On July 31, 1978, 24-year-old Marine Sergeant John F. Lyons, his wife Donnelda, and their 22-month-old son Christopher were driving from Yuma, Arizona, to Omaha, Nebraska, with a 15-year-old niece, Teresa Tyson. The family stopped near Quartzsite to help what appeared to be a stranded motorist and were taken at gunpoint by fugitives who had escaped from the Arizona State Prison in Florence a day earlier.

The fugitives — led by Gary Tison and including his sons Donald, Ricky, and Raymond, plus inmate Randy Greenawalt — forced the Lyons family and Teresa into their vehicle and drove them into the desert. John, Donnelda, and Christopher were shot and killed; their bodies were found on August 6, 1978, near an abandoned Lincoln Continental. Teresa Tyson was also shot; her body was found five days later about a fifth of a mile away.

The murders triggered an intensified manhunt for the escapees, who continued a crime spree before being located. If anyone has information about the Lyons family, their trip, or witnesses to the events around Quartzsite that summer, please share what is known.