In 1975, two sisters from suburban Wheaton, Md., disappeared. It took investigators more than 40 years to solve a case in which key evidence was right under their noses.
Sisters Katherine and Sheila Lyon stopped by Wheaton Plaza about a half-mile down the road on March 25, 1975, to check out the Easter decorations and meet some friends. Their mother, Mary, suggested they get some pizza before heading home. Their older brother, Jay, saw them enjoying a slice. Katherine, 10, and Sheila, 12, left the shopping center after 2 p.m., plenty of time before their mother wanted them home at 4 p.m. A neighbor waved at the girls as they passed by his house.
It was nearly 6 p.m., and the sisters weren’t home yet. Mary was annoyed as she prepared dinner. By 7 p.m, her annoyance turned to panic and she notified the police. A massive search involved rescue dogs, scuba divers and planes combing through woodland, vacant buildings, ponds and storm sewers. A police officer was stationed in the family’s house for nearly a month pursuing tips.
Within weeks, several extortion attempts were made. One caller said he would return the sisters in exchange for $10,000. The girls’ dad John placed a briefcase with $101—enough to qualify as a felony crime—inside a trash can at the Annapolis county courthouse. The man called the next morning and said he didn’t follow through because there were too many cops. He was reminded of the folly in choosing a courthouse as a drop-off point.
Another caller instructed John to stand outside the Orange Bowl pizza parlor, where the girls ate their last slice, holding $1,050.
A friend of the sisters told investigators that she noticed a young man with long hair staring at them, and police drew up a composite sketch. Witnesses said they saw an older man with a tape recorder talking to the girls at a bench near a pizza parlor. He became a suspect.
One week after their disappearance, Lloyd Lee Welch claimed to have seen the sisters leave with the tape recorder man in a car. He took a polygraph, and police determined he was lying.
By August, Mary lost hope and assumed her daughters were dead. The case went cold.
