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Murder Charges For Sex Offender Lloyd Welch In Missing Sisters’, Sheila & Katherine Lyon, 40-Year-Old Case [Breaking]

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 07:02 PST, Jul 15, 2015

First degree murder charges have been filed against an imprisoned sex offender in the 40-year-old missing sisters case.

Twelve-year-old Sheila Lyon and 10-year-old Katherine Lyon were walking to their home from the Wheaton Plaza Mall in March, 1975. However, they never made it to their house, and their bodies were never found, leaving their disappearance one of the most baffling crimes in Maryland.

Authorities announced on Wednesday during a press conference that they have charged Lloyd Lee Michael Welch Jr., 58, a child sex offender currently serving a lengthy prison sentence in Delaware, with first degree murder. While Welch was previously listed as a person of interest, it took nearly 40 years to finally pin him down as the primary suspect of the case, and ultimately charge him with the heinous crime.

Along with Llyod, his uncle, 70-year-old Richard Welch, was also considered a person of interest in the case. In December, Richard Welch’s wife, Patricia, was charged with perjury after testifying in front of the grand jury.

Lloyd previously denied any involvement with the crime, and said he left the mall with the two girls, but never saw them again after he saw his uncle sexually molesting one of them and left the home, the L.A. Times reports. However, according to a search warrant affidavit, Welch had asked a relative in rural Virginia to wash a set of bloody clothes, which he blamed on a hamburger that he was carrying around in a bag.

While the indictment was originally sealed, the authorities say Welch was indicted on two charges of first-degree felony murder with intent to defile by a grand jury on Friday, July 11, according to the Boston Herald.

John McCarthy, the state’s attorney for Montgomery County, Maryland, doted over the young girls who lost their lives far too early at the hands of a child predator.

“We know what Katharine and Sheila were like… These were wonderful, wonderful, naive, young children,” he said.

Welch was only 18-years-old at the time of the Lyon sisters’ disappearance. He was working as a carnival worker, and was known as a drifter in the area. Witnesses also confirmed that he was at the same mall as the girls on the day they went missing, and was seen paying close attention to them.

Officials believe that Welch abducted the girls in Maryland and then later murdered them in Virginia, dumping their bodies in a remote location. As the Inquisitr previously reported, the authorities had been spending a considerable amount of time searching the Taylor’s Mountain area in Thaxton, Virginia, over the past several months. However, they have yet to stumble upon the girls’ remains.

“When you have an operation of this nature, one of the things you have to keep in mind is what your mission is. You have to maintain mission focus and our mission focus is to bring these children home if at all possible. This case will be resolved,” Bedford County Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Krantz said.

Randy Krantz, the commonwealth’s attorney in Bedford County, said Welch could face 20 years to life in prison if he is convicted. He said they currently have not decided if they will be seeking the death penalty.

The investigation remains active, and more charges may soon follow. There is expected to be more information released regarding the case on Thursday, July 16.

Do you think the authorities should seek the death penalty against Welch? Leave your comments below.

[Photo via Handout]

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