The access road does not follow Drumm Ct. It curved something like a nose (profile view). It starts at the shed near the end of Drumm Ct but goes east (probably to link up with main part of nursing home) then turns around counterclockwise until it heads northwest coming out on Drumm Ave where Drumm Ct does nowadays. If they cut across the clearing near the nursing home, they would be going northeast, perpendicular to the access road. I think it easier to assume at that point they would keep going northeast exiting near the intersection of McComas and Drumm, just west of pond. On the 1970 aerial photo, one can see what looks like a worn area heading northeast thus on either side of the access road. One possibility is the police considered several routes as possibilities. If cutting near the nursing home was somewhat illicit, they may have not been open with parents about taking that shortcut, yet still took it from convenience. It's conceivable they might have gone straight north to access road (or just straight north); it all depends I suppose on what sort of trespassing was acceptable. I seem to recall mention made of a storm drain or sewers being searched. That could refer to the storm drain on Drumm Ave. between Drumm Ct. and Starner Ct. I don't know whether it was there then, though.
Planning the Trip to the Mall (ATTN: cat123)
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The side access road to the shed was indeed entirely on nursing home property, as of 1967. I'm not sure whether it connected directly to the roads in the main part of the nursing home. On some of the old topological maps (at historicaerials.com), the side access (unpaved) road looks like it is not connected to the nursing home, but the aerial photos show that between 1957 and 1963 the nursing home was extended with a new southern wing very close to the easternmost point of the side access road; trees hide whether they established a connection, but I'm guessing there was some sort of one. The website for the present nursing home claims that the nursing home was founded in the 20's as a recuperating retreat run by Christian Scientists who believed in giving homegrown food. Maybe the side access road and the shed back when had something to do with farming operations, I just don't know.
Door to Door search in Kensington March 1975
In a previous post on this thread, I said that I would post a quote from a news article concerning the police search conducted in the days following the girls' disappearance.
I have located the article and have posted excerpts from it on Post 96 of the News Reports, Articles, and Links thread this topic area.
The article describes the door to door search and the search of the storm drains and ponds.
In a previous post on this thread, I said that I would post a quote from a news article concerning the police search conducted in the days following the girls' disappearance.
I have located the article and have posted excerpts from it on Post 96 of the News Reports, Articles, and Links thread this topic area.
The article describes the door to door search and the search of the storm drains and ponds.
cgoodwin22
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found this rather 'psychedelic' commercial for Wheaton Plaza from 1971
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_0nc_C-VoE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_0nc_C-VoE
There was some discussion in this topic about the suspected route taken by the girls to and from Wheaton Plaza. I have located a 2 April 1975 Washington Star Article which discussed the Tracking Dogs used in the search and have posted it on the thread titled News Reports, Articles, and Links (top of the index for the Lyon Sisters Topic.)
The dog-tracking described in the Washington Star article has always struck me as fishy because 1) it was not part of the official police investigation, 2) it was privately funded, 3) the late timing, and 4) the publicity, including the article.
The dog trainer strikes me as the type who might not want to say, "we could not pick up a single scent." It would really be bad if he had some personal problems that made him skimp his dog training to the point where the dogs were unreliable.
Still, since the Montgomery County (one of the richest counties in the country at the time) Police did not see the need for a private dog search a week later, my guess is that either they conducted their own dog search earlier and privately or did not think there was a value of using search dogs in the suburban environment.
Knowing the results of an official police dog search would be useful to know if the girls were taken off the beaten path. There was a line in a newspaper report twenty some years later that did say the girl's trail was lost in a creek/gully. Even if true, without more details, it would support either an attack in the woods or being taken in a car on Drumm Ave which goes through the woods.
I still can't figure out how Welch moved the bodies unless police botched the initial search looking for live girls instead of a burial site.
Good points. The MCP attitude toward tracking dogs in 1975 was probably a combination of "all of the above".
Regarding Press accounts, I think that your best information comes from the earliest articles, where reporters went out and spoke with eyewitnesses first hand, or reported what MCP stated in their press briefings. Later articles tend to borrow heavily from earlier ones, and often in paraphrasing them, add different meaning or misquotations. For example, the statement about the dogs finding some scent near a gully was first reported in the 2 April 1975 article I transcribed in the Press Reports section of this subject. The article written years later got its information from the 1975 article and called it a creek/gully. Obviously the creek near the Kensington Gardens Nursing Home is quite a distance from the Kenmont Pool area, but it is easy to see how a simple misstatement can muddy up the waters and lead to confusion.
The article about the Dog Trainer, Thomas McGinn is obviously talking about the same man that conducted the dog search. In light of the allegations about him providing inferior quality dogs instead of the well trained ones he advertised in later years, it does call into question his integrity and truthfullness during the 1975 Lyon search.
