Earlier this month, a Michigan man admitted to killing a pregnant 13-year-old girl who vanished in 2024 and was never found.
Last Thursday, Jarvis Butts agreed to plead guilty to Na’Ziyah Harris’ second-degree murder and to five separate sexual assault cases. Additional sexual misconduct charges were dropped as part of the plea deal, according to WDIV.
Harris was last seen at a Detroit bus stop in January 2024. Investigators believe Butts started grooming Harris in in June 2022 — and murdered her after learning he impregnated her in September 2023. They suspect Harris killed the teen to prevent her from having his baby while he was incarcerated on an unrelated gun charge.
Prosecutors claimed they uncovered text messages in which Harris expressed concern about her pregnancy being discovered.
“I don’t what your problem but I need you to bring me what I need tonight it’s hard doing all this gym s**t with this baby and if I don’t do em I’m gonna get a F,” Harris reportedly wrote to Butts in November 2024.
Before Harris’ presumed slaying, Butts allegedly searched online about abortions, abortion pills, and drinking anti-freeze. Text messages suggested Butts told Harris he would pick her up from school on January 9, 2024, the last day she was seen alive.
Butts was traced to the Rouge River in Detroit a day after Harris’ disappearance. A single shoe belonging to Harris was found at the river.
Detroit Police Department Sgt. Melanie O’Rourke said Harris’ school identification card was found in the area where Butts’ phone was traced between January 10 and 11, 2024. Harris’ clothes were also discovered in the vicinity — with U.S. Border Patrol agent Wyatt Barnes alleging that a black hoodie had both Harris and Butts’ blood on it.
Butts — a registered sex offender — was named in at least five reports made to Child Protective Services since 2015. A report from 2022 accused Butts of inappropriately touching Harris. None of the reports made to CPS about molestation and sexual abuse were substantiated.
In addition to the sexual abuse allegations involving Harris, prosecutors said he assaulted an 8-year-old family member and gave chlamydia to his girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter.
WDIV reported that Harris’ body has not been found despite Butts confessing to dumping her body in the Rogue River. Butts’ sentencing is scheduled for March 12.
Anyone with information regarding Harris’ whereabouts is asked to call Detroit police at 313-596-1800.
Harris’ case is being covered as part of CrimeOnline’s “Finding the Lost: Black and Missing” series, which will feature a missing Black person every day in February. The full series can be read here.