The Lyon sisters 1975 disappearance in Maryland may have been solved on Wednesday after authorities announced that convicted sex offender Lloyd Lee Michael Welch, Jr. is facing murder charges in a case that hadn't had a successful lead in 40 years.
Welch, who is serving time in prison, maintains he didn't kill the two girls who disappeared on March 25, 1975,
according to The Associated Press. Because the girls’ bodies have never found and other physical evidence has vanished over the years, prosecutors know they have a difficult task ahead of them.
“We have a difficult road. We have a difficult burden,” said Randy Krantz, the Bedford County commonwealth's attorney. “But in my assessment of this case, it was either move forward or do nothing, and we were willing to move forward.”
Sheila, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10, were last seen when they walked to the Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center to grab some pizza and see an Easter exhibit,
according to CNN. When they didn’t return home at 4 p.m. like they were supposed to, their parents called the authorities and a major search followed.
Although the investigators accrued over 2,000 leads over the ensuing decades, none of them led to their bodies or any other physical evidence.
According to a police affidavit, Welch, who was 18 at the time of the girls’ disappearance and had been traveling in the area, went to the mall a week after the search started and told a security officer that he had seen the girls get into a vehicle with a man, according to the AP.
He later told authorities that he had seen his uncle raping one of the girls in his home the next day and never saw the girls again after he left the house. Although Welch failed a polygraph test, police didn't pursue the lead farther until now.
If Welch is brought to trial, it would mark the longest time between a murder with no bodies and a trial for the murder, noted the AP.
“This was something that had an enormous impact on this community and the feeling of safety for your children in this community,” said Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger.
Authorities said they are continuing their search for the bodies and any other forensic evidence, according to CNN.
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