Murders of Katherine and Sheila Lyon

Katherine and Sheila Lyon were born in Kensington, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., John and Mary Lyon. The girls were two of four children and the only girls born to their parents, with an older brother, Jay, and a younger brother, Joseph, completing the family. The Lyon children lived in a close, middle-class household on Plyers Mill Road;[10][11] their father was a well-known and popular radio personality at WMAL-FM, a local radio station operated by the then-owner of ABC affiliate WMAL-TV (now WJLA-TV) and the now-defunct Washington Star.[12][n 1]

By 1975, the oldest Lyon sibling, Jay, was 15-years-old; the youngest sibling, Joseph, was nine. Sheila was 12-years-old, and Katherine ten. Both sisters were days away from celebrating their thirteenth and eleventh birthdays.[3]

March 25, 1975, was the second day of school spring vacation; as such, the four Lyon children woke at approximately 10 a.m. Shortly after eating breakfast, the Lyon brothers visited a local basketball court; Katherine and Sheila opted to walk to the Wheaton Plaza shopping center (now Westfield Wheaton) to browse Easter exhibits and meet friends who frequently socialized at this location.[13] Upon hearing of her daughters' plans, Mary Lyon suggested: "Why don't you stop off and get some pizza?"[14]

The girls left their home between 11 a.m. and midday; each had approximately $2 to her name, and both were told to be home by their 4 p.m. curfew. At the insistence of a friend, Mary Lyon later visited a bowling alley; she was driven to the bowling alley by her husband, who — working a night shift — woke at midday.[15]

The Wheaton Plaza shopping center, seen here in 1965. Katherine and Sheila Lyon were abducted from this shopping center in 1975.

The Lyon family themselves immediately pursued all tangible methods to locate their daughters, including conducting searches around their neighborhood, and printing and distributing missing persons flyers in addition to pursuing leads generated by psychics. Both the family and police received numerous calls from hoax callers, attention-seekers and extortionists claiming to be holding the girls for ransom in the immediate aftermath of their disappearance. One of these calls was received from an anonymous male caller on April 4, 1975; this individual demanded that John Lyon leave a briefcase with $10,000 (the equivalent of about $57,068 as of 2023)[23] inside an Annapolis courthouse restroom. With approval from police, the girls' father left $101 (the equivalent of about $576 as of 2023)[23] inside the briefcase as directed by law enforcement officials,[n 2] but the briefcase was never claimed. This individual later called John and said he had seen too many police around the courthouse and thus did not attempt to retrieve the ransom. In response, John said he would only follow further instructions if he heard his daughters' voices. This anonymous caller never attempted to re-initiate contact.[24]

A neighborhood boy known to both sisters reported to police that he had seen the girls outside the Orange Bowl speaking with an unidentified man, approximately six feet in height, well-groomed, conservatively dressed, aged between 50 and 60 and wearing a brown suit, sat upon a bench outside the eatery at approximately 1 p.m.[14] This man was carrying a briefcase with a tape recorder inside, and according to this witness, both the Lyon sisters and other children present spoke into a microphone the man was holding, believing their voices were to be broadcast live upon a local radio station.[14] The witness's description of the man carrying a briefcase outside the eatery led authorities to view the unknown person as a prime suspect in the case; he became colloquially referred to by investigators as the "tape recorder man." Two composite drawings of this individual were created.[25]

A friend of the sisters — a girl who was in their age bracket — also described to detectives how a young, long-haired man within the mall had stared at the sisters so long and so intently that she had confronted him. This sighting occurred at approximately the same time as the sisters and other children spoke into the older man's microphone. A police sketch artist also created a composite drawing based on this eyewitnesses description; this depicted a white male in his late teens or early 20s, approximately 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m), with acne on his face, scars on his left cheek, and wearing a light-colored Peters Jacket.[24] The description from the friend contrasted sharply with the initial, middle-aged suspect. Aside from the major differences in facial features, hair and clothing, the young male leering at the sisters and the middle-aged man encouraging children to speak into his microphone were several decades apart in age.[26]

Composite drawing of the younger suspect seen leering at the Lyon sisters in the shopping center on the afternoon of their disappearance

The composite drawing of the younger male suspect, however, appears not to have been widely disseminated as investigators devoted greater focus upon tracing the middle-aged man holding the tape recorder. Nonetheless, investigators followed subsequent public reports from several individuals who said they recognized either or both of the individuals within the composite drawings.[8][27]

