Potential Suspects and Persons of Interest

Thomas Francis Edwards was confined in the Patuxent Institution of Maryland from 1966 until some time shortly before the murders of Sherry Kennedy and Catherine Kalberer in January of 1970.

He was again confined there between 1970 and 1977, however, I have no information regarding whether or not he was allowed out for any probation or leave during that time.

Below is some history on Patuxent Institution.

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Patuxent Institution, located in Jessup, Maryland, began operations in 1955, a unique facility created to house Maryland’s most dangerous criminal offenders.

...Patuxent Institution is the only institution for sentenced criminals in Maryland that is not part of the Maryland Division of Correction. ...

Its mission was to ensure public safety through the psychotherapeutic treatment of “Defective Delinquents.” These were offenders who demonstrated persistent antisocial and criminal behavior, and who were designated by the court to be involuntarily committed to Patuxent Institution under an indeterminate sentence.

From its inception, Patuxent Institution was specifically designed to be a self-contained operation that was staffed by full-time clinicians, including psychologists, social workers and psychiatrists, as well as by custody personnel.

Patuxent Institution was also unique in that it was provided with its own admission, inmate review, and paroling authority separate from that of the Maryland Division of Correction (DOC). Thus, once designated as a defective delinquent, an offender was to be released from Patuxent only upon the findings of the court that the inmate’s release was for the "[inmate’s] benefit and the benefit of society..."

A gubernatorial commission was formed in 1977 to review Patuxent Institution’s functioning, as well as the laws governing it. This review resulted in Article 31B being rewritten. The Defective Delinquent Law and indeterminate sentencing were abolished, and on July 1, 1977, the Eligible Persons, or “EP” Program came into existence....

Source:

Patuxent Institution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Thomas Francis Edwards: Bethesda killer, potential Lyon suspect...

Thomas Francis Edwards was a 31 year old resident of Bethesda, Maryland in March of 1975. He was a suspect in two January 1970 murders, but had never been charged.

The victims of those two murders were Sherry Kennedy, age 14, and Catherine Kalberer, age 39.

Edwards was not in the news or on the radar as a suspect in the Lyon sisters' disappearance in 1975, but he was quite likely in the area.

In 1981, he was living in California when he shot and killed 12 year-old Vanessa Iberri in Orange County’s Cleveland National Forest. Iberri’s 12 year old friend, Kelly Cartier, was also shot in the attack but survived to stand witness against Edwards. No motive was ever established. The girls were on a camping trip with Iberri’s mother when Edwards' truck pulled up and he called, “Girls.” They turned and Edwards shot them with one bullet each from his pistol.

Nine days later, following a nationwide manhunt, Thomas Francis Edwards was captured at a Holiday Inn in College Park, Maryland. He was extradited to California to stand trial.

Edwards was tried and convicted of murder and attempted murder of the California girls, and he was sentenced to death. After 22 years on death row, he died of natural causes in February 2009.

Coincidentally, that same month, DNA tests run on a field jacket obtained in a 1970 search of Edwards' home by Montgomery County Police confirmed that Edwards had indeed murdered Sherry Kennedy and Catherine Kalberer back in 1970.

Montgomery County Cold Case detectives quietly closed the two previously unsolved cases and kept that information secret from the public until 25 January 2012, when the story was broken by a news reporter. MCP then confirmed the story, three years after closing the cases.

Could Thomas Francis Edwards have been responsible for the disappearance of Sheila and Katherine Lyon?

He is now KNOWN to have attatcked a 14 year old girl in 1970 and two twelve year old girls in 1981. What was he doing between those years?

Bethesda is not far from Wheaton Plaza...

Do you know how the MD victims were killed? Were they abducted? Were their bodies ever found?

He certainly wasn't bothered by attacking a pair of girls but the MO there seems too different from what happened to the Lyons sisters.
 
Do you know how the MD victims were killed? Were they abducted? Were their bodies ever found?

He certainly wasn't bothered by attacking a pair of girls but the MO there seems too different from what happened to the Lyons sisters.

I do not have a lot of specific information regarding the two victims, Sherry Kennedy (age 14) and Catherine Kalberer (age 39).

As I understand, Sherry was shot in the head with a small caliber bullet (possibly a .22) and then was stabbed in the back of the head with an ice pick (not certain if it was inserted in the bullet hole, or a separate wound.) Her body was transported inside a car and placed under the Cabin John Bridge. He may have abducted Sherry first, or may have killed her outright and then put her in his vehicle.

