Right: Age-progressed by NCMEC to 45 years
Right: Age-progressed by NCMEC to 45 years
Name: Katherine Mary Lyon
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: March 25, 1975
Location Last Seen: Wheaton, Montgomery County, Maryland
Date of Birth: March 29, 1964
Age: 10 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 4'8"
Weight: 85 lbs
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Kate
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Birthmark on the inside of upper thigh
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Available
Clothing: Bright red jacket, knit on outside and inside fluffy, no collar and zipper in front; Wrangler flare bottom blue jeans, size 12; Carter or Montgomery Ward underpants with flowers, size 8 or 10; argyle dark brown and beige knee socks; "Wallabee" style dirty beige, brushed suede shoes with "Jumping Jacks" inside
Jewelry: Baby beads with "KATE" in black letters on white beads, remaining beads-orange.
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Katherine Lyon and her older sister, Sheila , departed together from their family's residence on Plyers Mill Road in Kensington, Maryland on March 25, 1975, between 11:00- 12:00. The girls were walking 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. Sheila and Katherine were on spring vacation from school and wanted to see the Easter exhibits at the mall, as well as have 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 middle-aged man 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' description of the man led authorities to view the unknown person as a prime suspect in the Lyon sisters' case and a sketch of the individual was created.
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 - 3:00 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 home by 4:00 p.m.; when they did not arrive by 9:00 p.m., authorities were summoned and an extensive search was conducted. No evidence of the Lyon sisters' whereabouts could be located. The girls had less than $4 between them when they left home, and after eating lunch, would have had only some change left in their pockets.
A witness in Manassas, Virginia reported seeing two girls resembling Sheila and Katherine in the rear of a 1968 beige Ford station wagon on April 7, 1975. The witness stated that the girls were observed bound and gagged in the vehicle at approximately 7:30 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 toward 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.
The girls' disappearances remain unsolved.
Sketches of man wanted for questioning
Agency Name: Montgomery County Police Department
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 301-279-8000
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: W514579
NamUs Case Number: MP1837
NCIC Case Number: M-605329953
NCMEC Case Number: 793205
Added: Prior to 2011; Last Updated: 02/08/2024 - By: kc
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
Return Home