Sex Offender Indicted in Missing Lyon Sisters' Case

Forty years after two girls walked to a mall – and disappeared – and two years after a cold case squad turned up new leads, authorities have charged a sex-offender with the murder of the Lyon sisters.

On Friday, July 10, indictments were handed down by a Bedford County, VA, grand jury that charged Lloyd Lee Michael Welch Jr., 58, with first-degree felony murder in both sisters’ deaths.

The announcement was made at a press conference Wednesday by Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown. Welch is a convicted sex offender incarcerated in a Delaware prison.

In May, investigators served a search warrant at the home of his uncle, Richard Allen Welch Sr., in the 4700 block of Baltimore Avenue in Hyattsville. He remains a person of interest in the case of the two girls.

Prosecutors said Wednesday said 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.

“If this helps the Lyon family, this is a happy day for me,” said John McCarthy, the state’s attorney from Montgomery County, at the press conference. The Lyon girls’ parents “are wonderful, wonderful people who have suffered an unimaginable loss. They would like to have closure and know what happened to their daughters and have the people responsible held accountable.”

Authorities said the investigation continues in Maryland and Virginia, and other charges are possible. While investigators have not found the girls’ bodies, that search continues.

In February, investigators said they believed the girls were taken by the convicted sex offender and later sexually assaulted by his uncle, according to court documents.

The information was contained in search warrants executed as Montgomery County Police, the FBI and sheriff’s deputies searched for traces of sisters Sheila Lyon, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10, of Wheaton on Taylor’s Mountain in Bedford County, VA. The area is the one-time home for both Welch men, authorities said, and two searches of the region have been done.

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.

“Our department and our partners in Virginia remain committed to determining what happened to Katherine and Sheila Lyon,” saidMontgomery Police Chief J. Thomas Manger in February 2015. “We believe that there are people, including family members of Dick and Lloyd Welch, who have information that would further this investigation.”

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.

Investigators believe Richard Welch owned property at Taylor’s Mountain in the Thaxton area of Bedford County, WJLA TV reports.

Montgomery County Assistant Police Chief Russ Hamill Hamill said previously he thinks “there’s a good chance” the girls are on the mountain.

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

Earlier Patch Coverage:

• Investigators Return to Mountain in 40-Year Search for Lyon Sisters
• Missing Lyon Sisters: Police Search Virginia Mountain for Remains
• Missing Lyon Sisters: Second Person of Interest Named
• Lyon Sisters Cold Case: Carnival Ride Operator Named Person of Interest
• Sex Offender Admits Taking Lyon Sisters: Court Records