{"id":859493,"date":"2026-09-24T22:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T22:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/859493\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T22:58:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T22:58:15","slug":"man-charged-with-breaking-into-strangers-home-abducting-and-assaulting-10-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/859493\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged with breaking into stranger\u2019s home, abducting and assaulting 10-year-old"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWBERN, Tenn. (WMC) – An alleged kidnapper is now behind bars after a little girl was forcibly taken from her Tennessee home<\/a> and assaulted early Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Steven Devonte Harris, is charged with two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault, aggravated burglary and attempted rape of a child.<\/p>\n

He was booked at the Dyer County Jail after his capture Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\"StevenSteven Devonte Harris, 30(Dyer County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

Police say the abduction happened around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning at a home on East Johnson Street in Newbern, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

According to a social media post by the child\u2019s mother, Crystal Brown, a stranger broke into their home by ripping an air conditioning unit out of her daughter\u2019s bedroom window. <\/p>\n

The intruder then allegedly dragged the 10-year-old girl into the woods and assaulted her.<\/p>\n

The police report says the man tied her to a tree using his belt and threatened the girl with a knife to her throat, telling the girl he was going to rape her.<\/p>\n

\"SceneScene of kidnapping investigation on East Johnson Street in Newbern, Tennessee.(Gray News)<\/p>\n

The man left the girl tied to a tree and walked away, at which point the child reportedly broke free and ran to a neighbor\u2019s home to communicate with them via a Ring doorbell. <\/p>\n

The man returned and grabbed the girl again behind the neighbor\u2019s apartment and started to strangle her.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, someone arrived at the apartment and began honking a car horn and screaming for help.<\/p>\n

A neighbor said the girl\u2019s aunt came outside with a spiked bat before the man ran off.<\/p>\n

Police said the girl was later taken to a hospital for medical treatment.<\/p>\n

Detectives found a belt, a vape and a green sweatshirt in the woods.<\/p>\n

Forensic testing of the collected DNA evidence allowed investigators to identify Harris as the suspect.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 WMC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWBERN, Tenn. (WMC) – An alleged kidnapper is now behind bars after a little girl was forcibly taken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22547,25058,21553,4,450,12631,13097,347208,25057,3071,362780,25053,36010,362784,90451,25056,451,7231,25051,39667,29378,13840,25050,25055,362782,3,25054,25059,18181,362781,362783,50085,25049,2818,25060,93343,6072,452,453,7157,25061,25052,25046,25048,25047],"class_list":["post-859493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-amber-alert","tag-bartlett","tag-break-in","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-burglary","tag-child","tag-child-abduction","tag-collierville","tag-crime","tag-dyer-county","tag-east-arkansas","tag-evidence","tag-forensic","tag-fugitive","tag-germantown","tag-headlines","tag-house","tag-i-40","tag-intruder","tag-kidnapping","tag-memphis","tag-mid-south","tag-missouri-boothill","tag-newbern","tag-news","tag-north-mississippi","tag-olive-branch","tag-rape","tag-rape-kit","tag-rapid-dna","tag-robbery","tag-severe-weather","tag-sexual-assault","tag-southaven","tag-tbi","tag-testing","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-update","tag-west-memphis","tag-west-tennessee","tag-wmc-action-news-5","tag-wmc5","tag-wmctv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}