EASTPOINTE, Mich. – Jaylin Brazier, the cousin of Zion Foster, has been charged with first-degree murder more than a year after the Eastpointe teenager went missing.
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday, June 13, that Brazier, 24, has been charged in connection with the homicide of his 17-year-old cousin.
Officials say Foster was last seen on Jan. 4, 2022, at her home in the 22000 block of Melrose Court in Eastpointe, near Gratiot Avenue and Toepfer Drive.
The girl reportedly left the home with Brazier and has not been seen since. The family of the 17-year-old told officials at the time of her disappearance that they feared Foster was being held against her will.
Ciera Milton, the mother of Foster, said that day that her daughter asked to hang out with her favorite cousin, Brazier. Milton told Local 4 that Brazier arrived on Jan. 4, 2022, to pick up Foster, and pulled into the neighbor’s driveway instead of parking in front of Foster’s home.
Foster’s mother said that her daughter sent her the location to a home on Greenfield Road and Vassar Drive. After that, she hasn’t been seen or heard from since. Some of the theories reported by Foster’s family was that sex trafficking could be a reason for the 17-year-old’s disappearance.
“I don’t know exactly how she passed or what caused her to pass,” Brazier said. “I just know one minute, she was cool, she was fine. She laid back for a minute, and next thing I know, she’s just -- she was dead. I don’t know what caused it. I did not cause it or anything like that.”
Timeline of events during the first month of Zion Foster’s disappearance
The charges against Brazier stemmed from the weeks he spent withholding critical information during the search for his cousin, according to authorities.
Here’s what we know about the sequence of events:
- Jan. 4: Foster is last seen at her home on Melrose Court in Eastpointe.
- Jan. 10: Eastpointe police report Foster missing.
- Also on this date, a private investigator out of Chicago sent Local 4 photos of Brazier’s Acura in Detroit and Hazel Park.
- Jan. 13: Brazier’s car is spotted in Waterford Township.
What happened after the disappearance of Zion Foster
The next day, on Jan. 5, Milton said that Brazier called her saying that he hasn’t seen Foster in months, or even years. Two days later, Brazier texted Milton.
The body of Foster has not been found, although this case has been open for a year and a half.
On Jan. 4, 2022, Foster was last seen with Brazier. It is reported that Brazier and Foster were smoking marijuana together that night. The 24-year-old claims that Foster stopped breathing for an unknown reason while they were smoking. The Detroit man said that he panicked and decided to put her body in a dumpster because she wasn’t breathing.
The 24-year-old originally denied seeing his cousin at all, only to admit later that he had thrown her body in a dumpster. Brazier said he panicked when he suddenly found his cousin dead, and that’s why he took her body to a dumpster in Lenox township. Officials say that Brazier put the 17-year-old in the trunk of his car and drove her body to a landfill.
A missing person’s alert was issued by Eastpointe Police for Foster on Jan. 10, 2022.
The Detroit man turned himself in on Jan. 19, alongside his lawyer, to admit that he has been lying to police. Three days later, he was officially arrested on a warrant connected to his cousin’s disappearance.
Officials charged Brazier with lying to a police officer in a violent crime investigation and lying to a peace officer. He was arraigned on Jan. 24, 2022, in the 38th District Court.
“Are you telling me that you’re stoned, she’s stoned, you think she dies and then you dispose of the body?” Judge Edward Servitto asked. “Just like that? That was your choice?”
“I sat for a minute,” Brazier said. “I didn’t know what to do. I just did not know what to do.”
“I’m trying to understand with the limited information I have,” Servitto said. “This person passed away in your presence and your first thought is, ‘Well, I’ve got to get rid of the body’?”
On March 30, 2022, Brazier was sentenced between 23 months to four years in prison for lying during the investigation of Foster’s disappearance. But in January of 2023, he was released.
Two months later a search for Foster’s body began on May 31 at Pine Tree Acres landfill in Lenox Township. The massive search was planned for a 100x100 foot area. Local crews used heavy machinery to remove about 20 feet of material to search the landfill for Foster’s body. Originally officials said that the search could last as long as seven to eight weeks. At the beginning of August, crews dug between 25-28 feet. Authorities believed that Foster’s body could be buried at least 75 to 100 feet beneath the surface of the landfill. Police say that they searched through 3,500 truckloads of trash. The landfill search concluded on Oct. 12, 2022.
Full timeline
- Jan. 10, 2022
- Jan. 19, 2022
- March 31, 2022
- May 12, 2022
- June 1, 2022
- June 3, 2022
- June 17, 2022
- Aug. 1, 2022
- Sept. 19, 2022
- Oct 12, 2022
- Jan. 17, 2023
Read: Cousin who there Eastpointe teen Zion Fosters body in dumpster charged with murder