It is believed that following interest in Sherry's murder and the police investigation which followed, Edwards may have posed as a police officer and approached Catherine Kalaberer under the pretense of being part of the investigation. He likely obtained Catherine's address from the "flimsy" copy of her gas credit card obtained at the gas station where he worked. Her body was found close to her apartment.

These two murders do not mesh with all the known circumstances regarding the disappearance of the Lyon sisters, but there are some similarities. The Edwards murders (1970) and the disappearance of the Lyon sisters (1975) were separated by five years.

Edwards' California attack on the two 12 year old girls took place in 1981. It involved him driving a vehicle close to the two girls and then an immediate shooting of both girls. This case is similar to the Lyon case in that it involved an attack on two young girls walking together in or near a wooded area.

There has been speculation that a potential abductor or the Lyon sisters used a vehicle and possibly a weapon, and also that he may have posed as a police officer.
 
Update on:

Timothy Joseph BUZBEE (incarcerated)
- aka The Aspen Hill Rapist (1980's)
- was 18 and HS senior in March 1975
- no known murders
Date of Birth 08/27/1957
DOC ID 170707
Holding Facility North Branch Correctional Institution, Cumberland, MD
- Timothy Buzbee would have been 17 and a half years old when Sheila and Kate Lyon went missing. At the time, he lived in the Aspen Hill - Rockville area and was still in High School.
- Although he was never named as a suspect in the Lyon case, he later was involved in a number of stalking incidents and rapes, some of which involved young girls.
- He was arrested, tried and convicted of rape in 1982 and has been in prison since that time. In 2009, he was charged in four additional rapes...

From Maryland Judiciary Search:

Defendant Information
Name: BUZBEE, TIMOTHY JOSEPH Gender: Male DOB: 08/27/1957
Address: 13800 MCMULLEN HWY SW CUMBERLAND MD 21505

Buzbee was actually charged in March 2012 with ten crimes, including first and second degree rape, robbery, and use of a handgun in commission of a crime.

In court, he pled guilty to three cases of first degree rape, and the other charges were dropped (Nolle Proseqi).

These charges were the result of Cold Case work and DNA testing of old evidence on file.
 
The above link on Earl Bramblett indicates that he was the prime suspect in the 1977 disappearance of a 14 year old girl. He would have been about 20 years old at the time. Wonder what the specifics are in that case.
 
Actually...the 14 year old girl and her friend. His mass collection of tape recordings is also interesting.
 
I just want to throw this out there. I'm posting this because I'm afraid people will focus only on TRM who may or may not have been there that day. It depends on "Jimmy" and his story...do you believe it or not? This is an example of another case where a child told a lie.


By MARK PAZNIOKAS
The Hartford Courant
August 6, 2000

NORWALK -- Her name was Kathleen. She collected Strawberry Shortcake dolls, rode a lavender bicycle and owned a dog named Lady that waited for her to come home after school. She could be shy in public, chatty at home. Every morning, she melted her father's heart by saying, "Hello, my daddy."

She was 11.

Kathleen Marie Flynn was Jim and Esther Flynn's second child and only daughter. She was one of 596 students enrolled at Ponus Ridge Middle School on Sept. 23, 1986, the day she didnt come home.

The school bell rang at 2:40 p.m. Kathleen spent a few minutes organizing the locker she shared with her girlfriend, Lee. Then she disappeared down the paved path she took every day through the woods on her half-mile walk home.

The body was found at 3:30 a.m. in the thick swath of woods between the path and the school athletic fields. The search party included volunteer firefighters who frequented Jim Flynn's fish-and-chips restaurant. He was called to identify the body, accompanied by his priest and a brother-in-law.

His daughter had been raped and strangled.



Even today, there is disbelief.

Kathleen was killed a few hundred feet from athletic fields where the soccer and field hockey teams were practicing. The school was in a prosperous neighborhood where the biggest worry had been the boys who sped through the woods on mini-bikes onto busy Hunters Lane. One ran into a police cruiser.

<modsnip>

The hottest lead came from a student, who told detectives he saw three men confront Kathleen in the woods. He provided a detailed description of two of them. Months later, detectives confronted the boy with their suspicions that the story was made up.

He admitted the lie.



<modsnip>

http://articles.courant.com/2000-08...lice-cruiser-school-athletic-fields-binders/2
 
Andre Rand

Here is another potential suspect in the Lyon Sisters' disappearance. Although it is not known if he was in Maryland on 25 March 1975, he was active as a serial killer of children at that time, and similarities in victims and circumstances with his known crimes and that of the Lyon case bear looking into.

