The fiancée of a Florida TV reporter who was fatally shot while covering a story has given birth to their child three years after his death.
Casey Lyons, 29, welcomed a baby boy into the world on March 19 after collecting sperm from her deceased partner, Dylan Lyons, and undergoing In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatments.
Dylan, a journalist for Spectrum News, was covering a story on the murder of Nathacha Augustin, 38, in Pine Hills on February 22, 2023, when a gunman came back to the scene and fatally shot him.
The alleged shooter, Melvin Moses, then 19, also shot Spectrum News photographer Jesse Walden before barging into a nearby home and shooting Brandi Major and her nine-year-old daughter, T’Yonna Major.
T’Yonna and Dylan died from their injuries. Walden and Brandi were both left in critical condition but survived. Moses was arrested and charged in connection with the killing spree.
At the time of his death, Dylan, 24, and Casey, who changed her last name to his in 2023, were engaged to be married after the pair met while working together at WCJB, an ABC affiliate located in Gainesville, in 2020.
They always dreamt of getting married and having children one day, so Casey used posthumous sperm retrieval (PSR), or the collection of Dylan’s sperm after his death, and had it transferred to an in vitro fertilization clinic.
She went on to find a surrogate match within three months, but endured five egg retrievals to create viable embryos, and two failed transfers before learning that the surrogate was pregnant with their child, also named Dylan, on July 18, 2025, she said.
Casey Lyons, the fiancée of Spectrum News reporter Dylan Lyons, welcomed their baby boy to the world on March 19, she has revealed
Dylan (pictured with Casey) was fatally shot on February 22, 2023, while covering a story on a murder in Pine Hills, Florida
‘When I found out the man I was so deeply in love with and was building a life with was murdered, [it] was something I’ll never forget,’ Casey told People.
She recalled the final moment she had with Dylan, adding: ‘Sometimes I still have PTSD flashbacks to that moment and how I couldn’t even stand. An hour prior we were talking on the phone — and suddenly he was gone. It was the worst moment of my life.’
The alleged shooter, Melvin Moses, then 19, also shot three others, including a nine-year-old girl
Casey said that she and Dylan often spoke about having a family of their own one day, but they wanted to wait until her conversion to Judaism was finalized before doing so because it was important to him to have their kids be raised Jewish.
The new mother, who posts frequently about her IVF journey on social media, explained the ‘stressful’ and ‘lengthy’ process that led to her meeting their baby boy.
‘To retrieve viable sperm after death it has to be collected within 24-36 hours.
‘We had to wait until Dylan’s body was released because of the investigation. That took about 24 hours, then we had to find a urologist who would perform the procedure,’ she explained.
After retrieving her deceased partner’s sperm, Casey then had to find a way to create a child using her and Dylan’s genetics.
‘There were days I would cry because I wasn’t sure if I would ever become a mom,’ she recalled.
Casey used posthumous sperm retrieval (PSR), or the collection of Dylan’s sperm after his death, and had it transferred to an in vitro fertilization clinic to have their baby
But now, three years after the hardest day of her life, Casey is the mother of her and Dylan’s one-month-old son.
She now lives with Dylan’s parents, Beth and Gary Lyons, both of whom she refers to as her ‘biggest support.’
‘They always helped me the best they could in my dark days even though they were grieving the loss of a child,’ she said before mentioning a heartbreaking promise Dylan’s father made to his son before he passed.
‘Dylan’s dad made a promise to Dylan that I was totally unaware of, that he would always take care of me if anything ever happened in life. We definitely leaned on each other in our grief,’ Casey stated.
She now lives with Dylan’s parents, Beth (right) and Gary Lyons, both of whom she refers to as her ‘biggest support’
Dylan was reporting on the death of Nathacha Augustin (left), 38, when he and T’Yonna Major (right), nine, were shot and killed
Through the support she’s received from her loved ones and her grief counselor, Casey said she decided not to give up after losing the love of her life.
‘I decided to live because Dylan can’t anymore, so I want to live for him,’ she said.
She also plans on telling their son about him one day, but is focused on her family’s future right now.
Casey continued: ‘This is what we always wanted together.
‘However, Dylan is very much alive in my heart and now in our son’s heart as well. He will always be with us.’