Post by Joanna on Jul 8, 2014 20:19:58 GMT -5
New Person of Interest in Disappearance of Sheila and Katherine Lyon
KENSINGTON, Md. – A convicted child sex offender has emerged as a person of interest in the presumed killings of two young sisters who vanished from a suburban Washington shopping mall nearly 40 years ago, Maryland police said.
Chief J. Thomas Manger with the Montgomery County Police Department announced at a press conference that Lloyd Lee Welch, also known as Michael Welch, is now the primary person of interest in the 1975 disappearance of 12-year-old Sheila Lyon (above left) and her 10-year-old sister Katherine. Welch is the second convicted sex offender to emerge over the decades as a target of investigators on the case.
The disappearance of the Lyon sisters sparked widespread media coverage in the years since their disappearance. Both are presumed dead, though extensive searches over the years have failed to lead to their bodies.
Manger said Welch was identified as a suspect during a recent reexamination of the cold case file. The chief declined to elaborate and wouldn't say why Welch wasn't investigated sooner. "I'm not going to talk about how we got any information," Manger said.
Welch in 1975 and drawing of suspect
The Lyon girls' disappearance is rooted in the events of March 25, 1975. Around 11 a.m. that day, the girls left their Kensington home and walked to nearby Wheaton Plaza, a popular suburban shopping center. Wheaton Plaza is now the Westfield Wheaton mall. The sisters were off school for spring break at the time and wanted to look at Easter exhibits in the mall. They had about $4 between them.
According to a March 25, 1980, article in The Washington Post, the girls were told by their parents, prominent radio disc jockey John Lyon and his wife Mary, to return home by 4 p.m. Around 2 o’clock, the girls were spotted by witnesses at the Orange Bowl, a pizza shop that was part of a popular chain at the time. What happened to them after that remains a mystery.
According to Manger, authorities have placed Welch at the shopping center on the day the girls disappeared. "Investigators have established the fact that Welch was at Wheaton Plaza on March 25, 1975," the chief said. "They've also established that Welch was observed paying attention to the Lyon sisters while at Wheaton Plaza."
Source: David Lohr, The Huffington Post, March 27, 2014.