Possible Connections

[emery]

Kate (like me) would have walked to school down Plyers Mill. Dennis is on the other side of Oakland Terrace, so Kate would not have walked near Dennis to get to school.

Assuming Sheila went to Newport Mill, I doubt Sheila's bus would have gone anywhere near Dennis given that Newport Mill is in the opposite direction from Dennis. Frankly, I don't think anyone who lived on Dennis would have had any regular exposure to someone living on Plyers Mill. They're really different parts of the neighborhood.

However, if the Lyon sisters played out in their front yard, everyone driving up and down Plyers Mill could have seen them. In that regard, their house was much more on display than houses like mine that were tucked away on deadend streets in the middle of the neighborhood.

I had two friends who lived on Plyers Mill and we didn't generally play in their front yards because Plyers Mill was such a busy street.

I don't doubt that some searching was done. I just doubt that it was as exhaustive or extensive as we might like to believe now. I strongly doubt any house on Glenway Drive was searched, for example, because I think I would have heard about it.

Any searching done in this way would have had to be strictly voluntary given that there was no basis for a search warrant (which requires probable cause). I imagine the knocking on doors and talking to homeowners along the possible routes was just an opportunity to collect information and see if anything developed into something more suspicious. Sometimes, for whatever reason, officers may have asked if they could look around the yard, basement, shed, etc. But, I doubt they tried to do a house-to-house search along the possible routes.

 

[emery]

The network of storm drains and sewers in that area was quite large and extensive. As I think I mentioned, I used to explore them with the neighborhood kids as if we were Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in a cave. I can definitely see why those would have been searched. They were big enough to stand up in and had lots of twists, turns, nooks and cranies. They also ran underground all the way from Wheaton Plaza down to the tributary of Rock Creek Park between Glenway and Drumm.

 

[Jeb]

The route the girls took 25Mar75, to the plaza.

According to the Wash. Star 6Apr75.

They walked out the door, through the gate, around the corner to Jennings Rd., down Jennings to a wooded path on the left. The wooded path was the size of 2 city blocks & brought them out to a clearing near Mrs. Tolkers' garden which opens onto McComas Ave. where the Kensington Gardens Nursing Home sits on the right. The route continues across McComas, up Drumm Ave. & right on Faulkner to the Wheaton Plaza Parking lot at the rear of Montgomery Ward.

This was the route the girls customarily used, & the one their mother often used, according to Mrs. Lyon.

 

[emery]

The route the girls took 25Mar75, to the plaza.

According to the Wash. Star 6Apr75.

They walked out the door, through the gate, around the corner to Jennings Rd., down Jennings to a wooded path on the left. The wooded path was the size of 2 city blocks & brought them out to a clearing near Mrs. Tolkers' garden which opens onto McComas Ave. where the Kensington Gardens Nursing Home sits on the right. The route continues across McComas, up Drumm Ave. & right on Faulkner to the Wheaton Plaza Parking lot at the rear of Montgomery Ward.

This was the route the girls customarily used, & the one their mother often used, according to Mrs. Lyon.

Thanks for posting that Jeb. That's very interesting. The path through the woods between the nursing home and Jennings was the one I walked every day to and from school. When you went through the woods you could either turn left and head to the bottom of Glenway Dr. and through to McComas or you could turn right and cut through the nursing home grounds (not recommended, as I mentioned, because Mr. Sykes the groundskeeper didn't like trespassers). I'm not sure who Mrs. Tolkers was. There was a garden (mostly vegetables and strawberries) in the open space between Glenway Dr. and the nursing home, but I don't remember who owned it. Perhaps this is the garden referred to? There was also a cluster of fruit trees near the nursing home that we used to sit in and eat the berries after school. We called them mullberry trees, but I don't actually think they were mullberries.

Mapquest now shows a Pearson Street at the end of Glenway linking up with McComas. When I was a kid, Glenway was a dead end, although you could walk through to McComas quite easily.

