Na’Ziyah Harris disappearance, Chipotle guacamole shooting, mysterious gray wolf, and more top stories of 2024
Maurielle Lue and Lee Thomas discussing the news that Detroit needs to hear
DETROIT (FOX 2):We’re looking back at some of the most significant stories of 2024 as it draws to a close.
The following are the stories that viewers were most interested in, along with the status of ongoing investigations as of 2025:
Suspect charged in murder of Na’Ziyah Harris
13-year-old Na’Ziyah vanished in Detroit about a year ago. The teenager was never seen again after being last seen boarding a school bus on January 9.
Police eventually detained and charged a guy in relation to her death and disappearance after months of seeking.
Highland Park resident Jarvis Butts, 41, was charged with Harris’ murder in the first degree of premeditated murder, second-degree criminal sexual conduct, and child sexual abuse.
According to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, there is proof that Butts, who was acquainted with Harris’s family, began grooming the girl around 2022. Butts was purportedly the father of the unborn child, and Harris was pregnant when she was murdered.
Worthy has accused Butts of sexually abusing two other children who were under 13 at the time, in addition to the charges in the Harris case that were announced in September. According to Worthy, the two victims, one of whom is now 20 years old, was reportedly assaulted between April 2012 and April 14 and the other, who is now 11 years old, between July 2015 and July 2017.
What’s next?
Records show that Butts is scheduled to return to court in early 2025.
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A man is been charged with the sexual assault and murder of Na’Ziyah Harris, who vanished from Detroit more than nine months ago.
Mystery of gray wolf in SW Michigan
In January, a gray wolf was accidentally shot and killed by a hunter in southwest Michigan, an area where the animal had not been for over a century.
In Calhoun County, the hunter believed they had shot a coyote, but DNA testing revealed it was actually a wolf.
Brian Roell, a big carnivore specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, stated, “This is an unusual case, and the DNR is actively delving into the matter to learn more about the origin of this particular animal.” “You have much better luck of getting struck by lightning than seeing one in Calhoun County again.”
However, this does not imply that wolves do not exist in the southern region; reports of wolves traveling great distances have been made in the Lower Peninsula. In 2014, scientists who worked with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians saw a wolf on a trail camera, which was the most recent sighting.
Other sightings occurred in track surveys in 2011 and 2015, as well as in Presque Isle County in October 2004.
One of the wolves, at least, was from the Upper Peninsula and had a collar. The wolf that was slain might have originated there as well.
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A wolf hasn’t been spotted this far south in Michigan in a century. “You have much better luck of getting struck by lightning than seeing one in Calhoun County again,” according to a biologist.
James and Jennifer Crumbley sentenced
The parents of the shooter at Oxford High School, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were involved in historic instances.
Four counts of involuntary manslaughter were brought against the couple, one for each of the students their then-15-year-old son killed on November 30, 2021.
In February, a jury found Jennifer guilty, and in March, a different jury pool found James guilty. They were both given prison terms of 10–15 years in April. The couple’s son is incarcerated as well, having been given a life sentence without the possibility of release until 2023.
What’s next?
Jennifer is currently working to have her conviction overturned. During the appeals process, she stated that she “has never harmed anyone, has committed no crime, and is certainly not a flight risk.”
A hearing is set on January 8, 2025, per court documents.
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Jennifer Crumbley’s lawyer is calling for her release from jail while she attempts to appeal her sentence as the mother of the Oxford High School gunman.
Artificial shorelines making lakes sick
Lakes in Michigan are suffering as a result of artificial shorelines.
Craig Kivi, who resides on Portage Lake in Pinckney, stated, “Lakes get so many sicknesses.” “And I hate to use that term because people get all alarmed, but that’s the truth,” he stated. “I don’t know how else to say it.”
Like hundreds of other lakes in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, Portage Lake is encircled by land. In southern Michigan, 91% of lakes have some kind of development, according to a 2012 DNR assessment. Over two-thirds had high development levels.
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Consequently, the delicate equilibrium that watersheds require to flourish has been upset, with far-reaching consequences. People may avoid the lakes where they reside because of the decline in fisheries and the deterioration of water quality.
Real estate agent Kivi, who has sold a few of the Portage Lake residences, claims that buyers need their waterfronts “to look like swimming pool lakes.” Nothing except the lake, a clear blue surface, and an unhindered vista.
The only issue is that a healthy lake doesn’t resemble a swimming pool at all.
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As Michigan’s shorelines become more built, the lakes have been cut off from the landscape. The consequences stretch beyond the beach.
