Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Investigators return to Virginia land linked to Lyon sisters case
Local Crime & Public Safety
Investigators return to Virginia land linked to Lyon sisters case
Federal and local agencies involved in a search along Taylors Mountain in Bedford County, Virginia.
Photo from 2015 along Taylors Mountain in Bedford County, Virginia. (Dan Morse)
By Dan Morse
October 29, 2024 at 2:38 p.m. EDT
Investigators are searching land in the Virginia mountains this week that has long been linked to the case of Katherine and Sheila Lyon, two Maryland girls who were abducted and vanished nearly 50 years ago in a high-profile case that reshaped many Washington-area residents’ sense of safety. ... Seven years have passed since authorities last combed this rugged patch of Bedford County along Taylors Mountain Road for clues about the sisters, whose remains have never been found. It isn’t yet clear whether the search is again for evidence that could show they were buried on the land or if investigators are working on a case involving other victims.
Montgomery County police officials during a 2014 news conference. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
The girls — 10 and 12 — disappeared in 1975 after they’d walked to a mall in Montgomery County to have lunch, meet friends and look at Easter decorations. After decades of searching, investigators in 2014 came to believe a man named Lloyd Welch and others had abducted the girls, who were then killed, and burned the remains of at least one of the girls on the Taylors Mountain property then owned by his family, according to court filings.
Investigators conducted forensic digs of the property, sifting through soil where the girls bodies had possibly been burned, but found no bones linked to them, authorities have said. The hope was not only finding key clues in their case but also finding answers for Sheila and Katherine Lyon’s family, for whom painful questions lingered even after Welch in 2017 pleaded guilty under a felony murder doctrine for killings “in the commission of abduction with intent to defile.” He did not admit to directly killing either girl.
In a statement Tuesday from the U.S. Marshals Office in the Western District of Virginia, officials said that based on “new evidence” from a cold case, which they did not specify, the U.S. Marshals Service, along with other agencies including the FBI, is searching the land. The Marshals Office declined to comment further because the matter is an active investigation.
{snip}
By Dan Morse
Dan Morse covers courts and crime in Montgomery County. He arrived at the paper in 2005, after reporting stops at the Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun and Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is the author of "The Yoga Store Murder."follow on X @morsedan
Investigators return to Virginia land linked to Lyon sisters case
Federal and local agencies involved in a search along Taylors Mountain in Bedford County, Virginia.
Photo from 2015 along Taylors Mountain in Bedford County, Virginia. (Dan Morse)
By Dan Morse
October 29, 2024 at 2:38 p.m. EDT
Investigators are searching land in the Virginia mountains this week that has long been linked to the case of Katherine and Sheila Lyon, two Maryland girls who were abducted and vanished nearly 50 years ago in a high-profile case that reshaped many Washington-area residents’ sense of safety. ... Seven years have passed since authorities last combed this rugged patch of Bedford County along Taylors Mountain Road for clues about the sisters, whose remains have never been found. It isn’t yet clear whether the search is again for evidence that could show they were buried on the land or if investigators are working on a case involving other victims.
Montgomery County police officials during a 2014 news conference. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
The girls — 10 and 12 — disappeared in 1975 after they’d walked to a mall in Montgomery County to have lunch, meet friends and look at Easter decorations. After decades of searching, investigators in 2014 came to believe a man named Lloyd Welch and others had abducted the girls, who were then killed, and burned the remains of at least one of the girls on the Taylors Mountain property then owned by his family, according to court filings.
Investigators conducted forensic digs of the property, sifting through soil where the girls bodies had possibly been burned, but found no bones linked to them, authorities have said. The hope was not only finding key clues in their case but also finding answers for Sheila and Katherine Lyon’s family, for whom painful questions lingered even after Welch in 2017 pleaded guilty under a felony murder doctrine for killings “in the commission of abduction with intent to defile.” He did not admit to directly killing either girl.
In a statement Tuesday from the U.S. Marshals Office in the Western District of Virginia, officials said that based on “new evidence” from a cold case, which they did not specify, the U.S. Marshals Service, along with other agencies including the FBI, is searching the land. The Marshals Office declined to comment further because the matter is an active investigation.
{snip}
By Dan Morse
Dan Morse covers courts and crime in Montgomery County. He arrived at the paper in 2005, after reporting stops at the Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun and Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is the author of "The Yoga Store Murder."follow on X @morsedan
Mon Mar 25, 2024: On this day, March 25, 1975, the Lyon sisters went to see the Easter exhibits at the Wheaton Plaza shopping mall.
Sat Mar 25, 2023: On Tuesday, March 25, 1975, the Lyon sisters went to the Wheaton Plaza shopping mall.
Fri Mar 25, 2022: On March 25, 1975, the Lyon sisters went to the Wheaton Plaza shopping mall.
Thu Mar 25, 2021: On March 25, 1975, the Lyon sisters went to the Wheaton Plaza shopping mall.
Fri Mar 27, 2020: On March 25, 1975, the Lyon sisters went to the Wheaton Plaza shopping mall.
Tue Apr 2, 2019: The Lyon sisters vanished four decades ago. This team didn't give up on the case.
Mon Mar 25, 2019: On this day in 1975, the Lyon sisters went to the Wheaton Plaza shopping mall.
Sat Feb 21, 2015: Maryland cops reveal new leads in 1975 cold case of missing sisters Sheila and Katherine Lyon
In 2021 I had a thread about William Bradford Bishop. That case too came out of Montgomery County.
Tue Mar 23, 2021: DNA Test Surprise Reveals Woman's Father Was Maryland Killer William Bradford Bishop