The chill in the air was reminiscent of a cold winter blast, raindrops fell and the wind showed no mercy last Saturday. Neither did the mother of Mya Lyons. Ericka Barnes, with her family in tow, prayed in a circle then descended on the 8400 block of Sout
The chill in the air was reminiscent of a cold winter blast, raindrops fell and the wind showed no mercy last Saturday.
Neither did the mother of Mya Lyons.
Ericka Barnes, with her family in tow, prayed in a circle then descended on the 8400 block of South Gilbert Court where the 9-year-old girl was found in an alley in July.
It’s been nearly four months since the girl who was scared of alleys but loved everything the color pink, was found by her father, brutally stabbed near his Auburn-Gresham home on July 14, and no suspects have been named in the heinous crime.
“I’m not going to stop until I find out what happened to my baby. I will be out there every chance I get. Somebody did that to my baby, and somebody out there knows what happened. “Whoever did this, my baby knew who it was,” Barnes told the Defender in between visits with residents on the block.
Mya, who had been visiting her father, Richard Lyons, for the summer, was fatally stabbed in the neck and abdomen.
He found her lying in an alley about a half block from his home on Gilbert Court.
Within days of Mya’s death, Richard Lyons, 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, a spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department said.
Two days after the girl’s funeral, a knife was found near where she was found. A cleaning crew discovered a kitchen-style knife with a six-inch blade that appeared to have blood on it.
Later, police asked Richard Lyons to take a lie-detector test, seized the van he used to drive Mya to the emergency room and they searched his home. The search came up empty.
Lyons said it appeared the police pointed their investigation towards him based on “accusatory remarks” said to him during the search.
He hired an attorney shortly thereafter.
He was not named a “person of interest” or suspect in this case, police said.
Test results from the DNA samples, the knife found and the polygraph tests are pending, said Chicago police spokesperson Monique Bond.
Barnes knocked on every door on the block asking residents what they remembered about the hours leading up to when her daughter’s body was discovered in a dark alley among overgrown weeds.
Residents, including Mya’s friends on the block, welcomed her into their homes and went over each detail they could think of, including the last time they saw Mya that evening and the games the children played with the girl earlier that day.
All the information they told Barnes was also told to the police, they said.
Some of the things she heard also shocked her, Barnes said, including learning of a strained relationship between Mya and her stepmother, according to the girl’s friends.
“I can’t let this go and I want everyone to know, including the killer, that I’m out here. I’m going to find out what happened to her. This is just too much. Somebody did that to my baby, and they didn’t have to. I have to keep this out there and not let it go cold,” Barnes said.
Anyone with information about the murder is urged to call Area 2 detectives at 312-747-8272. A reward fund in Mya Lyons’ name at TCF Bank has also been set up. Anyone who wants to donate to the fund can go to any TCF Bank branch.
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