Detroit Police Chief James White provides an update on the search for Zion Foster’s body June 3 in Lenox Township.
By: Brian Wells | Roseville-Eastpointe Eastsider | Published June 30, 2022
EASTPOINTE — More than five months after Zion Foster’s disappearance, her mother still doesn’t have the answers to her questions about what happened.
“I want to know what happened to my baby,” Foster’s mother, Ciera Milton, said at a press conference May 12 at the Lenox Township Community Center.
Foster, 17, of Eastpointe, was last seen Jan. 4, when she left home to hang out with her cousin, Jaylin Brazier, 23, of Detroit. When she didn’t return home, her mother filed a missing persons report.
Brazier was named a person of interest in her disappearance. He turned himself in to police on Jan. 19, and on Jan. 22, Eastpointe police said that he would be charged with lying to investigators.
Brazier, in court for his sentencing March 31 on the charge of lying to investigators, said that while he and Foster were together, Foster died. He acted out of panic after that, he said, and others in the court alleged that he put Foster’s body in a dumpster.
“I just didn’t know what to do. I literally did not know what to do. … Like what do I do, who do I call, my kids are upstairs, we had just gotten to this place after struggling for like two years,” Brazier said, choking back tears at his March 31 sentencing.
He was sentenced to 23 months to four years in prison after pleading no contest to the charge of lying to a peace officer in a violent crime investigation. At the May 12 press conference, Detroit Police Major Crimes Cmdr. Michael McGinnis said the department had sent a warrant request to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, which was reviewing the request.
“We are confident that Mr. Brazier was responsible for the death of Zion,” he said.
Operation Justice for Zion announced, begins
Officials and local businesses gathered at the Lenox Township Community Center May 12 to announce Justice for Zion, a recovery operation aimed at finding her body in the Lenox Township landfill where police believe her remains were taken.
The effort is being led by the Detroit Police Department, which took over the search for Foster from the Eastpointe Police Department in mid-January. Detroit Police Chief James White said the collaborative effort is to help bring closure to Foster’s family.
“Bear with me, as a father and having to say these words is just very difficult,” White said at the May 12 press conference. “We will be beginning a search for her remains at a nearby landfill.”
While the operators of the landfill had been cooperative in the investigation, the search couldn’t be done any sooner due to a risk assessment, White said. Once the landfill had been contacted, the operators stopped any dumping in the area where Foster’s body is believed to be.
A press release sent by Detroit police May 31 stated that the search was to begin that day. The first phase, which is expected to take about two weeks, requires heavy equipment to remove 20 feet of material above a 100-by-100-foot search area at the landfill.
At the May 12 press conference, Detroit Police Sgt. Shannon Jones said a team of 70 people were to be working on the search. The crew is composed of employees from Detroit’s General Services Department and Department of Public Works.
At a press conference held June 3 at the landfill site near 29 Mile Road and Gratiot Avenue, McGinnis said that while clearing the 20 feet of material above the search site, searchers found a piece of mail with a Detroit address that indicates to them that they are in the correct area for the search.
Officials said June 3 that they expect the 20 feet of material to be cleared and the second phase of the search to begin June 15.
When asked June 3 about finances for the search, White said they would continue until they ran out of money, at which point they would work to find more.
“To bring closure to that family, and to be in law enforcement and to be a dad, we’re doing this because it’s the right thing to do,” White said. “When you talk about costs and you talk about all those things, we’re going to keep going until the money runs out. Then we’re going to talk about more money.”
When asked at the May 12 press conference if the discovery of a body could lead to charges against Brazier, White said that even though there were a number of different factors to take into consideration, it would be the easiest way to get the charges authorized.
“My heart breaks for this family,” White said. “I wish I could give Zion’s mom good news, but again, we know that’s not the case.”