VIDEO — Pedophile Who Murdered 13-Year-Old Found Dead in Jail Cell
The man convicted of murdering a 13-year-old girl he groomed and allegedly impregnated in Detroit, Michigan, has been found dead in his prison cell.
Corrections officials said Michigan State Police were investigating the death “as a suicide,” Fox 2 reported.
The Michigan Department of Corrections confirmed that Jarvis Butts, 43, died Thursday at the Charles Egeler Reception and Orientation Center in Jackson, Fox 2 reported.
“MDOC personnel took life-saving measures, but were unsuccessful. Michigan State Police were called to the scene to investigate; the death is currently being reported as a suicide,” authorities said.
The pedophile was convicted two weeks before his death for the murder of Na’Ziyah Harris and sexual assaults on other young girls. Jarvis, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Harris’ death, was sentenced to 35 to 60 years and five terms of 10 to 15 years for sexually assaulting the other child victims.
Authorities are still searching for Na’Ziyah’s body, and part of the pedophile’s plea deal stipulated that he had to reveal where he left her body, but he never did, according to People.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said text messages showed the girl met Butts on the last day she was seen alive in January 2024, as she got off a bus in Detroit.
“The prosecutor said the evidence also showed that Butts, who knew Harris’ family members, allegedly groomed the girl beginning in 2022. Harris was pregnant when she was killed, and Butts was allegedly the father of the unborn child,” the Fox article read, adding, “According to the prosecutor’s office, Butts sought abortions, abortion pills and drank red antifreeze before Harris’ death.”
Family members and victims of Butts’ crimes gave impact statements to the court when he was convicted. Her sister said: “My brother knows I was sexually assaulted and he knows the pain it caused. I don’t understand why he would do this to an innocent child.”
Harris’ family members fear they will never find his body now that his killer is dead:
“I think it was a bit of a cowardly solution, but he made his bed so he has to lie in it, you know?” » the child’s cousin told Fox. “I still feel like we haven’t gotten any answers for Ni’Ziyah. I feel like there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the case.”
The outlet said Butts raped children as young as four years old and that some of his victims were family members.
