| Birth: | unknown | | Death: | Jul. 14, 2008
Chicago
Cook County
Illinois, USA | 
Post-Tribune Newspaper
July 15, 2008
BY ROSE SOBOL Staff Reporter
Girl, 9, murdered, sexually assaulted on S. Side
Victim's father: 'I loved my baby'
It was supposed to be a kid's dream summer — the reward for a 9-year-old girl who'd done so well in third grade.
Instead, Mya Lyons' mother could barely talk as she struggled to cope with a gruesome reality : Her daughter had been stabbed to death and dumped in a South Side alley late Monday.
"I just want you to find whoever did this!" screamed the girl's mother, Ericka Barnes, during an interview at a relative's home on the West Side this morning. "My baby didn't deserve this. They killed my baby!"
Moments later, Barnes collapsed into the arms of her sister.
Police were saying little about the investigation today. Relatives of the little girl said police have told them Mya was stabbed in the neck and abdomen.
A 13-year-old boy whose younger sister frequently played with Mya in the South Side neighborhood told the Chicago Sun-Times that police had taken a sample of his DNA this morning.
"I didn't mind," the boy said. "I didn't have anything to hide. I want them to find who did it."
The boy said the police came to his home about 9:30 a.m. today.
Police had no information about a possible suspect and would confirm only that Mya had been stabbed.
"We are going to to look at every single angle," Chief of Detectives Tom Byrne told reporters this morning. "We are not restricting our investigation at all. At this point, the family is cooperating."
Police said a sex offender living in the neighborhood is part of the investigation.
Mya's father discovered the girl's body about 11:30 p.m. Monday in an alley near his home in the 8400 block of South Gilbert Court, police said. Mya lived with her mother in Addison, but was spending part of the summer with her dad, relatives said. Tuesday night, Mya had been playing with friends near her father's home, and at some point relatives realized she was missing.
"Everyone was like, where is she?" said her father, Richard Lyons. "We went looking for her and I found her in the alley. They dumped her in the alley."
One of Lyons' neighbors, Crystal Ross, said she saw the distraught father moments after he'd discoverd Mya's body.
"We heard him screaming and hollering," Ross recalled. "He said there was something wrong with Mya and he was going to take her to the hospital."
Lyons rushed Mya to Jackson Park Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:10 a.m. today.
"The detective said it was a heinous crime. He said a lot of evidence was left behind," said Karen Brown, a great-aunt of Mya Lyons. "We went to the hospital and they wouldn't let us see her. It was terrible. . . We prayed, we prayed. It was unbelieveable. The mother is taking it hard, very hard. She had gone to pick up (Mya Monday) but she wanted to stay, so she let her stay. At the hospital she was saying, ‘I should have picked her up. I should have picked her up.'"
Mya's father said he spent much of the night at the police station.
"They treated me nicely but it was too long to be there," said Lyons, sobbing.
About 8:30 a.m. this morning, Lyons was back home and told the Sun-Times: "I want the world to know: Love your kids while you have them because you don't know how long you're going to have them. I loved my baby.
"I have my memories of my vacations with her, I have the memorial of the trips I took her on. They can never take that away from me,'' he said, adding they had just taken a "huge road trip.''
"We got in the car and we drove to Atlanta, we drove to New Jersey and we drove to Florida and we drove to Pennsylvania, all in one trip. It was so much fun. I asked her what part of the trip she liked most and I just knew it would be Disney World. She didn't. She said, ‘I had so much fun everywhere I went and everywhere we stopped.' She couldn't even make up her own mind which one she liked the best. I just knew it was going to be Disney World, but it wasn't. It was everything. That made me feel so good."
He said he took the trip with his wife and Mya's older brother and younger sister.
Mya was also getting ready for her birthday, Lyons said. "It's in November. She was going to be 10. She was going into her double digits,'' Lyons said. "She was so fun-loving, but she was apprehensive and very intelligent."
Mya's aunt, Nicole Barnes, 27, said Mya was an honor student at G. Stanley Hall Elementary School in Glendale Heights. Mya's relatives said the girl was looking forward to a trip to Great America, as a reward for her good grades in school.
"She loved to play," Barnes said. " She played ropes, she loved dolls, especially Barbie dolls. And she loved riding her bike. She would sing to every song on the radio. She loved to sing.
"She loved to tell jokes."
Nicole Barnes said Mya was a favorite of her teachers. "She loved math, she loved reading."
Contributing: Sun-Times staff reporter Erica Green
| | | Burial:
Unknown |
Created by: Sis
Record added: Jul 15, 2008
Find A Grave Memorial# 28294646 |
|
|
|
|