Woman crashes through boat club, kills two children
On April 20, Marshella Chidester, 67, crashed through the Swan Boat Club in Monroe County, killing two children who were attending a birthday party.
For the April 20 crash at the Swan Boat Club that claimed the lives of Alanah Phillips, age 8, and Zayn Phillips, age 5, Chidester was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of operating while intoxicated causing death, and four counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury.
According to blood test results obtained during a preliminary examination, her blood alcohol level was.18, which is more than twice the Michigan legal limit. In June, Chidester was bound over for trial.
Chidester admitted to deputies after the collision that she had consumed some wine earlier in the day. She added that she takes medicine to treat her epileptic disorder.
“I thought I was driving up to the boat club, and evidently I was driving right into the building,” she told the deputy while being questioned following the crash.
What’s next?
Chidester is due in court for a motion hearing in January before her trial, which is scheduled to begin March 3, 2025.
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The trial date for Marshella Chidester, the woman who slammed into a Monroe County boat club and killed two children while allegedly drunk, was set Friday morning.
Invasive hydrilla threatens state’s water, economy
Hydrilla, one of the most feared invasive plants in the country, is in Michigan, and the state took the first steps toward eradicating it this year.
“It takes six to eight years to control hydrilla. That’s why we’re so nervous about this plant,” said Bill Keiper, with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
Sometimes called “one of the most invasive aquatic plant species in the world,” hydrilla can spread quickly with ease, requires little resources to grow, and can spawn in most water bodies.
And once established, the aggressive plant spells certain doom for the native species in the rivers and lakes it lives in. Already, it’s become a major problem in the states it lives in, causing environmental, economic, and ecological damage in most of the eastern U.S.
It can kill water habitats and interfere with fish populations. The dense mats it creates can disrupt recreation and create major headaches for those that live and enjoy life on the water.
Until 2023, Michigan had avoided the challenges that come with managing hydrilla.
Even with the disheartening news, Keiper considers the state fortunate.
“In reality, it could be way worse. At least it’s in a small pond, that doesn’t have huge public access,” he said. “It’s a very contained system.”
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It’s considered one of the world’s most invasive plants and officials are so worried about it’s arrival they are digging up the ponds where it was found to eradicate it.
Guacamole dispute leads to shooting at Chiptole
An argument over guacamole at a Southfield Chipotle led to a customer shooting an employee in April.
Aaron Brown was charged after police say he pulled out a gun at the restaurant on Evergreen near Civic Center and shot a worker in the leg.
It all started after Brown got upset that he didn’t get enough guacamole when he had asked for extra, police said.
“Mr. Brown then called the female Chipotle employee a derogatory name – the b word – which upset her understandably,” Barren said.
Fellow employees took her to the back to try to calm her down, leaving the front counter unattended.
“Our suspect, Mr. Brown, who previously paid for his food items, began to proceed to go around the counter – and began to bag his own items and then he took a cup and filled it with guacamole,” Southfield Police Chief Elvin Barren said.
A 21-year-old male employee tried to stop him, and a physical fight ensued. Then Brown a licensed CPL holder with no prior criminal history, allegedly shot the employee in the leg.
What’s next?
Brown was charged with discharging a firearm in a building causing injury, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and two counts of felony firearm.
He pleaded no contest to the assault charge and one felony firearms count.
His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 24, 2025.
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“This happened right across the street from the police station, so what s the nerve of that? And you think you re going to get away with it?”
Fake crime stories gain traction
Two fabricated stories about crimes in Metro Detroit became so popular on social media this year that they had to be debunked, and subsequently led to a lot of traction.
The first story posted to TikTok in the spring, claimed that a man named Douglass Barnes killed a teen girl named Samantha McCaffery at her prom in Livonia. The video says the murder was revenge for Samantha’s cop father, Mike McCaffery, killing Barnes’s son several years ago.
The only thing? It didn’t happen. The people involved in the bogus story aren’t even real – they were AI-generated.
That story made its rounds on numerous social media websites, was picked up by AI-curated websites, and led to numerous people reaching out to FOX 2 questioning why the station wasn’t covering it.
A few months later, another story elicited the same response. That story claimed an elderly woman shot a man in the parking lot of a Target store for taking a handicap parking spot that the suspect was headed to.
Like the prom murder, that story was also made up and included computer-generated images of the so-called suspects.
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A TikTok claiming that a man named Douglass Barnes murdered a girl named Samantha McCaffery at a prom at Livonia High School in Michigan is fake AI-generated news.
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