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

[Richard]

Sheila and Katherine LYON disappeared on 25 March 1975 from Kensington/Wheaton, Maryland. Just to the north in the adjacent state of Pennsylvania, three other young girls went missing under circumstances which led police to believe that they were abducted by a stranger (non-family member). One girl abducted each month through July. All are still missing. Could any of these cases be connected?

May 17, 1975 - Wendy Eaton age 15. Missing from Media, PA.
June 24, 1975 - Edna Christine Thorne age 15. Missing from Philadelphia, PA
July 8, 1975 - Tracy Anne King age 14. Missing from Littlestown, PA

On April 7, 1975, two young boys were abducted together in New Jersey - just east of Philadelphia, PA. Stephen Eugene Anderson, and David Williams are also still missing.

-----------------------------------------------
WENDY EATON
Date Of Birth: May 26, 1959
Date Missing: May 17, 1975
Age at Time of Disappearance: 15 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 4'10; 90 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; brown eyes.
Medical Conditions: Eaton is deaf in one ear.
Dentals: She wore orthodontic braces.
Marks, Scars: She wears eyeglasses and has pierced ears.
Missing from Media, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Classification: Non-Family Abduction

Circumstances of Disappearance
Eaton was last seen walking three blocks from her family's PA home on May 17, 1975 at approximately 3:05 PM. She was headed to the downtown area of Media, PA.
If you have any information related to Eaton's case, please contact:
Pennsylvania State Police
215-459-4150
NCIC Number: M-361834859
Link:
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/90dfpa.html

-------------------------
EDNA CHRISTINE THORNE
DOB: Feb 25, 1960
Missing: Jun 24, 1975
Age at time: 15
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'1" (155 cm)
Weight: 105 lbs (48 kg)
Missing From: PHILADELPHIA, PA, United States
Non-Family Abduction

Circumstances of Disappearance
Edna was last seen at a relative's residence on June 24, 1975.

Philadelphia Police Department (Pennsylvania) - 1-215-685-1180
Link
http://www.missingkids.com/missingk...earchLang=en_US


-----------------------------
TRACY ANNE KING
DOB: Oct 11, 1960
Missing: Jul 8, 1975
Age at time: 14
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'3" (160 cm)
Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)
She has a scar on her right ankle and pockmarks on her temple.
Non-Family Abduction
Missing From: LITTLESTOWN, PA, United States

Circumstances of Disappearance
King was last seen leaving Hoffman Homes, a children's home in Mount Pleasant Township, Pennsylvania on July 8, 1975.
King was having problems at the time and was living at the home as a result. She had run away from the facility twice before, but King returned shortly thereafter both times. She has never been heard from again.
King apparently held no animosity towards her family and wrote them often from her stay in the home. Her letters are described as being those of a normal teenager at the time. King usually apologized for not writing more frequently. Her loved ones have searched for her since her disappearance in 1975. King's family resided in Perry County, Pennsylvania in 1975.

Pennsylvania State Police (Pennsylvania) - Missing Persons Unit 1-717-783-5524

Link
http://www.missingkids.com/missingk...earchLang=en_US

 

[mere]

My gut says that they are. I have felt for a while now that the same person committed all of these crimes, and he/she may have never been caught. In 1975 they pretty much said that all of these girls were presumed runaways. The person responsible was not even being looked for so it made it very easy for he/she to continue

 

[smile22]

the first girl that richard has mention and has the pic from the link. and the bio on the girl from media i belive.. she bares a striking resemblance to i don't know her name. but she plays michelle on guilding light its kind errie but sometimes 2 people can look alike.

 

[mere]

It seems to me that in the mid 1970's that children/teens could have been easily lured into a strangers car. When I was growing up in the early 80s talking to strangers was pounded into my head as dangerous. I even had a board game called Don't Talk to Strangers.

 

[joellegirl]

I was a child in the 1970s--8 years old in 1975(year the Lyons girls vansihed) and I remember my parents warning me about strangers . Not to get too close to the car, take any candy, not to believe stories about "help me look for my puppy "etc...but we did feel it was a safer world then, especially in our smalltown subdivision. My parents were more protective than most, but I still had more freedom than I let my kids have today. Unless it happened in your town or the next big city you didn't hear about abductions like you do now. There was no Fox News, internet etc. The Lyon's girls story may have been in the Chicago Tribune (next big city to me) but it would have most likely been a little blurb-not front page news.

