Knife Found Near Location Of Mya Lyons' Body

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jul 22, 2008 2:45PM

Investigators caught a potential break in the Mya Lyons case Monday when an intern for Cleanslate, a nonprofit cleanup company, found what appeared to be a "kitchen-type knife" approximately 100 feet from the alley where the body of the 9 year-old was found last week. According to John Rush, managing director of Cleanslate, "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."

The company had previously been told by police to be aware of potential evidence in the area and to not handle anything that may be of interest to the case. Other knives had been found in the area in the days since Lyons was stabbed to death, but none had captured police interests like this one, which was packaged and taken for testing by Chicago Police forensic experts. When told about the knife, Richard Lyons, Mya's father, said, "We're trying to be as hopeful as we can be, and hope this will be the turning point in the investigation we all are looking for. But we don't want to get too excited, only to be let down again." [Trib, S-T, CBS2]