Left: Jarvis Butts (Michigan Sex Offender Registry). Right: Na’Ziyah Harris (Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office).
Michigan authorities on Thursday announced the arrest of a 41-year-old man who they say murdered a 13-year-old girl after learning he impregnated her with his child.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said her office charged Jarvis Butts with first-degree murder, criminal sexual conduct in the second degree and possession of child sexually abusive material in the disappearance and suspected death of Na’Ziyah Harris in Detroit. Na’Ziyah’s grandmother reported her missing on Jan. 9 after she never came home from school. She was last seen getting off the school bus not far from her home on the city’s eastside.
Detectives later learned she met up with Butts after school. Witnesses saw the pair together, Worthy said. Later that night, Butts checked into a local hotel room.
“Na’Ziyah was never seen or heard from again,” Worthy told reporters at a press conference. “Not from her family, not from her schoolmates, not from her friends, not from her social media where she was extremely active with her friends, not from her teachers, no one.”
Authorities in the ensuing months conducted a sprawling investigation into the girl’s disappearance by reviewing videos, interviewing witnesses and going through phone records. Although they have not found Na’Ziyah’s body, Worthy said they are confident she is dead. Her social media went dark, she never returned to school nor contacted any family or friends. She also missed what would have been her 14th birthday on Sept. 16.
