Fifteen-year-old Janiya Brown arrived in Berkley, Michigan, in April 2022 after her aunt brought her there following the 2021 murder of her mother in Ohio. Described by her father as free-spirited and fond of music and the outdoors, Janiya ran away from her aunt’s home and was reported missing on April 23, 2022.

On the night of May 9, 2022, a 20-year-old man told Detroit police he had been carjacked after picking up a young woman he met online near Clarita Street. He said two armed men robbed him, stole his black Chevrolet Malibu, and that the woman—believed by police to be Janiya—left in the stolen car with them. The Malibu was found abandoned two days later in an alley in the 8800 block of Burnette Street near Joy Road, and Janiya’s body was discovered outside the vehicle; she had been shot multiple times. Investigators linked her death to the earlier carjacking; police noted social media activity showing her with people who had firearms even after her phone service was disconnected.

Does anyone have information about Janiya’s movements in Detroit or about the people she was seen with on social media?