--------------------

Andre Rand was born Frank Rushan March 11th, 1944. He changed his name to Andre Rand in 1968 after working as a janitor at the Willowbrook mental institution. A native of Manhatten, New York, he would have been 31 years old at the time of the Lyon sisters' disappearance.

Timeline

On 25 May 1969, Rand had his first brush with the law when he abducted and tried to have sex with a 9-year-old girl. He was caught before the assault occurred and served 16 months for attempted sexual assault.

On 7 July 1972, five-year-old Alice Pereia went missing from her Staten Island home. She was last seen walking with Andre Rand, a janitor in her apartment building.

On 7 April 1975, Steven Anderson, 17, and David Williams, 12, went missing from a State School in New Jersey. Both boys were mentally challenged. Some investigators think that Rand could have been involved in their disappearance.

In 1977, Audrey Lyn Nergenberg, an eighteen-year-old went missing. Her disappearance is believed by some to be linked to Rand.

In 1979, Rand was accused of raping a young woman and a 15-year-old girl but since neither pressed charges, he was never indicted.

In 1981, Rand tried to entice a 9-year-old girl into his car with candy. When she refused, he followed her home. She hid from him and no charges were filed.

Another little girl, Holly Ann Hughes, was not so lucky. She disappeared 15 July 1981 and has never been found.

In 1983, Rand drove to the Staten Island YMCA and picked up a group of 11 children, bought them White Castle hamburgers and took them to the Newark Airport to watch the planes. Though no children were harmed, Rand was charged with unlawful imprisonment for which he served 10 months in jail.

On 14 August 1983, 10-year-old Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson went missing.

On 9 June 1984, Henry Gafforio, 22, went missing from his Port Richmond neighborhood. Last seen at the "Spa Lounge" shortly after 04.00 A.M. that morning, Gafforio was thought by some to have been a victom of Andre Rand.

On 9 July 1987, 12-year-old Jennifer Schweiger, a little girl with Down’s Syndrome, disappeared. A month later, her nude body was found in a shallow grave near Rand’s makeshift campsite on the grounds of Willowbrook State Mental Facility (now the College of Staten Island).

In 1988, Rand was convicted of the 1987 abduction of Jennifer Schweiger, a resident of Westerleigh, NY. The Staten Island jury could not reach a verdict on a murder charge in that case.

In 2004, Rand was indicted in the 1983 disappearance of 10-year-old Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson.

In October 2004, Rand was found guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, of abducting Holly Ann Hughes, 7, as she walked on a street in her Port Richmond, NY neighborhood 23 years earlier (1981). Her body was never found.

Although never formally charged, Rand's name has surfaced in connection with several other disappearances back dating to 1972 on Staten Island.

The bodies of at least seven missing people - possible victims of Rand - are still unaccounted for including Alice Pereia, Holly Ann Hughes, Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson, Steven Anderson, David Williams, Henry Gafforio and Audrey Lyn Nergenberg.

One of the unusual characteristics of Andre Rand is that most of his victims were random strangers. Most kidnappers either know or are at least somewhat acquainted with their victims.

Rand is serving consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences for his two kidnapping convictions. He is not eligible for parole until 2037, when he'll be 93 years old.

LINKS

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/convicted_kidnapper_andre_rand.html

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/456545_the-legend-of-cropsey

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/456545_the-legend-of-cropsey#ixzz1qhSUf1yv

It may be mentioned here somewhere not to sure but if anyone wants to see something awesome but very creepy maybe even scary watch the documentary called "Cropsey" It's all about Andre rand and the mental institution and a murder its on youtube or google it .If you do watch it tell me what u think ..
 
I just want to throw this out there. I'm posting this because I'm afraid people will focus only on TRM who may or may not have been there that day. It depends on "Jimmy" and his story...do you believe it or not? This is an example of another case where a child told a lie. ....

The hottest lead came from a student, who told detectives he saw three men confront Kathleen in the woods. He provided a detailed description of two of them. Months later, detectives confronted the boy with their suspicions that the story was made up.

He admitted the lie....

A very interesting unsolved case. Many similarities to the Lyon sisters' disappearance.

However, there are some significant differences in regard to the "eyewitness" statements and police response.

In the Lyon case, there is no evidence that "Jimmy" was lying. He never said that his statements were false. His story was corroborated at the time by another 13 year-old boy. And when police released the story to the media, quite a number of other people came forward to state that they had also seen a man with a tape recorder - but at other dates. Some sightings of a TRM were on previous dates at Wheaton Plaza, and other sightings were reported on previous dates at other shopping centers.

You are correct in saying that TRM might or might not have been involved in the disappearance of the Lyon sisters. That has been the position of the Montgomery County Police investigators of the case since March 1975.

