DC DC - Eileen Kelly, 18, Washington DC, 14 Dec 1974

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Because Eileen's murder is considered to be in the jurisdiction of Washington DC (where her body was found), case detectives were not completely involved with the proceedings in Virginia against Lloyd Welch, Jr. That was a multi jurisdiction case involving Maryland and Virginia, but not specifically the District of Columbia. I spoke with the officer in charge of Eileen's case a few years ago, to suggest looking into Welch as a possible suspect. He stated that he was watching the Virginia/Maryland trial of Welch carefully. I do not know if he was ever allowed to speak with Welch, however.

My guess is that Welch's lawyers would not be willing to let him talk and have likely advised him not to. In a pretrial deal, Welch was allowed to plead guilty to murder of two young girls and the rape of others in turn for life sentences. A new, unrelated conviction might put the death penalty back on the table.

However, it might be worthwhile for LE to try talking to him because once they get him started, he might keep going and going...

It would be very good, indeed, if a DNA sample could be obtained from old evidence, analyzed and compared to known criminals. Perhaps this case could be solved yet.
 
In light of the recent homicides now being solved using familial DNA (Golden State Killer), I'm now wondering if the DNA they have on file can be compared to the database now being used.

I'm a second cousin of Eileen's. Her case has not been in the news for eight years. Her death rocked the family, including the distant relatives, to the point when I went to work in DC four years later, I carpooled with my dad.
 
I do not know what DNA the investigators have on file, but it would be great if it could be matched to her killer.

I urged the case officer to look at the case of the missing Lyon Sisters for possible suspects. He was well aware of the case and the on going investigation.

The case is in the jurisdiction of Washington DC, due to the location where Eileen's body was found. Initially, it was a Prince Georges County (Maryland) missing person case and in their jurisdiction.

I think that both police departments should get together on it. My feeling is that Eileen may have been held and murdered in Hyattsville (PG County), Maryland.
 
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It has now been 44 years since Eileen Kelly was abducted and subsequently murdered.

Hopefully, her murderer can be identified and brought to justice.
 
HOMICIDE VICTIM Up to $25,000 Reward

97820740_134870194401.jpg


VICTIM’S NAME: Eileen Kelly
LOCATION: Unit block of R Street, NE
DATE/TIME: December 22, 1974

DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT:
Eileen Kelly disappeared on December 14, 1974. Her body was found on December 22, 1974, in the unit block of R Street, NE. The Metropolitan Police Department seeks the public’s assistance in gathering information regarding this homicide.

CONTACT: Detective Daniel Whalen (202) 277-9225 (cell) daniel.whalen@dc.gov Command Information Center (202) 727-9099 (main)

Anonymous information may also be forwarded to the department’s TEXT TIP LINE by text messaging 50411. 02.23.15 HOMICIDES/1970-1990/KELLY_EILEEN.PDF

LINK:
https://mpdc.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/mpdc/publication/attachments/kelly_eileen_0.pdf
 
Below is an excerpt from a 2006 news article which addressed the hope that DNA evidence would help solve this case:
-------------------------------
D.C. police and the FBI are banking on advances in forensic technology to solve a homicide that’s more than 30 years old.

Two weeks before Christmas in 1974, Eileen Kelly disappeared after leaving the Department of Justice, where she’d just gotten a job as a secretary in the economic litigation section. She was supposed to get on a bus to Hyattsville to meet her father to sign loan papers for an AMC Gremlin she wanted to buy. She never showed up.

On Dec. 22, 1974, her partially clad body was found in an alley behind 42 R St. NW. She had been raped and strangled, and a section of her panty hose had been wrapped around her neck....

… The case has lingered unsolved for decades, but authorities have found new hope in old samples of possible semen recovered during Kelly’s autopsy. The samples may yet yield DNA evidence and lead to a break in the case... Officials want to develop a DNA profile of the killer that could be compared to that of suspects....

… Kelly was a bright, pretty girl who wore bracelets for American prisoners of war in Vietnam and was active in St. Jerome’s church in Hyattsville. Hers was one of 295 killings in the District that year, then a record.

As time passed, the case faded from public memory so that her only public legacy is the white box of file folders and tapes...

LINK:

DNA evidence could break unsolved 1974 homicide
 
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Lloyd Welch lived on Baltimore Ave. (Alt 1) very near its intersection with Route 1, in Hyattsville, Maryland.

If one were to drive down Route 1 out of Hyattsville into Washington, DC it is almost a direct line from Lloyd Welch's house to where Eileen Kelly's body was found - in DC, only four blocks south of Route 1.

See Map at link below and click off all markers except the one for 1974 (Eileen Kelly).

LINK:

DC: ANC 5C Unsolved Homicides - CommunityWalk
 

Eileen Kelly's birthday was 7 July. She would have been 63 years old this year. Her murder is still unsolved.
 
Bumping this case up. This month marks the 45 year anniversary of Eileen Kelly's abduction and murder.
 