Did any one see the Fox News special last night about keeping your kids safe? I was hoping they would mention that abduction is nothing new (just read the Charley Project and Doe Network and Webslueths) it is just in the news more. It kind of bugs me when they act like this is something that didn't happen before. It is great that it gets more attention now, that is a very good thing.

Once case I post I have been following for years and have posted about-15 year old Evelyn Hartley-actually did get lots of media attention when she vanished from LaCrosse Wi in 1953 while on a babysitting job. There was an major extenisve search for her-it is still an open case and part of La Crosse legend now.People are still trying to solve this sad case. The case actually made newspapers across the country. That was quite rare for 1953-when not everyone even had a TV yet. Yet, she is still missing, no trace what so ever, but it does show that at least some cases did get as much coverage that was possible at the time, and still does. I still wish a TV show would be created to focus on all these very old cases. Doesn't matter how old, just so there is a chance to solve them with today's technology.

About the Lyon's girls, I was thinking that I believe I have never read about what clothes they were wearing that day. I know it wouldn't be much help now, unless fragments of clothes were found. But I was just curious, seeing how when one reads about a missing person, a clothing description is usually included.


But yes, in general it felt like a safer world in the 1970's, even if it really wasn't.

 

[Fronkensteen]

It seems to me that in the mid 1970's that children/teens could have been easily lured into a strangers car. When I was growing up in the early 80s talking to strangers was pounded into my head as dangerous. I even had a board game called Don't Talk to Strangers.

It certainly was a much more innocent time, or perhaps a more naive time, compared with today's.

If we agree that the "Tape Recorder Man" is the probable abductor of the girls, I think it's important to note that this individual had been observed at other shopping centers in the area, notably Iverson Mall and Marlow Heights Shopping Center, in the days before the Lyon disappearances. It's also significant that he was seen at Wheaton Plaza approaching young girls with his tape recorder on March 24, the day before the sisters vanished!

This guy had been busy. He wasn't just trolling; he was honing his approach, working out the rough spots. I think he was a careful planner, and I can picture him scouting out backroads and escape routes well in advance of the actual abduction. Remember, he was there at Wheaton Plaza the day before.

In the days immediately following, police received "at least 16" phone calls from parents whose daughters had been approached by this man. A 16 year old salesgirl at Marlow Heights described his approach as "staring at her", then saying "Gee, you have a very lovely voice." He asked her to read something typed on a white card into the microphone, but she refused.

To me, it has always been significant that this man vanished along with the sisters. After several days being seen by many witnesses in various locations, he was gone, never to be seen again. Coincidence?

 

[Fronkensteen]

About the Lyon's girls, I was thinking that I believe I have never read about what clothes they were wearing that day. I know it wouldn't be much help now, unless fragments of clothes were found. But I was just curious, seeing how when one reads about a missing person, a clothing description is usually included.

You're right; I never saw any description of the clothes they were wearing.

This weekend, I found an old Washington Post article that described Katherine as wearing "blue jeans and a red jacket" and Sheila dressed in "a dark blue shirt and wheat-colored corduroys".

Hope this helps.

 

[joellegirl]

You're right; I never saw any description of the clothes they were wearing.

This weekend, I found an old Washington Post article that described Katherine as wearing "blue jeans and a red jacket" and Sheila dressed in "a dark blue shirt and wheat-colored corduroys".

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info. I did a search once to find to what the weather was like the day they disappeared. I believe it was mostly sunny and in the lower 60's. A nice day to walk to the mall, but how I wish they had done something else that day.As you can tell, I am a details person, the more details the better. Being 8 yrs old in 1975 I have some pretty clear memories of that time, and I think things like, "when I was doing this or that was when they disappeared.." I do remember that spring and how the world was then.

Sorry for my typos in my earlier post-I see a few sentences that didn't make alot of sense!

 

[smile22]

im curius to see if the poster who had the pics had found them that might be our only hope to solving this case.

 

[mere]

.


I still wish a TV show would be created to focus on all these very old cases. Doesn't matter how old, just so there is a chance to solve them with today's technology.

I agree. It seems that all of the shows that are on only focus on solved cases. It does not make much sense to me.

 

[Fronkensteen]

I agree. It seems that all of the shows that are on only focus on solved cases. It does not make much sense to me.

They don't do it often, but occasionally Bill Kurtis's show Cold Case Files (on A&E cable network) features cases that are unsolved.

There is definitely a need for a show to do what Unsolved Mysteries used to do (but with much less schmaltz!). I hope someone like Kurtis will do it one day.

 

[mere]

There would be an endless amount of stories to feature.

