Trial For Man Charged With Killing Missing Sisters Delayed

BEDFORD, Va. (AP) -- A Virginia judge has delayed the trial of a convicted sex offender charged with killing two sisters who disappeared from a Maryland mall in 1975.

Media outlets report that 58-year-old Lloyd Lee Michael Welch Jr.'s lawyers requested the delay at a hearing on Tuesday in Bedford County Circuit Court.

Welch's trial on felony first-degree murder charges was set to begin Nov. 24. Judge James Updike rescheduled the trial to begin March 15, 2016.

Bedford Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz said he had no objection to the change.

Welch is charged in connection with the disappearance of 12-year-old Sheila Lyon and 10-year-old Katharine Lyon. The sisters were walking from their house to the Wheaton Plaza Mall. The girls never came home, and no bodies were found.

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