Almost 50 years after 12-year-old Sheila and 10-year-old Katherine Lyon were abducted from Wheaton Plaza, in Wheaton, Maryland, the man convicted of killing them will soon begin serving prison time for their murders.
It comes as federal investigators look into other possible crimes involving Lloyd Lee Welch.
In September 2017, Welch, already a convicted sex offender, pleaded guilty in Bedford County, Virginia, to two counts of first-degree felony murder as part of a global plea. Welch was sentenced to 48 years in prison in 2017 for the global plea, which included the Lyon sisters’ deaths and a series of 1996 sex crimes against two young girls in Prince William County, Virginia.
Long before his arrest in the Lyon case, Welch was serving a 33-year sentence in Delaware for sex offenses against a 10-year-old girl, who was also one of the two victims in the Prince William County attack. That attack happened more than 20 years after the Lyon sisters were last seen in Montgomery County, Maryland.
With his Delaware sentence winding down, the now 67-year-old will be transferred to Virginia to begin serving his 48-year prison term for the Lyon sisters’ murders and the Prince William County sex crimes.
“It was a very long time coming, but justice, in some form, was finally served against Mr. Welch,” said Wes Nance in a WTOP interview Tuesday. Nance, as the Bedford County prosecutor, helped orchestrate the global plea in 2017.
The disappearance of the two girls — daughters of former WMAL broadcaster John Lyon and his wife, Mary — during Easter vacation in March 1975 sparked fear in the region and marked a turning point in attitudes about child abduction and safety.
The girls’ bodies have never been found.
“Our working theory was that the Lyon sisters’ bodies came to rest in Bedford County,” Nance said. Prosecutors alleged Welch burned at least one of the sisters’ bodies in a fire on the property of his family members on Taylor’s Mountain in nearby Thaxton, Virginia.
“We would have had to prove that through circumstantial evidence,” since the girls’ remains were never recovered, Nance said.
“But through the 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 would have helped us prove that, had this case gone to trial.”
New federal investigation into Welch, Taylor’s Mountain home
After Welch was named as a person of interest in the Lyon disappearance in 2014, two of his cousins who lived on Taylor’s Mountain told investigators he arrived unexpectedly in the spring of 1975.
In late October 2024, the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service returned to the home on Taylor Mountain Road.
“We (prosecutors and the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office) were contacted about a new interest in a federally-run investigation,” Nance said. “They made sure that we didn’t have any objection, and I did not, because I think any further answers that we could provide to the family would be helpful.”
While the U.S. Marshals Service said the search was based upon “new evidence,” Nance said any evidence recovered can’t be used in the Lyon case.
“Mr. Welch is not looking at additional charges at the state level involving the disappearance and killing of the Lyon sisters — he has already been convicted of at least playing a role in both of their murders,” Nance said.
While federal officials haven’t specified what they’re looking for, Nance said he’s been aware that based upon the investigation between 2014 and 2017, there are allegations of other crimes involving Welch.
“In our pleadings, leading up to trial here in Bedford County, we notified the defense of Mr. Welch being accused in numerous jurisdictions of other crimes — not all of those had any factual connection to Taylor’s Mountain, but I think there was some belief Mr. Welch may have association with other crimes,” Nance said.
Lloyd Lee Welch’s future in Virginia
In January, Nance expects Virginia Department of Corrections employees will travel to Delaware’s James T. Vaughn Correctional Center, where Welch has served since 2017. He’ll be transported to Virginia.
“They’ll certainly look at the nature of his convictions here in Virginia, his prior criminal history, his discipline record while being incarcerated in Delaware and other jurisdictions, and any health concerns that might have developed over the years,” Nance said.
Department of Corrections director of communications Kyle Gibson told WTOP, “The agency will process this individual for state custody at an appropriate reception center, have them evaluated, and then assign them to a facility that meets their security, medical, and programmatic needs.”
One week after pleading guilty in Bedford County, on Sept. 21, 2017, Welch pleaded guilty in Prince William County to two counts of aggravated sexual battery, incorporating in the 48-year sentence for his Virginia crimes.
Because of when the crimes were committed, Welch could be eligible for his parole when he’s in his mid-80s. In 2017, then-prosecutor Paul Ebert said, “It would be mind-boggling for me that any parole board would even consider him for parole — I don’t think anyone will ever see him on the street again.”
This week, Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth told WTOP:
We are all better off that Lloyd Lee Welch is behind bars. His involvement in the abduction, sexual assault, and murder of the Lyon sisters is despicable and everyone who is aware of the crimes that he and others committed on these two innocent children agrees. Unfortunately, he was not brought to justice until after he had committed sexual offenses on a Prince William County resident. I am grateful for all of those that continued to work on these criminal investigations, never giving up on the Lyon sisters, and ultimately brought the cases to a successful conclusion.
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