Local News

Knife Found Near Where Girl Was Slain

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Over the weekend, police were talking to a "person of interest" in the murder of 9-year old Mya Lyons. That person has been released, but Monday night there was a new lead in the case.

Mya was found dead in an alley by her father early Tuesday in the 8400 block of South Gilbert Court, in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.

CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports that on Monday, a knife was found dumped in the same alley where the little girl's body was found. Police said the knife would be submitted to a crime lab for examination, but would give no indication as to whether it represented a break in the case.

A Cleanslate worker found the knife late Monday morning while clearing trees and brush from a lot near the crime scene.

Audrey Geddis was overseeing the job when a worker spotted it. "One of my interns removed a tree limb and set it to the side and he went to put the rake into position to rake in that area and he saw a knife. And he said, 'Ms. Audrey, there's a knife here and it appears to have blood on it,' " she said.

Cleanslate's managing director John Rush said the group has been working as a city contractor, clearing the overgrown lots since the morning after Mya's body was found in the alley. She'd been stabbed, and sources told CBS 2 she was also sexually assaulted. Now the question is, could the knife found Monday be the murder weapon?

"It certainly wasn't just tossed. It was buried amongst the growth, but it wasn't rusted neither ... and it had blood stains on it. Add those things together and it looks like a piece of evidence. It very well may not be, but it is quite a coincidence," Rush said.

Why didn't someone find the weapon earlier, since it was so close to where Mya's body was found? That's one question Mya's family members have; they were afraid to get their hopes up.

Mya's cousin Karrisell Lyons said her family just wants Mya's killer caught, and they still wonder why the little girl left the house late at night on July 14.

"We can only speculate that someone made an arrangement to meet her; she snuck out or she was lured out and she came to the door and someone gave her some information that made her leave out that house. I know one thing, she would not leave out of that house by herself," Karrisell Lyons said.

The person of interest was not a family member of the girl, was in police custody Friday afternoon, and was described as a man in his 30s or 40s. He was arrested sometime between 8 and 10 p.m. Thursday after possibly telling his friends he had been in the alley where Mya was found.

He told investigators he collects scrap metal to sell. He allegedly admitted to police he was in the alley and said that if had stayed longer, he could have saved her, according to the source, who said the person of interest may be mentally unstable.

The wounds on Mya's body were all on her right side torso area, leading investigators to believe the crime was committed by a left-handed person, and the person of interest is left-handed, according to the source. The man had a cut on his right hand that dental forensics investigators believed may have been caused by a bite. 

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.

At some point Monday night, the family 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 showed she died of multiple injuries from an assault, according to the medical examiner's office, which ruled the death a homicide.

The STNG Wire contributed to this report.

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