There appears to have been a major breakthrough in the hunt for young Maryland sisters who were allegedly kidnapped and dismembered by a carny in 1975.
The U.S. Marshals Service announced Tuesday that, based on “new evidence” from a cold case — which it did not specify — the agency is working with other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, to search land in the Virginia mountains.
That plot of land on Taylors Mountain has long been believed to be where Lloyd Welch burned the remains of at least one of the two sisters, Katherine and Sheila Lyon, after kidnapping and murdering them and dismembering their bodies . according to the Washington Post.
The girls, ages 10 and 12, had gone missing on March 25, 1975, after walking from their home in Kensington, Maryland, to a nearby shopping center to have lunch with friends and look at Easter decorations.
Authorities now believe the sisters were abducted and taken to Bedford County, Virginia, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) away, where they were murdered sometime between the date of their abduction and three weeks later.
Sheila, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10, went missing on March 25, 1975, after walking from their home in Kensington, Maryland, to a nearby shopping center to have lunch with friends and look at Easter decorations.
Authorities believe Lloyd Welch burned the remains of at least one of two sisters in the mountains of Virginia
During the initial investigation, a friend of the girls told police she saw a man staring at the girls and following them around the mall.
At the time, Welch was an 18-year-old traveling carnival worker who had spent time in the area.
He was questioned by police but was dismissed as a suspect as authorities focused on a description given by other witnesses of an older man with a tape recorder.
But nearly four decades later, in 2013, cold case detectives from the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland took another look at Welch after noticing a striking similarity between a sketch in the file and a mugshot of Welch from the late 1970s.
He was charged with two counts of murder in the 2015 girl murders after members of his extended family said they saw him carrying two large duffel bags on property the family owned on Taylor’s Mountain in Bedford County, Virginia.
Welch, then an 18-year-old carny, was questioned by police after the girls’ disappearance but was dismissed as a suspect as authorities focused on a description given by other witnesses of an older man with a tape recorder.
Welch’s cousin, Henry Parker, told investigators he was on the land in 1975 when Welch arrived with two large bags, according to a search warrant application written by investigators and filed in court.
“He stated under oath that he met Lloyd Welch on the property of 3417 and 3404 Taylors Mountain Road,” according to the Washington Post.
‘He said it was 1975. Lloyd arrived at the home in a car. He helped Lloyd retrieve two military-style duffel bags from the trunk of the vehicle.”
Parker said the bags smelled like “death,” according to the affidavit.
He later confirmed his story to the Washington Post.
“I threw some bags in the fire, but I didn’t know what was in them,” Parker said, explaining that his mother told him to help his cousin.
Parker insisted he never actually saw the sisters.
Another cousin, Connie Akers, was also identified as a witness to his arrival on the mountain in 1975.
She told police he had a duffel bag with bloody clothes, which he asked her to wash, but she refused, according to court documents obtained by the Post.
Akers also claimed that Welch told her he had spoiled ground beef.
Investigators then carried out forensic excavations at the Taylors Mountain estate, searching the ground where the girls’ bodies may have been buried, but so far they have found no bones.
Family members have since said Welch took two large duffel bags to a property on Taylors Mountain Road and threw them into the fire.
Investigators have carried out forensic excavations at the Taylors Mountain estate, searching the ground where the girls’ bodies may have been buried, but so far no bones or remains have been recovered.
Yet in 2017, Welch ultimately pleaded guilty to the murder doctrine for the murders “in the commission of kidnapping with intent to defile.”
However, he did not admit to directly killing both girls.
Instead, Welch has said that he took part in the kidnapping of the Lyon sisters, and that several days later he entered a dungeon-like basement where he watched his father and uncle dismember one of the girls.
He said the remains were then placed in the large bags, which he took to Bedford County.
Authorities have also said that members of Welch’s family are suspected of taking part in murders, but that they themselves are now dead or their exact role could not be proven.
But by pleading guilty to first-degree murder, he accepted responsibility for their deaths because the sisters were taken specifically to be killed.
Welch pleaded guilty to murder in 2017, but insists he did not directly kill either girl
Investigators are now also interested in his past as a carny, when he traveled around the country and was arrested for sex-related crimes, the Post reports.
In 1992, in South Carolina, a 10-year-old girl staying with him watched a horror movie, got scared and got into bed with Welch.
She woke up to find him bothering her.
Welch pleaded guilty to the crime two years later and was sentenced to 18 months behind bars.
Just three years later, Welch began shooting pornographic films in Delaware in the presence of another ten-year-old girl, whom he abused for more than a week.
Welch also pleaded guilty to the crime and is now serving a lengthy sentence in Delaware.
When Welch subsequently pleaded guilty to murder in the sister Lyon case, he also pleaded guilty to two unrelated child abuse cases in Prince William County, Virginia, dating back to the 1990s.
He will now be released from his sentence in Delaware in January, after which he will serve time in Virginia.