If this is the route they took back, they would have passed right by Glenway on their way home (assuming they got that far).

 

[Jeb]

emery
I've followed your excellant posts & am curious about the 'wooded path' the 2 girls would have walked through. Is it in reality a full 2 blocks long, is it isolated, & can you see from one end of it to the other? Also, if the girls made it to Jennings, how far was it to their house at the corner of Jennings & Plyers Mill?

 

[emery]

emery
I've followed your excellant posts & am curious about the 'wooded path' the 2 girls would have walked through. Is it in reality a full 2 blocks long, is it isolated, & can you see from one end of it to the other? Also, if the girls made it to Jennings, how far was it to their house at the corner of Jennings & Plyers Mill?

The path was probably about two blocks long (short blocks not long New York blocks). It was a little winding and went through a fairly dense wooded area so it was more like a wooded hiking path. I don't recall being able to see from one end of the path to the other.

I remember as a kid not liking to walk through that path alone either to or from school. I would have to do this occasionally if I was late and my friends had already gone ahead. If this happened, I would usually run through the wooded part. So, the path was isolated enough that it was just a tad scary for a little girl by herself. But, with a friend or two it became a nice wooded walk.

I didn't often turn right on Jennings once I was through the woods. I turned left and went up to the next street and cut over from there to Plyers Mill to go to school. From the few times I did head in the other direction, I would say it was just a few hundred yards to Plyers Mill and around the corner to their house. If they made it through the woods and on to Jennings, they were really almost home.

 

[Jeb]

Thanks for that info.,emery,
My line of thinking tells me they were probably abducted by someone in a car. If this is true, it's easier to lure, or make them enter the car from the sidewalk area, than have to bring them from the woods to the car. This must have happened before they got to the wooded path, since the other end of the path puts them so close to home.

If they were abducted by someone who lives in the neighborhood, someone would have noticed them walking with that person. Also that person may have been recognized. Also they would have had to been taken into a house unoticed by anyone & then what became of them? Sooner or later they would have been taken out of the house, buried in the yard, or else transported somewhere else. This theory just doesn't seem logical to me, although anything's possible.

 

[Richard]

... If they were abducted by someone who lives in the neighborhood, someone would have noticed them walking with that person. Also that person may have been recognized. Also they would have had to been taken into a house unoticed by anyone & then what became of them? Sooner or later they would have been taken out of the house, buried in the yard, or else transported somewhere else. This theory just doesn't seem logical to me, although anything's possible.

Anything is possible. And one has to consider all possible scenarios, ruling out the ones which seem impossible or improbable given the known facts and situation.

 

[emery]

Thanks for that info.,emery,
My line of thinking tells me they were probably abducted by someone in a car. If this is true, it's easier to lure, or make them enter the car from the sidewalk area, than have to bring them from the woods to the car. This must have happened before they got to the wooded path, since the other end of the path puts them so close to home.

If they were abducted by someone who lives in the neighborhood, someone would have noticed them walking with that person. Also that person may have been recognized. Also they would have had to been taken into a house unoticed by anyone & then what became of them? Sooner or later they would have been taken out of the house, buried in the yard, or else transported somewhere else. This theory just doesn't seem logical to me, although anything's possible.

I think they could have been lured into a vehicle anywhere along the street parts of the route and that it could have been done without anyone noticing.

Of course, the closer they got to home, the more likely it was (though not a sure thing) that any eyewitnesses would have recognized or even known the girls. Whereas, an eyewitness further back along the route would have been less likely to know them and therefore less likely to remember what they saw. All that said, I think our neighborhood was quiet enough that an abductor could have lured them into a car without anyone seeing it at all. I also think that the word got out fast enough that most people who might have seen two blonde girls getting into a vehicle or talking to an adult on the street, would have been able to remember it and would have spoken up. This also suggests no one saw it.

Likewise, I think they could have been lured into a house along the route without anyone being the wiser. It would merely be a matter of timing.

 

[Jeb]

My intent here is just to discuss, & not argue.

