Inset left: Lara Lyons (DeSoto Parish Schools). Inset right: Connor Lyons (Caddo Parish District Attorney”s Office). Background: A home on the 6000 block of Double A Drive in Shreveport, Louisiana (KSLA/YouTube).
A Louisiana man has been indicted for allegedly stabbing his mother – a beloved local teacher – several times as she slept.
Connor Lyons, 19, was indicted by a Caddo Parish grand jury on Wednesday with second-degree murder in connection with the death of Lara Lyons, 55. He was also indicted for the alleged battery of a police officer and resisting an officer, the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Office announced.
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Law enforcement’s involvement in the case can be tracked to a startling phone call in May. According to Shreveport CBS affiliate KSLA, it was a sibling of Connor Lyons that called 911 to report a crime.
“My brother killed my mother,” the caller reportedly stated on May 23. When Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at the family’s home on the 6000 block of Double A Drive in Shreveport, Louisiana, they found Connor Lyons on the back steps of the home.
Inside the house, deputies found Lara Lyons lying in her bed — dead.
Connor Lyons was arrested and placed in the Caddo Correctional Center, the sheriff’s office said at the time. He reportedly later confessed to stabbing his mother three times in the side of her neck as she slept, apparently telling investigators that he had been hearing voices.
Connor Lyons has been at the Caddo Correctional Center since May 23, and he remains there on a $2 million bond.
Lara Lyons was described days after her death as a “beloved” Mansfield High School teacher in the DeSoto Parish public school district.
“Ms. Lyons was a dedicated educator, a compassionate colleague, and a cherished member of the DeSoto Parish Schools family,” the district said in a statement. “Her commitment to her students and passion for teaching touched countless lives, and her absence will be deeply felt across our school community.”
Shreveport is located in northwestern Louisiana, about 200 miles east of Dallas, Texas.