 

[Fronkensteen]

About the Lyon's girls, I was thinking that I believe I have never read about what clothes they were wearing that day. I know it wouldn't be much help now, unless fragments of clothes were found. But I was just curious, seeing how when one reads about a missing person, a clothing description is usually included.

Just FYI...a description of the clothes Sheila and Katherine were wearing that day is now posted on the Doe Network...thanks Richard!!

http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/64dfmd.html
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/65dfmd.html

 

[mere]

Thanks again Richard

 

[Fronkensteen]

Raymond Rudolph MILESKI, Sr.

Raymond Rudolph Mileski Sr. is a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in the Maryland Prison system. He is linked to the Lyon Sisters, because of claims that he has made on several occasions. Those stories have some varience to them, but basically Ray states that he knows who the abductor/murderer of the girls is.

A story about Montgomery County Police digging in the backyard of the Mileski home at 5816 Suitland Road was in the Washington Post in April 1982, but only briefly. It was only one of many momentary mentions of the Lyon Sisters in news stories over the years. At the time, nothing much came of it. The story told of police digging test holes for about three hours in response to tips from convicts, and that nothing was found. That story makes specific reference to the address and to it being in response to a tip from Maryland Prison Inmates, but it does not mention Mileski's name.

On 19 November 1977, following an ongoing family argument, Raymond Mileski Sr. shot his oldest son with a high power rifle in the basement of their home. When his wife, Dolores, ran down the stairs into the basement room, he shot her too. The bullet passed through her, through a wall and into the mouth of their 7 year old son, Peter, who was running down the stairs behind his mother. Mileski left his wife and older son for dead and transported Peter to Andrews Air Force Base for emergency treatment. Leaving him there, Mileski, drove to the home of a neighbor where his middle son Karl was visiting. He told Karl to stay where he was and then turned himself in to police.

Mileski, while in prison, had evidently told a story to other convicts that he knew who had abducted and killed the Lyon Sisters, these cons repeated the story to MCP investigators. Montgomery County Police dug test holes in the Mileski backyard for three hours and found nothing. End of story? Not quite.

In 2001, an anonymous tip to police named Mileski as having told others prior to his 1978 murder conviction, that he was in some way involved in the Lyon Sisters disappearance. Many elements of this tipster's story were checked out and found to be accurate.

Mileski, contacted in Prison in 2001, admitted in writing that he did in fact know who the abductor of the Lyon Sisters was. He did not name anyone, but gave a general description of the area in which the girls were buried. Mileski made general statements, but clearly wanted to negotiate for a prison transfer before he would speak with investigators.

It is hard to determine if Mileski actually knows anything about the Lyon case, or if he is just making it all up for his own advantage.

The most intriguing thing about a possible PG county connection is that the sketch of "Tape Recorder Man" was recognized by 15 mothers of young girls who had been approached by a man at Iverson Mall and at Marlow Heights Shopping Center on 22 March 1975, three days before the Lyon Sisters disappeared. The Washington Post reported that from one to three PG men were questioned, but that they were not considered suspects at the time. Those sightings place the primary suspect (Tape Recorder Man) right in the close proximity of Mileski, his home, and his alleged associates.

Richard, I found out today that Mileski died in prison sometime in the last month or so...unless he had come clean and disclosed what he really knew about the case to LE before his demise, whatever knowledge he had went with him.

 

[smile22]

what if he told prison inmates before he died about the lyon sisters its worth a shot looking into

 

[Richard]

Richard, I found out today that Mileski died in prison sometime in the last month or so...unless he had come clean and disclosed what he really knew about the case to LE before his demise, whatever knowledge he had went with him.

Mileski was incarcerated in a Baltimore, Maryland prison in 2001 when he was requesting a transfer prior to speaking with LE. I know that his last residence was Western Correctional Facility in Cumberland, MD. Whether his transfer was in association with cooperation with investigators, or simply a routine transfer, I do not know. Mileski had served honorably in the Marine Corps in the 1950's. One can only hope that he told investigators what he knew about the Lyon Sisters before his demise.

 

[joellegirl]

Just FYI...a description of the clothes Sheila and Katherine were wearing that day is now posted on the Doe Network...thanks Richard!!

http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/64dfmd.html
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/65dfmd.html

Glad to see this! The more info out there the better.