I wonder if MCP re-questioned "Jimmy" months later like police did in the other case. Certainly, his story about the TRM is a significant part of the Lyon case. I also wonder if investigators have questioned a now adult "Jimmy" in recent years to see what he has to say about his sighting of TRM.

It quite possible that misinformation was introduced into the Lyon investigation by the many people who offered stories about what they saw or heard, however well meaning they may have been. That is something that always has to be considered.
 
True. Jimmy has never come forward saying that he lied. But that isn't proof that he was telling the truth. I would feel better about his story if the only other witness wasn't his friend.
 
Did anyone watch the documentry i told you about called Cropsey all about rand ..
 
Iam very sorry to hear that .I didn't bring it up for thier to be any trouble or to bother you i just seen someone mentioned his name up top and i knew this was about that .IF you can get past it it is a good documentry if you wanna know about him and how he was considered a suspect .again didn;t mean it to be a problem for anyone that watchs it . On the other side though crime isn;t a nice thing for anyone but if everyone turns it off after 30 seconds whos gonna stop the kinda crime that is so important though not easy to know about or hear about let alone watch...
 
Iam very sorry to hear that .I didn't bring it up for thier to be any trouble or to bother you i just seen someone mentioned his name up top and i knew this was about that .IF you can get past it it is a good documentry if you wanna know about him and how he was considered a suspect .again didn;t mean it to be a problem for anyone that watchs it . On the other side though crime isn;t a nice thing for anyone but if everyone turns it off after 30 seconds whos gonna stop the kinda crime that is so important though not easy to know about or hear about let alone watch...

I am well aware of this man and his crimes. It doesn't bother me that you've pointed us towards the video. As far as my not watching all of it....you are not me and you haven't walked in my shoes. My watching that video won't stop crime and it isn't the only way to learn more about a potential suspect.
 
Sex Offenders Out of Jail:

Group wants ex-priest banned in Lincoln



Illionis - Francis Benham, who most recently resided in Lincoln, will be freed in Maryland Sunday after serving nearly a year behind bars for sexual offenses he committed nearly three decades ago while a Catholic priest in Prince George's County, Md.

With permission from officials in Maryland and Illinois, Benham could return to Lincoln where he lived from 1987 until 2004 - an action a national support group is trying to prevent.

Members of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, are rallying to persuade Illinois and Maryland officials to halt Benham's return.

SNAP members from four states drafted a letter addressed to Illinois Corrections Director Roger Walker and Walker's counterpart in Maryland, Mary Ann Saar.

"We are urging you to prevent a convicted pedophile priest from returning to the small town where he has lived for 20 years when he gets out of prison this Sunday," the letter reads. "We know of at least three kids who were abused by Francis Benham.

"Based on what we know of child molesters in general, abusive clerics as a group, and Benham as an individual, we believe he still poses a risk to innocent children. We also believe that it's best for the safety of kids if Benham lives somewhere else besides Lincoln, Ill.

"If allowed to return to Lincoln & he'll be back in a more remote and trusting small town environment, where abuse may be less likely to be detected or reported to authorities."

Benham was extradited to Maryland in July 2004 where he was convicted of second- and third-degree sex offenses. He was sentenced to two concurrent 10-year prison terms, but because the majority of his sentence was suspended, Benham was only required to serve the equivalent of 18 months.

After being registered as a sex offender in Maryland and discharged from prison, Benham must serve three years of supervised release and refrain from contacting his victims or anyone younger than age 18, said Allison Gillford, a supervisor of the sex offender registry for Maryland.

Gillford said Benham's potential return to Illinois must first be approved by his probation officer.

One of Benhams victims - fearful that Benham's sexual deviance will reoccur - is doing what she can to ensure kids will be safe from the 69-year-old former priest.

Donna Kollars - now a married 41-year-old mother of eight - was sexually assaulted and sodomized by Benham during a two-year period beginning in 1977 when Kollars was only 13 years old. Benham also was convicted of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy on six different occasions during the same period.

"I personally believe there are other victims - other children - in Lincoln," Kollars said Friday.

Confident that Benham has other victims who have not come forward, Kollars has been working to encourage other victims to seek help from SNAP.

Kollars, a Fairfield, Penn., resident who has belonged to a local chapter of SNAP for the past 18 months, said she traveled to Ohio twice in mid-December to testify before state legislators who were re-examining sex offender laws.

She also traveled to Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Columbus - where Benham worked as a non-parish minister after leaving Maryland - and distributed to parishioners flyers that identified Benham as a convicted sex offender, hoping other victims might come forward.

