strangers.
There were theories, rumors and false leads.
Investigators followed them anyway.
The sisters had disappeared in a populated suburban environment, yet no reliable explanation emerged for what had happened between the time they left the shopping center and the moment they should have arrived home.
That uncertainty became one of the most haunting aspects of the case.
The Lyon family did not know where their daughters were.
The community did not know who had taken them.
And police did not know which of the many reported sightings mattered.
Then came the mysterious man with the tape recorder
One of the earliest investigative leads centered on a man witnesses remembered seeing at Wheaton Plaza.
He reportedly had a small tape recorder and had asked children to speak into a microphone.
Police developed composite sketches and investigated the man, who became known publicly as “Tape Recorder Man.”
For a time, investigators
