DETROIT (WXYZ) — An arrest 18 months in the making has led to a murder charge against the cousin of missing Eastpointe teenager Zion Foster.
The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office made the announcement Tuesday afternoon.
Foster went missing on Jan. 4, 2022 after leaving her home in Eastpointe.
Prosecutors say this took a year and a half of gathering evidence, examining it and linking it together to make an arrest.
"I think only a monster could pull off something like that," Kayla Foster, Zion's aunt, said.
Kayla Foster says she's spent the last 18 months missing her niece Zion and wondering if the person who hurt her would ever have to answer for it.
She says she was in the delivery room when Zion Foster was born and even cut her umbilical cord.
"It felt like she was just forgotten, so it was a giant relief that they have been working on this and it's fantastic to finally hear something," Kayla Foster said.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy charged Zion Foster's cousin Jaylin Brazier in connection with her death.
Just last year, 24-year-old Brazier was locked up for 10 months and charged with perjury for allegedly changing his story about Zion Foster's whereabouts and ultimately confessing to police he threw her body away in a dumpster after they smoked marijuana together and she stopped breathing.
"To throw her away is unfathomable, especially to have known her. She was the brightest light," Kayla Foster said.
Last summer, Detroit police launched a search at a landfill in Lenox Township months after the 17-year-old's disappearance, but they came up empty.
"It feels terrible, like a nightmare we can't wake up from. Like she's gone and there's nothing. It's terrible," Kayla Foster said.
Even without a body, prosecutors feel like they built a strong case, levying a second-degree murder charge against Brazier. He was also charged with tampering with evidence in the case.
"Since we can't get her back, this is all we got and so, we are just waiting to hear that final verdict," Kayla Foster said.
She says Zion Foster's mom moved out of the state to get away from all the madness and pain caused by her daughter's disappearance.
Coming up on July 3 is Brazier's probable cause conference, and the preliminary exam is on July 10.
