Almost 50 years after 12-year-old Sheila and 10-year-old Katherine Lyon were last seen at Wheaton Plaza, in Wheaton, Maryland, the man convicted of killing them has started serving prison time for their murders.
WTOP has learned Lloyd Lee Welch has been transferred to Virginia’s Department of Corrections from a Delaware prison, where he served 33 years for child sex crimes, to begin his prison sentence for killing the Lyon sisters.
The now 68-year-old Welch was sentenced in 2017 to 48 years in prison for the Lyon sisters’ first-degree felony murders, in Bedford County, Virginia, and a series of 1996 sex crimes against two young girls in Prince William County.
Welch was transferred Tuesday, according to Delaware corrections officials.
On Wednesday, Welch “arrived at Nottoway Correctional Center to begin serving his Virginia sentence. Nottaway serves in part as a reception center for inmates, which is why (he) is there now. The inmate will be evaluated and then assigned to a permanent facility,” said Kyle Gibson, director of communications for Virginia Department of Corrections.
“It was a very long time coming, but justice, in some form, was finally served against Mr. Welch,” Bedford County prosecutor Wes Nance told WTOP in December 2024.
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.
Why Lloyd Lee Welch won’t face charges in Montgomery Co.
Even though Lloyd Lee Welch admitted kidnapping the Lyon sisters from Wheaton Plaza in 1975, he did not face charges in Montgomery County at the request of the murdered sisters’ parents.
“The only charge over which Montgomery County had jurisdiction was the original abduction and false imprisonment of the girls,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy told WTOP in 2017. Welch never admitted sexually exploiting the girls or being personally involved in their murders.
Eight years ago, McCarthy said, “I specifically consulted with the Lyon family” about the possibility of charges never being filed in Montgomery County.
“They knew Welch would not have pled here (in Bedford County) if he knew that he ultimately had to come back to Montgomery County to face another charge,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said a largely symbolic prosecution in Montgomery County was not his prime objective.
“A request was made, in order to make this go (forward), would we agree to forego the prosecution on the original kidnapping, and at the request of the family, I did that,” McCarthy said.
Because of when the crimes were committed, Welch could be eligible for parole when he’s in his mid-80s. In 2017, then-Prince William County 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.”
Editor’s note: Updates that Nottaway prison is where Welch is being evaluated for a permanent assignment.
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