Sheila and Katherine Lyon-sisters missing since 1975 - #1

[wheatongirl]

Richard, thank you for providing the most comprehensive information that I've read/heard in 30 years. We used to get the afternoon paper (The Washington Star) and it didn't carry too much information on the case. I've been planning to go to the library and use the archives since The Washington Post makes you pay to review some older newclippings.

The funny thing is, my elementary school never discussed the situation with us students or sent home anything for our parents. Today, any time an unusual situation occurs, parents are contacted immediately. I'm glad things have changed for the better.

Anyway, thanks again for your insight. I look forward to reading additional postings.

 

[mere]

I have been looking at the picture of Fred Howard Coffey Jr. on the North Carolina offender site, comparing it to the composite of the tape recorder man. I am so convinced that they are the same person. Silver Spring is only a couple of miles from Wheaton, and Plyer Mill Rd. is just too convenient. I also find it interesting that Coffey's birthday is only five days before the Lyon girls disappeared.

 

[sleuthin4fun]

My family lived in Northern Virginia in 1975. I was 10 years old when the Lyon sisters disappeared. I have thought about them many times over the years. I can not imagine the pain this family must have. I don't think that it is something that would ever leave.
Praying daily for the Lyons family!!!

 

[joeskidbeck]

I have been looking at the picture of Fred Howard Coffey Jr. on the North Carolina offender site, comparing it to the composite of the tape recorder man. I am so convinced that they are the same person. Silver Spring is only a couple of miles from Wheaton, and Plyer Mill Rd. is just too convenient. I also find it interesting that Coffey's birthday is only five days before the Lyon girls disappeared.

I also noticed the fact that his 30th birthday was only 5 days after the Lyons sister's disappearance. I have an uncle whose hair was totally gray before he was 25, and most children thought he was a much older man. It is quite possible that the children could have been mistaken about tape-recorder man's age. Whether or not he had anything to do with the sister's diappearance, I hope Fred Coffey Jr. will never be released from prison.

 

[Richard]

Montgomery County Police stated in 1987 that they believed Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. to be the strongest Person of Interest ever considered as a possible suspect in the Lyon Sisters' case.

It should be noted that his resemblence to the Tape Recorder Man Sketch, however strong, was not considered compelling enough evidence on its own to charge him. At the time, he was being tried in North Carolina for the murder of 10 year-old Amanda Ray, and North Carolina authorities - and Coffey's lawyers objected to MCP even questioning him.

There are discrepancies in the initial description of Tape Recorder Man and Coffey's description. Besides the age (50 vs 30), the height was given as "about 6 feet tall", whereas Coffey stands only 5 feet, 8 or 9 inches tall. It is not known if Coffey's photo - or any other photos - were shown to the witnesses who claimed to have seen Tape Recorder Man.

It should be pointed out that a "side by side" comparison of the Sketch and a photo of Coffey (or any other potential suspect) on the internet could be considered legal grounds to disallow any future witness identification of the suspect in court.

MCP seems to have dropped their interest in Tape Recorder Man about a month into the investigation, making official press statements which indicated that the man "might have been there for legitimate purposes", or "might not have been connected with their disappearance", etc. They never released either sketch after April 1975.

Coffey has since gotten off Death Row following legal appeals by a lawyer who has made his living and reputation in Death Row case appeals. That lawyer (mentioned previously in this thread) would almost certainly object to MCP questioning Fred today - for more or less obvious reasons.

Mention of Coffey's birthday being close to the disappearance date has been noted. In fact, there are two other persons of interest whose 30th birthdays were within a few days of the girls' disappearance as well. It is perhaps nothing more than a coincidence, but a very interesting one all the same.

Coffey was, in 1975, in a major transition point in his life. He had been in the Navy since age 17 (1962). Although he had only gone to school through 8th grade, he had made a promising career in the Navy and had attained the rank of First Class Petty Officer (E-6). Suddenly in 1974, he gets out with an honorable discharge - about the same time that he is charged (and convicted) for the first time of child molestation in Virginia. Coffey came from the Norfolk, VA area to the Metropolitan Washington, DC area to seek work as a Department of Defense Contractor. He applied for a computer programmer position with Vitro Laboratories on 1 April 1975, and began work with them later that month. He resigned suddenly on 31 July 1975, telling his employer that his wife and daughter had been involved in a serious auto accident. He used the same excuse later when leaving another employer. Investigation proved that he had lied both times about the accident.

Back to the subject of "coincidences", April first was only a week after the Lyon Sisters disappeared, and July 31st was only a week after Kathy Beatty was abducted, raped, beatten, and left for dead in a ditch.

