The day passed by, and a little before six in the evening, Mrs. Lyon was preparing dinner at home. Mary Lyon wasn’t too worried that the girls were not home yet, but she was becoming impatient with them holding up dinnertime. The minutes continued to tick by, however, and there was still no sign of Katherine and Sheila. Mary finally became so concerned by seven o’clock she called the local police to help find the girls. What started as a simple search of the area soon grew into an expansive search for the Lyon sisters.

It wasn’t long before police determined the Lyon sisters were not runaways. Someone had taken them, and they had not gone willingly. Police expanded the search and began an intensive investigation of the area. Officers even went door to door checking for the girls. Several houses were searched and numerous individuals were questioned. As word spread about the missing girls, hundreds of tips and possible leads were submitted by members of the community. A few eyewitnesses saw the sisters talking to a middle-aged male near the pizza parlor. This likely occurred within the first hour after they arrived at Wheaton Plaza. Their older brother, Jay, told investigators that he saw Katherine and Sheila eating their lunch, but he did not see the man other witnesses described. Investigators believed that Jay saw them just after they had spoken to the unknown man. At around two in the afternoon, the girls were seen walking towards their home. This confirmation that they left the plaza was somewhat promising, but it would prove to be the last sighting of the Lyon sisters. Search and rescue dogs were used to aid in the search. The dogs were able to pick up the scent and follow a trail around the shopping center and to another parking lot nearby. The trail ended there, indicating the girls did not leave the parking lot on foot.

The police had a few more leads from eyewitnesses and were able to develop composite sketches and descriptions of potential suspects. The most viable suspect became known as “tape recorder man.” This description was provided by a boy who lived in the Lyons’ neighborhood. He said he saw Katherine and Sheila at the pizza restaurant at Wheaton Plaza talking to an adult male sometime around one in the afternoon. The boy described the man to be about six feet tall and well-dressed. He also stated the man appeared to be between 50 and 60 years old. The boy noted the man wore a brown suit and carried a briefcase, along with a tape recorder and microphone.

Another possible suspect was developed after a girl who was a little older than the Lyon sisters described a younger man who had been leering at the girls. The girl was able to help law enforcement create a composite sketch of this suspect, who appeared to be in his late twenties. However, police turned their focus to the man with the tape recorder. In April of 1975, a security guard at the shopping center called police because an eighteen-year-old named Lloyd Lee Welch Jr. told the security guard he recalled seeing the Lyon sisters with the tape recorder man. Allegedly, the man was overheard telling the girls he recorded people’s voices and put them on the radio. Welch also said he saw the man force the girls into a red Chevrolet Camero before driving away. Welch was formally interviewed by police and provided a six-page statement. He also consented to a polygraph test, which failed, admitting he provided false information. Leads were followed and ruled out while the tips coming in slowed to a trickle before they stopped.

In 2013, the case was reopened, and investigators began chasing a new lead that had been under their noses the whole time. They decided to look into Lloyd Lee Welch Jr. Investigators noticed his appearance was similar to the composite sketch of the younger suspect from 1975. Welch was located in prison in Delaware, serving 29 years for child molestation. Initially he refused to talk to law enforcement, but he finally agreed to be interviewed. The first interview proved informative as Welch described seeing a man named Raymond Mileski Sr. with the girls. Mileski was a known sex offender and a strong potential suspect in the original investigation. Welch hadn’t mentioned him at the time of the disappearance, but he was now glad to assert his opinion that Mileski probably raped and killed the girls before burning their bodies. In the next interview Welch explained he actually knew Mileski back in 1975, and after seeing him kidnap the girls, he later peeked into Mileski’s basement window and saw him torturing the sisters. This incredible new information meant the case was no longer cold, but red hot. Welch was the key to solving the case.

Across a dozen more interviews, Welch began to contradict some of his previous statements, once again muddying the waters. However, as he was given more time to talk, Welch began to reveal information that wasn’t publicly available. He told them certain aspects of the case only the police and the kidnapper would know. Eventually investigators were able to speak with Welch’s cousin, Henry Parker. He stated around the time of the kidnappings, Welch’s car “smelled like death and had several red stains.” Parker also described two duffle bags that were in Welch’s vehicle. He claimed he didn’t know what was in the bags, but they were tossed in a pit and burned. An excavation of the burn pit on Welch’s property was conducted, and bone fragments were found, but they were too degraded for DNA testing. Welch may have attempted to pin the crime on someone else, but he was notably consistent in his opinion that whoever did it must have raped, killed, and burned the Lyon sisters. Though the physical evidence was not exactly strong, the circumstantial evidence Welch provided in his interviews had become too much to fight. Welch was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He plead guilty to the charges via a plea bargain in which he admitted his involvement in Katherine and Sheila’s disappearance but denied killing them. In 2017, at 60 years old, Lloyd Lee Welch Jr. was sentenced to 48 years in prison.