That said, even at the time, MCP felt that there was not much to go on except to say that the girls were not in the area searched. Dogs have the ability to scent and track regardless of their handler's trustworthyness. And these dogs certainly would have been able to pick up the scent of the girls if they were buried in the area, or if they were recently moving about the streets or woods in Kensington. The fact that the dogs really did not pick up anything very strongly suggests to me that the girls were removed from the area the day they disappeared.
That the police did not bring tracking dogs in immediately is just one of the many screw-ups that characterize the whole investigation. But they did not turn down the offer of WMAL to have dogs brought in, and the chief stated that he would have preferred for them to have come in earlier on Friday the 28th of March, but that the dogs and handler were not available due to being away on another job.
Motherof5
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I can't speak for anyone else such as Richard, but I think after looking at earlier maps, aerial photography from the 1960s, and statements from people driving on Drumm Ave at the time, it's now fairly clear that Drumm "Avenue" was an unpaved, narrow, single-lane dirt road build in the late 1800s and a through "road" (little more than a dirt path).
A criminal might have thrown caution to the wind and did an abduction on a busy street, but the way I see it is until the path, there was a 50-50 or better chance of being spotted. Two people did remember seeing the girls on or near Drumm Avenue. I would guess that two to five other people, other than the abductor, also saw the girls walking near or down Drumm Ave, but not knowing the names of the girls, they were just two, of many girls walking down the street that day and they did not remember them. If the girls were forced into a van or car, other people should have noticed.
Even today when jogging up Drumm Ave. on a weekend, usually two or more people see me. Once when I jogged too close to an old man who was walking his dog, when his dog lunged at me and pulled the old man down. Two other people in addition to me stopped to help him up.
Richard, I know you don't think Welch did it, but with your knowledge of these types of crimes, statistically how to people without cars who just loose it and kill on the spur of the moment get rid of bodies?
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SteveP,
First, I do not know who might have abducted the Lyon sisters or killed them. There are a lot of potential suspects, Welch being only the most recent one considered.
To answer your question, I think that most people who "lose it" and kill someone on the spur of the moment tend to leave the body right where it fell, or perhaps move it only a short distance and leave it in the open. This is seen daily in homicides all over the country.
Those bodies which are NOT found immediately where the murder took place (but found later) often remain unidentified for some time after being found. These "John/Jane Doe" cases give some idea of how and where bodies are hidden. The thread on Websleuths titled Unidentified - or the case listings on the Doenetwork or other similar sites - indicate some of those hiding places/methods. Often victims are found in isolated areas, just dumped in rivers, hidden under brush, or even placed in shallow graves.
Of course there are also the very old cases of missing persons (such as that of the Lyon Sisters) which continue to perplex investigators. Even when someone confesses to a long cold case the body cannot be located for various reasons.
Perhaps a more foccused answer to your question might be to look at some of the potential suspects discussed or mentioned in this Topic area. Without just speculating on how one might have disposed of the girls bodies (assuming they were killed), consider other cases more definitely connected to each potential suspect.
For example, Hadden Clark was a resident of Montgomery County and he would be classified as a serial killer by just about any definition. His two known murder victims (for which he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison) were Michele Dorr and Laura Hoteling. Their bodies were eventually found in shallow graves in remote areas where he buried them and where he often visited or camped. He confessed to others in other states which he claimed to have also buried, but investigators could not find the bodies.
Other possible suspects used other methods of disposal of their known victims. Body disposal MO is something which has to be considered when trying to connect any unsolved case to a certain potential suspect, but it cannot be the only factor.
A careful and organized killer might have everything planned out in advance, including methodical disposing of his victims. But it is also possible that the organized criminal might encounter an interruption or obstacle to his plan and have to change things on the fly. Or, under the influence of drugs or alcohol he might on occasion become careless.
It is also possible that the killer gradually becomes more sure of himself and bolder in what he does, thinking that he is "lucky" or immune from police detection. Such a person might eventually be found and convicted of his latest murder, because of sloppy disposal of a body. Such a killer might remain undetected concerning earlier murders in which the bodies were more carefully hidden or buried.
I don't see Welch as a serial killer since as far as we know his later victims all are alive.
I see Welch as more like someone who got into an argument with his date, girlfriend or wife, the fight got out of control and ended in murder.
If a murder knows he is likely to be connected to the murder by the murder-location, I often read of them moving the body or making up some intruder story.
Even forty years late, the police were able to identify that Welch walked the train tracks through Forest Glen to Kensington then to the mall. Welch likely knew at the time he would be identified as someone hanging out or walking past the woods the girls were last seen walking towards, if the bodies were found in the woods.
But there must be data on how the thousands of people who get into fatal arguments with girlfriends or dates act. Some might call the police and make the best deal they can claiming self-defense or no intention to murder. Those with cars likely use their cars to remove the body. But what do people without cars like Welch do. Bury in a nearby park? Rent, borrow or steal a car? Throw in a nearby dumpster?