of the most painful unresolved elements of the case.
The investigation could establish enough evidence to move forward against Welch.
But it could not give the Lyon family the physical evidence they had spent decades hoping to find.
The absence of remains also meant prosecutors had to build an unusually complicated criminal prosecution around other evidence.
Welch’s changing accounts became important evidence
As detectives interviewed Welch in prison, his account of the Lyon sisters’ disappearance changed over time.
He acknowledged being at Wheaton Plaza.
He acknowledged seeing the girls.
And he eventually acknowledged participating in their abduction.
But he repeatedly gave different accounts of what happened afterward and attributed the most serious acts to other people.
That inconsistency became a central issue for investigators and prosecutors.
Authorities did not accept every element of Welch’s story as reliable.
Instead, they compared his statements with evidence gathered from the original investigation, later
