Breakthrough has been made in the search for the young Maryland sisters who were allegedly kidnapped and dismembered by a carny in 1975.
The U.S. Marshals Service announced Tuesday that based on “new evidence” from an unspecified cold case, the agency, along with other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, is searching for land in the Virginia mountains. .
That strip of land on Taylors Mountain has long been believed to be where Lloyd Welch burned the remains of at least one of the two sisters, Katherine and Sheila Lyon, after he kidnapped them, killed them and dismembered their bodies. according to the Washington Post.
The girls, ages 10 and 12, disappeared on March 25, 1975, after walking from their home in Kensington, Maryland, to a nearby shopping center to have lunch with friends and look at Easter decorations.
Authorities now believe the sisters were kidnapped and taken to Bedford County, Virginia, about 200 miles away, where they were murdered sometime between the date of their abduction and three weeks later.
Sheila, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10, disappeared on March 25, 1975, after walking from their home in Kensington, Maryland, to a nearby shopping center to have lunch with friends and look at Easter decorations.
Authorities believe Lloyd Welch burned the remains of at least one of the two sisters in the mountains of Virginia.
During the initial investigation, a friend of the girls told police she saw a man staring at them and following them into the mall.
At the time, Welch was an 18-year-old traveling carnival worker who had been spending time in the area.
He was questioned by police but was ruled out as a suspect when authorities focused on a description given by other witnesses of an older man with a recorder.
But nearly 40 years later, in 2013, cold case detectives at the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland took another look at Welch after they noticed a striking resemblance between a sketch in the case file and a mugshot of Welch from the late 1970s.
He was charged with two counts of murder for the girls’ slayings in 2015, after family members said they saw him carrying two large duffel bags on property the family owned on Taylor’s Mountain in Bedford County, Virginia. .
Welch, then an 18-year-old carny, was questioned by police after the girls’ disappearance, but was ruled out as a suspect when authorities focused on a description given by other witnesses of an older man with a tape recorder.
Welch’s cousin, Henry Parker, told detectives that he was on the property in 1975 when Welch arrived with two large bags, according to a search warrant application written by investigators and filed in court.
“He stated, under oath, that he met with Lloyd Welch at the property at 3417 and 3404 Taylors Mountain Road,” the affidavit says, according to the Washington Post.
‘He said it was 1975. Lloyd arrived at the residence in a vehicle. He helped Lloyd remove two military-style duffel bags from the trunk of the vehicle.
Parker said the bags smelled like “death,” according to the affidavit.
He later confirmed his story to the Washington Post.
“I threw some bags on the fire, but I didn’t know what was in them,” Parker said, explaining that her mother told her to help her cousin.
Parker insisted that he never actually saw the sisters.
Another cousin, Connie Akers, was also identified as a witness to his arrival on the mountain in 1975.
She told police he had a duffel bag containing bloody clothing and that he asked her to wash it, but she refused, according to court documents obtained by the Post.
Akers also claimed that Welch told him he had ground beef with him that went bad.
Investigators then conducted forensic excavations on the Taylors Mountain property, examining the soil where the girls’ bodies had possibly been buried, but so far they have not recovered any bones.
Family members have since testified that Welch took two large duffel bags to a property on Taylors Mountain Road and threw them into the fire.
Investigators have conducted forensic excavations on the Taylors Mountain property, examining the soil where the girls’ bodies had possibly been buried, but so far have not recovered any bones or remains.
Still, Welch eventually pleaded guilty in 2017 under a doctrine of felony murder for the killings “in the commission of kidnapping with intent to defile.”
However, he did not admit to directly killing any of the girls.
Instead, Welch has said that he participated in the kidnapping of the Lyon sisters and claimed that several days later he had entered a dungeon-like basement, where he saw his father and uncle dismember one of the girls.
He said the remains were then placed in large bags, which he took to Bedford County.
Authorities have also said that members of Welch’s family are suspected of participating in the murders, but they themselves are either dead or their exact role has not been proven.
But by pleading guilty to felony first-degree murder, he accepted responsibility for their deaths because the sisters were brought specifically to be killed.
Welch pleaded guilty in 2017 to murder charges but insists he did not directly kill any of the girls.
Investigators are now also interested in his past as a carny, when he traveled across the country and was arrested for crimes related to sex crimes, the Post reports.
In 1992, in South Carolina, a 10-year-old girl who had been staying with him saw a horror movie, got scared, and climbed into bed with Welch.
She woke up to find him abusing her.
Welch pleaded guilty to the crime two years later and was sentenced to 18 months behind bars.
Just three years later, in Delaware, Welch began showing pornographic films in the presence of another 10-year-old girl, whom he abused for more than a week.
Welch also pleaded guilty to that crime and is now serving a lengthy sentence in Delaware.
Then, when Welch pleaded guilty to murder in Sister Lyon’s case, he also pleaded guilty to two unrelated child sexual assault cases in Prince William County, Virginia, dating back to the 1990s.
He is now due to be released from his sentence in Delaware in January, at which time he will begin serving time in Virginia.