The Last Stone

by Mark Bowden

  “Teddy had his arm around one of them, and the other guy had his arm pulled in close to her. I don’t know who the guy was.”

  “Like around her head, like a headlock type of deal?” asked Mark.

  “More like her shoulders, pulling her in close.”

  “Okay,” said Mark.

  “How old do you think Teddy was back then?” asked Katie.

  “I don’t know, maybe eighteen or twenty.”

  “Okay, so he wasn’t their age,” said Katie. “He was older?”

  “He was older.”

  “Is he a bad dude?” Katie asked.

  “He was.”

  Lloyd insisted that he had just happened to be at the mall that day. They asked why he was afraid of Teddy.

  “Because I seen him beat the crap out of somebody before. He has threatened my family a couple of times.”

  “What family?” asked Mark.

  “My sisters, my brothers, my kids. He said he will find them and he will kill them. Because I did see two girls at a home, like I said. That was true. I ran. I was scared. He knew I saw them.”

  “How did he know?”

  “Because he saw me.”

  Lloyd said Teddy had come to his stepmother’s house that day, the day he had seen the girls drugged and being raped. He had threatened him.

  “He called me out to the backyard,” said Lloyd. “Told me, ‘I know you saw me walk off with those girls. Don’t worry about it. You say anything, you can be hurt and your family can be hurt and your kids.’” (At that point, Lloyd had no children).

  His story had taken a substantial turn. Teddy Welch and “the other guy” were the kidnappers. He did not know who the other guy was. Ray Mileski had been erased. Forget about what he had said earlier.

  “Here is what I think,” said Mark. “If that is true—and I have a lot of concerns about it being true—but if that were true, I think you were there at the mall with them that day. Okay? And I think what I said a while ago about you knowing something more is that I think what happened is you got into something that day you didn’t realize was going to be as serious as it turns out. And maybe you broke off at some point when you realized that this is not where I need to be or want to be. And whatever happened to them after that happened. But there are big concerns that I have about it. And I have every version of your story so far. They don’t logically make sense. And I will tell you why. Why would you, if he pulled you out in the backyard and had this conversation and all, why would you go back to the mall and report whatever it is you reported you saw?”

  “I was scared.”

  “If you are so scared, why would you? You would stay as far away from that mall as you possibly could.”

  “Because I thought that, even though he threatened me at that time, he wouldn’t know that I said anything.”

  Lloyd said that at the time he wasn’t thinking straight.

  “Think straight now, Lloyd,” Mark said.

  “Well, I am thinking straight. I want to know if he is alive or not.”

  TWO NAKED GIRLS

  “So, if I have this straight, you are at the mall, you see Teddy and this other guy grab these girls,” said Mark. “The next day you go to this other guy’s house to party, and these two naked little girls are there. And you get scared and you run.”

  “Yeah.”

  “What guy’s house?”

  “The one that Teddy was living at.”

  “So it’s not the guy whose picture we showed you. That was all bullshit. Was that to just steer us in the wrong direction?”

  “No, that guy looked familiar.”

  “You just latched onto that guy because we gave him to you.”

  “No, I am saying he did look familiar. I can’t say I knew him.”

  “So, let me ask you, why would you go to that house that day if he threatened you?” asked Katie.

  “No, he didn’t threaten me that day. It was the next day that he threatened me. I didn’t say that day.” Lloyd repeated that he had run away after seeing Teddy with the two girls. “I left,” he said. “I went to my mom’s house.”

  “What was it you saw?” asked Mark. “You say you saw something.”

  “Two girls in the house naked.”

  “What were they doing?”

  “Laying on the bed.”

  “What part of the house was this?”

  “It was in the basement part.”

  “Who else was in the basement?”

  “Teddy and another guy, and then there was another guy I don’t know. I had never seen him before. I left. Teddy saw me; he actually saw me. I went back to my mom’s house. I was scared. Later on that day he came over, and he said, ‘I know you saw something. Leave it alone, don’t worry about it. Or you are going to be hurt.’”

