More indictments likely over Maryland girls missing 40 years
By Gary Robertson
RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - More suspects are likely to be charged in the 1975 disappearance of two young Maryland sisters, with a cousin of the man charged in the case a focus, authorities said on Thursday.
The disappearance of Sheila Lyon, 12, and her sister Katharine, 10, from a Wheaton, Maryland, mall triggered one of the biggest searches in Washington-area history. Authorities said on Wednesday that a former carnival worker, Lloyd Lee Welch, had been charged with first-degree murder in the case.
The charges are "just the beginning of indictments," Darren Franke, commander of the Montgomery County, Maryland, police major crimes division, said in Bedford County, Virginia, about 170 miles southwest of Washington.
Welch, 58, is serving a prison sentence in Delaware for sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl.
The Washington Post, describing an account in Bedford County court documents, reported on Thursday that Welch threw two duffel bags with red stains, an odor of decay and weighing about 60 to 70 pounds (22 to 26 kg) each into a fire in the Taylor’s Mountain area of Bedford County.
The area has been the focus of a search by police and forensic experts for months. The Post said Welch's cousin Henry Parker told detectives in December about the fire and duffel bags.
At a news conference, Franke said investigators were focused on Henry Parker, among others.
Welch was indicted on Friday by a Bedford County grand jury on two charges of first-degree felony murder during an abduction. The indictments were unsealed on Wednesday.
Randy Krantz, the commonwealth’s attorney for Bedford County, said at a news conference on Wednesday in Wheaton that authorities believed the girls were slain in Virginia.
Krantz said he had begun efforts to transfer Welch from Delaware to Bedford County and the move could take 30 to 60 days. He did not say when Welch might go on trial.
Krantz said anyone who aided Welch, tried to conceal crimes connected to the sisters' disappearance or were involved in what he called a coverup could face charges.
Authorities have said Welch had been the focus of the investigation for two years.
(Editing by Ian Simpson)