 

[tennessee]

About the height discrepancy, this is just a long shot idea but wouldn't it have been possible that the tape recorder man could have been using lift shoes? Weren't they popular around this time? Could the benefit have been a couple of inches? That would get the height close to 6'.

 

[Richard]

About the height discrepancy, this is just a long shot idea but wouldn't it have been possible that the tape recorder man could have been using lift shoes? Weren't they popular around this time? Could the benefit have been a couple of inches? That would get the height close to 6'.

Good point. Yes, I recall seeing - and wearing - shoes with lift type heels in the mid 1970's. They would probably add an inch or maybe two at the most to the apparent height of a person. The popular style of trousers at the time (even for suits) was bell bottom or flare cut, and often the length covered much of the shoe.

Usually an estimate of height by anyone is done in comparison to one's own height or to others of known height. If the witness was 5 feet tall, and the suspect was taller, then he might easily over estimate the height, but would know that the person was taller than himself. Also, if the boy saw Tape Recorder Man talking to Sheila and Kate, he might have been bending over to speak with them, making height estimation more difficult. Again, he would know that the man was taller than the girls, but by how much?

I have always felt that the sketch of Tape Recorder Man was probably the most important clue available to police investigators at the time. The fact that upon its release, so many other people came forward and claimed to have seen the same person at other shopping centers - and the fact that the sketch was subsequently altered only slightly in the chin area - is a testament to the accuracy of the boy's description and the artist's rendition. It should also be noted that no further changes in description ever resulted following police interviews with those other witnesses.

 

[mom-a-licious]

Because of the accuracy of everyone's descriptions of Tape Recorder Man, and because so many people recognized the resulting sketch as the same man who'd been seen at area malls, I've always thought also that the sketch was the biggest clue to TRM's identity, and thereby possibly the identity of the abductor.

Because so many MD/DC area people saw the sketch at the time and were able to at least recognize someone they didn't know and had seen only briefly, I really think that someone else who actually Knew TRM's identity Also saw the sketch and knew exactly who it was.

I've only recently been able to see a copy of the sketch on the DOE network. As far as I know it was Never released later in the national news & on the internet the way sketches and security video clips are released today.

Due to the sketch's accuracy, if it were to be presented in this way now, even after all this time, there could be someone who is living on the other side of the country, 30 years later, who might suddenly say---"Hey, that looks exactly like John Doe, who was working temporarily in our office in Maryland for a few months in 1974". You never know.

 

[Richard]

Because of the accuracy of everyone's descriptions of Tape Recorder Man, and because so many people recognized the resulting sketch as the same man who'd been seen at area malls, I've always thought also that the sketch was the biggest clue to TRM's identity, and thereby possibly the identity of the abductor.

Because so many MD/DC area people saw the sketch at the time and were able to at least recognize someone they didn't know and had seen only briefly, I really think that someone else who actually Knew TRM's identity Also saw the sketch and knew exactly who it was.

I've only recently been able to see a copy of the sketch on the DOE network. As far as I know it was Never released later in the national news & on the internet the way sketches and security video clips are released today.

Due to the sketch's accuracy, if it were to be presented in this way now, even after all this time, there could be someone who is living on the other side of the country, 30 years later, who might suddenly say---"Hey, that looks exactly like John Doe, who was working temporarily in our office in Maryland for a few months in 1974". You never know.

You make some excellent points.

The sketches are on the DoeNetwork because I recently had them scanned and sent to the DoeNetwork, not because they were re-issued by the Montgomery County Police. The MCP has a website, but they do not feature the Lyon sisters case on it. The Maryland State Police also have a website, and they do feature the case, but it is simply a copy of what is on other websites and not a new summary written by either the State or County Police.

Because so many people recognized and remembered the strange man with the tape recorder from the sketch, it would seem to confirm strongly the boy's statements and descriptions of of the man.

Further, because the sketch was only shown in the Washington DC Metropolitan area, and because nobody could identify Tape Recorder Man by name - it would tend to indicate that he had only recently arrived in the area - or that he was not known personally by any local people. This could be significant, because for someone to have accellerated to the point of a double abduction, he would certainly have committed other similar crimes before it. No previous similar crimes had been committed, however and this was a very sudden and unique crime for the DC Metropolitan area. It could indicate that a serial pedophile/killer had suddenly appeared on the scene from elsewhere.

This case is receiving a lot of interest, especially as the 30th anniversary of Kate and Sheila's disappearance is approaching. Hopefully some new clues or tips will result.

