Trial date set for man charged with killing missing Lyon sisters

BEDFORD, Va. (AP) -- A convicted sex offender charged with murder in the 1975 disappearance of two sisters from a Maryland mall is tentatively set to go on trial next month.

Lloyd Lee Michael Welch Jr. made his initial appearance Thursday in Bedford County Circuit Court.

Media outlets report an attorney was appointed for him and a judge set a tentative trial date of Nov. 24.

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. They never came home. No bodies were found.

Authorities say Welch was at the mall the day the girls vanished and was seen paying attention to them.

The 58-year-old Welch was transferred this week from a Delaware prison to Virginia.