Detective Christopher Lyons is currently a member of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Homicide Unit. He began his career at the Clearwater Police Department where he served as a Patrol Officer, Field Training Officer, Robbery Unit Detective and then Homicide Unit Detective. He was part of a team of investigators that conducted a reexamination of cold cases at the Clearwater Police Department. Their efforts produced the closure of seven cold cases in a four year period. He retired in 2016 from the Clearwater Police Department and began a second career at the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. He was selected as a detective, for the second time, in 2017 when the agency created a full time unit to investigate cold case offenses. The creation of the unit has already resulted in the closure of an armed sexual battery/kidnapping offense that occurred in 1987 that had remained unsolved for nearly 31 years. In 2021 Detective Lyons decided to reassign to the Homicide Unit and pursues his passion for hot cases.
After the Florida Governor made Sheriff Gualtieri the commission head of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting (Parkland, FL) Investigation, Chris was hand-selected by Sheriff Gualtieri to be on his team of investigators. Chris has served on the commission and testified numerous times. His investigation into the shooter’s life history from birth to the day of the tragic event has culminated into hundreds of documents to include mental health records, school discipline, and law enforcement reports.