Missing Lyon Sisters: Trial Delayed for Sex Offender, Murder Suspect

WHEATON, MD — The murder trial of a convicted sex offender charged with kidnapping and killing two missing Montgomery County sisters from a Wheaton mall four decades ago has been delayed so his attorneys can wade through hours of interviews the suspect gave with police.

Lloyd Lee Michael Welch Jr. will stand trial in April 2017 for the murders of sisters Sheila Lyon, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10. Welch had been scheduled to go on trial on Oct. 18 in Bedford County, VA.

The girls were last seen walking home from Wheaton Plaza mall in March 1975. Their bodies have never been found. Montgomery County authorities believe the sisters were taken to Taylor’s Mountain in the rural Virginia county – where relatives of Welch live and own land – and their bodies burned and hidden.

Patricia Ann Welch, 49, of Hyattsville said in a media interview last month that given his incarceration for other sex offenses, she’s confident her cousin, Lloyd Welch, killed the siblings. And she flatly denied that her father had a role in the disappearances.

“Yes, he did it, I think he did it 100 percent,” Patricia Welch told WTOP and The Washington Post 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.”

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 denied any wrongdoing in the case, and his daughter repeated her opinion that her father is innocent.

She 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, Patricia Welch said.

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, according to court documents. Patricia 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.

Investigators have searched for the girls' remains in Bedford County. The area is the one-time home for both Welch men, authorities said.

At least 10 detectives have spent hours talking to Lloyd Welch, along with dozens of people who are potential witnesses.

Welch 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.

The prosecution acknowledged the vast amount of material that attorneys have to go through to prepare for trial, and the judge granted the request for a new trial date.

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• Sex Offender Admits Taking Lyon Sisters: Court Records

Family Members Cross Investigators
Several of Patricia 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 last month 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 last summer.

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 that 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