Ann Welch said there is no way her father abused the sisters; she would have been 8 years old at the time the Lyon girls were taken and told WTOP she saw nothing amiss in her family home.

At least 10 detectives have spent hours talking to Lloyd Welch, along with dozens of people who are potential witnesses. His attorney said that the investigation has yielded more than 1,900 pages of transcripts from police interviews, more than 29,000 electronic files that cover wire-tap information, interview notes, audio recordings and video recordings, and an additional 1,600 PDFs that go back to 1975, reports The Washington Post.

When he goes to trial, prosecutors may ask for the death penalty, a Bedford County judge ruled in January 2017. The defense said Virginia didn’t allow capital punishment when the girls disappeared, but the judge disagreed, WTOP reports. The judge also decided Welch breached an immunity agreement with Maryland prosecutors by changing his story multiple times, so statements Welch made to police in Maryland will be allowed at trial.

Family Members Cross Investigators
Several of Welch’s family members have been prosecuted for hindering the murder investigation.
Leslie Joseph Engleking Sr., 69, of Alexandria, Virginia, in February pleaded no-contest to lying to police searching for the Lyon sisters. Engleking was sentenced in June to five years in prison for lying to the grand jury, but the entire sentence was suspended in favor of supervised probation.

Authorities say since his arrest for perjury, Engleking has cooperated in the investigation. Along with Engleking, two other Richard Welch family members were charged with impeding the investigation into the sisters’ deaths. Gladys Stangee and Amy Johnson were charged with obstruction of justice. Stangee is Richard Welch’s sister, and Johnson is his granddaughter.

Pursuing All Leads

Prosecutors said at a July 2015 press conference that the charge filed against Lloyd Welch includes the allegation that during his abduction of the sisters with the intent to defile them, he killed the girls.
John McCarthy, the state’s attorney from Montgomery County, has pledged to continue to pursue anyone who harmed the girls, and those who have lied and misled investigators.

“Life was never the same for any parent who tried to raise a child after the disappearance of these little girls. We’ve never forgotten the Lyon family or the Lyon girls,” McCarthy said nearly two years ago.

Capt. Darren Franke, head of the Major Crimes Unit of the Montgomery County Police, urged witnesses to come forward. “I believe there’s someone out there that knows a lot more than they’ve shared so far,” Franke said.

If people have a lead, they can call (434) 534-9521 or email cybertip@ncmec.org.

Timeline of Girls’ Disappearance

The girls walked to Wheaton Plaza (now Westfield Wheaton Mall) on March 25, 1975, but never returned home, Patch previously reported.

The Washington Post cited documents that say Lloyd Welch told detectives he took the girls when he left the mall the day they disappeared and that he later saw his uncle sexually assaulting one of the sisters at his home in Hyattsville.

Police named Lloyd Welch a person of interest in connection with the kidnapping of the Lyon sisters in February 2014. Welch, who was charged with sex offenses against girls in several states, has been in a Delaware prison since 1997, according to police.

Montgomery County Police said Welch was “noticed paying attention to the sisters the afternoon they disappeared.”

His uncle was named a second person of interest in the abductions in October 2014. The elder Welch was a security guard in the Wheaton area during the time of the sisters’ disappearance, Patch previously reported.

In an earlier letter to the Post, Lloyd Welch denied any involvement in the disappearance of the sisters. Richard Welch’s daughter told the newspaper the allegations are a lie.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Montgomery County Police at 240-773-5070.
»Photo of Lyon sisters from Montgomery County Police