  “So you were looking just to party, so you went to the house?” asked Katie. “To get high, drink, whatever?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you walk in the house without being invited? Is that kind of what you guys did?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So you walk in, and you saw these two girls. Were they tied up? Were they laying down?”

  “No, they were laying down. They looked like they were drugged. They looked like they were high. They looked like they were partying all night long.”

  “But they were little?”

  “Well, I couldn’t see the entire face, body, and everything like that. I mean I saw one girl’s face. She didn’t look young-young. But I left. I got scared.”

  To sell his new story, Lloyd was offering lurid new details, all of which deepened his credibility problem. If he knew these things, things he could no longer claim to have forgotten, why hadn’t he told the detectives earlier? They had begged him for the truth.

  “What you told us before, was it true? About seeing them pushed in the car or something?” asked Mark. It was hard to keep track of all the versions.

  “Yeah.”

  “And the little one was crying?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You remember that?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Was the taller one crying?”

  “I can’t say if she was or not. All I saw, like I said before about the car, it was a Camaro and it was Teddy’s, and I think it was blue. I don’t remember the color.”

  “I think that’s what you told me last time,” said Katie—actually, up until now, the car had always been maroon.

  “Yeah. I think it was blue. I am not sure. I am not good on remembering colors. I saw two girls getting into the car. We were getting on the bus. I don’t know. We left on the bus, that was it. The girl getting in the back seat looked like she was crying. You know, she had her head down, [but] you can hear it. You know, it wasn’t that far away. I mean the bus was right there; you can tell that she has been crying. We left.”

  “Was he doing anything? Trying to shut her up?” asked Mark.

  “Just pushing her in the car. Not literally push. But putting her head in there. I didn’t think about it at that time. I mean I was eighteen years old. I was stupid. I mean I didn’t do anything about it. That’s what I am talking about being stupid. If I was smart enough I would have done something. But I didn’t do anything. I went to the house the next day, I saw the girls there.”

  This story didn’t make sense, so Mark went back to his original strategy, trying to give Lloyd an excuse to say what happened without implicating himself.

  “I think what you just said lines up totally with my theory here,” said Mark. “That you were out with those guys that day, probably at the mall trying to pick up chicks, because that’s what people did back then. And this shit went sideways, and you got out. You bailed out of it. That makes more sense to me. You know, because here is the thing. Think of it this way: Three guys go to rob a bank. Okay, it sounds like a good idea. They are down on their luck, they need some money. ‘All right, let’s go rob a bank.’ One guy has the gun, the other guy puts his finger in his pocket, pretends
he has a gun. And the third guy is just driving the getaway car. He never even goes in the bank. All right? And he is thinking to himself, ‘I am just along for the ride. I will get a little money out of this. I am not going to hurt anybody, I am not going to confront anybody. I am just driving the car.’ You know, all of a sudden these guys go into the bank and wind up shooting somebody. Well, the guy driving the car never expected that; he didn’t sign up for that. You know what I mean? So he gets the hell out of there. Leaves them, leaves them with the mess they created. Is that what happened here?”

  Lloyd was briefly silent, weighing it. He was taking extreme care not to link himself with the kidnappers.

  “No, that’s not what happened,” he said. “I wasn’t there with them. I went to the house to party. Like I always did.”

  “You thought really hard about that.”

  “No, I listened to everything you said.”

  “I know.”

  “I mean, I was taking in everything that you were saying.”

  “No, but after I was done it seemed like you were really contemplating that. You know what I mean?”

  “So, you want me to say?”

  “I just want the truth, Lloyd.”

  “No, you want me to say that I went to the mall with them and I picked up chicks and everything like that. Sounds like a good theory, but it’s not the way it went. I am sorry. I can’t say anything else because I don’t know anything else.”

  It was, of course, another lie—except for the parts that were true.

