A Virginia judge has delayed the trial of a convicted sex offender charged with killing two young sisters who disappeared from a Montgomery County 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 is charged in connection with the disappearance of 12-year-old Sheila Lyon and her younger sister, 10-year-old Katherine.
The girls were last seen March 25, 1975, at the Wheaton Plaza Mall near their home in Wheaton, Maryland. They were on spring break from school, and they went to look at Easter decorations and have lunch.
According to the indictment against 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.
Their bodies have not been found, although investigators have conducted searches and forensic digs in the area of Taylor's Mountain in the county.
At the time of the girls' disappearance, Welch was an 18-year-old traveling carnival worker who had been spending time in the Wheaton area. He was noticed paying attention to the sisters the afternoon they vanished, investigators have said.
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Welch, a convicted sex offender, had been incarcerated in Delaware since 1997 on a rape conviction. In September, authorities said he was transferred to a Virginia detention center.
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's uncle, Richard Welch, has been named as a person of interest in the sisters' deaths. Three relatives of Richard Welch are facing charges related to impeding the investigation: Leslie Engleking is charged with perjury; Gladys Stangee and Amy Welch-Johnson are charged with obstruction of justice.
A fourth woman, Richard Welch's wife, Patricia Jean Welch, is charged with lying to a grand jury investigating the girls' disappearance. She will go on trial in January.
