Sex offender charged with murder of 2 sisters in 1975 case.

[elleng]

Forty years after two young sisters vanished from a suburban Maryland mall, an imprisoned sex offender has been charged with murder, authorities said Wednesday, bringing some clarity to a baffling case that made parents afraid to let their children out of the house.

Lloyd Michael Welch Jr., 58, told authorities he was with the girls when they were abducted in March 1975 but denied any role in their deaths. Sheila Lyon, 12, and Katharine Lyon, 10, had walked a few blocks from their house to the Wheaton Plaza Mall to shop for Easter decorations and eat lunch. They never came home.

After decades of investigating leads and periodically identifying suspects, a break in the case came in 2013, according to an affidavit. A cold-case detective uncovered an interview that Welch gave to police in 1975. The detective compared a photo of Welch to a composite sketch from a witness who saw someone following the girls at the mall, and he saw "a strong likeness," the affidavit said.

Welch, who is serving a lengthy prison term in Delaware, was indicted by a grand jury in Bedford County, Virginia, on Friday on two charges of first-degree felony murder, though the girls' bodies were never found. The indictment, unsealed Wednesday, says the murders were committed during an abduction with intent to defile.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b4f144a821f14557a19e91eb01650483/police-development-1975-case-missing-maryland-sisters

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. I was just about to post that. From the WaPo:

Imprisoned sex offender indicted for murder in 1975 Lyon sisters case

Public Safety
By Dan Morse July 15 at 3:52 PM

In 1975, Lloyd Lee Welch pulled up to a relative’s home along a steep hillside in Virginia, 200 miles southwest of suburban Washington. He carried two duffel bags, each weighing about 60 or 70 pounds, that had red stains and an odor of decay. A fire was built. The bags were thrown into it.

The account, as alleged in a search warrant affidavit unsealed Wednesday in Bedford County, Va., appears to be one of the most compelling pieces of evidence that police believe ties Welch to the long-ago disappearance of Sheila Lyon, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10. The girls went missing 40 years ago after walking to Wheaton Plaza shopping mall to look at Easter decorations and see their friends. Their bodies were never found.

The crime remains an indelible memory for many Montgomery County residents, for whom it was never again safe to leave their young children alone.

On Wednesday, authorities said Welch, an imprisoned child sex offender, has been charged in Bedford County with murdering the sisters during the course of an abduction. While authorities said the investigation continues, the charges are a dramatic development in the long-unsolved case.

Lloyd Welch Jr. Indicted for Felony 1st Degree Murder, Abduction with Intent to Defile

Posted: Jul 13, 2015 4:35 PM EDT
Updated: Jul 15, 2015 3:38 PM EDT

By Kelly Gray Bio

Wheaton, Md - Lloyd Lee Welch, Jr has been indicted on first degree felony murder charges.

Welch told authorities he was with the sisters when they were abducted. He denied any role in their deaths.

12-year-old Sheila and 10-year-old Katharine had walked from their home to the Wheaton Plaza Mall.

They never came home and their bodies were not found.

[brer cat]

2. That was a horrid case.

I don't know if there is enough evidence for a conviction, but if he was involved he needs to be tried for their murder.

[elleng]

3. I suspect that as it's taken this long

and they indicted him, there IS enough evidence for a conviction.

[brer cat]

4. I sure hope that is the case.

I think it is very difficult when there is no body, but certainly cases have been won.

btw I lived in Arlington, VA, at the time and followed the case closely. My heart goes out to the family. They have never had closure and will probably never know what those poor girls endured. He is a very sick man.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Documents reveal grisly details of 1975 murders of Lyon sisters in Bedford County

Documents reveal grisly details of 1975 murders of Lyon sisters in Bedford County

Posted: Wednesday, July 15, 2015 12:21 pm
Eleanor Roy
[phone]
[e-mail]
Facebook: The News & Advance Crime and Public Safety Beat

Newly unsealed search warrant affidavits offer a glimpse for the first time of how authorities believe a 40-year-old Maryland cold case came to a grisly end on a remote mountain in Bedford County.

The affidavits were filed in Bedford County Circuit Court in January, but were sealed until Wednesday when authorities announced a Delaware prisoner was indicted on murder charges in connection with the 1975 disappearance of two Maryland girls.
....

The affidavits suggest the girls’ remains may have been burned in a fire on Taylors Mountain, detailing witness statements about duffle bags that smelled like “death” and bloodstained clothes.

According to the documents, family members said the items were brought to the mountain in the spring of 1975 by their cousin Lloyd Lee “Michael” Welch Jr., who was indicted Friday in Bedford County on murder charges in connection with the girls’ case.

[elleng]

6. AWFUL,

and TERRIBLE for the family. Can't imagine having this on one's mind for all these years, and now hearing confirmation of 'grisly' details.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. Bedford County, Virginia, authorities begin extradition process for suspect in Lyon sisters case

Bedford authorities begin extradition process for suspect in Lyon sisters case

Posted: Thursday, July 16, 2015 1:38 pm
Eleanor Roy
[phone]
[e-mail]
Facebook: The News & Advance Crime and Public Safety Beat

The Delaware prisoner facing murder charges in connection with a mysterious 40-year-old cold case is expected to be brought to Bedford County for a trial in the next two months, authorities said at a press conference Thursday.
....

Authorities from Montgomery County, Maryland, and Bedford County announced Welch's indictment at a press conference in Wheaton Wednesday and gave a more detailed picture of the case Thursday.

Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz said that Thursday morning he started the process of extraditing Welch from Delaware, where he is serving a lengthy sentence for child-sex crimes.
....

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce at [phone], or email the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at [e-mail].

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. Lyon sisters suspect told police girls likely were abducted, raped, burned

I'm beginning to think I should stop posting these updates, as they are getting increasingly worse.

Lyon sisters suspect told police girls likely were abducted, raped, burned

Public Safety

By Dan Morse July 21 at 9:54 PM 

Lloyd Lee Welch, the 58-year-old former carnival worker charged with murder in the 1975 disappearance of two young Maryland sisters, told investigators that he believed the girls were “abducted, raped and burned up,” according to a police affidavit filed in Virginia Circuit Court.

The affidavit, which was submitted to get a judge’s permission to search the Salem, Va., home of a cousin of Welch’s in January, offers new details about how detectives closed in on Welch, starting in 2013, in the decades-old disappearance of Sheila Lyon, 12, and her sister, Katherine, 10.

According to the affidavit, another cousin of Welch’s, Henry Parker, told detectives late last year that it had been known among family members in 1975 that Lloyd Welch had something to do with the girls’ disappearance in Maryland and was trying to get them to central Virginia before police caught up with him.
....

Last week, officials announced that Welch was indicted in Bedford County, Va., on two counts of first-degree murder. In an attempt to find evidence and the girls’ remains, authorities have conducted numerous searches in Maryland and Virginia — including in a rugged area of Virginia known as Taylors Mountain, where the Welch family has owned land.