Na'Ziyah Harris' family on charges against Jarvis Butts: 'We suspected him from the beginning'
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Na'Ziyah Harris' cousin, Roxy, said she was not shocked to hear that 41-year-old Jarvis Butts was charged with sexually assaulting and murdering the 13-year-old.
"We suspected him from the beginning considering his background, and things like that, that we've heard about him," Roxy said.
Butts, 41, of Highland Park, is facing charges of first-degree premeditated murder, second-degree criminal sexual conduct, and child sexually abusive material for the murder of Harris, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced on Thursday.
"The evidence shows overwhelmingly in this case that she is in fact deceased," Worthy said.
Harris has been missing since Jan. 9, 2024. She was last seen getting off a school bus at Cornwall and 3 Mile in Detroit that day, but never went home.
The teen was familiar with Butts, as he has children with her biological aunt, according to the prosecutor's office.
Text messages showed investigators that Harris met up with Butts on the day she disappeared, Worthy said. Evidence also shows that Butts allegedly groomed her starting in 2022.
Harris was pregnant when she was killed, and Butts was allegedly the unborn child's father, according to the prosecutor's office. Butts searched for abortions, abortion pills, and drinking red anti-freeze before the 13-year-old's death.
Na'Ziyah Harris on the day she disappeared, Jan. 9, 2024. This is the last photo the 13-year-old took of herself on a school-issued tablet.
"You look at that face, and you do not see the horrors that she had gone through in her short life – the exploitation, the molestations, the sexual abuse, and the pregnancy that she was concealing," Worthy said. "There’s no evidence of anyone else being the father of that child other than the defendant himself, who we charged today. He knew she was pregnant. We know that he was also searching for ways to abort the baby."
Butts is being charged with homicide despite the fact that the teen's body was never found.
Investigators did find the clothing that Harris was last seen wearing in an area Butts visited near the Rouge River around 7 Mile and Berg, the prosecutor added. A piece of the clothing was damaged, indicating there may have been a struggle.
Jarvis Butts (MDOC)
For a rough timeline of the day Harris disappeared, check out previous coverage on FOX 2, here.
Harris’ father, Murvin Jennings, passed away over the summer, months after his daughter went missing.
His friend, Detroit Police Commissioner for District 1 Tamara Liberty Smith, said Jennings spent months searching for his daughter in fields and abandoned homes while sick.
"(He) literally died of a broken heart," Smith told FOX 2. "Unfortunately, he had congestive heart failure, was already sick, and got sicker going out looking for her."
In addition to announcing charges in the Harris case, Worthy has also charged Butts with sexually abusing two other children who were under 13 at the time. Worthy said one of the victims, who is now 20, was allegedly abused between April 2012 and April 14, while the other victim, who is now 11, was abused from July 2015 until July 2017.
He has been charged with five counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for those assaults.
Court records show that Butts also previously served time in prison for sexually assaulting a child in 2004.
"Mr. Butts targeted and befriended women to have sexual relationships with their young daughters," Worthy said. "He was a classic and expert groomer and pedophile."
Butts is expected to be arraigned Friday morning.
Investigators said they do not plan on charging anyone else in this case.
"I'm upset about that, and I would like to see charges being brought against those that knew, that were affiliated with him and knowing, and that allowed him to be around the children – knowing he wasn’t supposed to be," another cousin of Harris', Kewana Morton, said.
Missing Na’Ziyah Harris: Man charged with murder, sexual assault of Detroit teen
More than nine months after Na'Ziyah Harris disappeared from Detroit, a suspect is facing charges for sexually assaulting and murdering the girl.