UPDATE: On Thursday, May 16, 2024, Jaylin Brazier was found guilty of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence in connection to the January 2022 disappearance of Zion Foster.
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UPDATE: On June 13, 2023, Zion Foster’s cousin Jaylin Brazier was charged with her murder. He had been released from custody in January 2023 after serving less than a year on charges of lying to a peace officer.
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UPDATE: On March 30, 2022, Brazier appeared in court, where he accepted a plea deal on the charges of lying. Brazier also admitted that he had thrown his cousin’s body in a dumpster weeks earlier. He claimed that Zion had stopped breathing while they were smoking marijuana, and he didn’t know what to do. In 2022, authorities conducted extensive searches for Zion in a landfill, but after multiple weeks of finding nothing, they eventually called off the search. Zion’s body has never been found.
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Detective Lieutenant Robert Koenigsmann of the Eastpointe Police in Michigan confirmed to Dateline that Jaylin Brazier has been charged with lying to a peace officer in the investigation into Zion Foster’s disappearance.
On the evening of January 4, 2022, Zion asked her mother if she could go hang out with her cousin, Jaylin, in Detroit.
Zion’s mother Ciera told Dateline earlier this month that Zion was picked up at their house around 10:45 p.m. and later sent a text at 12:59 a.m. saying “omw” to let her know that she heading home to nearby Eastpointe. “My phone shows, you know, our location – all of my kids locations are shown,” Ciera told Dateline. “Twenty minutes after texting me that she was on her way home, she still wasn’t there.”
On Wednesday, January 19, the Detroit Police held a press conference, at which Chief James E. White announced their department would take lead on Zion’s case, “as she was likely last seen in Detroit.” They also stated that Brazier was a person of interest.
That same night, the Detroit Police posted that Brazier had turned himself in for questioning.
“He turned himself in in Wayne County,” Detective Lt. Koenigsmann told Dateline. “And we issued a warrant for his arrest, so they transferred custody to us.”
Brazier was transferred to the Eastpointe Police Department on Saturday, January 22. He was arraigned Monday, January 24, in the 38th District Court. He faces one count of lying to a peace officer in a violent crime investigation and one count of lying to a peace officer.
According to the Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV, Brazier is being held on a $250,000 bond and will be held in the Macomb County Jail.
Reporter Shawn Ley of WDIV stated that the “Detroit police have now asked for a homicide warrant in this case.”
Detective Lt. Koenigsmann told Dateline that Brazier was given a court-appointed lawyer at the arraignment on Monday.
WDIV spoke to Brazier’s lawyer, Matthew Licata, who stated that Brazier “indicated that he vehemently denies the charges and he’s looking forward to his day in court.”
According to Detective Lt. Koenigsmann, Brazier’s next court appearance is on February 2, 2022.
Zion has still not been found. She is described as being 5’1” and weighing 120 lbs. Zion has a tattoo of “777” on her neck and straight hair extensions below her shoulders. She was last seen wearing a black sweater with the Detroit Wing Company logo on it, black pants, and black shoes.
Anyone with information on Zion’s whereabouts is asked to call the Detroit Police Department at 313-596-2260.