Iris Tyson, a 23-year-old resident of South Philadelphia, was found dead on May 17, 2011, about a week after she was reported missing. Iris had left her home on May 8 to buy her mother a Mother’s Day card but never returned. Her disappearance caused immediate concern for her family, who reported her missing later that evening. Despite their efforts to involve law enforcement, they felt their concerns were initially dismissed since Iris was an adult, and the police did not prioritize her case.
This led her family and friends to launch their own search, distributing missing person posters and canvassing their neighborhood in the hope of finding her.
A week later, her body was discovered in an overgrown lot in the Point Breeze area of Philadelphia. She had died from blunt force trauma to the head, but there were no signs of robbery or sexual assault. The discovery devastated her family, who identified her by her distinctive butterfly tattoo. It was clear to those who knew her that Iris would never have willingly gone to that neighborhood, leading to suspicions that she may have been abducted. Investigators were uncertain whether Iris had been killed at the site where she was found or if her body had been dumped there later.
The investigation into Iris Tyson’s death struggled to gain traction. Her family described her as a homebody with a close bond to her parents. She had dreams of returning to school to study veterinary science, driven by her love for animals. Despite these dreams and her promising future, the case quickly went cold, and no suspects or motives were identified. In the months following her death, Iris's family offered a reward for any information that could lead to an arrest, but no significant leads emerged. More than ten years later, her family still seeks justice for Iris, hoping that someone with information will eventually come forward.
