Major breakthrough in hunt for young Maryland sisters 'abducted and dismembered by carny' in 1975

A major breakthrough has been made in the hunt for young Maryland sisters who were allegedly abducted and dismembered by a carny in 1975.

The US Marshals Service announced on Tuesday that based on 'new evidence' from a cold case - which they did not specify - the agency, along with other law enforcement including the FBI, is searching land in the Virginia mountains.

That swath 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 he abducted and killed them, and dismembered their bodies, according to the Washington Post. 

The girls, ages 10 and 12, had gone missing on March 25, 1975, after they walked from their home in Kensington, Maryland, to a nearby mall to have lunch with friends and look at Easter decorations.

Authorities now believe the sisters were kidnapped and taken to Bedford County, Virginia, about 200 miles away, where they were slain sometime between the date of their abduction and three weeks later.

During the initial investigation, a friend of the girls told police she saw a man staring at the girls and following them at the mall.

At the time, Welch was an 18-year-old traveling carnival worker who had been spending 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 40 years later, in 2013, cold case detectives from the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland took another look at Welch after they noticed a striking resemblance between a sketch in the case file and a mug shot of Welch from the late 1970s.

He was charged with two counts of murder in the girls' killings in 2015, 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's cousin, Henry Parker, told detectives 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 at the property of 3417 and 3404 Taylors Mountain Road,' the affidavit says, according to the Washington Post.

'He stated it was 1975. Lloyd arrived at the residence in a vehicle. He helped Lloyd get out two army-style duffel bags from the trunk of the vehicle.'  

Parker said the bags smelled like 'death,' according to the affidavit.

He later confirmed his account to the Washington Post.

'I threw some bags in the fire, but I didn't know what was in the bags,' 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 containing bloody clothing, which he asked her to wash, but she refused, according to court documents obtained by the Post.

Akers also claimed Welch told her he had been carrying around ground beef that went bad.

Investigators then conducted forensic digs of the Taylors Mountain property,  sifting through soil where the girls' bodies had possibly been buried, but have thus far not recovered any bones.

Still, Welch ultimately pleaded guilty in 2017 under a felony murder doctrine for the killings 'in the commission of abduction with intent to defile.'

He did not, however, admit to directly killing either girl.

Instead, Welch has said that he took part in the abduction of the Lyon sisters, and claimed that several days later he had gone into a dungeon-like basement, where he saw his father and uncle dismember one of the girls.

He said that the remains were then put into the large bags, which he brought to Bedford County.  

Authorities have also said that members of Welch's family are suspected to have taken part in murders but they themselves are now dead or their exact roles could not be proven. 

But by pleading guilty to felony first-degree murder he accepted responsibility for their deaths because the sisters were taken specifically to be killed. 

Investigators are now also interested in his past as a carny, when he traveled around the country and was arrested for sex offense-related crimes, the Post  reports.

In 1992, in South Carolina, a 10-year-old girl who had been staying with him watched a horror movie, became frightened and got into bed with Welch.

She awoke to find him molesting her.

Welch pleaded guilty to the crime two years later, and was sentenced to 18 months behind bars.

Just three years later, in Delaware, Welch started playing pornographic films in the presence of another 10-year-old girl, whom he abused for more than a week.

Welch pleaded guilty to that crime as well, and is now serving a lengthy sentence in Delaware.

Then, when Welch pleaded guilty to murder in the Lyon sister case, he also pleaded guilty to two unrelated child sex assault cases in Prince William County, Virginia, which date back to the 1990s.

He is now due to be released from his Delaware sentence in January, at which point he will start serving time in Virginia.