 

[Richard]

From The Gazette:

Innocence lost
by Charlotte Tucker and Chris Williams
Staff Writers Mar. 23, 2005

Frances Kuester, a neighbor of the Lyon family on Plyers Mill Road, gave birth to her daughter Judy a week before Sheila and Katherine Lyon vanished. Kate, as Kuester called Katherine, had planned to visit Judy on March 25, 1975.
Sheila and Katherine Lyon left their Kensington home on a spring afternoon in 1975 to eat pizza and window-shop at a nearby mall.As many kids did in that simpler time, the sisters walked the half-mile to Wheaton Plaza shopping center. Their mother just expected them to be home in time for dinner.Instead, the girls vanished without a trace. And with them went a way of life.The disappearance of the Lyon sisters on March 25, 1975, just days before their 13th and 11th birthdays, changed their neighborhood and changed Montgomery County.

Theirs had been an idyllic suburban community, where families knew and looked out for each other, and the thick trees lining old streets lent an air of solid security.That illusion of safety was shattered by the terrible events of 30 years ago.In the days and weeks after the Lyon sisters disappeared, parents began to realize that the suburbs could be touched by tragedy just as easily as inner-city communities.

"This was a quiet place," said Kensington Mayor Lynn Raufaste, who has lived in the town since 1971. "Connecticut Avenue wasn't what it is today. We all thought of Wheaton Plaza as quite safe. It changed the way parents thought at the time about keeping their children safe."Although old newspaper clippings about the case have long since faded, the investigation remains open and there are few who lived here who don't remember the search for Sheila and Katherine, and the wave of fear that forever changed the community.

"It was never forgotten; we still talk about it today," said Jeannette DeLawter, who has lived in Kensington with her husband, Douglas, for 38 years. "A lot of young couples have moved into the neighborhood and want to know what it was like back then, and the Lyon girls always come up in the conversation. ... Back then, that type of thing didn't really happen."

Although the Montgomery County Police Department would not comment on specifics of the investigation, Lt. Philip C. Raum said detectives in the Major Crimes Division's Cold Case Unit continue to follow old leads, even traveling out of state in the last two months."I don't think there's anything that you would call fresh, but I think there are things to do, to continue to follow up on things that existed a long time ago," he said.

Ron Jones, a case manager at the nonprofit National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said he hears from people about the Lyon case regularly."I received a lead from a young lady just a few weeks ago," he said. The woman told him that as a child she was approached around the time of the Lyon girls' disappearance by a man who exposed himself to her and tried to get her into his car. But her mother came outside, Jones said, and the man got into his car and drove away."She said she still has dreams about it."

A community in wait
The story gripped the community from the start. One reason was that the girls' father, John Lyon, was a well-known and well-liked radio personality on WMAL in Bethesda."Those of us who know him personally know that that's absolutely real and he's even nicer than you could ever tell from being on the air," said Chris Core, longtime talk radio host on WMAL. "John and Mary are just the nicest people and such good parents. That was particularly tough."The story has had a profound influence on Core, who began working full time at the station about a month before the Lyon sisters disappeared and has remained close with their father."It's in that group of moments where the community just held its breath," Core said. "Partly because John was a well-known celebrity and partly because here are two innocent little girls going to the mall and disappear off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again."

Frances Kuester, a neighbor of the Lyon family on Plyers Mill Road in Kensington, knew the younger Lyon sister well. Kate, as Kuester called her, would stop by occasionally to take Kuester's daughter Cathy, a toddler at the time, to nearby Homewood Park."We would sit on the porch and talk sometimes if it was a nice day," she said. "Those were before the days that kids had every minute scheduled."Kuester had given birth to another daughter, named Judy, a week before the girls disappeared. Katherine had stopped by on March 24 hoping to see the baby, but Judy was asleep."I told her to come by the next day," Kuester said. "I promised her I'd be sure to have Judy up."When Kate didn't show, Kuester called the girls' mother, Mary Lyon, who said the girls were running late and should be back any moment.Sheila and Katherine walked along Drumm Avenue that day with less than $4 in their pockets. It was enough for pizza at The Orange Bowl and browsing the shops at Wheaton Plaza, which was still an outdoor mall at the time. They most likely walked a popular shortcut, along a footpath through some woods, and then up Drumm Avenue and Faulkner Place.Peg Dunne, a mother of seven who lives on Drumm Avenue, said it was not uncommon for children to walk to Wheaton Plaza without adults."It was quite a coincidence," she said -- it was the first day she let two of her younger children go to Wheaton Plaza without their older siblings. "I told my son to watch out for his sister."When the Lyon sisters didn't return from the mall in time for dinner, their parents called the police.

