Mya Lyons' family still without resolution
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-crime-myasmom-columnnov14,0,972006.storyBy Angela Rozas Tribune reporter
November 14, 2008
Four months after 9-year-old Mya Lyons was stabbed to death, her mother, Ericka Barnes, cannot bring herself to visit her daughter's grave.
She has no answer when Mya's brother asks where his sister has gone or when she's coming home. She lets the 6-year-old boy sleep with the "Princess" pillow, the one with Mya's photograph on it. She winces when her son sees a toy in a store that he thinks Mya might like and pleads with her to buy it.
Mya would have turned 10 in two weeks. The girl who loved pink and wore it constantly wanted her own cell phone, and Barnes promised her one for her birthday. Barnes thinks about that promise, one she can never fulfill, and makes another one she knows she'll never break.
"I will never, ever give up on my daughter," Barnes said Thursday at her Addison home. "I didn't give up on her when she was with us, and I'm not going to give up on her now that she's gone."
To Barnes, not giving up means not letting her daughter's killer go free. It means knocking on doors in the South Side neighborhood where she was discovered stabbed and asking yet again, "Did anybody see anything?" It means asking people to donate to the reward fund established in her daughter's name, now up to $6,500, and praying for justice.
Mya was found stabbed to death July 14 in the 8400 block of South Gilbert Court near the home of her father, Richard Lyons. He told police he found her injured in an alley after she had gone to bed but was discovered missing.
No suspects have been named and nobody has been charged, but police say the case is a top priority and they are making progress.
When Mya died, Barnes was inundated with offers of help. But as time passed, people moved on, and Barnes was left with her family, her grief and her belief in God.
"I know that somebody, someone knows something," Barnes said. "Somebody who has kids, or little cousins, should just think and imagine if this could have been them."
Her sister nodded, and the room became quiet. Barnes' son was due home from school soon.
Anyone with information can call police at 312-747-8271. The reward fund has been set up at any TCF bank in Mya's name.
arozas@tribune.com