If the girls were lured into a house along the route, by an abductor, I would assume this person would strike again in the following months or years. Yet this was not the case.

In fact the only other similar case within that time frame was the Beatty Girl who was attacked & killed in Aspen Hill, 4 months after the Lyon Girls vanished.

Coffey was known to have been in the area about the time both of these bizarre events happened, & when he left town around the end of July 1975, these type crimes ended as abruptly as they started.

 

[Richard]

My intent here is just to discuss, & not argue.

If the girls were lured into a house along the route, by an abductor, I would assume this person would strike again in the following months or years. Yet this was not the case.

In fact the only other similar case within that time frame was the Beatty Girl who was attacked & killed in Aspen Hill, 4 months after the Lyon Girls vanished.

Coffey was known to have been in the area about the time both of these bizarre events happened, & when he left town around the end of July 1975, these type crimes ended as abruptly as they started.

Good observations, Emery and Jeb.

In considering the many possible scenarios, one would have to ask, not only what is POSSIBLE, but also what are the most LIKELY of those possibilities.

It is probably pretty safe to say the it was rather UNLIKELY that the girls just ran away, or that they fell into a pond in the woods. The possibility of abduction is, on the other hand, a very LIKELY and probable conclusion.

Knowing the girls' usualy route, expected time of arrival, regular patterns and behavior, one could possibly reconstruct their intended path home. The fact that they disappeared so quickly and without notice would tend to argue that the abductor (or abductors) had a vehicle of some sort and probably got the girls to enter the car in either the Wheaton Plaza Parking Lot or on one of the back streets between the shopping center and their home - and the closer to the Shopping Center being more likely.

Next, one must consider the abductor what was his motive, and technique? Did he know the girls well? If so, he might have waited for them near their house. If not, he might have made his attempt closer to where he first met or saw them.

At the time, police had nothing to go on, other than that the girls did not return home as expected. Within a few days, they had a description of a man with a tape recorder speaking with them at the Mall. The sighting was evaluated as a valid one because the boy witness knew both girls personally, and was very close when he saw the encounter. Unfortunately, although other people later came forward to say that they had seen the same or a similar "Tape recorder man" at Wheaton Plaza on previous occasions, and at other Shopping Centers in both Montgomery and Prince Geroges Counties, he was never positively identified.

In 1987, a man by the name of Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. came to the attention of law enforcement authorities. He was on trial in North Carolina for abducting and murdering a 10 year old girl, and was suspected of other similar crimes. It came to light that Coffey was in Maryland about the time that the Lyon sisters disappeared (25 March 1975), and he left town suddenly a few days after the abduction of and attack on Kathy Beatty (24 July 1975).

As Jeb stated, those two incidents were the only ones about that time in Montgomery County. HOWEVER, there were several other similar disappearances of young girls in Pennsylvania between them. And those cases are each within an hours drive of Wheaton, MD.

 

[ShurlT]

I'm finally back online after my computer was fried by lightening and my husband's computer developed a virus after my last posting. Just came back online an hour ago.

It's also interesting to note there was one abduction per month between March 1975 and July 1975 when Coffey abruptly left the area and a possible other double abduction in NJ in April. Whether related or not is unknown. This is an interesting fact because double abductions have been considered unusual and during this 4 or 5 month period there were 2 double abductions and another almost double abduction that got interrupted.

 

[Jeb]

Welcome back Shurl T,

LE indicated to me that the Apr75 NJ abduction was not linked to this case.

If the 2 girls were lured into a house along the way, then why is it that the act was never repeated again in the exact neighborhood & in the same maner? I have learned that these type offenders will stick with a certain m.o., as long as it works, & they won't quit until they are caught.

 

[ShurlT]

Thanks Jeb. Wanted to let you know I was finally back online.