  6

  One Hundred and One Percent the God’s Honest Truth

  Leonard Kraisel (left) and Teddy (right)

  UNCLE LENNY

  Who was Teddy? It had taken Mark a few seconds to process the name. He was Thomas Welch Jr., not Dick’s son but the son of Dick’s, and Lee’s, brother Thomas. The fact that Lloyd didn’t know shows how removed he had been from his extended family all his life. Teddy was most definitely still alive. He also went by “Tommy” and “Junior.” He now lived with his wife and two children in Lusby, Maryland. He was seven years younger than Lloyd. This meant, of course, that in March 1975, Teddy would have been eleven years old.

  This made Lloyd’s characterization of him—“He is a motherfucker”—ludicrous. How likely was it that a boy of eleven would kidnap two girls roughly his own age? How likely was it that Lloyd had seen him having sex with the girls or that he would subsequently have been so intimidated by him? Or that Lloyd was still afraid of him?

  It was comical.

  Two days after that session with Lloyd, Dave and Chris paid a surprise visit to Teddy. They found him at his workplace, a fuel equipment and service company in Laurel. A tall, tan, handsome man with an engaging manner, well spoken and forthcoming, he was the most polished Welch they had encountered. He was also completely candid about the intimate details of his life, surprisingly so. He told the detectives once that he had infected sores on his buttocks, pointing to the place with two fingers, after which they dubbed him “Teddy Two-Fingers.” As a child, he had known Lloyd only as a slightly scary older cousin who had been around from time to time. Lloyd had built a tree house that Teddy remembered; they had smoked dope in it once, something that would make a lasting impression on a boy. He said he had no personal memory associated with the Lyon sisters and had never heard them spoken of in his family, but he was aware of the case and how terrible it was and said he was willing to help in any way he could. In short, Teddy sparked no suspicion whatsoever. The detectives called Mark and Katie from the car on the drive back to Gaithersburg and told them that Teddy had nothing to do with the case. Lloyd had thrown them another curveball.

  Except … the more they learned about Teddy, the more they had to wonder. His story was remarkable. Like Lloyd, he had been abused as a child and had spent much of his life on the outs with his family, but his path had been very different. He was more than just a survivor, something Lloyd proudly called himself. The abuses in Lloyd’s past had shaped him into a sexual predator and landed him behind bars. In Teddy’s case, sexual molestation had led him into a long-term, peculiar, and materially advantageous relationship with his abuser. Lloyd’s math may have been off, but the decision to name this cousin, of all people, as the kidnapper showed cunning.

  You had to know Teddy’s story to understand this decision. As a boy, he had been, in essence, adopted by a wealthy, middle-aged pederast named Leonard Kraisel. Teddy had had an ugly early upbringing. His father was an abusive drunk. His mother left when he was still little. Teddy was beaten regularly by his father until, at age thirteen, he fought back. That episode sparked the intervention of county social workers, who placed him in a boys’ home. On a field trip with other children to a horse show at the Capital Centre, he noticed signs for Andrews Air Force Base, which are very visible along the northeastern portion of the Capital Beltway. He didn’t know exactly where his mother was living—she had remarried and started another family—but he’d heard it was in Clinton, Maryland, which he had been told was near the air base. So, once inside the center, he excused himself to go to the bathroom and exited the arena. He scaled a fence to reach the beltway and stuck out his thumb.

  He was picked up by a middle-aged man who treated him with exceptional kindness. Adults who took a caring interest were rare in Teddy Welch’s world. The man, Kraisel, helped him find his mother’s house, something Teddy could not have done easily on his own, and after dropping him off, gave him a business card and said, “In case you ever need anything or want to talk or to hang out.”

  Teddy’s attempt to blend in with his mother’s new family didn’t take. She didn’t return him to the boys’ home, but he soon felt like an intruder and a burden in the crowded household—his mother and stepfather had six children of their own. So Teddy dialed the number of the nice man who had picked him up on the beltway. They met a few times. The older man listened to him intently, advised him, took him to nice places, and bought him things. Kraisel’s home was enormous, a palace compared with any place Teddy had previously seen. He had a live-in maid. Together, Kraisel and Teddy talked openly about things the boy had never discussed before. When they were not together, they spoke on the phone. At first Kraisel made no sexual demands. He was affectionate, generous, and genuinely concerned. So when he suggested that Teddy move in with him, the boy agreed without hesitation. Technically, he was still a ward of the county, but Kraisel avoided any clash with social services by offering Teddy’s mother free remodeling for her home. “She sold me for carpet and tile, more or less,” was how Teddy later explained it to me.