Police began their search for the girls immediately. One of the investigators was Harry Geehreng, a detective with the department's Juvenile Aid Unit. Geehreng, 62, a former sergeant, has been retired since 1994 but still has vivid memories of the case that commanded the attention of the entire department."As far as the frustration of not being able to solve a case, this has to be at the very top," he said. "You'll have killings that you can't solve. You have someone who's been murdered and you don't catch the person responsible. But this one, when you just don't know what happened to them, is the most frustrating."

Life began to change
Reports indicated that police knew early in the girls' disappearance that they hadn't run away from home, a notion backed up by virtually everyone who knew Sheila and Katherine."They got along great with their parents," Kuester said.Though the circumstances surrounding Sheila and Katherine's disappearance were suspicious, Gordon Crump recalls that at first, the community was certain the girls would be found."Everyone was very positive that they'd show up," said Crump, who grew up in the area and graduated from Albert Einstein High School in 1980, the year Sheila would have graduated.

Bob Redmond was the principal at Newport Mill Middle School, where Sheila was in seventh grade. On the day yearbook pictures were released, Redmond delivered Sheila's photo to her mother."I guess we were optimistic," he said. "They were missing, but they would be found. We were hoping against hope that they'd be found."Crump remembers that the disappearance changed the amount of freedom his parents gave him."The biggest thing I remember is before then, I could just run out on my bike and Mom wouldn't ask me where I was going. I could just ride anywhere," he said. But after the girls disappeared, "My mom wanted to know where I was, when I was going to be home. If I didn't show, she would get worried."In some ways the part of Kensington where the Lyon girls lived has remained the same. Many of the people who lived in those homes in 1975 still live there today. Tall trees arch over the roofs, dwarfing the homes, unlike the delicate saplings that have been planted around new construction.But the neighborhood has also undergone many of the changes seen in the rest of Montgomery County over the last 30 years. Tiny Cape Cods have added second and sometimes third floors. An orchid orchard was cleared to make way for expensive new townhouses.The most dramatic change may be in the attitudes of the people, and part of that change is because of what happened to Sheila and Katherine."The difference I really see is the awareness of parents," said Core, who has a 10-year-old daughter. "Parents have certainly changed. We live in a really nice safe Chevy Chase community where, theoretically, my daughter should be able to walk around like I did [at her age], but we just don't do it."

Time passes, but memories remain
Over the years, the public spotlight has dimmed on the Lyon case, but the story remains fresh at the county police department, which has strong family ties to the case. The girls' older brother, Jay Lyon, is a police officer."This case has always had a very deep connection with this police department," Raum said. "For years, it was the most high-profile case in the county, and now Jay's been a police officer for the better part of the 30 years -- it's a hit-home case. And it's one of the first ones our Cold Case guys are looking at."Jones said he contacts the police when his office receives a lead, and that he always appreciates when people share even the tiniest memory."Any little lead can help find them and who might have taken them," he said.Even those not directly connected to the search say they've had a hard time forgetting about Sheila and Katherine."My daughter Judy was just a few days old when they disappeared," Kuester said. "Every year around her birthday I think of them."Core, who has lived in Chevy Chase since 1971, said the experience made him much more protective of his own daughter.The county lost its innocence on March 25, 1975, he said, and that day enters his mind in just about every decision he makes when it comes to his little girl."It was a jolt," Core said. "We would be different in 2005 than we were in 1975 with or without the Lyon case. But that accelerated the process here, making people take note, saying this is how we have to protect our kids." ....

link:
http://www.gazette.net/200512/montgomerycty/county/265841-1.html

 

[Richard]

From The Gazette:

Intense search only left police, community frustrated
by Charlotte Tucker and Chris Williams
Staff Writers Mar. 23, 2005

Retired Police Sgt. Harry Geehreng leafs through a scrapbook of old cases in his Damascus home. "Because we had nothing, we had no really substantial leads, we were just grasping at anything that came in, not wanting to disregard any tip," he said.

While investigators had few clues in the disappearance of Sheila and Katherine Lyon, one thing was almost certain -- the girls had not run away from home.Police did not keep statistics on missing children in 1975. But according to Carla Proudfoot, director of the Maryland Center for Missing Children, Sheila and Katherine, at 12 and 10, were younger than most kids who leave home by choice."Most runaways are between 14 and 17 years old," she said, adding that those ages haven't changed since 1986, when the state agency first began keeping the data.