Welch was interviewed at a nearby police station; he provided a six-page statement detailing the account he had outlined and consented to a polygraph test. When informed he had failed this test, Welch admitted he had provided false information. Contemporary case documents indicate he was released by police as an unreliable witness—[8] possibly motivated by a desire to collect the publicized reward money for the arrest of the individual investigators considered a strong suspect in the case.[21][30]

A one-page report was placed on top of the transcript of Welch's statement, with the words "polygraph (lied)" written atop the document;[24] this document was filed among the voluminous records compiled by investigators pertaining to the investigation[31] and remained accessible only via a search of police records.[8]

Despite intense investigative efforts, the disappearance of the Lyon sisters gradually became a cold case, although police inquiries remained active, with the middle-aged individual seen with the tape recorder a primary focus of interest. By the early 1980s, the Montgomery County Police Department continued to receive over a dozen annual public tips; although each was investigated, none of these leads bore fruit.[22]

In March 1987, a child molester named Fred Howard Coffey briefly became a serious suspect in the Lyon sisters' disappearance following his conviction for the molestation of three North Carolina children and learning of his impending trial for the July 1979 molestation, beating, and fatal strangulation of ten-year-old Amanda Marie Ray in Charlotte, North Carolina.[34]

Via researching Coffey's movements, authorities discovered he had been in Montgomery County in the week following the Lyon sisters' disappearance. In addition, Coffey is known to have attracted the initial attention of several of his victims using devices such as metal detectors and fishing rods to initiate conversation and gain their trust. Although Coffey was younger than the middle-aged individual described by eyewitnesses as initiating conversation with the Lyon sisters and others via his tape recorder, the method of ensnaring children via this modus operandi piqued investigators' interest.[35]

Although authorities were able to establish Coffey had been employed as a computer data employee at an Aspen Hill firm between April 24 and July 31, 1975, and that he had been interviewed for this position on April 1, investigators were unable to determine his whereabouts on March 25.[34] Ultimately, investigators were unable to establish any definitive link between Coffey and the sisters' disappearance. He was never charged in relation to the case.[36]

Initially, investigators feared that Welch would refuse to speak with them; however, on the first day of formal interview, Welch spoke for many hours — beginning his conversation with the statement: "I know why you're here; you're here about those two missing kids."[20] In response, Detective David Davis placed a photograph of the Lyon sisters before Welch, stating: "These two little girls here have never been found, and their parents are damn near eighty years old and have no idea what happened to their daughters; that's why we're here to talk to you."[38]

Welch acknowledged observing the sisters near the shopping center on the date of their disappearance in this initial interview, although he denied being present within the premises; he expanded his admission to claim to have seen "a guy putting two girls in the back of a car. It didn't look right ... one of 'em was crying." Shown a photograph of Raymond Mileski Sr., Welch insisted he was the individual he had seen abducting the Lyon sisters. Asked his personal opinion as to what fate he believed had befallen the girls, Welch replied: "My opinion is that [Mileski] killed 'em and raped 'em ... he probably burned 'em. I don't know."[20]

In his second interview with investigators, Welch acknowledged observing the girls leave the shopping center. He further elaborated he had known Mileski, and that the children had been taken to Mileski's home, where they had been "drugged up", molested and murdered by Mileski and two other individuals he claimed in this second interview not to know.[38]

Raymond Rudolph Mileski Sr. (b. 1936), a resident of Suitland, Maryland, at the time of the sisters' disappearance, was a known child sex trafficker who lived close to the Lyon family in 1975. Mileski had been convicted of the November 1977 shooting deaths of his 35-year-old wife, Delores, and 17-year-old son, Raymond Jr. in addition to wounding his youngest son following a heated domestic argument. He was convicted sentenced to forty years in prison for these offenses.[11]

Contemporary eyewitness accounts of the individual with the tape recorder in the Wheaton Plaza shopping center and considered a likely suspect in the Lyon sisters' abduction indicated the man walked with a slight limp — as had Mileski. Furthermore, Mileski closely resembled the composite drawing. This information, coupled with Mileski's known history of child sexual abuse, had made him a strong contemporary suspect. Based on information later given to authorities by prison informants and Mileski's own subsequent claims to hold knowledge regarding the Lyon sisters' abduction, which he offered to share with investigators in exchange for more favorable prison conditions, authorities searched his former residence in early April 1982, although no evidence was discovered. Mileski died in prison in 2010.[40]

In February 2014, investigators formally named Lloyd Lee Welch as a person of interest in the case. Investigators revealed Welch, who was eighteen years old in 1975, was an Appalachian native with a violent temper whose family lived insular lifestyles and frequently engaged in incest — both consensual and unconsensual.[42] Welch himself had been raised in both foster care and, later, by his father after his mother had been killed in a drink driving accident caused by his own father, whom he claimed had repeatedly molested him as a child.[43]

