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Thread: Lloyd Lee Welch, Jr. Sentenced to 2 Forty-Eight Year Terms for 1975 VA Slayings of Sheila Lyon and Katherine Lyon

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  1. #1
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    Lloyd Lee Welch, Jr. Sentenced to 2 Forty-Eight Year Terms for 1975 VA Slayings of Sheila Lyon and Katherine Lyon


    Katherine (left) and Sheila Lyon have been missing since 1975.
    Sheila Lyon was 12, her sister Katherine 10, when they vanished.



    Person of interest: Lloyd Lee Welch, 57 (left, around the time the girls disappeared and, right, in a recent mugshot), was at the mall the day the girls vanished and was seen paying attention to them.


    Richard Allen Welch, Sr.


    Forensic dig underway in 1975 missing sisters cold case

    BEDFORD, Va. -- A task force including an FBI evidence recovery team is conducting a forensic dig on a central Virginia mountain in hopes of finding out what happened to two sisters who vanished 40 years ago, officials said Monday.

    Sheila Lyon, 12, and her sister Katherine, 10, were last seen walking to the Wheaton Plaza mall in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Wheaton, Md., from their home in nearby Kensington in 1975. They were never seen again.

    Two persons of interest -- Delaware inmate Lloyd Lee Welch, Jr., and his uncle Richard Allen Welch Sr., -- were announced in the case last year. Police said Welch, Jr. was seen at the mall that day, and Welch, Sr. was a security guard in the Wheaton area when the girls disappeared.

    Welch Sr. is also believed to own or have owned property on Taylor's Mountain in Bedford County, Va., where investigators are focusing their search. The remote area between Roanoke and Lynchburg is more than 230 miles southwest of where the young sisters vanished.

    The mountain has been the subject of searches in recent months. During a Monday morning press conference, Bedford County, Virginia sheriff Mike Brown said certain information and evidence led investigators to concentrate on specific areas on the mountain that would be the subject of a forensic dig expected to last two days.

    Brown wouldn't specify what led the team there, but he said they "hope to" to find human remains.

    "The investigative work of this task force...will be as tenacious as humanly possible with the target of locating these children and providing the parents closure in this nightmare that no parents should be forced to endure," Brown said.

    The dig sites have become "locations of interest" based on joint investigations through the Bedford County Sheriff's Office, Montgomery County Maryland police department, the Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney's office and the Virginia State Police, Brown said.

    "Our mission focus is to bring these children home if at all possible," said Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz. "This case will be resolved."

    In October, a special grand jury was impaneled by the Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney's office to begin hearing evidence and testimony in the case. The grand jury -- which is comprised of jurors from Bedford and surrounding Virginia counties -- is still hearing evidence in the case.

    In December, the grand jury charged the wife of Richard Allen Welch, Sr. of lying to them. Patricia Welch, 65, of Hyattsville, Md. was charged with perjury.

    Witnesses placed Lloyd Lee Welch, Jr. at the mall and said he was playing close attention to the girls, reports WUSA9. In 1998, the 57-year-old Welch Jr. pleaded guilty to unrelated sex offenses in Delaware, where he is serving time, reported the Washington Post. He has reportedly denied any involvement in the sisters' disappearances.

    Richard Allen Welch Sr., is believed to be over 70 years old. Police believe Welch Sr. was a security guard in the Wheaton area when the girls disappeared.

    Officials said in October he's still alive and police know where he is, though they wouldn't comment on his location.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lyon-sis...ers-cold-case/
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    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Welch Could Get Death Penalty in Lyon Sisters Case

    Bedford, VA – The charges against Lloyd Welch, Jr., accused of the 1975 murders of the Lyon sisters, make him eligible for the death penalty. Bedford County Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Krantz said he has not decided whether to seek the death penalty when Welch goes to trial.

    A trial date is tentatively set for November 24, but is expected to be postponed. Krantz said he is ready to take the case to trial, but defense counsel was just appointed for Welch.

    “I need an attorney”, said Welch to Circuit Court Judge James Updike during his attorney advisement hearing Thursday. Updike determined Welch met the financial requirements for court appointed counsel.

    Because Welch is charged with capital offenses, Updike was required by Virginia law to appoint two death penalty certified attorneys to represent Welch. Updike selected Roanoke attorneys Tony Anderson and Aaron Houchens.

    Houchens was present for the hearing and met privately with Welch after his client appeared before the judge.

    Welch is charged with two counts of first degree felony murder, not capital murder.

    "In 1975 the current or contemporary capital murder statues were not in place but there were certain forms of murder that carried the death penalty,” explained Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Krantz.

    “So the distinction is somewhat of a semantic in that is he is charged with first degree murder that carries capital punishment but it's not under the statute we have today called capital murder."

    Investigators believe Welch brought Sheila and Katherine Lyon to Taylor's Mountain in Thaxton in Spring 1975.

    Welch is being held in the regional jail in Amherst County.

    http://www.wset.com/story/30166999/w...n-sisters-case
    Last edited by CharlesMartel; 10-02-2015 at 12:32 AM. Reason: make it right

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    Police Take Evidence from MD Home in Lyon Sisters Case

    Prince George's Co., MD - Investigators took evidence from a Maryland home Tuesday as they continue to get to the bottom of what happened to the Lyon sisters.

