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

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Richard said:
While it is possible that James A. Kowalski may have lived in the Kensington/Wheaton area at some time, I could not confirm that he lived on Jennings Road in Kensington. I looked in archived phone books dated 1972 through October 1975 and could not find his name listed at a Jennings Road address.
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Again, regarding Kowalski residing on Jennings Rd; According to the Washington Post Archives it seems Kowalski DID live on Jennings Rd. but didnt purchase a home there until 1982. See reference below.

The Washington Post
May 29, 1982, Saturday, Final Edition
Residential Sales In Montgomery
SECTION: Real Estate; Maryland and D.C.; F8


(seller's name omitted), principal, sold a house at 3007 Jennings Rd. for $67,000 to James A. Kowalski Jr. Cameron-Brown Co. placed a VA mortgage of $67,000 at 14 1/2 percent for 30 years.

(1982, May 29) Residential Sales In Montgomery. The Washington Post. F-8. Retrieved May 31, 2009, from LexisNexis Academic database.
 
BurntByTheSun said:
Again, regarding Kowalski residing on Jennings Rd; According to the Washington Post Archives it seems Kowalski DID live on Jennings Rd. but didnt purchase a home there until 1982. ....
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Interesting that a suspected child molester actually did live on the same small road, although seven years later. Those real estate files on-line are very useful in this kind of research.

The big question would be, did Kowalski have other ties to the Kensington/Wheaton Plaza area in 1975?
 
Richard said:
You are correct in stating that a child poronography ring was investigated regarding the disappearance of George "Junior" Burdynski from his Brentwood, MD (Prince Georges County) home some years ago. That case is profiled in Websleuths' Cold Case Files.

Junior is still missing and the case has never been solved or closed. James A. Kowalski, Jr. and two other men were arrested and charged with child abuse in a similar case involving boys from Junior's neighborhood, but no one was ever charged in the abduction or disappearance of Junior Burdynski.

While it is possible that James A. Kowalski may have lived in the Kensington/Wheaton area at some time, I could not confirm that he lived on Jennings Road in Kensington. I looked in archived phone books dated 1972 through October 1975 and could not find his name listed at a Jennings Road address.
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Richard you mentioned looking in archived phone books dated 1972-1975 for Kowalski. I assume these were Montgomery County phone books, or DC Metropolitan phone books. Did you notice Kowalski listed in these books at all? You've stated you could not find his name listed at a Jennings Road address, but did you find his name listed at any other address in the books?
In a phone book, you'd look someone up by last name, so I was just curious if he had any listing in the 1972-1975 phone books.
 
Jennings is not actually a "small road"; almost a mile long and about one hundred houses, and quite a lot of turnover; since 1975, perhaps thousands of people have lived on it.

In 1975 (or even 1982) database tracking of sexual offenders was generally not done. Now that it is common, we see that there are many of them, everywhere. Not to mention those who are not registered or have never been caught. If we found out that the Lyons' next-door neighboor in March 1975 had a conviction relating to girls, it might be interesting (but of course the police checked that out thoroughly), but to note that someone with a different profile (as opposed to, say, Coffey) lived somewhere on Jennings Road in 1982, is really reaching. What would you do with that information in 2009?

The fact is, Montgomery County Police have cross-checked every known sexual offender from then until nowagainst the facts of the Lyon case, and investigated if there appeared to be any possible connection. But even in the rare cases where there is a connection, all you can do is try to interview and look for material evidence; otherwise, you cannot hold him, charge him, or even require him to talk (as with Coffey).
 
Thrasher said:
Jennings is not actually a "small road"; almost a mile long and about one hundred houses, and quite a lot of turnover; since 1975, perhaps thousands of people have lived on it.

In 1975 (or even 1982) database tracking of sexual offenders was generally not done. Now that it is common, we see that there are many of them, everywhere. Not to mention those who are not registered or have never been caught. If we found out that the Lyons' next-door neighboor in March 1975 had a conviction relating to girls, it might be interesting (but of course the police checked that out thoroughly), but to note that someone with a different profile (as opposed to, say, Coffey) lived somewhere on Jennings Road in 1982, is really reaching. What would you do with that information in 2009?