Between the mid-1970s and the 1990s, Welch had traveled extensively throughout the United States via his employment as a ride operator for a carnival company. Investigators also revealed that, although physically attracted to adult females, Welch had a sexual penchant for adolescent female children,[42] and that he had been arrested and convicted of the rape of underage girls in three states in the years following the Lyon sisters' disappearance.[44]

On September 20, 2014, police searched a forest in Thaxton, Virginia and Welch's deceased father's residence in Hyattsville, Maryland, in response to claims Welch had made two months previous to having witnessed his father and uncle rape one of the sisters and dismember the other in the basement of the property. According to Welch, the remains of at least one of the sisters were placed inside a large duffel bag, which he was then instructed to destroy.[48] Several items were seized in the search of the property, and the layout of rooms of interest perfectly matched that described by Welch in his statements.[49] Although luminol testing inside the floors and outer walls of the basement proved negative, the rear room of the household basement revealed extensive traces of blood from the floorboards to the ceiling, indicating a human, humans or an animal had at one point been slaughtered in this location. Further DNA testing revealed the bloodstains to be of human origin, although the samples were in such an advanced state of degraded no possible genealogical analysis tests could be conducted.[50] Also discovered were several small degraded bone fragments.[51] These developments proved sufficient to charge Welch with the murders.[2]

In December 2014, Welch's cousin, Henry Parker, informed detectives that he had met Welch at a family property on Taylors Mountain Road in Thaxton, Virginia, in 1975. According to Parker, he had helped remove two army-style duffel bags from Welch's vehicle; each covered in red stains, weighing "about 60 or 70 pounds and [smelling] like death".[52] Without questioning Welch as to their contents, Parker threw the bags into a fire.[8]

Sections of Parker's account were corroborated by a cousin of Welch named Connie Akers who informed investigators that at one point in 1975, she — then a teenager — witnessed Welch and his pregnant partner, Helen Craver, arriving at this property with a bulging "army green duffel bag" emanating a pungent odor he had claimed sourced from spoiled beef.[51] Akers also stated she had been asked by Welch to assist in washing two bags of bloodstained clothing but she had refused.[53] Although the FBI's evidence recovery team conducted a forensic search of the mountain, no human remains beyond a single tooth were found; this tooth was later lost.[54]

Via a plea bargain in which he admitted to participating in the girls' abduction, but not to their sexual assault and murder, Welch pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder on September 12, 2017. He was held accountable for the children's deaths at this hearing because although he denied killing the girls, the sisters died in the commission of abductions with "the intent to defile".[47]

Welch was prosecuted in Bedford County (approximately 320km southwest of Washington) because authorities believe the children's bodies are most likely buried in this location.[50] Via a prior agreement with the Lyon family, the prosecution had agreed not to seek the death penalty in return for Welch's guilty plea on the understanding this plea would spare the family years of litigated pleas against the sentence.[5] The sisters' parents — both 77-years-old — and their brothers were all present at this hearing.[47]

Beyond speaking to enter his plea of guilty, Welch refused to speak throughout these hearings. This refusal included an offer by Judge James Updike Jr. to formally address the Lyon family.[5] He received two concurrent 48-year sentences in relation to two counts of first-degree murder;[7] he also received a concurrent 12-year sentence relating to two unrelated sexual assaults committed against children in Northern Virginia.[30] As per statutory requirements, upon Welch's completion of his prison term in Delaware in 2026, he will be transferred to Virginia to begin serving his formal sentence for his convictions in this state.[5]

As the sisters' abduction and murder was committed in 1975, prior to the passing of truth-in-sentencing laws, a possibility exists Welch may become eligible for parole by the time he reaches his mid-80s; however, officials have stated the chances of Welch being grated parole are slim to none.[58]

• Bowden, Mark (2019). The Last Stone. New York City: Grove Atlantic. ISBN 978-0-802-14731-8.
• Bowden, Mark (2020). The Last Stone: A Masterpiece of Criminal Interrogation. New York City: Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-0-802-14891-9.

• The documentary Who Killed the Lyon Sisters? is directly based upon the disappearance of Katherine and Sheila Lyon, the investigation to identity the person(s) responsible for their abduction and efforts to locate their remains. Directed by Aaron Bowden (the son of journalist and writer Mark Bowden) and broadcast upon Investigation Discovery, this documentary was released in November 2020[61][62] and received several awards at the 2021 annual Telly Awards, including Best Documentary.[63][64]