DETROIT– A man who dumped the body of a Detroit-area teenager in a dumpster “left a trail of digital evidence” implicating him in her death despite an extraordinary and fruitless search for her remains in a landfill, a man said. prosecutor to jurors on Tuesday.
Jaylin Brazier, 25, is on trial for second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Zion Foster, whose body has not been found.
Detroit police in 2022 sifted through tons of rotting trash in a suburban landfill to try to find any trace, a rare step by a law enforcement agency. The search, at times in 90-degree heat and humidity, was called off after five months.
“Was she suffocated? Was she raped? Did she die of some unexplained natural cause? Assistant District Attorney Ryan Elsey said in his opening comments to the jury. “The search for Zion’s body has become fundamental to the investigation.”
Brazier and Foster were cousins. He denied killing her and insists Foster died suddenly while they were using marijuana at her Detroit home.
Brazier told police he panicked, hid the body in the trunk of a car and took it to a dumpster after midnight, revelations that led to the search of the landfill, according to investigators.
Defense attorney Brian Brown said it was a case of “fear and bad decisions.”
“Jaylin was scared,” Brown said. “He may not have made the right decision, but at the end of the day that doesn’t make him a murderer.”
Elsey told jurors that experts would rule out the possibility of a marijuana-related death. He said Brazier “left behind a trail of digital evidence that is damning.”
Brazier searched the Internet for information about whether garbage trucks crush trash and the possibility of criminal charges when a body cannot be found, the prosecutor said.
While in prison for lying to police, Brazier told a girlfriend “there was nothing to worry about,” Elsey said. “He was wrong. You don’t get away with murder just by getting rid of the body.”
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