Mya Lyons was found dead by her father on the South Side. She was slashed in the neck and the abdomen and had been sexually assaulted.

The detective said it was a heinous crime. He said a lot of evidence was left behind,” Karen Brown, Mya's great-aunt, said.

Mya lived with her mother Erica Barnes in Addison, but for the last three years had been spending part of the summer with her father Richard Lyons in the 8400 block of South Gilbert Court. The mother had come by to pick Mya up Monday but she asked to stay with her father longer, Brown said.


The girl went to a party on the block later that night with her older stepbrother and relatives at some point realized she was missing.

“Everybody was like, where is she,” her father said. “We went looking for her and I found her in the alley. They dumped her in the alley’’ at the end of the block near his home,  Lyons, breaking down, said.

Lyons rushed his daughter to Jackson Park Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:10 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

An autopsy Tuesday afternoon showed she died of multiple injuries from an assault, according to the medical examiner's office, which ruled the death a homicide.

“We went to the hospital and they wouldn’t let us see her,” Brown said. “It was terrible. . . We prayed, we prayed. It was unbelieveable. The mother is taking it hard, very hard. She had gone to pick her up yesterday 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.”

Police are saying little about the investigation, but the father said he was brought to the police station for questioning. “It was very difficult as I spent the night at the police station,’’ Lyons said, sobbing. “They treated me nicely but it was too long to be there.

“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.

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The last time Mya Lyons' family saw her alive, she was dressed head to toe in pink. Pink shoes, pink pants, pink T-shirt.

It was her favorite color—one that also is featured prominently in her bedroom filled with Dora the Explorer dolls, Barbies and an extensive Bratz collection.

The 9-year-old had gone to bed about 11 p.m. Monday after telling her grandmother she was tired and wanted to sleep. About 10 minutes later, the family heard a door shut. The noise drew the girl's father downstairs to investigate, relatives said.

After quickly discovering Mya wasn't in the house, relatives went outside to search for her. About 15 minutes later, Richard Lyons Sr. found his daughter wounded in a secluded alley near their home. His anguished screams awoke the quiet South Side street where the family has lived for more than two decades.


A father's plea Video "No! No! No!" neighbors heard Richard Lyons bellow. "Not my baby! Not my baby!"

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