"Usually young people are threatened by the priest," she said. "I know so many victims who are in their 40s and 50s who are just now coming forward."

When Kollars was a young girl and Benham was assaulting her, he had all the power, she said. With Benham imprisoned the past year, she believes the table has turned.

"Part of me was nervous. Part of me was scared," she said, recalling emotions she felt as she handed out the flyers. "(But) that was a real good feeling, to know that you could do something about this.

"He's lived a lie and people need to know that."

An Ohio man recently told Kollars he, too, was molested by Benham, and knows of seven or eight other victims as well, Kollars said.

"It's just been crazy," Kollars said. "It just seems like this big mystery that keeps unfolding.

"I guess I'm just hoping the word can get out."

Benham became an ordained priest in 1963 and worked at the St. Jude Rectory in Rockville, Md., until 1970.

He served the next 10 years at two Catholic churches in Prince Georges County - five years at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Beltsville, Md., and at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Forestville, Md., from 1975 until 1979.

The first complaint against Benham was made to the Washington, D.C., archdiocese in 1979, alleging he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl two to three times a week from 1977 until 1979. Benham was immediately removed from the ministry and started to receive counseling.

Benham then was hired by the archdiocese of Columbus, Ohio, and worked as a non-parish minister from 1979 until 1985 at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Zanesville, Ohio.

Benham worked at Holy Rosary from 1985 until 1987, just before moving to Lincoln where he worked as a counselor for convicted sex offenders for nearly 14 years at Tazwood Mental Health Center in Pekin.

http://www.lincolncourier.com/news/06/01/21/a.asp
 
Sex Offenders Out of Jail:

Group wants ex-priest banned in Lincoln

Illionis - Francis Benham, who most recently resided in Lincoln, will be freed in Maryland Sunday after serving nearly a year behind bars for sexual offenses he committed nearly three decades ago while a Catholic priest in Prince George's County, Md....

... Benham became an ordained priest in 1963 and worked at the St. Jude Rectory in Rockville, Md., until 1970.

He served the next 10 years at two Catholic churches in Prince Georges County - five years at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Beltsville, Md., and at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Forestville, Md., from 1975 until 1979.

The first complaint against Benham was made to the Washington, D.C., archdiocese in 1979, alleging he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl two to three times a week from 1977 until 1979. Benham was immediately removed from the ministry and started to receive counseling.

Benham then was hired by the archdiocese of Columbus, Ohio, and worked as a non-parish minister from 1979 until 1985 at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Zanesville, Ohio.

Benham worked at Holy Rosary from 1985 until 1987, just before moving to Lincoln where he worked as a counselor for convicted sex offenders for nearly 14 years at Tazwood Mental Health Center in Pekin.

http://www.lincolncourier.com/news/06/01/21/a.asp

An interesting possibility. It would seem from the above article, that he was either in Beltsville or Forrestville in March 1975, but he obviously had contacts in Rockville, Md as well.

Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County. Beltsville and Forrestville are in neighboring Prince Georges County.

The Lyon sisters were Catholic and attended Mass at a church near Kensington. Is it possible that Father Benham had any connection with their church?
 
Fred Coffey has a new photo in the North Carolina Inmate Locator. You can see it by going to the link below and then clicking an icon to see it. The years have not been good to him.

He was, at one time, considered by Montgomery County Police as a possible suspect in the disappearance of the Lyon sisters. He has admitted to having molested over 100 children, and is a strong suspect in several disappearances and murders of children.

Coffey has been in prison since late 1986 when he was convicted of molesting three children and later for the murder of little Amanda Ray (age 10). He was on death row until 1995 when his sentence was changed to Life in Prison. He has been up for parole numerous times, but has not been paroled.

This week marks one year since Coffey was cited with an infraction - his first since entering prison. The infraction was for committing a sexual act.

--------------------
FRED H COFFEY
Offender Number: 0081135
Inmate Status: ACTIVE
Gender: MALE
Race: WHITE
Ethnic Group: EUROPEAN/N.AM./AUSTR
Birth Date: 03/20/1945
Age: 68
Current Location: PENDER CI

Source:

NC DPS Offender Public Information

LINK:

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi...turl=pagelistoffendersearchresults&listpage=1
 
I was 9 years old growing up in neighboring PG County when the Lyons girls disappeared. I was captivated by the story at the time even recalling it being discussed in my 4th grade class. It still captivates me almost 40 years later.

Coffey seems the most likely suspect. Forgive me, but I did not see a post inquiring if Coffey denied abducting the girls or was ever given a lie detector test.
 

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