Authorities say the child freed herself, reached a neighbor for help and survived another confrontation before the suspect fled.

NEWBERN, Tenn. — A 10-year-old girl who authorities say was pulled from her bedroom and taken into nearby woods escaped her restraints, reached a neighbor for help and survived a second confrontation before investigators arrested a Newbern man later that day.

Steven Devonte Harris, 30, was charged with two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault, aggravated burglary and attempted rape of a child after the Sept. 23 incident, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The agency said the child was forcibly taken from her home, threatened and assaulted, briefly escaped and sought help from a nearby neighbor before the suspect caught up with her again. Authorities said the neighbor’s actions helped save the girl’s life. Harris was booked into the Dyer County Jail. The charges are accusations, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The account of how the abduction began comes from an affidavit described by WBBJ and from the girl’s mother, Crystal Brown. The affidavit says an unidentified man removed an air-conditioning unit from a bedroom window at an apartment in the 400 block of East Johnson Street, reached through the opening and pulled the 10-year-old outside while she held onto her comforter. Brown separately told local television reporters that the intruder removed the unit from her daughter’s bedroom window and dragged the child toward the wooded area behind the apartments. Investigators later documented the air-conditioning unit on the ground near the window and recovered the comforter several yards away near a cellular-tower access road, WBBJ reported.

According to the affidavit, the man took the child into the woods and tied her to a small tree with a belt. The affidavit says he put a knife to her throat and threatened to rape her. Authorities have not released the child’s name, and news reports did not identify her beyond her age and her relationship to Brown. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s public statement used more general language, saying the girl was threatened and assaulted after being forcibly removed from her home. That distinction matters because the more detailed allegations come from an affidavit and local reporting, while the TBI release confirms the broader sequence without publishing every allegation.

The affidavit says the man then left the girl restrained and walked away. During that period, she was able to free herself and run from the wooded area. WBBJ reported that she reached a neighboring apartment and communicated with a resident through a Ring doorbell camera. Agents later reviewed video showing the girl asking for help, disheveled and with leaf litter on her, according to WBBJ’s account of the affidavit. The TBI said the child’s attempt to seek help was brief because the abductor caught up with her again. Even so, the contact with the neighbor created a witness point and a recorded moment that became part of the investigators’ reconstruction of the early-morning incident.

The confrontation did not end at the neighbor’s door, investigators said. According to the affidavit, the man chased the girl and caught her behind the neighboring apartment, where he began strangling her. A woman then arrived, sounded her car horn and yelled for help, prompting the man to release the child and flee. WSMV, citing reporting from WBBJ, said a neighbor heard loud noises and screaming around 12:50 a.m. and saw the child running toward her aunt’s home. The same reporting said the girl’s aunt came outside carrying a spiked bat, after which the man ran away. Emergency responders later took the girl to a hospital for treatment. Public reports reviewed for this story did not provide a detailed medical update.

Once police were called, the case quickly became a multiagency investigation. At the request of 29th Judicial District Attorney Danny Goodman, TBI agents worked with Newbern police, the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and task force members. Searchers examined the wooded area and the surroundings of the apartment complex. WBBJ reported that investigators found a belt, a vape and a green sweatshirt near a small tree in the woods. Newbern officers also found the child’s comforter away from the apartment, and investigators observed the displaced air-conditioning unit near the bedroom window. Those items, along with the video and the girl’s account, helped authorities develop a timeline and identify material for laboratory testing.

Goodman told WBBJ that investigators already had a suspect in mind and that evidence found during the search helped confirm the direction of the investigation. The physical evidence was sent to the TBI Crime Lab for DNA testing, including Rapid DNA processing. The TBI said the rapid testing produced information that led to Harris’ arrest Wednesday night. WMC likewise reported that forensic testing of collected DNA identified Harris as the suspect. The public sources reviewed do not disclose which specific item produced the DNA result, the statistical strength of the match or the full laboratory documentation, so those details remain outside the public account.

The arrest came within hours of the reported abduction. The TBI identified Harris as a Newbern resident and listed his date of birth as Dec. 21, 1995. WREG reporting republished by AOL said Newbern Police Chief Greg Barr described Harris as known to local investigators because of his earlier criminal history. That report said Harris had been indicted in 2020 on aggravated rape, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated burglary charges tied to a 2019 attack on a 95-year-old woman in Newbern. Barr said Harris later pleaded to aggravated assault, and the Tennessee Department of Correction said he served a four-year, six-month sentence that expired March 12, 2023. The earlier allegations and conviction are separate from the current case and do not establish guilt in the new charges.

The prior case became part of public discussion because investigators said Harris’ history contributed to their early attention on him, but the current prosecution rests on evidence from the Sept. 23 investigation. Law&Crime reported that detectives said Harris gave inconsistent answers during an interview after receiving Miranda warnings. That claim has not been tested in court in the sources reviewed. The central publicly described evidence remains the physical items found near the scene, the Rapid DNA result, the doorbell-camera footage and witness accounts. Prosecutors would still have to prove every element of the charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt if the case proceeds to trial.

The official TBI release is also the controlling source for the charge list used here. Some secondary reports differed in small details, including Harris’ age and one description of a charge. The TBI listed him as 30 based on a Dec. 21, 1995, birth date and said he faced two especially aggravated kidnapping counts, two aggravated assault counts, aggravated burglary and attempted rape of a child. Those charges describe prosecutors’ accusations; they are not findings that the conduct occurred as alleged. No public source reviewed for this report supplied an indictment, disposition or other later court filing that would show whether the charging language had changed after the initial arrest.

Currently, Harris is scheduled to appear in Dyer County General Sessions Court the following morning. The sources reviewed for this story did not establish the outcome of that appearance or identify a later ruling, plea or trial date. As of Nov. 8, the most clearly documented public status remains that Harris had been jailed on the kidnapping, assault, burglary and attempted child-rape charges. The child’s mother said after the arrest that her daughter was alive and safe and that the family’s focus was helping her heal. Authorities have not publicly released the girl’s identity, and this report does not name her.

Author note: Last updated November 8, 2026.