Second man named in Lyon's sisters disapperance

Cops have named a second person of interest in the 1975 disappearance of two young sisters who vanished from a Maryland shopping center.
Investigators at Bedford County Sheriff's office said they were "very confident" they are close to finding out what happened to Sheila and Katherine Lyon, aged 12 and 10.
They also confirmed they were assisting Montgomery County Police with a homicide investigation.
Cops have been searching a property that was once owned by the family of Lloyd Lee Welch Jr., who is also known as Michael Welch. He was named as a person of interest in February.
He has been in prison since 1997 after he was convicted of assaulting a 10-year-old girl.
Now cops have named his uncle Richard Allen Welch Sr. who they believe either owned or still owns the property being searched.
With less than $4 in their pockets on March 25, 1975, the sisters left their home in Kensington, Md., to get some pizza for lunch.
A friend saw them with an older man who had a tape recorder and a briefcase, according to missing persons reports.
Although they were later seen walking home, they had not arrived by their 4 p.m. curfew but they did not arrive and by 7 p.m. the cops were called.
What happened to the girls has remained a mystery ever since.

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COPS GET BREAK IN 1975 LYON SISTERS KIDNAPPING

Cops in Maryland are fingering a convicted sex offender in connection with the terrifying 1975 disappearance of two young sisters. The mystery has haunted the Washington area ever since.

The Lyon sisters -- Sheila, 12, and Katherine, 10 -- were on their way home from the Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center in March 1975 when they vanished. A composite sketch was widely distributed and tips flowed in, but the Lyon sisters were never seen or heard from again. 

 "It was just stunning. It could have been anybody's kids," said Charleen Merkel, a shopper at Westfield Wheaton who remembers the disappearance well.

They were last seen talking to an older man who had a tape recorder and briefcase. He was never located. 

The girls left their Kensington, Md. home on March 25, 1975 to walk the half-mile or so to Wheaton Plaza, now known as Westfield Wheaton mall. They were on spring break, and wanted to get some pizza for lunch and see the Easter decorations. They had less than $4 with them.

A friend of the girls saw them outside the Orange Bowl restaurant, with an older man who had a tape recorder and a briefcase, according to news and missing persons reports. A sketch of that man was made and distributed, but the man was never located. MORE FROM NBCWASHINGTON

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JUSTICE FOR VIRGINIA GRACE KEGANS MURDERED IN '76?

JOHN BENJAMIN KENNEDY is a piece of work. And now, he is on trial for the sickening 1976 murder of a 17-year-old waitress in Oklahoma City. Detectives believe the 56-year-old convicted killer murdered Virginia Grace Kegans on Oct. 25, 1976. He was arrested last year after DNA linked him to the crime. It had come from the 1978 mutilation murder of a 15-year-old hooker. But now, prosecutors need to determine if there is enough evidence to go forward.
 According to The Oklahoman, the case was so old that some police reports and evidence was missing. But yesterday, an old friend of Kennedy's told the court: he kept the knife in a sheath in his car and also
carried a gun in a holster.  Jenny White, 57, said she "first saw the rifle when Kennedy dared me to ride in his trunk during a 1976 outing to a lake with two others, including my twin sister."
Kegans, was shot in the head and her throat was cut, cops said. She left a boyfriend's apartment at 4 a.m., Oct. 25, 1976, to hitchhike back to Oklahoma City. Phillip Hanlin was also originally a suspect. He admitted having sex with her the day her body was found.
Hanlin said: “Grace could not wait for a ride … she said she would hitchhike back home … and left about 4 a.m." Her body was found under a bridge that afternoon on the North Canadian River. This resumes in November. CONVICTED KILLER CARRIED A KNIFE, GUN

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CAROL ROFSTAD'S CHRISTMAS '75 UNSOLVED MURDER

CAROL ROFSTAD was just 21 when she was murdered. The Illinois State University co-ed was found beaten unconscious around noon on Dec. 23, 1975 outside her sorority house in Normal, Illinois. Cops believed the murder weapon was an 18" piece of railroad tie was located near the scene. Carol wasn't discovered until at least 12 hours after the attack and died on Christmas Eve. wo men, one of whom carried a club, were seen between 10 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. on December 22, 1975. Both were white males and between the ages
of 18 and 25. Composite of suspect 1 is on the right.

At the time of the attack, most students had already left campus for the holiday break. Instead of returning to Elk Grove Village behind to work at a retail store. Money was found in her purse and there was no evidence of sexual assault. Two women who were in the sorority house could not remember anything unusual. Anyone with information in this case can call the Normal Police Department at (309) 454-9526, or Crime Stoppers of McLean County at (309) 828-1111.

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