Some of missing girl’s remains found 100 miles from her SC home, sheriff says

Some of the remains of 4-year-old Javeayah Harris were found in a body of water about 100 miles from her South Carolina home, Aiken County Sheriff Marty Sawyer said Thursday.

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The announcement that remnants of the little girl were found happened at a news conference more than a week after she was publicly reported missing June 30, when law enforcement began its search. Sawyer previously said Javeayah likely died before those efforts began, and she might have been dead for as long as a month.

“This past week has been heart-wrenching for everyone,” Sawyer said at Thursday’s news conference. “I am truly sickened to share what this investigation has uncovered. … What started as an exhaustive and complex search quickly grew to something I could not imagine.

“A few human remains were recovered in an area known as Cedar Creek reservoir, also known as Stumpy Pond in Fairfield County.”

That’s about 100 miles northeast from Hillsboro Street and Ridgecrest Road in Aiken, where the law enforcement search began for Javeayah.

Those remains were sent to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s crime lab, and analysis showed that the DNA of the remains was consistent with being the biological offspring of Javeayah’s mother, Michilae Herring, 22, and father, Johnmarea Harris, 23, according to Sawyer.

Arrests

On July 4, Herring and Harris were arrested and each was charged with murder/homicide by child abuse as well as graves/destruction, desecration or removal of human remains, jail records show. Herring also was charged with filing a false police report, which was recorded in a 911 call.

Javeayah was physically abused by her mother, and died after both parents did not seek medical attention, The State previously reported. According to arrest warrants, this was an act of child abuse and neglect with an “extreme indifference” for human life. The information stemmed from a confession by both parents.

“There are some very harsh words I would like to use about Michilae and Johnmarea, but I will not do that. … To maintain the integrity of this case,” Sawyer said. “I will not refer to them as mom and dad … they do not deserve that title.”

“Her little body”

The sheriff said that forensic evidence, statements and analysis showed that “extensive and deliberate efforts were made to destroy and conceal evidence of Javeayah’s death.”

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The investigation revealed the use of corrosive chemicals and other tools that were used “to accelerate the destruction of her little body,” Sawyer said. “After this was completed, these two individuals poured what remains were left of Javeayah into the Cedar Creek reservoir.”

No bond has been set for either Herring or Harris, and both are being held in the Aiken County Detention Center, jail records show.

Both the initial search to find Javeayah and the subsequent efforts to recover her remains involved multiple local, state and national law enforcement agencies, who Sawyer said poured massive resources and time into finding the 4-year-old.

“While today marks a painful chapter in this case, it does not end our work,” Sawyer said. “Our investigators will continue to pursue every lead, examine every piece of evidence, and work closely with the 2nd Circuit Solicitor’s Office to ensure that justice for Javeayah is pursued.”

The 911 call

On Monday, the sheriff’s department released Herring’s 911 call from June 30, which lasted over 5 minutes.

“I can’t find my baby,” Herring said in the call. “She was outside playing and I came out here after cooking dinner … I’m looking for her but I don’t see her nowhere.”

Herring described the child and her search for a wooded area by her home as the dispatcher asked her questions.

“Ain’t no way she could’ve gone far,” Herring said in the recording.