The murder of Sheila Mary Lyon and Katherine Mary Lyon
Wheaton, Montgomery County, Maryland · 1975
Overview
Sheila Lyon, 12, and her sister Katherine Lyon, 10, vanished on March 25, 1975 after walking to the Wheaton Plaza shopping center in Wheaton, Montgomery County, Maryland, during their Easter school break. Their disappearance triggered one of the largest investigations in Washington-area history, but the case went cold for nearly four decades. The break came not from DNA but from a Montgomery County cold-case squad re-examining the original paper file: Detective Chris Homrock matched a 1977 burglary mugshot of a drifter named Lloyd Lee Welch to a 1975 composite sketch and rediscovered a six-page 1975 statement Welch had given that detectives had dismissed as a lie. Re-interviews of Welch beginning in 2013, family-witness testimony, 1970s eyewitness accounts, and physical evidence from the family property at Taylors Mountain in Bedford County, Virginia, built the case. Welch pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree felony murder on September 12, 2017 and was sentenced to 48 years; the girls' bodies have never been recovered.
How it was solved
The Lyon sisters case was solved through a documents-and-interviews reinvestigation, not forensic identification. When the Montgomery County Police Department's cold case squad reopened the file around 2013, Detective Chris Homrock reviewed every preserved record from the original investigation and noticed that a 1977 mugshot of Lloyd Lee Welch, taken after a burglary near Wheaton Plaza, closely matched the 1975 composite sketch of a young man witnesses had seen watching the girls at the mall. He then rediscovered a six-page statement Welch had given police on April 1, 1975 claiming to have witnessed the abduction, an account 1975 detectives had dismissed as an attention-seeking lie. Re-interviewed in October 2013 while imprisoned in Delaware for child molestation, Welch opened with 'I know why you're here,' admitted he had been at the mall, and over more than a dozen interviews gave shifting accounts implicating his own relatives. Investigators located 1970s eyewitnesses, obtained testimony from family members, including cousin Henry Parker, who described helping burn two blood-stained, decomposition-smelling duffel bags at the family property on Taylors Mountain in Bedford County, Virginia, and recovered degraded human bone fragments, a tooth, and charred wire at search sites. Critically, the physical remains and bloodstains were too degraded for DNA or genealogical testing, so the prosecution rested on Welch's partial admissions, witness accounts, and circumstantial evidence rather than any genetic match.
Sources
- Murders of Katherine and Sheila Lyon
“Detective Sergeant Chris Homrock noticed a mug shot taken of Welch in 1977 pertaining to a burglary closely matched the 1975 composite drawing of the young Caucasian man whom witnesses stated had leered at the Lyon girls.”
- Lies, Bloody Crime Scene, Killer's Interview In Lyon Sisters Case
“Welch responded: 'Well, my opinion is that he killed em and raped em; he killed em and he probably burned em.'”
- Welch pleads guilty to 1st-degree murder in 1975 Lyon sisters killings
“Cold case detectives focused on Welch beginning in 2013 after matching a composite sketch from 1975 to a 1977 mug shot of him from a burglary near Wheaton Plaza.”
- Lyon sisters case: Man pleads guilty to 1975 murders of 2 Maryland girls
“Welch pleaded guilty on Tuesday, September 12, 2017, in a Virginia court in Bedford to felony murder in the 1975 deaths of 12-year-old Sheila Lyon and 10-year-old Katherine Lyon.”
- Man convicted of killing Lyon sisters to start serving time for 1975 murders
“Welch's conviction relied on partial confessions of Mr. Welch, evidence from findings of digs at the Welch family home on Taylor's Mountain, eyewitnesses from the 1970s, and his own admissions.”
- Guilty Pleas End 42-Year-Old Cold Case
“According to prosecutor Wes Nance, Welch admitted he took the girls, was present at Katherine's murder and was tasked with disposing of her body.”
- Update: Welch to serve 48 years after guilty plea in Lyon sisters case
“Welch acknowledged abducting 12-year-old Sheila and 10-year-old Katherine after the girls visited Wheaton Plaza during Easter vacation in March 1975.”
- The Lyon sisters had vanished 40 years earlier. But this cold case team didn't give up on them.
“Detective Chris Homrock stumbled upon a file he had never seen before, the six-page transcript of a statement by an 18-year-old named Lloyd Lee Welch.”