Volunteer: I Got Fired for Searching for Christopher

By Lindy Thackston, First Coast News

BRUNSWICK, GA -- Sam Lyons remembers the Thursday he heard a six-year-old boy was missing. It was on his way to work at MK Industries in Brunswick.

"At about lunchtime, it was really pulling at me to do something, so I went to the vice-president of the company and explained it to her, and she gave me her blessings to come out," said Lyons.

Lyons says he searched Friday and Saturday with the Glynn County Sheriff's Office. When the Sheriff's Office called of its search Saturday, Lyons, who has prior training in search and rescue efforts, kept going. He led a massive group of volunteer searchers after the Barrios family asked them to keep searching. Sue Rodriguez, Christopher's grandmother, says Lyons is an angel to the Barrios family.

"He was out there everyday from daylight to dark looking for our baby," said Rodriguez.

Lyons says he searched a few more days, then says he went back to work for two days.

"At that time I was approached by the company president who told me he thought was I was doing was a very honorable thing, but that I needed to get my head back in the game and get back to work," said Lyons.

Christopher's body was found that same night. It was a sleepless night for many people in Glynn County.

"I got up the next morning and had a stomach virus and I have Crohn's Disease and anything can touch that off in the stomach," said Lyons. "I was very sick off and on for several days, but I would still try to come back here and search. It would have been in vain to sit at a desk for eight hours a day."

Lyons says he missed work until the following Friday. He says that's when he was fired by the company president.

"He said that the week prior, mostly the week of the search, that I was off doing my charity work and he couldn't afford me out doing charity work any longer," said Lyons.

Repeated phone calls to MK Industries were not returned Tuesday.

"That's a good man they just let go of," said Sue Rodriguez."

"When I lay my head down on my pillow at night, I know I've done the right things and I kept my promise to the Barrios family that we didn't stop until we brought Christopher home," said Lyons.

Lyons says he now plans to look for a new job,and continue working on the Justice for Christopher Foundation, designed to change laws in the state of Georgia.