The bodies of two of the mother’s adopted children were discovered charred in a barrel; according to police, the children had been there for years. The woman is currently being held in jail in North Carolina.
According to a news statement from the Fayetteville Police Department, Avantae Deven, 63, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, concealing a death, kidnapping, and criminal child abuse.
Blake Deven and London Deven, the latter of whom had special needs, are the people she is suspected of killing. Police first believed London Deven was last seen in 2019, but Blake hadn’t been seen since 2022. But it wasn’t until March that their mother reported them missing.
According to Fayetteville police Chief Kemberle Braden, during a press conference on Wednesday, the investigation started when officers were called to the Deven residence in November in response to a report of a mental health crisis.
Detectives were then informed by the guy experiencing the crisis that he had not seen his brother Blake Deven in five years and that the last time he had seen him, Blake had a broken arm, according to Braden.
After starting their investigation, the police discovered that London Deven, another member of the family, was also gone. London Deven was one of the three boys and two girls the mother had adopted, and she needed help.
Avantae Deven attempted to divert detectives from their intended course, according to Sgt. Jeff Locklear.
“Initially, she was giving us a story that Blake was possibly at a Buddhist retreat in the mountains,” he stated.
When the mother reported them missing in March, she told the same account to a 911 dispatcher as well.
She stated on the call, “He is generally religious. He used to go back and forth about a Buddhist retreat…but this time he never called back. My daughter did one once for 6 months, and she called, so I thought OK. He’s really independent, strong and brave and bossy, so it’s not really unlikely of his character.”
Locklear indicated that more research revealed this to be a falsehood. From November 2016 to June 2019, police conducted a search of the family’s residence with assistance from the FBI.
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Authorities reported that a burn barrel containing some human remains was discovered by detectives on the premises.
The results showed last week that the remains belonged to two individuals: a male aged 7 to 10 and a female aged 15 to 19. According to Braden, the guy was identified as Blake Deven, and the female as London Deven.
Locklear claims that detectives think the mother would compel the children to stay in a dimly lit room and would feed them very little, if anything at all. It is stated that Avantae Deven told the children they could write hundreds of paragraphs of apology for their misbehavior in order to earn meals.
Locklear claimed that after the woman and boy passed away, she forced a family member to assist her in burning the bodies. According to Lockyear, they most likely passed away before 2019 when they occupied the house where the bones were found.
Avantae Deven is being detained without bond at the Cumberland County Detention Center.
