Lorenzo Jerome Gilyard Jr. was born on May 24, 1950, in Kansas City, Missouri. He was the second of five children born to Lorenzo Gilyard Sr. and Laura Gilyard (née Brown). From a young age, Lorenzo showed aggressive behavior. He was larger than many of his classmates, which led him to bully smaller children. This behavior earned him a reputation as a bully in school.

Lorenzo struggled in school. He had poor discipline and often missed classes. Because of this, he dropped out after the 10th grade. In the mid-1960s, Lorenzo met Rena Hill. They quickly began a relationship. On November 20, 1968, they got married because Rena was pregnant.

In January 1983, Lorenzo Gilyard was paroled after serving time for a previous conviction. He was arrested again for making bomb threats and returned to prison. In January 1986, he got a job as a garbage man. On December 23, 1987, police interrogated him in connection with the murder of Sheila Ingold but released him due to lack of evidence.

In 2001, the Kansas City Police Department received a federal grant to re-examine cold cases using new DNA technology. They tested Gilyard's blood sample from 1987 and linked him to the murders of six women. Gilyard was arrested on April 16, 2004, and charged with 12 counts of first-degree murder. The victims were women and girls who disappeared between 1977 and 1993, most of whom were known prostitutes.

Gilyard's trial began on March 5, 2007, without a jury. The prosecution presented DNA evidence indicating Gilyard had sexual encounters with the victims around the time they died. He was found guilty of six counts of murder. The judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole on March 16, 2007. Gilyard was initially held at the Western Missouri Correctional Center before being moved to the Crossroads Correctional Center in July 2019.

In June 2006, he was charged with an additional murder after DNA testing linked him to the killing of Helga Kruger. Gilyard is also a suspect in other unsolved cases, including the murder of Paula Davis, found later in Ohio. In 2018, he was interviewed by journalist Piers Morgan, where he continued to deny any involvement in the murders.