 

[KensingtonAlumni]

Last night I was looking for information about the Lyon's sisters on the Internet and came across this website and read all the posts. Every year about this time I think of them and hope that some new evidence has been recovered. I will be 51 in a few weeks. The girls disappeared the day before my 21st birthday. It was on the news and just hit me like a ton of bricks. I could not understand how something like that could have happened. I thought about them all the time. Especially when going to Wheaton Plaza. And after the report came out about them supposidly being seen in the back of a stationwagon I made a point to look into every stationwagon I passed on the road.

I did not know them or their family. I did know that the father was a local D.J. on the radio.

About a year later my husband and I bought our first house together. It was at 3104 Jennings Road in Kensington ( you can look that up at mapquest ). Jennings goes off to the left from Plyers Mill Road right at the top of the hill. My new neighbor was happy to tell me all about the Lyon's sisters. I did not know that this was where they had disappeared from. It felt so strange.

She told me that the family lived up at the corner of our street by Plyers Mill. So every time I turned into Jennings, I would look at that little white house and say a prayer for the family there. I could not imagine the horror of what they were going through each and every day.

My neighbor ( who was in her 50's then ) told me that the path that the girls ( and lots of kids ) took that day was the one across from her house. There were houses all along the street on both sides, except in that spot. A wooded area. The area does have a lot of trees anyway in all the back yards.

I used to stand and look out her front window when I was visiting and stare out at those woods. I guess you could say that my innocense was taken along with many other people at that time. I had never really heard about children being taken that way and it was quite disturbing to me.

A year later a neighbor on the other side of us said that a man broke in her house and raped her. Not only that but for awhile there he kept coming back. I remember that summer listening for noises in the night and it seemed like every other night the police would arrive to search all the back yards for this culprit. He never was caught as far as I know.

When I became pregnant in 1977, we decided to move away. I did not feel comfortable there raising a child after all these things happened. It was a nice, quiet street - yet something seemed to always be going on. I don't know how it is now. I have not been back to see our old house in a long time. But I do still think of those little blonde headed girls and of the evil person who took them from their family. It effected me in how I raised my kids. I never allowed them to roam around the neighborhood where we lived. They did not understand why I was so over protective - but I didn't care. I just knew I had to be that way. No place is safe.

I wish we had a law that said that whoever has done harm to somebody has to be given a truth serum and asked who they have killed and/or where the bodies are. It seems to me that if this "Coffey" guy is in jail for another child murder...then he should have to be made to talk about anything else he did. Something is not right in our legal system. It is great when people have "rights"....but it always seems to me that the perps have more rights than the victims.

 

[Richard]

... I wish we had a law that said that whoever has done harm to somebody has to be given a truth serum and asked who they have killed and/or where the bodies are. It seems to me that if this "Coffey" guy is in jail for another child murder...then he should have to be made to talk about anything else he did. Something is not right in our legal system. It is great when people have "rights"....but it always seems to me that the perps have more rights than the victims.

That would be a great way to clear up many crimes. Unfortunately, such a law would be unconstitutional in the United States. The Fifth Ammendment prohibits the government compelling a person to implicate himself in a crime. This is why the police must always inform a suspect of his rights and get him to sign a paper stating that he has been informed, understands, and chooses to waive those rights before they question him. If the police fail to do this (or do it in an improper manner) anything that is obtained as a result of the suspect's statements is inadmissable in court. Even if the suspect (who has not been properly read his rights) states that he has a room somewhere - if the police search that room and find a load of evidence and that evidence leads to more evidence, it is all considered "Fruits of the Poisoned Tree" and cannot be used against the suspect in a court of law.

This is why "deals" often have to be cut between prosecutors and defense lawyers whereby the murderer gives information on his previous kills in return for a guarantee of a life sentence instead of the death penalty.

But you are right - it often seems that the criminals are the ones with more rights than their victims.

 

[Richard]

The 25th of March is Good Friday. It also marks the 30th anniversary of the day that Sheila and Kate Lyon were last seen in Wheaton, Maryland.

Back in 1975, the two sisters had gone to Wheaton Plaza to view Easter displays while on Spring Break from school. They were seen at 1PM talking to a middle aged man with salt and pepper hair, who was wearing a brown suit and holding a briefcase in one hand and a microphone in the other. They were seen again by their own brother at 2PM eating Pizza at the Orange Bowl Restaurant in the Mall. The last sighting of the girls was by a school mate who stated that they were walking in the direction of their home on Drumm Ave, near Devon a few hundred yards west of the Wheaton Plaza parking lot. That was at or shortly after 2:30PM. They have never been seen since.

