Nov 11, 2008 10:36 pm US/Central
Mya Lyons' Mother Opens Up About Daughter's Death
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Ericka Barnes, Mya Lyons' mother, is hitting the streets with a community activism group hanging posters and asking neighbors what they saw on the night her daughter was murdered.
CBS
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Mya Lyons, 9, was found stabbed to death in an alley in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood.
CBS
The mother of Mya Lyons is demanding answers about her daughter's murder - and the child's father who discovered her body in an alley. Nearly four months later, there are still no charges in the 9-year-old's murder. Today, Mya's mother hit the pavement looking for answers to a timeline that she says doesn't add up.
CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports that Mya Lyons' father found her body and took her to the hospital. But her mom wants to know what happened inside the dad's home that night and on many other nights when his daughter would come to visit with him during the summer.
"When he said they found your baby in an alley, in the alley murdered, I said no. I said no. It's got to be somebody different. It can't be my baby," said Mya's mother Ericka Barnes.
But it was her daughter. Mya Lyons was found stabbed to death in an alley near her father's house in the 8400 block of south Gilbert court on July 14th.
"It has been four months. There's no one. No one coming forward with what happened to my daughter. This is a child," Barnes said.
So she's hitting the streets with the community activism group United for a Cause - hanging posters and asking neighbors what they saw.
Since the beginning residents have said the 9-year-old had been at a neighbor's house with her brother, visiting a friend. And that neighbor watched them walk home.
"Apparently she was talking, you know, over one of her friends' house at 10-something at night. Mind you, my daughter's 9 years old. At my house, that's something I don't condone," Barnes said.
But now, Lyons' mom says another neighbor was sitting outside all night and watched the two kids go into the home about an hour later and never come back out.
The girl's mom questions whether something happened to her inside her father's house. But she says she's not accusing him.
"I tried to cooperate with my daughter's father, but they don't want to cooperate with me, so that's what made me want to get up and come out here myself as a mother," Barnes said.
But at the time, Mya's father Richard Lyons said he discovered his daughter wasn't in the house around midnight and later found her in the alley.
He made public pleas for information.
"Please help me find my baby's criminal," Richard Lyons said.
Today, no one answered at Richard Lyons' home as his daughter's mom, grandfather and aunt warned residents they believe the killer lives on this block.
"I don't believe that this happened outside. It was just someone who stumbled upon a neighborhood. No. They're living with a killer right here on this block," said Mya's aunt Airell Barnes.
At the time police said they believed Mya left the house on her own sometime before midnight. Ericka Barnes says she's not accusing anyone, but she doesn't believe that. She believes there will be an arrest soon. But police will only say it's an ongoing investigation.
The Lyons' family started a "Mya Lyons Reward Fund" where people can donate at any
TCF Bank. If you have any information on the Lyons case, please call (312) 747-8271.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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