Katherine Mary Lyon
Missing Since: March 25, 1975 from Wheaton, Maryland
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: March 29, 1964
Age: 10 years old
Height and Weight: 4'8, 85 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Blonde hair, blue eyes. Katherine has a birthmark on the inside of her upper thigh. Her nickname is Kate. Her name may be spelled "Kathryn."
Clothing Description: A red jacket and Wrangler blue jeans with a front zipper.
Sheila Mary Lyon
Missing Since: March 25, 1975 from Wheaton, Maryland
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: March 30, 1962
Age: 12 years old
Height and Weight: 5'2, 100 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Blonde hair, blue eyes. Sheila wears eyeglasses. Her name may be spelled "Shelia."
Clothing Description: A dark blue shirt and wheat-colored pants.
Details of Disappearance: Sheila and Katherine were sisters. On March 25, 1975, they departed from her family's residence on Plyers Mill Road in Kensington, Maryland and walked to the Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center in Wheaton, Maryland, which was approximately one-half mile from their home and located on the corner of University Boulevard and Veirs Mills Road. It was the first day of Easter vacation from school and Katherine and Sheila wanted to see the Easter exhibits at the mall, as well as have a pizza lunch at The Orange Bowl Restaurant.
A neighborhood child saw the girls outside the restaurant at approximately 1:00 p.m. He told investigators that the sisters were speaking to an unidentified man, 50 to 60 years old, who was wearing a brown suit. The man was carrying a briefcase with a tape recorder inside; there were also other children around who were speaking into a microphone he was holding. The witness's description of the man led authorities to view the unknown person as a prime suspect in the Lyon sisters' case and two composite sketches of the man were created. He has never been identified.
The girls' older brother saw them inside The Orange Bowl Restaurant eating pizza together at approximately 2:00 p.m. A friend stated that the girls were walking westward down Drumm Avenue near Devon Street between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. This would have been one of the most direct routes to their home on Plyers Mill Road from the mall and was the final confirmed sighting of the sisters. Their mother had instructed Sheila and Katherine to return to the residence by 4:00 p.m. When they did not arrive by 7:00 p.m. authorities were summoned and an extensive search was conducted. No evidence of the Lyon sisters' whereabouts could be located.
Several extortion-type phone calls were made to the Lyons family in the weeks following the girls' disappearances. The most serious call came from an unidentified male on April 4, 1975. The individual demanded that their father leave a briefcase with $10,000 inside an Annapolis, Maryland courthouse restroom. The money was left as per the instructions but was never claimed. The caller later maintained that police had surrounded the courthouse and he could not retrieve the ransom. Before the money would be offered to the man again, he was required to show evidence of the Lyon sisters in his custody. The caller said he would be in touch with the family, but never called back.
Several individuals recognized the sketch of the unknown man with the briefcase who had been seen speaking to Sheila and Katherine. They say he was at the Marlow Heights Shopping Center and the Iverson Mall both in Prince George's County, Maryland. He approached several young girls and asked them to read an answering machine message typed on an index card into his hand held-microphone.
A witness in Manassas, Virginia reported seeing two girls resembling Sheila and Katherine in the rear of a beige 1968 Ford station wagon on April 7, 1975 (about 2 weeks after their disappearance, and some 40 miles away). The witness stated that the girls were observed bound and gagged in the vehicle at approximately 7:30 a.m. that day. The driver of the station wagon resembled the man seen questioning children at The Orange Bowl Restaurant the day the sisters vanished. When the driver spotted the witness tailing him, he ran a red light and sped west on Route 234 towards Interstate 66 in Virginia. The station wagon had Maryland license plates with the possible combination "DMT-6**." The last two numbers are unknown due to the bending of the car's plate. The known combination was issued in Cumberland, Hagerstown and Baltimore, Maryland at the time. A search for matching plate numbers failed to produce any information.
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/lyon_sheila.html
Missing Since: March 25, 1975 from Wheaton, Maryland
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: March 29, 1964
Age: 10 years old
Height and Weight: 4'8, 85 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Blonde hair, blue eyes. Katherine has a birthmark on the inside of her upper thigh. Her nickname is Kate. Her name may be spelled "Kathryn."
Clothing Description: A red jacket and Wrangler blue jeans with a front zipper.
Sheila Mary Lyon
Missing Since: March 25, 1975 from Wheaton, Maryland
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: March 30, 1962
Age: 12 years old
Height and Weight: 5'2, 100 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Blonde hair, blue eyes. Sheila wears eyeglasses. Her name may be spelled "Shelia."
Clothing Description: A dark blue shirt and wheat-colored pants.
Details of Disappearance: Sheila and Katherine were sisters. On March 25, 1975, they departed from her family's residence on Plyers Mill Road in Kensington, Maryland and walked to the Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center in Wheaton, Maryland, which was approximately one-half mile from their home and located on the corner of University Boulevard and Veirs Mills Road. It was the first day of Easter vacation from school and Katherine and Sheila wanted to see the Easter exhibits at the mall, as well as have a pizza lunch at The Orange Bowl Restaurant.
A neighborhood child saw the girls outside the restaurant at approximately 1:00 p.m. He told investigators that the sisters were speaking to an unidentified man, 50 to 60 years old, who was wearing a brown suit. The man was carrying a briefcase with a tape recorder inside; there were also other children around who were speaking into a microphone he was holding. The witness's description of the man led authorities to view the unknown person as a prime suspect in the Lyon sisters' case and two composite sketches of the man were created. He has never been identified.
The girls' older brother saw them inside The Orange Bowl Restaurant eating pizza together at approximately 2:00 p.m. A friend stated that the girls were walking westward down Drumm Avenue near Devon Street between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. This would have been one of the most direct routes to their home on Plyers Mill Road from the mall and was the final confirmed sighting of the sisters. Their mother had instructed Sheila and Katherine to return to the residence by 4:00 p.m. When they did not arrive by 7:00 p.m. authorities were summoned and an extensive search was conducted. No evidence of the Lyon sisters' whereabouts could be located.
Several extortion-type phone calls were made to the Lyons family in the weeks following the girls' disappearances. The most serious call came from an unidentified male on April 4, 1975. The individual demanded that their father leave a briefcase with $10,000 inside an Annapolis, Maryland courthouse restroom. The money was left as per the instructions but was never claimed. The caller later maintained that police had surrounded the courthouse and he could not retrieve the ransom. Before the money would be offered to the man again, he was required to show evidence of the Lyon sisters in his custody. The caller said he would be in touch with the family, but never called back.
Several individuals recognized the sketch of the unknown man with the briefcase who had been seen speaking to Sheila and Katherine. They say he was at the Marlow Heights Shopping Center and the Iverson Mall both in Prince George's County, Maryland. He approached several young girls and asked them to read an answering machine message typed on an index card into his hand held-microphone.
A witness in Manassas, Virginia reported seeing two girls resembling Sheila and Katherine in the rear of a beige 1968 Ford station wagon on April 7, 1975 (about 2 weeks after their disappearance, and some 40 miles away). The witness stated that the girls were observed bound and gagged in the vehicle at approximately 7:30 a.m. that day. The driver of the station wagon resembled the man seen questioning children at The Orange Bowl Restaurant the day the sisters vanished. When the driver spotted the witness tailing him, he ran a red light and sped west on Route 234 towards Interstate 66 in Virginia. The station wagon had Maryland license plates with the possible combination "DMT-6**." The last two numbers are unknown due to the bending of the car's plate. The known combination was issued in Cumberland, Hagerstown and Baltimore, Maryland at the time. A search for matching plate numbers failed to produce any information.
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/lyon_sheila.html