Cold Case: Lyon Sisters Disappearance

Skunk Cabbage wrote:

I remember the case also. It seemed like the first case I can remember. I know the sisters were from Maryland but every time I would drive past Lyon Village along rt.29 I thought about those sisters. If this Coffey guy is a suspect, I am sure the police took his DNA. Of course, that's not much good if there's no evidence to match it in the evidence. A shame, this is another case like many others which go unsolved. Always remember, it's not just "cold case" detectives who look into old cases. The old fashioned cop will still pull out a folder and go over a case to see if something clicks.

Gail wrote:

I often think the police chased wrong leads. I lived in Takoma Park, in an area known as Carole Highlands. One day, when I was 12 or 13, my best friend and I were walking back from langley park when a man (late 20s early 30s) with black styled hair, handsome, in a black sports car pulled his car in to block our path, between two buildings, with an alley that led to a back area, bordered by woods that had a path that led to our neighborhood. Anyway, he flirted with us. He was smooth. Charming. Said he was just going to move the car into the back alley area and for us to follow to where we could talk some more. He seemed so nice, so handsome, and so flattering, and I was so young and stupid, my world relatively safe, we almost fell for it and started to follow! My friend caught my arm and said she had a bad feeling. And as if we finally came to our senses, we ran. Entered the woods from another area behind a laundry mat and ran all the way to the elementary school, then home. The timing is important here, About a week later we were riding our bikes through the same connecting woods in an area we had never been in before because it was dense and out of the way from the main path and came across a big deep recently dug hole. So deep that if you fell in you would not be able to get out. We got our parents who thought it was very strange, and they called other people to come look at it. Alerted the principal of the school I think, and the adults worked to fill the hole in. This hole took a lot of work and was not the kind of thing a kid could do. About a week, maybe two later, the Lyons sisters disappeared. From a shopping center less than a mile away, with a similar woods pattern between the stores and the homes. We were 2 girls, together. They were two girls together. I always felt we may have met the man who did this but it just didn't work out with us. If he had gotten us to that hole and covered it up, we would not have been found either. It was that deep. I always wondered if the man in the car and the hole might be connected and if all this could be connected to the Lyon sisters. A stragic path through the woods that young girls would walk in the middle of the day, handsome man very approachable and charming (you wanted this man's attention), an area so close to the public it seemd safe and yet out of view with an escape route and a disposal system set up before there was a victim. I've always had a gut feeling we may have met the person who did this. We did tell police, but they determined it wasn't connected. Not so sure.

Kate Lyons classmate wrote:

The disappearance of Kate and Sheila Lyon haunts me to this day. Kate was in my 4th grade class the year she disappeared. I will never forget Kate - she was such a sweet beautiful girl. That was a very tough time for all of us who went to school with them. I can't even imagine how her parent's go on. I used to walk that same path (sometimes with Kate) to go to Wheaton Plaza. It was safe back then - so we never thought much about it. That event has affected me, along with so many of us, in so many ways. I think about them alot and still hold out hope that somehow they are alive somewhere. I really didn't know Sheila, however, I do know that they also have 2 older brothers. One of them lives in my current neighborhood and he has 2 boys the same age as my boys are now. He works for a violent crimes unit with the county police....I guess that's not a surprise. My only hope is that the family can one day put closure to this horrible tragedy and the man who committed this crime pay for the rest of his life!!! They are (were) such a great family! I still hold out hope that one day they will find them. So sad....I actually still have the news clippings of when this happened. I remember watching the news every night - being scared to death - and looking at their pictures hoping they would show up at school one day. I still occasionally pull out the old newspapers read them and cry....So sad.

classmate also wrote:

<quoted text> like you i was also katie's classmate when all this happend.. and also like you i never stoped thinking about her.. if im right i think our teacher was mrs. mcgee at that time.. i still have a class pic with katie in it.