  His life changed dramatically. Kraisel was an abused, abandoned boy’s dream of an adoptive father—except the deal had a price tag. Kraisel began asking Teddy to masturbate him. Teddy was less shocked than some boys might have been. He had demonstrated some sexual fluidity as a younger child, sometimes dressing as a girl, and he came from a family—the detectives would learn—where engaging in sex acts with children was common. As Teddy later explained—insisting he was not gay (then or now)—at age fifteen he regarded Kraisel’s requests as a reasonable bargain. The older man was caring, gentle, and indulgent with him. In most ways it was a situation any teenage boy would relish. Kraisel taught Teddy to drive as soon as he was old enough to get a learner’s permit and then gave him a Corvette. There were nice clothes, spending money, and travel, and Teddy no longer had to attend school. He saw the world—twenty different countries over the next five years. Kraisel introduced the boy to his family as his adoptive son—although Teddy insisted that Lenny, as he called him, tell the truth about their relationship when they stayed with Kraisel’s mother in Florida. She accepted him as her son’s younger lover. It was she who suggested that Lenny send the boy to modeling school, which launched a brief career of photo shoots and runway shows. Teddy had come a long way from Hyattsville.

  And the relationship endured. Teddy lived with Kraisel for ten years. As an older teenager he led a double life, keeping a girlfriend
on the side and enjoying the party scene in Florida. When Lenny discovered that Teddy was using cocaine, he checked him into a rehab center in Pennsylvania. During treatment there, Teddy explained to counselors the bargain he had struck with Lenny and his discomfort with it. He was encouraged to confront Lenny, which he did. Teddy said their sexual relationship ended at that point, but Lenny promised to continue treating him as his son, a promise he kept.

  The fuel company where the Lyon squad found Teddy in 2014 was owned primarily by Lenny—Teddy had a small share. His comfortable house was also Lenny’s. Teddy and his wife and twin sons enjoyed a lifestyle well beyond anything they could afford on their own, and “Uncle Lenny” was still very much a part of their lives. There was a big framed family photo atop their stairwell showing the attractive couple and their boys, with Lenny standing over them, his hands on the shoulders of husband and wife. From time to time Lenny stayed with them. This cozy arrangement continued until one of Teddy’s twin boys confessed to a school counselor that his uncle Lenny had been playing sexual games with him. Teddy said he was shocked and felt angry and betrayed. He cooperated with the police in building a criminal case against his old partner, who was eventually sentenced and imprisoned. Still, it was hard not to notice in Teddy and his wife’s relationship to Kraisel an echo of the deal Teddy’s mother had struck years earlier, trading him for home improvements.

  What all this meant was that Lloyd had chosen with great care whom to name next as the Lyon girls’ kidnapper. Locked in isolation, with little to do but stew over his predicament, he had come up with the most notoriously aberrant member of his family—which was saying something. He had talked to the detectives about “the older man” with whom Teddy had been living, certainly Leonard Kraisel. This unseemly pairing was well known to the Welch family. His relatives knew all about Teddy’s work as a teenage model, and his “adoption” by Kraisel. They called Teddy “gay,” disparagingly, as if it were a catchall term for sexual depravity. Lloyd had heard all the stories and had sized Kraisel up as a perfect new suspect for the Lyon squad. Teddy fit perfectly into the scenario they’d suggested about himself and Mileski, an older pederast seducing a boy and then using him to lure additional victims. And Teddy, handsome enough to find work as a model, was well suited for the role. Lloyd correctly surmised that Teddy and Uncle Lenny, with their creepy sexual arrangement, would be like red meat to these hungry detectives.