Mother of teen girl killed in 2022 testifies in accused murderer's trial

Elizabeth Canada

E L I Z A B E T H C

A N N A D A

And how do you know Lyric Woods He's not daughter

We'll take this as slow as you need to take

it OK Can you tell the jury about the last

time you saw Lyric Yes um it was Friday the

16th

Um I had come home late because my mother-in-law had

fallen so I took her to the ER

My parents picked up both Lyric and Januvia and took

them to have ice cream and then went to my

house and it was about 11 o'clock

Me and my husband were sitting on the couch

She came behind us gave us both a hug and

told her she loved us and that she was going

to take a shower

And I told her don't take an hour and a

half because she always took really long showers

And that was the last time I saw her

And um about what time did you all go to

bed that night Maybe around midnight

And can you uh describe for the jury what happened

the following morning on Saturday Um both girls loved to

decorate all the holidays

It didn't look right and didn't look good but it

was the way they wanted it

And so I always tried to let Lyrics sleep in

because she never liked to get up like most teenagers

and so I let her sleep in till 10 and

then I know her weakness was her sissy so I

had Janovia go in there to wake her up and

try to do it in a sweet way

And she came back out crying and said that Sissy

wasn't there and it just didn't make sense so I

went in there I said she's probably hiding from you

Again that didn't make sense to me either because I

knew she'd be asleep um

And Reald she wasn't there

And my husband was outside um doing yard work and

I asked him was Lyric outside because she wasn't inside

and he said no

So I text my parents and made sure that for

some reason they wouldn't have gotten her in the middle

of the night which they never have but I had

no idea

And then I immediately called Brady to see did he

for some reason come pick Lyric up in the middle

of the night

And who's Brady Um Lyric's dad

Um and he said no

So while I was on the phone with him I

told my husband to call 911 right now

It's not like her to worry me

That was the last thing you wanna do

And I had never known her to sneak out in

the past so

And um what's your husband's name Shane

And once Shane called 911 what happened Um they took

somebody came out they took the report and

I can't remember if it was that day or the

next um but they had

The dogs came out in a drone to see if

they could see anything or if they could get her

scent but it just wasn't like her to worry us

Um did you notice anything uh missing Anything she would

have taken with her No we thought she had her

iPad

We kept her cell phone at night

Um but I let her keep her iPad

And we couldn't find it for a day or two

We ended up finding it but we thought maybe she

had that to communicate on

Anything else that you noticed was missing No just her

And um

What if any steps did um you all take to

try to find her Um her dad Brady and her

stepmom Jenny they were it was tons of family and

friends just like driving around

We put out a reward um

Anything and everything we could do

I thought she would sneak back in so I stayed

up all night

It's Saturday night

But she was supposed to sign for a volleyball team

that Sunday and I knew when if she wasn't there

then that something was wrong

By Sunday I thought somebody just had her

You know she trusted the wrong person and they just

had her

Um

Never would I have thought this ever

Um so you had at your home her phone and

her iPad

And um

What if anything did you see in her phone or

iPad Um you know kids live on social media and

I did not I texted all of her friends from

her phone

I called as anybody that I knew that was in

her phone that was in a contact we were just

calling

Um we had a friend come over because I don't

have at the time didn't have any social media so

I didn't know how it worked

Um apparently kids don't text anymore they do everything through

social media

And I asked a friend if because he knew how

to use Snapchat

I knew that she used that a lot

Could he look And that's where we discovered the screenshot

of her location that she had sent I think at

like 1:47 a.m. And could you tell who she had

sent that to It was 2 x 2 I think

or something along those lines

We didn't know who it was because it doesn't say

who it is but we gave that information to law

enforcement

OK

Um And then can you walk us through what happened

on Sunday afternoon Yeah

Sorry

Um on Sunday

Um my husband is a fire chief and he's a

volunteer fireman for Effland

Um I'm used to the pager going off all the

time

A call came out for a cardiac arrest and I

didn't think anything of it

My mind was elsewhere

Um And I saw my dad kind of bend over

Like he was trying to catch his breath and there

was a lot of people at our house um

And it just looked like something was wrong and I

was like what is it Um And he couldn't talk

And he was like there's 2 bodies

Well I didn't it still didn't register to me um

So they took off him and my brother took off

to where the call was

Um the I'm on the board of the fire department

so I called the fire chief

I knew he was on scene and I was like

hey people are starting to freak out here

They're saying there's two bodies you know what do you

think Um and he just said they won't let us

anywhere near him

Um And I said OK well call me back like

tell them you knew Lyric people are freaking out

I was getting mad that people were thinking that

Um so I just kind of walked away and went

and sat on my neighbor's porch by myself

Um And so then I called the fire chief back

again probably 2 more times and just like can you

please just go look And he said Jamie will be

here in a minute

He just pulled up actually

He's gonna go check

I'll call you right back

Who's Jamie Uh Sykes

Um I think he's a deputy chief or was retired

now but Um well his daughter um and Lyric played

volleyball together so he knew she had spent the night

at his house in the past

They were friends

Um and I sat on their porch and then I

3 minutes later maybe they pulled in the driveway

Chief Sykes and

The fire chief of Evelyn pull in together in Jamie's

um Tahoe and I just took off running

And his window was down And I just ran up

to him and I said it's not her right Cause

it's still I was keeping it together

Nobody else was but I just

So far fetched

That somebody would want to hurt her

And he just got out of the car

He didn't say anything

He just hugged me

I was like I'm so sorry

And then collapsed

And probably screamed and scream

I never want to hear again

And then I just walked away and I tried

I just needed nobody around

I could explain it

And I just want to know what happened

And he wouldn't tell me for a little bit

Um and then they came back later on they brought

us in the house and told us that they were

shocked

And then we went from there

Planning a funeral And her dad was already there and

his wife because at that time when that call came

out

I told him even though I didn't think anything was

to it I just he they wanted to get here

So they came to my house and they were there

Um tons of people were there

And then the rest is just kind of a blur

Um After Lyric said goodnight to you all on Friday

night anybody in your family see or hear from her

No Um and without her phone would she have had

any other way to contact you all No

Um did you provide her electronic devices to law enforcement

I did

They have her iPad cell phone and um her school

laptop

Had she um ever mentioned Devin Clark to you Never

And I asked all of her friends after everything happened

if anybody knew him

Nobody had ever heard the name

Back it up just a moment Your Honor

Yes ma'am

Thank you Ms

Canada

That's all the questions I have for this one

Cross-examination

No questions from the defense

Thank you

Thank you