Lyon Sisters Murders: Suspect Faces Abduction Claims From 2 Survivors

Prosecutors say 2 women will testify a man charged in the murders of the Lyon sisters from Wheaton tried to abduct them in 1975.

By Deb Belt
The Bethesda Patch

WHEATON, MD – As prosecutors release documents ahead of the April 2017 trial of a convicted sex offender charged with the 1975 kidnapping and murder of two Montgomery County sisters from a Wheaton mall, witnesses are listed who will testify that the suspect tried to abduct at least two other women that year. Sheila Lyon, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10, were last seen walking home from the mall in March 1975. Their bodies have never been found.

Prosecutors in Montgomery County have charged Lloyd Lee Michael Welch Jr., who is locked up in a Delaware prison, with the first-degree felony murder of the girls. A judge recently ruled that Welch can face the death penalty when his case goes to trial.

Welch will go on trial in April 2017 in Bedford County, Virginia, for the sisters’ murders. When he does go to trial, prosecutors may ask for the death penalty, a Bedford County judge ruled on Jan. 24. The judge also decided Welch breached an immunity agreement with Maryland prosecutors by changing his story multiple times; the defense said statements Welch made to police in Maryland should not be admissible during his trial, but they will be allowed.

Prosecutors say in documents posted by WSET-TV that if Welch is convicted, two women will testify during the sentencing phase that in 1975 they got into Welch's car near the mall. The Associated Press reports the women sensed they were in danger and had rolled down the car windows "to avoid abduction."

Montgomery County authorities believe the Lyon sisters were taken to Taylor’s Mountain in the rural Virginia county – where members of the Welch family live and own land – and their bodies burned and hidden. In February 2015, investigators said they believed the girls were taken by the convicted sex offender and later sexually assaulted by his uncle, Richard Welch Sr., according to court documents. Investigators have searched for traces of the sisters in Bedford County. The area is the one-time home for both Welch men, authorities said.

The elder Welch has been named a person of interest in the case, and has consistently denied any wrongdoing. He has not been charged in the Lyon case.

Investigators have repeatedly said they suspect Lloyd Welch’s relatives of knowing about his actions or those of his uncle, Richard Allen Welch Sr. of Hyattsville. The elder Welch has not been charged in the case, and his daughter says that her father is innocent.

Patricia Ann Welch said that several extended family members who live in the Bedford County, Virginia, area have lied to the grand jury. A conspiracy to hide the fate of the Lyon sisters was formed in 1975 when relatives at Taylor’s Mountain failed to report what happened, she said.

“Yes, he did it, I think he did it 100 percent,” Patricia Ann Welch of Hyattsville, the daughter of Patricia and Richard, told WTOP and The Washington Post in July 2016 of the charge against her cousin. “Lloyd has done it to other people, that’s what he’s in jail for. Lloyd has molested other kids. I think he’s implicating my dad because he’s the only one left alive.”

Patricia Ann Welch said there is no way her father abused the sisters; she would have been 8 years old at the time the Lyon girls were taken and told WTOP she saw nothing amiss in her family home.

At least 10 detectives have spent hours talking to Lloyd Welch, along with dozens of people who are potential witnesses. His attorney said that the investigation has yielded more than 1,900 pages of transcripts from police interviews, more than 29,000 electronic files that cover wire-tap information, interview notes, audio recordings and video recordings, and an additional 1,600 PDFs that go back to 1975, reports The Washington Post.

The prosecution acknowledged the vast amount of material that attorneys have to go through to prepare for trial, and the judge granted the request for a new trial date.

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