I was Googling "Ronald Meroney" and found that Clarence D. Long, a deceased MD congressman that was in office from the 60s to the 80s, has his files archived at the Johns Hopkins Univ. Special Collections section of the Library. The files are mainly from the early to mid 70s.HOWEVER, he claimed to never have done that in Montgomery County. And he had a perfect alibi for not being at Wheaton Plaza on the date and time of the Lyon sisters' disappearance: He was involved in a traffic accident with a government vehicle and in the hospital at that time.
Investigators never released that information to the press. This individual was a family man with a wife and children, and he claimed to be embarrassed about what he had done, and did not want to endanger his family by having the word get out
His bio mentioned that he didnt have a lot of staffers and he had converted his van into a mobile office that he drove on the weekends.
I dont know if anyone else had access to this van.
There was also mention of a new shopping center project.
He has a file labeled "Meroney, Ronald". The file is not in the same subfiles as other media contacts or media intervews. I am theorizing that Meroney may have used his journalism skills to act as if he were getting input from local kids about the "new shopping center project"-I dont recall the town mentioned. If he was able to befriend the girls by the phony interview, he possibly could have waited for them to leave the mall and approached them in an (official/govt) vehicle offering a ride home or promising money for soliciting political flyers.
If the girls were alive the following day and he realized after hearing the reports that they were the daughters of one of his colleagues, so to speak, he would not have been able to release them once he did whatever sick perverts do with kids.
I dont know how we could access the actual file to see what is in it and why a congressman would have a file on him.
The link is here:
http://www.library.jhu.edu/index.html
Go to Special Collections