NBC4 Washington DC news reported on recent announcements in the Lyon case this evening. They stated that Lloyd Lee Welch, Jr. (who was named a person of interest last year on 11 Feb 2014) had called in a tip to police on 1 April 1975 regarding the Lyon sisters - and that he reported seeing them enter a vehicle with a man. MCP interviewed him and got his Baltimore Street, Hyattsville, MD address at that time. They also reportedly gave him a polygraph test which indicated deception on his part.
Remember that a year ago, Lloyd Welch's stepmother Edna Welch stated that she recalled Lloyd had told her that he intended to call in a tip to claim a reward offered in the paper (1 April 1975) AND that he did, in fact, call in that tip. This would mean that he called it in from her house on Baltimore Street in Hyattsville. Mrs. Welch went on to state that she didn't think he knew anything about it. (Perhaps her impression of his usual habit of lying.)
In order to claim any reward or give a tip, the first thing any normal police department would do is take his name and address - and MCP confirmed last year on 11 Feb 2014 that they had Lloyd's address - given to them - on the specific date of 1 April 1975. Tonight's news story has confirmed all this.
Regardless of anything Lloyd Welch has said or done SINCE 1975, going back to that time, it would seem that 18 year old Lloyd was IN FACT relaying some accurate information to MCP. Information that seems to be the keystone of their current investigation.
It is obvious that Lloyd's 1975 information is being taken seriously today. That is good. There is still a 500 pound gorilla question in the room as to why his statements and the story and sketch of the Long Haired Man (believed now by police to have been Lloyd Welch) was kept secret from the public for so long?
Given Lloyd Welch's mental and criminal history, it is tempting to consider him as either the sole perpetrator of the girls' abduction, or as a part of a team of abductors. But why would he call police investigators only a week after they went missing with critical information which places himself at the scene? Obviously, he wanted to get the reward - but if he had an ounce of common sense or intelligence he must have realized that he would be considered a potential suspect.
One might make a persuasive legal argument that Lloyd Welch was and is of diminished mental capacity - based on this and later incidents.
A strong element in Lloyd's favor is the eyewitness testimony of "Jimmy" and his friend who claimed to have seen Sheila and Katherine talking to a man with a tape recorder (TRM) shortly before they went missing. Although Lloyd had the benifit of having read a summary of that story in the same edition of the Washington Post that detailed the $7,000 reward, there may be points of similarity between Lloyd's statements to police and the more detailed information from "Jimmy" and friend in police files.
