The death this week of a Michigan inmate just two weeks after he entered a guilty plea for the 2024 murder of Na’Ziyah Harris means that the little girl’s family may never recover her body.
Jarvis Butts died by suicide on Thursday, March 26, two weeks after being sentenced to jail until at least 2059 for Harris’ killing and numerous sexual assaults, the Michigan Department of Corrections confirmed.
Harris was 13 when she died in January 2024. Butts wasn’t charged with the J.E. Clark Preparatory Academy student’s slaying until 2025.
Her body has never been found. Now that the only person who knew its location is dead, the girl’s relatives have lost the hope that they would one day be able to provide her with a proper burial.
Butts, 43, who was from Detroit, was sentenced to 35 to 60 years in prison on March 12. He was also sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for five other sexual assault charges he was convicted of. One of his victims, investigators said, was a minor relative.
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The MDOC said that he died in his cell at Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson County. Prison staff tried reviving the man but couldn’t.
Butts entered the guilty plea on February 12, just under two weeks before his trial was scheduled to begin.
Butts allegedly admitted to dumping Harris’ body in Detroit’s Rouge River near 7 Mile and Berg, where police initially searched for the 13-year-old girl.
Harris was last seen getting off a school bus on January 9, 2024.
Prosecutors said “overwhelming evidence” showed that Harris is dead, and investigators said they think Butts killed the girl because she was pregnant with his baby. Butts searched online for abortions, abortion pills and drinking red antifreeze before Harris’ murder.
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Searchers did locate an inside-out pink jumpsuit, a black jacket and a red-and-black shoe near the intersection of 7 Mile and Berg. The clothing had not been there for very long, police said, based on its condition.
In a statement Thursday, the Detroit Police Department said it is aware that Butts is dead.
“Although the legal process ended with a conviction in court, our work is not done,” reads the statement, obtained by Us Weekly. “The department will follow all leads for a homicide and continue our efforts to locate the body of Na’Ziyah Harris to help bring closure to her family.”
