Twelve-year-old Sheila and 10-year-old Katherine Lyon disappeared almost 40 years ago, and now investigators think they’re close to finding out what happened to them.
Montgomery County police on Thursday named a second person of interest in the disappearance of the two young sisters missing since 1975—Richard Allen Welch, the uncle of Lloyd Lee Welch, the man named by police as a person of interest in February.
Police said Richard Welch may have worked as a security guard in the Wheaton area at the time of the girls’ disappearance. He is believed to be in his 70s and police said they know where he is, though they declined to release his location.
Montgomery County Assistant Police Chief Russ Hamill said he personally believes there’s a “good chance” the girls are located somewhere on rural Taylor Mountain in Bedford County, Va., when asked about their location Thursday. Hamill said police believe Richard Welch owned land somewhere on the mountain, and may still own land there.
Developing: New pic of Richard Welch, Sr. Person of interest in the disappearance of the #LyonSisters @fox5newsdc pic.twitter.com/jUKyQaZtpp
— Rick Boone (@RickBooneFOX5DC) October 2, 2014
Police from Montgomery and Bedford County have been combing the mountainside for evidence related to the disappearance of the Lyon sisters for the past three weeks. The case is one of Montgomery’s most famous cold cases—no trace of the girls has been found since they were last seen just after 2 p.m. walking between Wheaton Plaza, now Westfield Wheaton, and their Kensington home on March 25, 1975.
Bedford County Sheriff Michael Brown said police have searched more than 100 wooded acres on the mountain.
“It seems like every rock we turn over, we develop a lead,” Brown said.
Investigators declined to detail the evidence they found because a grand jury is scheduled to be convened Friday, which will decide if indictments should be made in the case.
“This will be a continuing process,” Virginia Commonwealth Attorney Randy Krantz said. “I expect this to take several days and several sessions of the grand jury.”
Each official who spoke at a Thursday afternoon press conference in Bedford County urged the public to come forward with any information possibly related to Richard Welch or the girls.
“Anyone who has any information regarding the missing girls, it’s time for you to do the right thing, step forward to assist law enforcement to bring closure to this heart-wrenching matter,” Hamill said.
Police said Lloyd Welch, 57, traveled extensively throughout the United States as a ride operator for a carnival company that often set up at malls. He was seen at the Kensington shopping center eyeing the young girls shortly before their disappearance. He has multiple convictions for sexual offenses against young girls and has been incarcerated in a Delaware prison since 1997 for one of the offenses, according to police.
A Montgomery County Police mugshot of Lloyd Lee Welch from 1977.