Investigators combined laboratory testing with scene evidence, witness information and doorbell video after the child escaped and reached help.
NEWBERN, Tenn. — Rapid DNA testing on evidence collected after the reported abduction of a 10-year-old girl led investigators to Steven Devonte Harris within hours, authorities said, turning a predawn search for an unknown attacker into a same-day arrest.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said evidence gathered during the Sept. 23 investigation was submitted to its crime laboratory for DNA testing that included Rapid DNA processing. The agency said the resulting information led to Harris, 30, of Newbern, who was arrested Wednesday night. He was charged with two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault, aggravated burglary and attempted rape of a child. Authorities have not publicly identified which item yielded the DNA result, released the laboratory report or described the statistical weight of the match. The charges remain allegations, and Harris is presumed innocent unless convicted.
Before the laboratory result, investigators had already assembled several pieces of physical and recorded evidence from the area around an apartment in the 400 block of East Johnson Street. WBBJ, citing an investigative affidavit, reported that agents found a belt, a vape and a green sweatshirt near a small tree in woods behind the apartments. Newbern police found the child’s comforter several yards away near an access road for a cellular tower, the station reported. Agents also observed an air-conditioning unit on the ground outside the girl’s bedroom window. Investigators reviewed Ring doorbell video that showed the child seeking help after escaping from the wooded area, according to the affidavit account.
District Attorney Danny Goodman told WBBJ that officers and agents had a suspect in mind as the search unfolded. He said items found by the TBI, FBI, Dyer County Sheriff’s Office and Newbern Police Department were significant because they corresponded with information investigators had received from the child. Goodman said the evidence helped confirm that authorities were following the right person. That sequence is important to the public account: investigators did not describe Rapid DNA as the only reason Harris came under scrutiny. Instead, they portrayed the laboratory result as a fast forensic step layered onto witness information, scene evidence and prior investigative knowledge.
The alleged crime that produced that evidence began around 1 a.m., according to local reports. The affidavit described by WBBJ says an unidentified man removed a window air conditioner from a bedroom at the East Johnson Street apartment, reached inside and pulled the 10-year-old girl through the opening while she was holding her comforter. Her mother, Crystal Brown, separately told local television stations that the intruder took her daughter from the bedroom and dragged her toward nearby woods. The TBI’s official release did not describe the window entry in detail but said the child was forcibly taken from her home early that morning, then threatened and assaulted.
Once in the wooded area, the affidavit alleges, the man used a belt to tie the girl to a small tree, held a knife to her throat and threatened to rape her. The public TBI statement is less specific, confirming that the child was threatened and assaulted without repeating those details. The distinction reflects the sources: the restraint, knife and threat allegations were reported from the affidavit, while the state agency summarized the incident more broadly. The girl’s name has not been released, and the reporting reviewed here provides no basis to identify her. Public accounts also do not provide a detailed description of her injuries beyond saying she was taken to a hospital for treatment.
The girl escaped after the man walked away, according to the affidavit. She freed herself and ran to a neighboring apartment, where she communicated with a resident through a Ring doorbell camera. The video later reviewed by agents reportedly showed her asking for help and covered with debris from the wooded area. The TBI said the escape was temporary because the suspect caught up with her again. The affidavit says the man chased the child behind the neighboring apartment and began strangling her. A woman arrived, honked a car horn and yelled for help, causing him to release the girl and run, according to the reported affidavit.
Other witnesses helped investigators place the confrontation in time and describe how it ended. WSMV, relying on WBBJ reporting, said a nearby resident heard screaming and loud noises at about 12:50 a.m. and saw the child running toward her aunt’s home. The station reported that the girl’s aunt came outside carrying a spiked bat before the man fled. The TBI credited a nearby neighbor’s quick actions with helping save the child’s life. Those accounts do not all describe the same vantage point, but they converge on the central sequence: the child got away, sought help, was caught again and was ultimately released when nearby adults responded.
The investigation that followed brought together local, state and federal agencies. Goodman requested TBI assistance, and the bureau said its agents joined Newbern police, Dyer County deputies, the FBI and task force members. Harris was arrested Wednesday night, the same day as the reported abduction. The TBI identified him with a Dec. 21, 1995, birth date, making him 30 at the time. Some secondary reports listed him as 31, but the agency’s identifying information supports the age used here. The TBI also supplied the charge list used in this report, which differs in minor ways from at least one secondary account.
Harris’ earlier criminal history became relevant to news coverage because local police said he was already known to investigators. WREG reporting republished by AOL said Harris had been indicted in 2020 on aggravated rape, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated burglary charges stemming from a 2019 attack on a 95-year-old woman in Newbern. Newbern Police Chief Greg Barr said Harris later pleaded to aggravated assault. The Tennessee Department of Correction told the station that Harris served four years and six months on that conviction and that the sentence expired March 12, 2023. The earlier case is legally separate and cannot be used as proof that Harris committed the new offenses.
Law&Crime reported that detectives described Harris as deceptive and said he gave inconsistent answers during an interview after being advised of his Miranda rights. No transcript of that interview was available in the material reviewed, and the allegation has not been adjudicated in the sources located for this report. The same caution applies to the Rapid DNA result: the TBI says it generated information leading to the arrest, but the underlying lab documentation was not publicly available in the reports consulted. A laboratory identification can be a major investigative lead, yet the prosecution must still establish the admissibility and meaning of evidence through the court process.
A Sept. 27 report said Harris was due in Dyer County General Sessions Court the next morning. No later reliable report located in this review established the result of that hearing, a subsequent plea or a trial date. As of Nov. 8, the public record available through the reviewed sources still centered on the initial arrest and charges. The TBI emphasized in its release that the accusations are not evidence of guilt and that Harris is presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process. The child’s mother later said her daughter was alive and safe and that the family was concentrating on her recovery.
Author note: Last updated November 8, 2026.