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...It sounds like you're pretty confident that TRM (the man seen talking with the Lyon sisters) was the same man seen at the PG county malls. If we assume that fact, then the man who came forward later and said he was the one at the PG county malls was either (1) TRM or (2) a lying attention seeker.
I can think of no other explanation except there are two men with tape recorders, which I agree would be an extraordinary coincidence. But, never discard that possibility entirely. Once a crime is committed, all kinds of seemingly odd but ultimately innocent behavior could take on sinister overtones. Sort of like conspiracy theories. Life is just odd. Sometimes things aren't related.
Do you have a pet theory on this? I suspect option (2) is more likely given that the police seem to have eliminated him as a suspect. I wish we knew more about WHY they had eliminated him....
... How thoroughly do you think the police eliminated the possibility that the girls were lured into a house in the neighborhood? It was a nice neighborhood, but that doesn't mean there couldn't have been a child molestor living there. ...
... I've never worked directly with police dogs, but I am familiar with drug dogs and know they can be very reliable. But, I thought I read somewhere here that it rained for two days after they were abducted....
BTW, do you know exactly in which wooded area it was that the dog alerted? ...
... Also, do you believe there is a link between the Lyon sisters disappearance and the other girl (sorry I've forgotten her name, Beatty?) left behind the K-Mart in Oxen Hill? I don't know why, but my gut reaction is that they aren't related despite the close proximity both in time and geography. She was older, and the MO doesn't look the same. Dumping the body behide a store. We don't even know if that girl was truly abducted or just attacked and left for dead. I would suspect a link with a clean abudction but not necessarily with an attack, which "at best" was a botched abduction. Whoever took the Lyon sisters seemed to know what he was doing. ...--------------------------------------------------
I am not certain whether or not the Prince Georges County TRM was the same person as the Montgomery County TRM - but I have a feeling that they were one and the same. Certainly anything is possible. There could have been a completely innocent harmless old man who wanted the Lyon Sisters to speak into his microphone and then went his way home - while the girls were abducted by someone else. And there could have been TWO completely separate and innocent such men. It is possible, but is it likely?
The people who contacted police about seeing the TRM in Prince Georges County could not offer much change to the composite drawing of the TRM seen at Wheaton Plaza. They were pretty certain that it was the same man.
Why would Montgomery County Police tend to eliminate the PG County TRM from the equation? Well, they interviewed a guy who came forward claiming to be the PG county TRM. He had an alabi in that he was involved in a car accident with a government vehicle and was in the hospital at that same time that the TRM was seen talking to the Lyon sisters. The police believed him. Unfortunately, the story of the "second TRM" coming forward was never released to the press.
You pretty well sum it up regarding the possibilities about the supposed second TRM. I tend to believe that it is more likely that (1) this guy was an attention seeker - for whatever reason, or (2) that he really was doing this sort of thing and may have known the abductor of the girls. Could he have been covering for his buddy? I just find the Coincidence of there being two identical TRM's operating within a few miles of each other at the same time to be unbelievable.
What I would really like to see is whether the police photographed this guy and then showed the photo to all of the witnesses who claimed to have seen TRM in ANY county or ANY mall.
Regarding the police effort to search houses in the vicinity of the girls' probable path - I believe that was pretty thoroughly checked out. Not only did they go door to door, but they also looked up and interviewed many known pedophiles and perverts.
The news media covered the disappearance as the top story for a month or more and there were constant requests for tips and assistance. Police were inundated with leads. And almost every available officer was put on the case. With all the information and disinformation flowing and with so many police involved, some things may have fallen through the cracks and some tips may have received less attention than they should have.
I have worked with and trained tracking dogs. But I am not familiar with the details of the dog work in this particular case. I know that trained dogs were, in fact, brought in - but do not know how long the delay was, what kind of indications the dogs gave the handlers or any thing like that. I seem to recall reading that the dogs alerted on some scent, but do not know the particulars.
I can tell you from my experience, that a good tracking dog knows the direction in which a person was traveling when he picks up the scent. So, if the dogs started a track at all, the handler could have told police if the track lead to or from the Lyon House. It is possible that a dog might have picked up a single scent from an article of clothing or something held by the person, without picking up a track. In that case, he would probably begin circling trying to pick up the scent on a track. I have never heard any specifics about the tracking dogs used to look for Sheila and Kate - other than that the wooded area between Wheaton Plaza and the Lyon House was searched.
In any case, the longer the delay before calling in dogs, the harder the job is for them. Very hot and dry weather will dry up a scent trail, and a good rain will wash much of it away. Optimum tracking conditions involve cool damp weather.
Good observations on the Beatty case. I have a feeling that the two cases are linked. The perpetrator might have been in a somewhat different frame of mind when Kathy Beatty was abducted and attacked. Perhaps he was drunk or on drugs at the time and not thinking as clearly as when the Lyon Sisters were abducted.
The girls were not too far apart in age. Sheila Lyon was only a day or two away from her 13th Birthday when she disappeared. Kathy Beatty was 14. They lived only about four miles from each other and both lived in housing subdivisions of nice homes. Both cases are unsolved to this day.
Richard, i beg to differ with the statement trm was never seen again after march 1975. You well know i've put in a lot of information in the archives about my comfrontation with him around the end of june or july 1975 in murphey's.
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... Thrasher has said in a previous post that Coffey was known to abduct kids from shopping centers. I asked where and what kids but haven't gotten a response. Do you know of Coffey having done this?