3 charged with impeding murder probe in Lyon sisters case get lawyers

BEDFORD, Va. - BEDFORD, Va. (AP) -- Three people charged with impeding the investigation of the 1975 slayings of two Maryland sisters have obtained legal representation in Virginia.

Leslie Engleking is charged with perjury. Gladys Stangee and Amy Johnson are charged with obstruction of justice.

Stangee was arraigned Thursday in Bedford General District Court. A public defender was appointed to represent her. Engleking and Johnson have hired attorneys, so their court appearances scheduled for Thursday were canceled.

Preliminary hearings were scheduled for Nov. 18.

All three defendants are relatives of Richard Welch, who has been named as a person of interest in the deaths of 12-year-old Sheila Lyon and 10-year-old Catherine Lyon. Stangee is Welch's sister, Johnson is his granddaughter, and Engleking is his brother-in-law.

Welch has not been charged and has said he is innocent. His nephew, convicted sex offender Lloyd Lee Michael Welch Jr., has been charged with two counts of murder.

The sisters were last seen March 25, 1975, at the Wheaton Plaza Mall near their home in Wheaton, Maryland, where they went to shop for Easter decorations and eat lunch. According to the indictment against Lloyd Welch, the sisters were kidnapped and taken to Bedford County, about 200 miles away, where they were slain sometime between the date of their abduction and three weeks later.

At the time of the slayings, Lloyd Welch was an 18-year-old traveling carnival worker who had been spending time in the Wheaton area.

Authorities began searching a rugged mountainside in Virginia for the girls' remains last year but haven't found them.