The fact is, Montgomery County Police have cross-checked every known sexual offender from then until nowagainst the facts of the Lyon case, and investigated if there appeared to be any possible connection. But even in the rare cases where there is a connection, all you can do is try to interview and look for material evidence; otherwise, you cannot hold him, charge him, or even require him to talk (as with Coffey).
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Thrasher,nice to see you posting again.I just wanted to say that Kowalski as a suspect is no more of a stretch than Coffee. Coffee has a suspected male victim as well as females.Just because Kowalski's known victims are male,doesn't mean that there were no females.I'm confused about something,you had originally said-

3. Coffey is as good a suspect as any, but there is really nothing to tie him to the crime other than his history and his presence in the area at the time. I believe, based on my discussions with those knowledgeable about it, if there was any way to tie him to the crime, it would have happened by now (remember that Jay Lyon has worked for the county police for about 20 years). If Coffey had to leave the area after the Beatty murder, why did he have to stay after this abduction?

Coffee most likely left after the Beatty murder because she didn't die right away.It would make no sense for him to stick around if he had taken the girls,he had a record of crimes against children.Why would he take the girls and then stay and work in the area?Coffee is locked up for killing a little girl,he couldn't get away with taking one child.I doubt if he could pull off a double abduction of two kids,from a crowded mall,in broad daylight.
 
This may have been done already if so my apologies.
Has anyone ever posted a link to GoogleEarth showing the mall and the area between it and the children's home? That would help a lot of us not familiar with the area to visualize what may have happened, the direction they took, etc. I am planning to do something like this on the other case I am sleuthing on (Omaha Double Murder) and could do one for this area at the same time. If so I'd need the home address of the Lyons'. I doubt the streets are much different today. Someone living there could tell me if so.
Also are there any pictures on the net of the mall as it appeared in 1975? I found some old undated ones but they weren't too helpful.
 
Snick1946 said:
This may have been done already if so my apologies.
Has anyone ever posted a link to GoogleEarth showing the mall and the area between it and the children's home? That would help a lot of us not familiar with the area to visualize what may have happened, the direction they took, etc. I am planning to do something like this on the other case I am sleuthing on (Omaha Double Murder) and could do one for this area at the same time. If so I'd need the home address of the Lyons'. I doubt the streets are much different today. Someone living there could tell me if so.
Also are there any pictures on the net of the mall as it appeared in 1975? I found some old undated ones but they weren't too helpful.
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This should help http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&e...za4F&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1

There are pics of the mall in 75,I'll get back to you on that.:)
 
Snick1946 said:
This may have been done already if so my apologies.
Has anyone ever posted a link to GoogleEarth showing the mall and the area between it and the children's home? That would help a lot of us not familiar with the area to visualize what may have happened, the direction they took, etc. I am planning to do something like this on the other case I am sleuthing on (Omaha Double Murder) and could do one for this area at the same time. If so I'd need the home address of the Lyons'. I doubt the streets are much different today. Someone living there could tell me if so.
Also are there any pictures on the net of the mall as it appeared in 1975? I found some old undated ones but they weren't too helpful.
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This is zeroed in on Wheaton Plaza. The girls would have exited from the west end. Find where Faulkner Place ends just before the parking lot and then follow it southwest to Drumm and you're on your way.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&e...za4F&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1
 
On the map, keep in mind that Drumm Road was essentially a dirt path through tall weeds for the section between McComas and Plyers Mill in 1975. There are now many more houses in that area. Also, Wheaton Plaza was open air in 1975, and there was a bank at the end of Faulkner - a very different look now.

They probably would have left through the then Montgomery Ward store, down Faulkner and left on to Drumm (I live near the Lyons and I still walk to and from Wheaton Plaza this way); but other sources, and the police, have suggested they would have left the south end of the Plaza directly to McComas, which was also less developed then.

For reasons I have stated in the past, the possibility of an abduction from the Faulkner/Drumm area is small because it would have been such a difficult timing and getaway problem for someone in a vehicle - there is no direct through access by car. Some kind of incident on the Drumm path without a car would have been unlikely but conceivable, although you cannot visualize that today with all the new McMansions in that area.

All possible routes from the Plaza to the Lyon hom were exhaustively searched, although hampered by the high winds in the following days that made the search dogs useless.

Most likely scenario remains getting willingly into a vehicle at the Plaza.
 
Thrasher said:
On the map, keep in mind that Drumm Road was essentially a dirt path through tall weeds for the section between McComas and Plyers Mill in 1975. There are now many more houses in that area. Also, Wheaton Plaza was open air in 1975, and there was a bank at the end of Faulkner - a very different look now.

They probably would have left through the then Montgomery Ward store, down Faulkner and left on to Drumm (I live near the Lyons and I still walk to and from Wheaton Plaza this way); but other sources, and the police, have suggested they would have left the south end of the Plaza directly to McComas, which was also less developed then.

For reasons I have stated in the past, the possibility of an abduction from the Faulkner/Drumm area is small because it would have been such a difficult timing and getaway problem for someone in a vehicle - there is no direct through access by car. Some kind of incident on the Drumm path without a car would have been unlikely but conceivable, although you cannot visualize that today with all the new McMansions in that area.

