Father to be arraigned in Addison girl's '08 murder

A preliminary court appearance is scheduled for a Chicago man charged with first-degree murder in the 2008 stabbing death of his 9-year-old daughter from Addison.

Richard Lyons,42, was charged Tuesday and was scheduled for arraignment Wednesday.

Lyons' attorney, Alan Blumenthal, says Lyons has repeatedly maintained his innocence since his daughter, Mya, was found dead in an alley near his South Side home on July 14, 2008.

Relatives say Mya lived most of the year with her mother in west suburban Addison, but she also spent time with her father and stepmother in Chicago.

Lyons, who is a radiology technician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, was also charged Tuesday with aggravated sexual abuse involving a 15-year-old boy from an unrelated incident in June of last year.

Police say Richard Lyons said he found Mya lying in the alley and put her into a van and drove her to the hospital. She had been stabbed several times and sexually assaulted.

A knife that appeared to be bloody was found in the alley two days after Mya's funeral.

Soon afterward, a search warrant was served at Richard Lyons' home, and his van was towed away by police. But he was never named as a suspect or charged with any crime until now.

Police say Lyons was arrested Monday while working at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

He was arrested on a “no-bond warrant” that identifies him as a suspect, even though he has not been charged. “If there are any charges, they have not yet been approved by the State's Attorney's felony review,” Richard Lyons' attorney, Alan Blumenthal, told WBBM Newsradio 780 on Monday night.

Richard Lyons said in 2009 that he hoped his daughter would never be forgotten. He also said he wanted police to look at all possible evidence, until the case is solved.

In an interview shortly after the murder, Richard Lyons became choked up with emotion as he spoke to CBS 2. “No matter how much you think you can protect them; that you can hold them; that you can keep them safe, it's just not true,” Richard Lyons said in 2008. “This is an evil world with evil people in it.”

Richard Lyons continued: “I believe it takes a village to raise a child. I follow that philosophy. And I also believe it takes a village to find a criminal, so please, help find my baby's criminal.”

Richard Lyons also led a march to find Mya's killer shortly after the murder.

Mya was an honor-roll student at G. Stanley Hall in Glendale Heights who had just finished third grade.

"She was a hardworking little girl who really wanted to learn and was proud of her accomplishments,” said Samia Hefferan, principal of the school at that time. “I learned about it while watching the news and at first I was hoping there were two Mya Lyons.”

In a 2009 interview, Mya's mother, Ericka Barnes, told CBS 2 she was afraid to find out whom the killer might be. “I'm scared of who it might be,” Barnes said. “I feel like the person who killed my child, she knew them. Either she knew something, they didn't want her to say anything. Something happened where they got scared and tried to cover it up by keeping my child silent permanently.”

In 2009, Richard Lyons filed a lawsuit against the Metra commuter rail line, claiming they had failed to maintain the area where Mya's body was found, the Chicago Defender reported. The end of the alley was overgrown with weeds, the Defender reported.

Richard Lyons filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Metra last year, alleging the commuter rail agency bore responsibility for failing to maintain its property near the home. Mya's body was found amid high weeds near the Metra property.