On Good Friday I will be praying for them.

 

[joellegirl]

I will be praying for Sheila and Katherine as well, and their poor family. I will be checking the media (online, since I don't live in the Maryland/Wash DC area)for any mentions of this case. If anyone comes across any articles please post a link here if possible.

 

[mere]

I hope and pray that one day this case will be solved. I think about the fate of these girls all the time. Friday, March 25th I will defiantly be praying for Sheila and Katherine.

 

[mere]

I know that Coffey is a suspect in this case, but I don't understand why he can not be questioned. I realize that there is a law protecting him, but I still don't understand. Was there any kind of area search for the girls back in 1975. I am unfamiliar with what procedures took place back then?

 

[marylandmissing]

All papers in MD know of this anniversary.

 

[Richard]

I know that Coffey is a suspect in this case, but I don't understand why he can not be questioned. I realize that there is a law protecting him, but I still don't understand. Was there any kind of area search for the girls back in 1975. I am unfamiliar with what procedures took place back then?

There was a huge area search conducted for several months starting in March 1975. Tracking dogs, National Guard, volunteers, helecopters, etc all joined in. Efforts were detailed in daily news reports in the local newspapers, particularly the Washington Post.

Coffey was never named officially as a "suspect" by Montgomery County Police PR officers. He only became a "person of interest" in the case in 1987, 12 years after the girls disappeared. Being named a "suspect" is a big step in an investigation, and it seems to be reserved for persons for whom much evidence exists. That said, Coffey was indeed considered as a very likely candidate for the honor by MCP in 1987, and more recent revelations about his NC crimes make him an even more likely one.

Coffey is a convicted child molester and convicted child murderer. He has admitted to having molested up to a hundred other children and is thought to have killed other children as well. I do not think that Coffey or his lawyer can prevent Montgomery County Police from talking to him, but he cannot be compelled to implicate himself in any crimes. What is needed is some solid evidence linking him to these other crimes and then charges can be made. Once he is facing charges which carry a possible death sentence, he might be willing to talk.

 

[mere]

There was a huge area search conducted for several months starting in March 1975. Tracking dogs, National Guard, volunteers, helecopters, etc all joined in. Efforts were detailed in daily news reports in the local newspapers, particularly the Washington Post.

Coffey was never named officially as a "suspect" by Montgomery County Police PR officers. He only became a "person of interest" in the case in 1987, 12 years after the girls disappeared. Being named a "suspect" is a big step in an investigation, and it seems to be reserved for persons for whom much evidence exists. That said, Coffey was indeed considered as a very likely candidate for the honor by MCP in 1987, and more recent revelations about his NC crimes make him an even more likely one.

Coffey is a convicted child molester and convicted child murderer. He has admitted to having molested up to a hundred other children and is thought to have killed other children as well. I do not think that Coffey or his lawyer can prevent Montgomery County Police from talking to him, but he cannot be compelled to implicate himself in any crimes. What is needed is some solid evidence linking him to these other crimes and then charges can be made. Once he is facing charges which carry a possible death sentence, he might be willing to talk.

That makes great sense. Do you know at what point he admitted molesting all of those childeren?

 

[smile22]

question you know how there was a wittness that saw the children in a back of a car gaged and stuff. and how the licences plate was bent, and the witness couldnt get a good look. did they ever check coffeys licences plates do a check on him and see if those combination of letters numbers was registerd to him. that would be a major clue in their disaperance. beacuse then if the combo numbers/letters matched they would have at least some more solid evidence against him. i dont know if anyone thought of this before or if le already looked into it.

 

[Richard]

That makes great sense. Do you know at what point he admitted molesting all of those childeren?

Coffey admitted molesting three children and pled guilty to nine related molestation charges in a 1987 North Carolina trial held prior to his being charged in another trial for the murder of Amanda Ray. Between the two trials, Coffey was examined and interviewed by Psychiatrists. According to sworn testimony of those doctors at Coffey's trial for the Amanda Ray murder, he gave a full history of himself and admitted to molesting over 100 children. He did not, however, admit to killing anyone else.

That sequence of events was what later got him out of the death penalty. Coffey's defense lawyer argued that prosecutors' portrayal of Coffey as a pervert and molester was unfair, and later argued that during sentencing phase (after Coffey was convicted of first degree murder) that the prosecutor introduced the prior molestation convictions as articles of Aggrivation to get him the death penalty - AND that this was not lawful, because the molestations had occurred AFTER the murder. There is a link in this thread to the NC supreme court decision which explains the ruling in detail, along with the dissenting opinion.