All possible routes from the Plaza to the Lyon hom were exhaustively searched, although hampered by the high winds in the following days that made the search dogs useless.

Most likely scenario remains getting willingly into a vehicle at the Plaza.
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Who are the other sources?
 
This is the first time I have logged onto Websleuths in a quite a few months and I haven't had time to re-read all the corresponding posts but I just came back from Wheaton on Saturday. It was my first trip down there in 2 1/2 years. While at Brookside Gardens, I purchased a book called Images of America-Wheaton by Laura-Leigh Palmer. It is one of those books that have a sepia colored cover and details the past and present of various towns throughout the U.S.

In any case, there have been past postings about seeing pictures of Wheaton Plaza when the Lyon sisters were abducted. In the above-mentioned book, there are pictures of Wheaton Plaza (then and now) on pages 97, 98, 99, 124 & 125. The older pictures of Wheaton Plaza were taken in the late 1960's but Wheaton Plaza hadn't changed that much between then and 1975.

Hope the pictures 'jog' someone's memory.
 
wheatongirl said:
This is the first time I have logged onto Websleuths in a quite a few months and I haven't had time to re-read all the corresponding posts but I just came back from Wheaton on Saturday. It was my first trip down there in 2 1/2 years. While at Brookside Gardens, I purchased a book called Images of America-Wheaton by Laura-Leigh Palmer. It is one of those books that have a sepia colored cover and details the past and present of various towns throughout the U.S.

In any case, there have been past postings about seeing pictures of Wheaton Plaza when the Lyon sisters were abducted. In the above-mentioned book, there are pictures of Wheaton Plaza (then and now) on pages 97, 98, 99, 124 & 125. The older pictures of Wheaton Plaza were taken in the late 1960's but Wheaton Plaza hadn't changed that much between then and 1975.

Hope the pictures 'jog' someone's memory.
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Great find!! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!!
 
My family lived next door to the Lyon's on Jennings Road. My parents bought our house in 1959, raised 4 daughters, and my father lived there until he died Sept. 2001. It was a quiet crime free neighborhood were no one locked their doors. The mailman would let our dog in the house when delivering.

Before the Lyon's moved in, the house was owned by a lovely elderly couple, the Potters, then briefly by a nice Korean family. This was a neighborhood where everyone knew everyone else and I can still name all of the neighbors. Families owned their homes for a very long time. All of the kids played together, Ghost Tag, SPUD, kick ball. My heart goes out to John & Mary Lyon who I last saw when cleaning out my fathers house in 2001.

I was 13 when the girls disappeared and Sheila was my friend. I thought they were so cool and progressive and loved to go to their house to eat Spaghetti O's that came from a can!

Now to straighten out some facts:


John and Mary Lyon had 4 children - 2 girls, and 2 boys. The oldest a son Jay, who is or was a Montgomery County Police Officer. I only know because I ran into him some years later. Joe is the youngest child. They were a lovely family with 4 beautiful children, all 2years apart.

My older sister and her friend also walked to Wheaton Plaza that day. They saw an unusual looking man sitting on the grass hill between Faulkner and the Montgomery Wards parking lot examining some objects in a bag. He was alarming enough that my sister and her friend skirted way around him. This information was given to the police.

The 13 year old boy who saw the girls in the Orange Bowl was not named "Tommy". I will not name him for privacy reasons. He did not live on Plyers Mill.

Plyers Mill Road ran between Connecticut Ave and Georgia Ave. It was a tree lined 2 lane road with room to park on each side. All the homes were quaint post World Ward II brick track houses.

Jennings Road was a narrow residential street with small mostly brick homes without garages. Cars parked on each side of the street making it one narrow, passable, lane. It ran parallel to Plyers Mill from Jennings to St. Margarets., which was close to Georgia Ave. From the intersection of Jennings Rd. and Plyers Mill to Georgia Ave is one mile. I know that well because we would walk to Hughes Methodist Church on nice days located at Plyers Mill and Georgia Ave. As for the homes on Jennings and Plyers Mill, the back yards all connected, including ours to the Lyons. This was a very close neighborhood.

Oakland Terrace Elementary was located on Plyers Mill across from Maybrook Ave (the 2nd Maybrook). Everyone walked to school. Street corners were guarded by the 6th grade school patrols, an adult Crossing Guard safely guided the children across Plyers Mill to school. You knew if you didn't behave properly a neighbor would tell your mother. We were allowed to leave school and walk home for lunch.

