Significance of the time of year the girls were taken

[Motherof5]

I was thinking about the mall that day. Sometimes around xmas,there will be groups singing or playing xmas music for the many shoppers.I was wondering if anyone who lived in the area back then and had been to Wheaton Plaza around different holidays,might know if they ever had this type of thing at the mall? I'm wondering if there was any other type of Easter thing going on that day other than the bunny?

 

[SharetheLight]

I was thinking about the mall that day. Sometimes around xmas,there will be groups singing or playing xmas music for the many shoppers.I was wondering if anyone who lived in the area back then and had been to Wheaton Plaza around different holidays,might know if they ever had this type of thing at the mall? I'm wondering if there was any other type of Easter thing going on that day other than the bunny?

MO5 there were some locals posting here, but they haven't been around lately. There was a friend of the lyon family who lived nearby when this happened, Thrasher, I think.
And then there was a local poster who saw TRM in a mall some day other than 3/25. The name escapes me right now, anyway these two made many posts so maybe they can help with this question as to what types of outside entertainment may have been in the mall during Easter time in 1975.
There are other local posters as well.
I lived in Mont. Co. at the time, but I was too young to recollect what type of entertainment may have been in the mall.

Good question.

 

[Motherof5]

This is part of another article I found-


Charlotte Observer, The (NC) - March 13, 1987

COFFEY A POTENTIAL SUSPECT` IN MARYLAND CASE
In Maryland, kids loved March 25. It used to be Maryland Day, a school holiday.On such days in Montgomery County, kids streamed into the Wheaton Plaza.The only shopping center in the area, it was a magnet for kids. On March 25, 1975, Sheila and Katherine Lyon joined the throngs of kids shopping and socializing at the mall, which is less than a mile from their home. Sheila was about to turn 13. Katherine was about to turn 11.


This is about Maryland Day-(from Wikipedia)

Maryland Day is a legal holiday in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is observed on the anniversary of the March 25, 1634, landing of settlers in the Province of Maryland.

On this day settlers from The Ark and The Dove first stepped foot onto Maryland soil, at St. Clement's Island in the Potomac River. The colony was granted to Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore two years prior by Charles I of England. In thanksgiving for the safe landing, Jesuit Father Andrew White celebrated mass for the colonists, perhaps for the first time ever in this part of the world. The landing coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation, a holy day honoring Mary, and the start of the new year in England's legal calendar (prior to 1752).

The holiday began in 1903, the date chosen by the state board of education to honor Maryland history. In 1916, the legislature authorized Maryland Day as a legal holiday (Chapter 633, Acts of 1916).

 

[SharetheLight]

This is part of another article I found-


Charlotte Observer, The (NC) - March 13, 1987

COFFEY A POTENTIAL SUSPECT` IN MARYLAND CASE
In Maryland, kids loved March 25. It used to be Maryland Day, a school holiday.On such days in Montgomery County, kids streamed into the Wheaton Plaza.The only shopping center in the area, it was a magnet for kids. On March 25, 1975, Sheila and Katherine Lyon joined the throngs of kids shopping and socializing at the mall, which is less than a mile from their home. Sheila was about to turn 13. Katherine was about to turn 11.


This is about Maryland Day-(from Wikipedia)

Maryland Day is a legal holiday in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is observed on the anniversary of the March 25, 1634, landing of settlers in the Province of Maryland.

On this day settlers from The Ark and The Dove first stepped foot onto Maryland soil, at St. Clement's Island in the Potomac River. The colony was granted to Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore two years prior by Charles I of England. In thanksgiving for the safe landing, Jesuit Father Andrew White celebrated mass for the colonists, perhaps for the first time ever in this part of the world. The landing coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation, a holy day honoring Mary, and the start of the new year in England's legal calendar (prior to 1752).

The holiday began in 1903, the date chosen by the state board of education to honor Maryland history. In 1916, the legislature authorized Maryland Day as a legal holiday (Chapter 633, Acts of 1916).

We used to get out of school for MD day, and the courts used to close for MD day. I don't think they do anymore.
I don't remember when that changed. Maybe sometime in the last 18 years??

I guess in 1975 Md Day coincided with Easter Break.

 

[Richard]

No one has posted to this particular topic for a while, but it could be of interest when comparing the Lyon case with others.

Factors which went into their aparent abduction from a shopping center in the days before Easter, when school was on break, might be similar to other cases. Did the perpetrator commit similar crimes before and after 25 March 1975? If so, perhaps he did so in similar circumstances.

 

[siriunsun]

The court will probably give the jury guidelines about which former bad acts may be considered.