Lies, Bloody Crime Scene, Killer's Interview In Lyon Sisters Case

WHEATON, MD — A year and six months after a convicted sex offender was sentenced for the kidnapping and murder of two Montgomery County sisters, a new look at the four-decade investigation has released new details about the crime scene, the killer, and the dysfunctional family involved in their deaths.

In a lengthy article published Monday, The Washington Post lends insight into the mind of Lloyd Lee Michael Welch — who pleaded guilty to the crime in 2017 — and what led a determined squad of detectives to a bloodied basement hangout and what, eventually, helped solve the mystery.

On March 25, 1975, 12-year-old Sheila and 10-year-old Kate Lyon vanished while at Wheaton Plaza. Detectives interviewed numerous witnesses and followed various tips. Hundreds searched stretches of woods for the sisters, but they did not turn up. The bodies of the missing girls have never been found, and the case laid cold for more than 40 years.

Washington Post reporter Mark Bowden recently interviewed Welch, who at first demanded $5,000 to talk, but later spoke to Bowden without conditions. While Welch denied harming the girls, he said his uncle Richard Welch Sr., a uniformed mall security guard, lured them. Richard Welch has denied all involvement in the case and has not been charged.

SEE MORE:

• Lyon Sisters Murders: Minister, Relatives Blamed In Kidnappings
• Bags Burned Smelled Like 'Death' Says Lyon Sisters Witness
• Sex Offender Indicted in Missing Lyon Sisters' Case
• 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

Periodically, a new team of detectives would re-examine the case, and Detective Chris Homrock came across an unfamiliar file. The file, according to the newspaper, was a six-page transcript of a statement by Welch, who was 18 at the time.

The Post said that Welch, a long-haired teenager with drug and alcohol problems, had contacted Montgomery County Police on April 1, 1975, and said he had witnessed the sisters' abduction. At the time, officers reportedly dismissed Welch's overly detailed account as an attempt to collect a reward.

Detective Dave Davis and Montgomery Deputy State's Attorney Pete Feeney traveled with Homrock in 2013 to a Delaware prison, where Welch is serving a 33-year sentence for molesting a 10-year-old girl.

Detectives were investigating under the assumption that Welch had witnessed, or had a role, in the abduction by a pedophile named Ray Mileski, according to The Post. During the interrogation session, Homrock asked what Welch thought Mileski did to the Lyon sisters.

"Well, my opinion is that he killed 'em and raped 'em; he killed 'em and he probably burned 'em. I don't know," Welch said, according to the newspaper.

"Who says 'burned them'?" asked Feeney.

During later sessions, Welch admitted that he had helped kidnap Sheila and Kate but said that the crime had been planned and carried out by various relatives, The Post reported.

In 2014, detectives began investigating Welch's family, which had branches in Hyattsville, Md. and in the rural area of Thaxton, Va., a place the locals called Taylor's Mountain.

According to affidavits in the case, a relative of Welch told police that in the spring of 1975 he came by the house on Taylor's Mountain unexpectedly with a duffle bag of bloody clothes that he wanted the relative to launder, WUSA9 reported.

In another story published by The Post, a cousin, Henry Parker, also told detectives that he helped Welch burn two 60- to 70-pound duffle bags stained red and smelling of decay. The bags smelled like "death," Parker said in court documents.

While police had checked several Welch family members' homes, it was a house at 4714 Baltimore Ave. — the home where Welch's father, Lee, and his wife, Edna, had lived — that Davis visited and it matched every story Welch told detectives about a basement hangout with an exterior entry.

A forensics team using a blood-detection spray under a blue light in the back room of the basement found traces of blood "from floor to ceiling," The Post wrote. "It lit up like a murder scene. Someone or something had been slaughtered in this room."

Davis believed the sisters had been drugged, raped and imprisoned; and at least one of them had been killed and dismembered at the site.

On Sept. 12, 2017, Welch pleaded guilty to felony murder in Bedford, Va., to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to 48 years in prison.

Read the full story on The Washington Post website.

Sheila and Katherine Lyon were the daughters of WMAL radio broadcaster John Lyon and his wife, Mary. After Welch pleaded guilty, members of the Lyon family thanked all of the members of law enforcement who helped close the case.

John Lyon saluted the Montgomery County Police Department's Cold Case Unit for its "tremendous display of professionalism" in pursuing the 42-year-old case, and for making "a beautiful emotional investment in the case, and our family."

John McCarthy, the Montgomery County State's Attorney, said the Lyon family "is part of the fabric of Montgomery County," noting that John and Mary Lyon's son, Jay, is an officer with the Police Department.

John Lyon has served the county as a victim-witness coordinator, helping other families even after the disappearance of his two daughters, McCarthy said. "John and his family, they needed this resolution."

McCarthy also thanked the department's Cold Case Unit and Virginia authorities. "We are forever grateful to the people of Bedford County for the work they've done" on the case, he said.