Missing Lyon sisters may have met their end in days-long Taylor's Mountain fire that smelled of burnt flesh
The two Lyon sisters -- Sheila Lyon, 12, and her sister Katherine Lyon, 10 -- disappeared on March 25 in 1975 and have not been seen since. The disappearance of the two has been shrouded in mystery with almost no solid evidence available for a long time. The sisters went missing after they had walked half a mile from their home to a shopping mall located in Wheaton, Maryland. Four decades after their disappearance, a team of cold-case investigators came across a promising lead which led to the unraveling of the gruesome and disturbing crime.
The case has been extensively covered in Investigation Discovery's documentary titled 'Who Killed the Lyon Sisters?' which releases on November 28 at 9 pm ET.
Lloyd Lee Welch Jr
Welch Jr's name had come up by accident after an investigator found his witness statement from the year that the girls had vanished. He had been 18 years old at the time and had said he was at the shopping mall on the same day. When the 40-year cold case remerged in 2013, Welch Jr. who was serving time in prison on an un-related sexual assault case was interrogated to see whether he had a hand in their disappearance. He was asked as to what he believed had happened to the girls to which he responded by saying he's not involved.
However, he theorized and said, "Well, my opinion is that he killed ’em and raped ’em; he killed ’em and he probably burned ’em. I don’t know," speaking of a possible killer. What interested investigators was the 'burned 'em' bit, a detail which had never been spoken about before. Over several interrogations, investigators came to realize that Welch Jr. knew more than he let on, but being a compulsive liar, he did not speak the truth. The detectives repeatedly interviewed and interrogated Welch Jr. for the truth which he gave in bits and pieces. He kept changing his story and would provide names of his relatives he said he had seen abduct the Lyon sisters. He also said he had seen some of his relatives abuse and kill at least one of the girls.
He eventually gave the names of his own father Lee Welch and his uncle Dick whom he claimed were responsible for the abduction and murder of the sisters. The bits and pieces led investigators to Taylor's Mountain in Bedford Virginia where some of Welch Jr's relatives used to stay.
Taylor's Mountain
As Welch Jr's cousin Ted Welch Jr said, Taylor's Mt. was the "back of the woods". It was so shady and eerie that even the local police used to hesitate from visiting there. Dick's daughter Patricia Ann Welch who spoke in the documentary said that there were lots of bad things on the mountain and they would find bones and bodies all over. "What happens on the mountain stays on the mountain," Patricia said.
The house on top of the mountain was owned by Welch Jr's aunt, Lizzie Parker. Parker's daughter Connie Akers provided investigators with a game-changing lead and had said, "I do remember Lloyd in 1975 coming to the house with his wife or whoever she was. She was pregnant."
She also said that "my memory just begins- he's there with a bag. It was an army, green duffel bag. Stuffed full." It was easily big enough to stuff one of the girls in. Welch Jr. arrived with the bag in a set of bloodied clothes which he attributed to some raw meat that they were planning to cook but that the meat was bad. Connie's brother Henry was also present at the time and was able to corroborate the story. He spoke about helping Welch Jr throw the bag into a large fire but never bothered to look inside.
The Unforgettable Fire
Neighbors who live on Taylor's mountain recall the 1975 fire that they said lasted for days. They also added that it smelled foul and of flesh. They recalled how it smelled like someone had burned themselves. The accounts of neighbors led to investigators recalling Welch Jr's first interrogation where he spoke about 'burning' the sisters. While searching through the mountain, the investigators had been able to find a possible burn site and bone fragments which was the first physical evidence in the case. However, the bones were so degraded that it was not possible to get any DNA from them making the evidence void.
Lee Welch's basement
Detective Dave Davis came across Welch Jr's father's house where the basement was similar to all the stories that Welch Jr had recounted. Upon entering it, it felt eerily similar to all of Welch Jr's stories and it was the kind of place where a person could hide two kidnapped, scared, and drugged children. Upon returning with the forensics team, they started to spray the area with a blood detection agency. The floors and outer walls of the basement had nothing but the back room in the basement lit up from the floor all the way up to the ceiling indicating that someone or something had been slaughtered. Due to this find, the case against Welch Jr. was solid enough to charge him with the crime.
Confession and Sentencing
Eventually, in 2017, Welch Jr. pleaded guilty to two counts of felony murder in a Bedford courtroom. He denied that he had raped or killed the sisters but his confession and admission fell within a Virginia legal doctrine defining as murder a killing "in the commission of abduction with intent to defile." He accepted the guilty plea and was spared from death row but was sentenced to 48 years in prison.