history.
He had been convicted in Delaware for the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl and was also connected to unrelated offenses in Virginia.
Those investigations became part of the broader law-enforcement picture surrounding Welch.
The Lyon investigation also led to additional prosecutions involving unrelated offenses against children in Prince William County.
The discoveries reinforced investigators’ concern that the man they were examining had a history of targeting vulnerable victims.
But the legal case involving Sheila and Katherine still depended on evidence specific to their disappearance.
The 2015 indictment finally gave the family a formal answer
On July 15, 2015, a Bedford County grand jury indicted Lloyd Lee Welch Jr. on two counts of first-degree murder.
The indictment represented a major turning point.
For 40 years, the Lyon family had been living with uncertainty.
Now there was a formal criminal case alleging responsibility for the sisters’ deaths.
Authorities believed the
