Dad stabbed daughter 30 times in van, prosecutors allege

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Richard L. Lyons struck his 9-year-old daughter with a lockbox, stabbed her in his van 30 times — and then took her to the hospital in the same van and claimed “she may have been bitten by a dog,’’ prosecutors alleged.

Lyons, 42, a Northwestern Hospital radiology technician, was ordered held without bond at a hearing before Cook County Judge Israel Desierto Wednesday. Lyons, who was still wearing his blue hospital scrubs, was also ordered held in lieu of $250,000 bail for a separate assault of a 15-year-old boy that allegedly took place in Lyons’ home last June.

Lyons allegedly touched the boy who had his hair styled by Lyons’ wife and asked if he could “stay the night,” assistant state’s attorney John Dillon said.

Lyons had loudly proclaimed his innocence after he claimed he found his lifeless daughter in a dark and weedy alley in the 8400 block of Gilbert Court on the night of July 14, 2008.

But a pair of independent forensic investigators determined that a blood spatter analysis of Lyons’ clothing and the van showed that Mya was stabbed in the van and not the alley where Lyons said he found her, Dillon said.

Prosecutors offered no motive for the slaying.

State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said after the hearing that it took 2 1/2 years to make an arrest because prosecutors had to conduct an “intense, methodical and thorough” investigation.

“The age and the vulnerability of this victim makes this crime particularly heinous and the fact that the murder was carried out by the child’s own father is even more horrifying,” Alvarez said, flanked by members of Mya’s family, including mother Ericka Barnes.

Barnes said “it hurts terribly but the evidence spoke for itself. It’s hard to hear. . . I believe there is justice. And there was justice today in that courtroom.”

But in court, Lyons’ attorney, Alan Blumenthal, dismissed the conclusions reached by forensics investigators as “junk science.”

After the hearing, Blumenthal said the “case is based on pure speculation. . . . Blood spatter evidence is considered to be a soft science at best; at worst, it’s an art. It’s no science at all.” “We look forward to challenging the so-called scientific evidence in this case because as far as I can see now that’s the only evidence in this case.”

Prosecutors said Mya and her older brother had come home at 11 p.m. on July 14 after visiting a neighborhood friend. Minutes before, Lyons allegedly ordered the pair home. Lyons claimed the girl then went to her bedroom, but when he went to check on her she was missing, prosecutors said. However, no one from the family saw her leave the house, and Lyons’ neighbors reported seeing the two children come home and go to the backyard, Dillon said.

A few minutes later, neighbors told investigators, they saw Lyons in his van and driving through the alley behind his home and then to the front of his house. He was wearing a white t-shirt, prosecutors said. Later, Lyons, now wearing a blue t-shirt, got back into the van and drove back into the alley, neighbors told authorities. Minutes later he drove back to the front of his home, his uncle got in the van, and the two drove to Jackson Park Hospital, prosecutors said.

At some point while at the hospital, Lyons was overheard saying the girl “may have been bitten by a dog,’’ prosecutors said. The girl was dead on arrival, prosecutors said.

Mya had 30 stab and cut wounds to her stomach, neck and upper back, as well as multiple skull fractures and abrasions, prosecutors said. She was also asphyxiated. There was no evidence of a sexual assault, prosecutors said.

Alvarez said authorities believe Mya was struck in the head and body by the lockbox before she was moved to the van where she was stabbed. The lockbox, which was found attached to a post below Lyons’ rear porch, had patterns that mirrored the abrasions on Mya’s body, prosecutors said.

Lyons was interviewed by authorities, but went home that night. Although there was blood in the vehicle, it was released back to Lyons because it wasn’t considered part of the crime initially, prosecutors said. The van was later cleaned, prosecutors said, but some of her blood was found in it after it was searched by police later on July 15.

Investigators also noticed that the shoes on Mya’s body had no blood on them, and they believe they were put on her after she was killed, officials said in court.

Forensic experts examined pictures of Lyons taken after her death and said the blood patterns on his clothes were consistent with the victims’ blood having splattered on his clothing while he stabbed the victim in the van, prosecutors said. The clothing was never found, however.

Nor was a murder weapon recovered.

But prosecutors said although Lyons said he found the girl in the alley behind his home, authorities found no blood trail to or from that spot.