BY KRISSI HUMBARD — Hyattsville resident Patricia Welch has been found guilty of perjury in connection to the disappearance of the Lyon sisters. She appeared in Bedford (Va.) Circuit Court on Tuesday morning for a plea hearing. According to WDBJ7 in Roanoke, Patricia Welch entered an Alford Plea, but was found guilty. In an Alford Plea, the defendant in a criminal case does not admit guilt, but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a conviction.
Patricia Welch was sentenced to two years but the sentence was suspended. She also received a $1,000 fine and five years of unsupervised probation.
Patricia Welch is the wife of Richard Welch, who police have called a person of interest in the case. She had been charged with perjury after her testimony before the multi-jurisdictional grand jury in 2014.
Prosecutors alleged that they had recordings of phone conversations in which Patricia Welch urged potential witnesses not to cooperate with investigators; however, she denied speaking to witnesses during her grand-jury testimony.
Lloyd Lee Welch, Jr., Richard Welch’s nephew, was indicted in 2015 on two counts of first degree felony murder in the kidnapping and killing of 10-year-old Katherine and 12-year-old Sheila Lyon in 1975.
Katherine and Sheila Lyon disappeared from Wheaton Mall on March 25, 1975.
