The father of Mya Lyons was arrested Monday afternoon in the fatal stabbing of the 9-year-old more than two years ago, relatives told the Defender.
The father of Mya Lyons was arrested Monday afternoon in the fatal stabbing of the 9-year-old more than two years ago, relatives told the Defender. Richard Lyons was taken into custody at 1 p.m. at Northwestern Memorial Hospital — where he worked — and is being held at Area 2 for questioning in the July 14, 2008 death of his daughter, according to his wife Latrice Lyons. No charges have been filed. His attorney, Alan Blumenthal, could not be reached for comment. “This is hard…this is hard. He had nothing to do with it. If he did have something to do with it, there’s no way I would cover for him. They (police) are trying to do everything to him. They have no evidence,” the tearful wife told the Defender late Monday on the porch of their South Gilbert Court home. Mrs. Lyons said she’s received profanity-laced phone calls since her husband’s arrest. Mya, who had been visiting her father for the summer, was stabbed in the neck and abdomen. Lyons, 42, found her lying in an alley about a half block from his home in the 8400 block of South Gilbert Court. He and a relative rushed her to Jackson Park Hospital in Lyons’ van. Within days of the girl’s death, the father, other relatives and a neighbor submitted DNA samples to law enforcement authorities. Nearly one week after her death, police questioned a “person of interest,” but later ruled the man out as a suspect, police said. Two days after the funeral, a knife was found near where Mya was found. A cleaning crew discovered a kitchen-style knife with a six-inch blade that appeared to have blood on it. Nearly a month after her death, Lyons took a lie-detector test, police seized the van he used to drive the girl to the emergency room and searched his home. The van is still in police custody, said the wife. Lyons hired an attorney shortly after the search, saying it appeared the police pointed their investigation toward him based on “accusatory remarks” said to him by police during the search. In July 2009, the father filed a lawsuit against Metra alleging the transit rail company failed to properly maintain the area where Mya’s body was found. The end of the poorly lit alley where she was found had overgrown weeds near the tracks and in a vacant lot. Since her death, the girl’s mother, Ericka Barnes, has held many vigils near where her daughter’s body was found and released pink and white balloons in her honor. Copyright 2011 Chicago Defender
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