I grew up in Kemp Mill, a suburb that was a bedroom community for Washington, DC. We kids ran around a lot by ourselves - to the Nature Center, to Pine Lake, to the skating rink, up and down the street, in the woods - pretty much anywhere we wanted to go. We had to be home before dinner, but that was about it. With bikes and skates, we could cover a fair distance.
Then in the mid-70s, the Lyons sisters disappeared. It was huge news - all anyone talked about for weeks. They had gone to Wheaton Plaza together, and they never came home. I’m sure anyone my age who grew up in or near the DC area still remembers hearing so much about them.
For me and for many of my friends, that was the end of unsupervised rambles at will.
They never did find out what happened to those poor girls.
I was working a Vitro Laboratories when that happened. It really shook the community. The fact that there was never any closure really wierded eveyone out.
Part of the problem I believe is that people rarelyspeak out when they see something going down. Conress now thinks we need a law to protect people who report suspicious activity.
Go figure.
The Lyon’s sisters case is a cold one. There were some suspects and an actual sighting, but no evidence. My husband grew up in Springfield; he remembers that every thing changed after their abduction. That is when the close supervision began - especially for his sisters.
I remember that. We lived on the DC side of the Takoma Park line and went to Wheaton Plaza for our shopping. I had moved on to college, but still had small sisters at home. Though my parents would never have let them go to Wheaton alone, it was still a sobering experience for them. These things just didn't happen back then.