UMATILLA — Michael Wayne Lyon would meet young girls on social media, start chats with his signature greeting, “hi babygirl” and claim he was 15 years old.
That’s how the Florida man began his months long online grooming of a 13-year-old girl in Umatilla before he ultimately flew to Hermiston in 2018, picked her up from her house in the middle of the night, drove her to a hotel, sexually assaulted her and secretly filmed the abuse.
The Comfort Inn & Suites near Hermiston was the hotel where a Florida man sexually assaulted a 13-year-old Umatilla girl in 2018, but Umatilla police didn’t go to the location to investigate, according to court testimony and records.
Some of the ongoing, online threats Michael Wayne Lyon made to the 13-year-old Umatilla girl after the sexual assault had occurred. He demanded she delete their chat messages and if she didn’t, he threatened to harm her and her family.
Had Umatilla police gone to the Comfort Inn & Suites after the reported sexual assault in 2018, they could have obtained the name of the man who rented the room where the assault of a 13-year-old girl had occurred. FBI agents two years later obtained the hotel registration invoice.
A photo of Michael Wayne Lyon when he was younger in the U.S. Navy. A federal jury in August 2022 in Portland found the Florida man guilty of the sexual exploitation of a 13-year-old Umatilla girl. He now is serving 25 years in prison for his crimes, which the FBI investigated after Umatilla police did little.
Original Article: Source