All the area kids walked to Wheaton Plaza and Kenmont Swim & Tennis Club. The kids from our end of Jennings Rd walked to Wheaton Plaza by going up Jennings Rd, cutting through the woods, up Drumm to Faulkner by the Kenmont Swim & Tennis Club. At the end of Faulkner was a grass hill. Walk up the grass hill and you are in the parking lot at the Montgomery Wards end of the plaza.

The wooded area between Jennings and Drumm was thickly wooded with a narrow path. It was fairly dark on a sunny day. On the Drumm side of the woods were huge concrete drain pipes left by construction never finished. Next to the woods was a nursing home, with a pond.

The section of Drum between Plyers Mill and McComas was no more than a gravel road and that was incomplete because there was the Kensington Orchard.

The only other way up was to go all the way up Jennings to Maybrook Ave wind around to McComas and cut up the "hippie path". No one from our end of Jennings went all the way up to the "hippie path". The climb up the hill was steep, and wooded. It led you out to the parking lot near the bowling alley. There was no need to go all the way up to the "hippie path", and it took you out of the way.

Wheaton Plaza was an open air mall anchored by Montgomery Ward (on the University Blvd side) and Woodward & Lothrop (on the Georgia Ave side). There was a movie theater, a bank, and shops (inlcuding the Orange Bowl) connecting the anchor stores in a rectangluar shape.

Across the parking lot from Woodward & Lothrop was a bowling alley with Duck pin bowling.

Yes, we all went sledding on a big hill called "suicide hill". This was on the outside field of Oakland Terrace Elementary School and the Recreation Center. At the bottom of the hill was Homewood Parkway. The only access to Homewood Parkway was the other side of Drumm Ave. A lady, whom I cannot remember, would bring out her grill and make hot chocolate for all the kids sledding.

Some of the other demogrpahics are off too. Aspen Hill was noted as about a mile from Wheaton Plaza. Aspen Hill is at the intersection of Connecticut Ave and Georgia Ave. That was quite far from Wheaton Plaza, especially in the times of 1975 living. Iverson Mall and Marlow Heights were even farther, traveling halfway around the beltway into PG County.

Now as a mother of 3 girls, I cannot help but be more cautious, remembering how the innocence of going out to lunch can so quickly be taken away. Again, my heart goes out to the Lyon family.
 
Wow! Thanks for all that first hand information. Welcome to WS!
 
ginsack said:
The 13 year old boy who saw the girls in the Orange Bowl was not named "Tommy". I will not name him for privacy reasons. He did not live on Plyers Mill.
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I just wanted to note that 'Tommy' is called 'Tommy' by everyone here because that is the alias given the boy in the newspaper accounts of the time. We all know that wasn't his real name. :)

An excellent account of things.

Question:
The man you and your sister skirted around: were you able to get a good look at him? Did you provide the police with a description? Did he look anything like the man depicted in the Tape Recorder Man sketches?
 
As I stated, it was my older sister and her friend who saw the odd man sitting on the hill between Faulkner and Mont. Ward parking lot. Yes, my sister did give the police a description. He did not look like the Tape Recorder Man. That was the end of the discussion no one ever ask my sister about the man she saw again.
 
The day they disappeared, my mom took my sister to work around 5pm and John Lyon was out in the street playing ball with Joe. We didn't know anything until the police came to their house around 7pm. It was so unusual to see police in our neighborhood.

I was born in 1961. I was 10 months older then Sheila and a grade ahead of her in school. Sheila and Kate were good kids. Although a little naive, but weren't we all in 1975?

The theory of experimenting with drugs..... not a chance. Sheila and Kate were really good, innocent kids.

I don't recall anyone talking about previously seeing a man with a tape recorder or seeing the girls walking down Drumm at 7:30pm. Kids of my generation came home for dinner.

I recall the kids at school being in shock. Our safe little world was turned upside down. We were told to run if anyone approached us and to watch out for a station wagon. The schools started the policy of calling home when a child was absent to verify.

I do recall before the Lyons moved to Plyers Mill Road they lived further up Plyers Mill past Oakland Terrace Elem. They also went to a Catholic school before moving to Plyers Mill and Jennings.

Kids that attended Oakland Terrace Elementary (grades K-6)split for middle school, until they closed Montgomery Hills MS in 1977 (?). The kids who lived past Brunswick went to Montgomery Hills Middle School, Kids who lived from Oakland Terrace to Connecticut Ave went to Newport MS (grades 7-9)and then all went to Einstein HS.(grades 10-12)

In 1993 I lived in New Market, MD. My neighbors father-in-law was a retired Montgomery County Detective who worked on the case.
 
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