Aiken County authorities said Saturday that evidence led investigators to believe Javeayah Harris is dead, and they arrested her parents in connection with her death. Michilae Herring, 22, and Johmarea Harris, 23, were charged with homicide by child abuse and filing a false police report.
The announcement changed the case from a missing-child search into a death investigation. Javeayah was reported missing Tuesday night, and over the next four days multiple law enforcement agencies searched thousands of acres as roadblocks, vehicle searches and interviews continued across Aiken County and surrounding areas.
Her picture had been displayed on a digital billboard at a convenience store on Ascauga Lake Road, a public plea for help that came before officials said they believed she had been deceased for about a month. On Friday, authorities said organized search activities would be scaled back after a fourth day of searching did not turn her up, even as they said the search would continue.
The visible search effort was already easing by the time the case broke open. Roadblocks ended around 7 p.m. Friday, and the search resumed around 10:45 a.m. Friday after investigators gathered and prayed outside Bethel Baptist Church. By then, authorities were still stopping vehicles and conducting interviews, a sign that the work had not ended even as it became less public.
That is the contradiction inside the case now: the search is being pulled back from the roadside, but not from the investigation itself. Marty Sawyer said it was the outcome everyone feared and the one they had to face, while the sheriff’s office said its work would become less visible but would not stop until Javeayah is found.
Investigators are now looking for her body in an area outside Aiken County, but they have not said where that search is focused. For the family, the question has moved from where Javeayah is to what investigators believe happened before the missing-child search even began.