The widespread search began in the early hours of March 26, 1975. Retired Sgt. Harry Geehreng, a plainclothes detective in the department's Juvenile Aid Unit at the time, remembers tearing up his leisure suit while searching through briars in the woods near the girls' Kensington neighborhood."

You really cannot fathom the emotion involved in it, the intensity -- and the frustration," Geehreng said.Over the first few days, searchers combed back yards and the woods the girls would have had to walk through to get to the mall. Police dredged the pond near the Kensington Gardens Nursing Home on McComas Avenue. Officers wearing oxygen masks searched storm drains and sewers. Police looked in people's homes."They came around to all the neighbors," remembered Peg Dunne, who lives on Drumm Avenue near where the girls disappeared. "They asked if they could search basements, garages -- it was strictly volunteer."

Douglas DeLawter, who has lived in Kensington for 38 years, remembers the intensity of the police search."They came in the house, looked in closets and boxes and under stairs," he said. "The detectives interviewed everyone."If the search appeared desperate early on in the investigation, statistics validated the police's concern."For one thing, it's unusual that two girls, especially sisters, would go missing at the same time," said Ron Jones, a case manager at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who was a Metropolitan Police detective before working at the nonprofit. "It's happened before, but it's unusual. And at that time, we weren't hearing about too many child abductions. It was odd that they would just disappear off the face of the earth."

In talking to patrons and employees who had been at Wheaton Plaza that day, police learned that several people had seen the girls talking to a man holding a microphone attached to a tape recorder inside a briefcase. Witnesses said he was trying to record women's voices for an answering machine. When news of the man with the tape recorder broke, police were inundated with calls from other girls and women who had been approached by a similar man."That really set it off," Geehreng said. "By Sunday we were getting so many phone calls we had to call more people in."The man was described as approximately 6 feet tall and 50 years old, wearing a brown suit and carrying a brown briefcase. Police released two composite sketches of the man based on witness descriptions, including an account by two salesgirls and a customer who said they saw the man on March 22 -- three days before Sheila and Katherine disappeared -- at Iverson Mall and Marlow Heights in Prince George's County.

As the search for the girls moved into its third week, a sort of mania about the case developed in communities around Washington, D.C.First came the news that an IBM executive reported seeing two girls bound and gagged in the back of a station wagon stopped at a red light in Manassas, Va. The executive said the driver saw him looking at the girls and drove off, running the red light. He said the vehicle was a 1968 beige Ford station wagon with Maryland tags; he was able to make out the first four characters of the license plate, DMT-6, but the rest of the tag was bent and obscured, reports said.The announcement of the supposed sighting touched off a frenzy of activity. The Washington Post reported that C-B radio operators chased phantom suspects. Truck drivers forced beige Ford station wagons from the road and examined their contents."

The governor sent the National Guard to help us search," Geehreng said. "We searched a wooded area on Muncaster Road [in Rockville]. ... A psychic had called in and said we would find a body there. Because we had nothing, we had no really substantial leads, we were just grasping at anything that came in, not wanting to disregard any tip."Extortionists also took advantage of the case. An Annapolis radio station reported that John Lyon, the girls' father, was told to leave $10,000 at a location in Annapolis, but police would not confirm the extortion attempt. The station said that the money was not picked up, no arrest was made and investigators thought the attempt was fake.

Police have considered a few suspects over the years, including Fred Howard Coffey, a man convicted in 1987 of murdering a young girl in North Carolina. Police learned that Coffey was living in Silver Spring around the time that Sheila and Katherine disappeared, and they began considering him a suspect in March 1987, according to published reports and the national missing children center. Police were unable to connect him to the case, however, and he has never been charged.Coffey, who is serving a life sentence in a North Carolina prison, did not respond to a request for an interview.In 1982 police also dug up the yard of Raymond Rudolph Mileski, a Suitland man serving a 40-year prison term for killing his wife and teenage son in their home in November 1977. Police were looking for evidence connecting Mileski to the Lyon case but came away empty-handed.

Geehreng does not quite remember when the department's focus began to shift away from the Lyon girls."I really can't tell you, but you reach a point where you have other things to do, so you have to start turning your resources back to other cases," he said. "But the intensity level remained very, very high for a long time."Today, the case file is spread out across two tables in a room at police headquarters in Rockville, said Lt. Philip C. Raum, Deputy Director of the Major Crimes Division. After 30 years, the investigation remains a high priority and sits atop the caseload of the department's Cold Case Unit. ...
http://www.gazette.net/200512/montgomerycty/county/265842-1.html