Eileen Marie Kelly
BIRTH 7 July 1956
Death 22 Dec 1974 (aged 18)
BURIAL
Fort Lincoln Cemetery
Brentwood, Prince George's County, Maryland, USA

Eileen Kelly disappeared after leaving her office on December 13, 1974, and her body was found in the District of Columbia nine days later on December 22, 1974. She had been strangled, and the coroner estimated she had been dead only 24-36 hours. Her murder is a cold case, under investigation by the DC Metropolitan Police Dept.

Survived by her parents; four brothers; one sister; and aunts, uncles, and many friends.

LINK:
Eileen Marie Kelly (1956-1974) - Find A Grave...
 
I just stumbled upon this and reading through the discussion, I think everyone is unnecessarily pre-occupied with Welch. Welch is a pedophile and Eileen was 18 years old. More importantly, Welch does not sound like the kind of guy who could operate in Northeast DC and dump a body there--he would go to Appalachia. He's not a city boy, he doesn't seem to have many social skills, and Eckington in the 1970s was not the kind of neighborhood where he would have blended in. He would have stood out like a sore thumb and someone would have noticed the body dump. I just don't find the Welch idea credible.

It seems unlikely that Eileen made it to Hyattsville that day. She went missing in DC and she was found dead in DC. I've looked at the bus routes that run between DOJ and her house, it seems like she would have had to transfer at least once in Northeast DC, the section of the city where she was later found dead (on R Street NE between North Capitol and First). Link at the bottom. Although these are the modern bus routes, I don't think there would have been a direct route in the 70s either, you can see that the distance is substantial and cuts across the city. She could have been transferring or gotten off the bus to run an errand, only to be taken. This becomes more likely when you consider that she left work early that day, a variance from her regular commute.

خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏
 
The fact that Eileen left work early would not necessarily mean that she deviated from her usual bus route home - unless the change in time meant that she accidentally boarded the wrong bus at some point.

She had an appointment to meet with her father to go shopping for a car and he was waiting for her at her stated destination bus stop.

It is unlikely that someone was specifically targeting Eileen personally for abduction, but possible that her assailant was someone who knew her or who had seen her before. She never made it to the bus stop where her father was waiting.

Eileen's body was found on 22 December 1974, 8 days after she was declared missing. She had been kept alive for a full week before she was murdered.

Regarding Lloyd Welch, while he was indeed a pedophile, he was also a killer and a rapist. If one accepts the facts stated in his conviction for the abduction and murders of the Lyon Sisters, one has to believe that he could and did keep one or both alive and imprisoned for some time in his mother's house on Baltimore Ave (Alt Route 1) just inside Hyattsville, MD. That was in March 1975, only three months after Eileen Kelly suffered a very similar fate.

Eileen was reported missing by her father from Hyattsville (Prince Georges County), Maryland and so her case began as a missing person case there. When her body was found a few blocks inside the Washington DC line, it became a homicide case in DC jurisdiction - where it remains an open, unsolved case today.
 
What you need is a May 1974 "Getting about on Metrobus" Pocket map. I'll try to upload some images of it. It would appear that there were a few G routes going up Queens Chapel (G4 in particular went downtown from Hyattsville). Interestingly, though, routes 82, 86, and 87 went northeast on Rhode Island Avenue from DC and then north on Baltimore Avenue, and it would appear that leaving DC both 82 and 86 went north on North Capitol and then east on R (or thereabouts), passing right by where Kelly's body was found.
 
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alldayservicebusmapDCMay1974.jpg BusroutesDCsuburbsMay1974.jpg In our family's store of long ago filed transportation schedules and travel brochures, I found a May 1974 pocket metrobus map put out by WMATA. It would appear that Kelly could have caught 82, 86, or G4 at the Lafayette Square/Treasury Department area (near White House), after taking bus from DoJ northwest on Pennsylvania Ave. Or more direct but perhaps not as safe, she could have taken one of the many northbound buses from the Department of Justice building area and transferred to 82 or 86 at H St in the neighborhood of the Greyhound bus station.

Probable approximate route of 82 and 86 from Treasury Department (hard to be totally sure of small cross streets from low resolution map) to Hyattsville in 1974:

northeast on NY Ave
east on H St
north on 5th St
northeast on NY Ave
east on M St
north on N Capitol St
east on R St !
north on 3rd St
east on T St
north on 4th St
northeast on Rhode Island Ave
north on Baltimore Ave

Queens Chapel Road is closer to where she lived, but the G4 bus going up that street left downtown DC on 16th St NW, far from R Street NE (though its exact route is not clear from map). I'm thinking there is a good chance she was forced or enticed off an 80s bus (82 or 86?) when it passed near where her body was found. How I know not. And that these are among the few buses that go on R Street near the dump site is somewhat suggestive of Lloyd Welch being involved from his parents having lived at 4714 Baltimore Avenue, where at least one Lyon sister may have been murdered.

The pocket map also contains a map of extra rush hour buses I could photograph and upload, but I didn't find it particularly interesting or as easy to interpret.
 
47 Years Ag0...

Eileen Marie Kelly, age 18
Murdered December 1974
In Maryland or Washington DC
 
I personally wonder if her case could be connected to John Brennan Crutchley. I believe he lived in Washington D.C at the time.
 
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