    The FBI previously said Lloyd Welch, Jr. told police he was living in the house in on Baltimore Ave. in Hyattsville in Spring 1975, around the time Sheila Lyon, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10, disappeared from a Montgomery Co., MD shopping center. Public records show Welch's father and stepmother lived in the home.

    Montgomery County, Maryland Police Captain Darren Francke told ABC 13 it was the second search of that property. Francke would not specifically say what evidence was recovered. Francke said his department continues to work with federal, Maryland, and Virginia law enforcement partners.

    Welch was indicted on two counts of first degree felony murder for the girls' deaths. He appeared in Bedford County Circuit Court last week. His trial is scheduled for next month, but will most likely be postponed according to the attorneys involved. Welch could face the death penalty.

    Investigators have conducted numerous forensic digs on Taylor's Mountain in Thaxton since September 2014. Search warrants indicate they suspect Welch burned the girls' bodies on his family's property on the mountain.

    http://wset.com/news/local/police-ta...n-sisters-case

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    Hearing Next Week in Lloyd Welch, Jr. Case

    Bedford, VA - The man accused of the 1975 murders of two Maryland sisters will be back in a Bedford County courtroom next week.

    A motions hearing is set for November 17 in the Lloyd Welch, Jr. case.

    We anticipate his defense team will ask the judge to postpone the trial, which is set to begin November 24.

    Welch is charged with two counts of 1st degree felony murder for the deaths of Katherine Lyon, 10, and Sheila Lyon, 12. Investigators suspect he disposed of their bodies on Taylor's Mountain in Thaxton.

    If convicted Welch could get the death penalty.

    Three other Welch family members have court appearances scheduled in Bedford next Wednesday. Leslie Engelking has a preliminary hearing on a perjury charge. Engelking is the brother-in-law of Richard Welch, Lloyd Welch Jr.'s uncle and person of interest in the case. Richard Welch's sister Gladys Stangee and his granddaughter Amy Ann Welch Johnson will have hearings on obstruction of justice charges. The three are accused of either lying to the grand jury or police investigating the case.

    http://wset.com/news/local/hearing-n...-welch-jr-case

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    Lyon Sisters: Trial Delayed for Suspect in 1975 Murders

    The trial of a convicted sex offender charged with the 1975 abduction and murder of two Montgomery County girls has been postponed until spring.

    Lloyd Lee Welch Jr., 58, had been scheduled to stand trial Nov. 24 in Bedford County, VA, WTOP reports. But his attorneys are relatively new to the case, and needed time to sort through the evidence, both sides said.

    Welch’s trial is now scheduled to begin March 15, 2016. He could receive the death penalty, if convicted.

    Welch, who is locked up in a Delaware prison, was indicted July 10 with the first-degree felony murder of sisters Sheila Lyon, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10, of Wheaton. The girls were last seen walking home from a mall in March 1975. Their bodies have never been found.

    His uncle, Richard Allen Welch Sr. of Hyattsville, was named a person of interest in the disappearance of the Lyon sisters from Wheaton. The elder Welch has denied any wrongdoing in the case.

    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.

    Prosecutors said in July 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.

    The information was contained in search warrants executed as Montgomery County Police, the FBI and sheriff’s deputies searched for traces of the sisters 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.

    According to affidavits unsealed in the case, a relative of Lloyd Welch told police that in the spring of 1975 he came by unexpectedly with a duffle bag of bloody clothes that he wanted the relative to launder, reports WUSA.

    A cousin, Henry Parker, also told detectives he helped Lloyd Welch burn two 60- to 70-pound duffle bags stained red and smelling of decay, reports The Washington Post citing a search warrant. The bags smelled like “death,” Parker said in court documents.

    Parker told the Post in a phone interview that he didn’t know what was in the bags that were burned. He told the newspaper he didn’t see the Lyon sisters.

    Pursuing All Leads

    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.

    Authorities said the investigation continues in Maryland and Virginia, and other charges are possible.

    “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.

    Capt. Darren Franke, head of the Major Crimes Unit of the Montgomery County Police, said previously that members of the Welch family and others will be investigated further.

    “I believe there’s someone out there that knows a lot more than they’ve shared so far,” Franke said. “I believe they’re waiting for the right reason to come forward.”

    If people have a lead, they can call (434) 534-9521 or email cybertip@ncmec.org.

    http://patch.com/maryland/bethesda-c...t-1975-murders

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    Trial for Lloyd Welch pushed back to October----The trial was scheduled to begin in March

    The man charged with murder in the Lyon sisters case appeared in Bedford County court Friday.

    A judge granted a motion delaying the start of the trial for Lloyd Welch to October 18. The trial was scheduled to begin in March.

    Lloyd Welch is charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree felony murder, as well as abduction with the intent to defile. Sheila and Katherine Lyon disappeared from a D.C.-area mall in 1975.

    Investigators believe the Lyon sisters were brought to Bedford County after being kidnapped.

    Welch was in court for the hearing. He sat quietly and wore a jail-issued jumpsuit.

    The judge also granted motions allowing for an expert criminal investigator, a mental health expert, and a mitigation specialist.

    A gag order was also placed on everyone involved in the case.

    The commonwealth is asking for the death penalty.

    http://www.wdbj7.com/news/local/tria...tober/37712096

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