What year did you talk to LE about this because when I talked to Sgt DeCarlo by phone, (late 2004, I think) after I sent my information and later, all the research I had done I asked if they had checked with NJ about that abduction and he very strongly said, "NO." At that time I didn't know why and didn't ask but you and I have talked about this so I know what your thinking is. Something came to mind this AM. My original thought about this abduction when I found it was: Since it happened the same day as the girls were supposed to have been seen bound and gagged in Mannassas, VA @ 7:30 AM and the boys disappeared later that day @ 4:30 PM after they got out of a county (?) school which was also near a Navy base that Coffey may have been familiar with and also near camping areas that this abduction may have been only for the purpose of throwing the police in Maryland off the track...maybe as to the actual direction he took when leaving the Mannassas area...say as opposed to going south after being seen, he went north...and might not have been for personal gratification/reasons, etc.
To me, the question at the time of my research was: where did he take the girls?
IF it was Coffey, which was the only information available to the public at that time from the Lyon sisters webpage and was the only place to start investigating...knowing Coffey was in jail in NC...at first I was looking for a trail south to NC but the Mannassas scenario ALSO brought up the possibility of a side track to the police...hypothetical suspicions/possible scenarios that needed to be looked into just in case they were revelant and the possibility he may have dispossed of the girls somewhere in the NJ area along with the boys.
Since then many other possible scenarios of where he may have taken the girls...MD, PA, VA, NC, NJ???? This is in my mind as questions concerning...where are they and where are all the other children that disappeared? How can that many children disappear around the same time with no trace of any of them?
Genealogy research is similar to an investigation with many mysteries/questions that have to be solved. Frequently, searches result in wild goose chases, dry wells, brick walls and often times a lot of misinformation but each possible scenario has to be checked out and proven or disproved and then the acutal facts have to be supported by documentation to be accepted in the genealogy world as the final product. Hunches sometimes pay off and sometimes lead to all of the above problems and sometimes a question answered leads to many more questions/mysteries,etc.

 

[ShurlT]

This might have been an abduction of opportunity rather than personal gratification and race was not a consideration.

 

[ShurlT]

Some months ago I stumbled on a criminal education webpage that had a section on, "Location Blindness." The sample case was about a rape in a state where there was only one rape. Police didn't know the rapist had recently moved there from another state and was a serial rapist in the previous state requiring a different type of investigation than they were doing.

 

[Richard]

This might have been an abduction of opportunity rather than personal gratification and race was not a consideration.

There is probably a great deal of opportunity involved in most abduction cases like these.

In the case of the Lyon sisters, no one could have known exactly when and where the girls were going to be at any specific time (unless perhaps they told someone), or that they were going to take a particular route, or that the coast would be clear to attempt an abduction.

IF the Tape Recorder Man was indeed the abductor, then he was making his move on 25 March 1975 after numerous scouting expeditions and practice approaches, because he had been seen "interviewing" other children on other occasions at Wheaton Plaza, and at other area Shopping Centers.

Consider the case of the two NJ boys; Anderson and Williams. They were supposed to be at their residential special school, but took off to go for an unauthorized walk. Somebody, obviously spotted them and offered them a ride. Again a crime of opportunity, because these two boys were not where anyone would have expected them to be.

As to the exact time of the boys disappearance - some sources say 4:30 PM on Monday 1 April - that could be off by a bit. It was probably the time when the boys were REPORTED to be missing, which (depending on circumstances) might have been as much as 24 hours after their actual disappearance. I would not rule any thing out because of that supposed time and date. If the boys were taken some hours before 7AM on 1 April 1975, then it is possible that it was them that the IBM man saw in the Tan Ford Station Wagon in Manassas, VA that morning. With all the media hysteria about the missing Lyon girls, he could easily have assumed that the children in the car were Kate and Sheila. Just a possibility to consider.

Also, regarding crimes of opportunity, look at the few known facts in the disappearances of the girls in Pennsylvania: Each girl was away from her home and walking on public roads at the time. It is very likely or possible that their abductor simply chanced upon them and offered them a ride.

Kathy Lynn Beatty was walking alone, only a short distance from her home near the VITRO Laboratory (Coffey's employer) parking lot on 24 July 1975. She was supposed to be home at the time.

Mr. Coffey may or may not have been the abductor of any of these children, but he certainly was constantly on the look-out for children to victimize. By his own admission, he had molested over 100 children at the time of his 1987 trials.

Did Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. only abduct, molest, and murder one little 10 year old girl? Was Amanda Ray his one and only murder victim? Or were there many, many more?

 

[ShurlT]

Richard, you offer some interesting ideas. Clarification to my previous comments: The two boys in NJ were attending a STATE school which at that time would indicate some type of specialized schooling. When I did adult foster care which at times brought interviews from people with younger children with disabilities ...both the children and adults were taken to school or other activies by bus. That was in mid '80's so I have no idea what the procedure was in 1975.

I was motivated to check MapQuest again. I've had the idea in the back of my mind that the highway 72 area was sort of remote so I looked at it by aerial view and it still seems to be that way with long stretches of road and not many houses. There also is a body of water to the right that has what might be a dam. I can't make out what it is. Can somebody take a look at that and see if they can figure out what it is, please?

I've never seen any record that says the boys were taken at 7o AM but certainly would explain why some people kept saying there wouldn't be time for someone to drive from Mannassas to NJ. The only records I've seen say they disappeared on April 7th rather than the 1st (we're both getting rusty on our facts, Richard..no offence intended) at 4:30 PM. However, when I checked the posting on www.missingkids.com the other day they only have that hour posted on Steven Anderson's page but not on David Williams's page.

It reads: "He (David Anderson) was last seen leaving the New Lisbon State School off of State Highway #72 in New Lisbon, New Jersey on April 7, 1975 at approx. 4:30 PM."

Richard, you are such a wiz at finding newspaper accounts...is there any possibility you could find something about these boys' disappearance that might help clarify some of these points and maybe shed a little more light on what else might be known about their disappearance?

 

[ShurlT]

I have no idea how that face got in the middle of that sentence. It said 7:00 AM before red face showed up. So sorry.

 

[Richard]

This abduction/disappearance occurred ten years after the Lyon Sisters disappeared. Although there was a long time between these cases, note the description of the victim and compare it with descriptions of the Lyon girls.

Although the Case summary indicates that her home life was troubled, and that her brothers had previously run away from home, the likelyhood of this little girl running away from home in her bathing suit would be rather small. The possibility of abduction, on the other hand seems highly likely. She has been missing for 22 years now.

Possible connections?

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

Martha Jean Lambert
Missing since November 27, 1985 from Elkton, Saint Johns County, Florida.
Classification: Nonfamily Abduction


Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: March 26, 1973
Age at Time of Disappearance: 12 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 4'5 (135 cm.); 70 pounds (32 kg.)
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blonde hair; blue eyes.
Marks, Scars: Birthmarks on the front of her right thigh and on the upper part of her left chest.
Clothing: A matching two-piece bathing suit
Dentals: Lambert has slightly protruding teeth.

Circumstances of Disappearance

Lambert, a 7th grade student at Ketterlinus Junior High, was last seen at her family's mobile home in Elkton, Florida on November 27, 1985. She spent time at a neighbor's residence after school, then returned to her home to have a small dinner with her brother. She told him she was going out. She has never been seen or heard from again. Martha's family life was troubled, she had spent much of her life in different foster homes. Her brothers had also ran away previously from their home. Authorities suspect foul play may have been involved.

Investigators

If you have any information concerning Lambert's whereabouts, please contact:

Saint Johns' County Sheriff's Office 904-824-8304

E-Mail: rporter@co.st-johns.fl.us

Agency Case Number: 271329
NCMEC #: NCMC601793
NCIC Number: M-293192969
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
St. Augustine Record
Florida Missing Children Information Clearinghouse
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
St. Johns County Sheriff's Office
The Doe Network: Case File 308DFFL

LINK:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/308dffl.html