Avantae Deven, left, is accused of starving her adoptive son and daughter, Blake Deven, center and London Deven, right, to death at their North Carolina home and burned their bodies in a barrel. (Fayetteville Police Department)
A North Carolina mother is behind bars after the remains of two of her adoptive children were found burned in a barrel — and they had been there for years, cops allege.
Avantae Deven, 63, is facing two counts of first-degree murder, concealment of death, kidnapping and felony child abuse, the Fayetteville Police Department said in a press release. She’s accused of killing Blake Deven and London Deven, the latter of whom had special needs. Blake hadn’t been seen since 2022 while London Deven was last spotted in 2019, police initially thought. But their mother didn’t report them missing until March.
The investigation began when cops responded to the Deven home in November for someone going through a mental health crisis, Fayetteville police Chief Kemberle Braden said Wednesday at a press conference. The person who had the crisis later told detectives that he hadn’t seen his brother Blake Deven in five years and the last time he saw him, he had a broken arm, Braden said.
Police began investigating and later learned another person in the family, London Deven, also was missing. The mother had adopted three boys and two girls, including London Deven, who required assistance.
Sgt. Jeff Locklear said Avantae Deven tried to throw investigators off the right trail.
“Initially, she was giving us a story that Blake was possibly at a Buddhist retreat in the mountains,” he said.
The mother also gave the same story to a 911 dispatcher when she reported them missing in March.
“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,” she said on the call obtained by Raleigh ABC affiliate WTVD.
Further investigation showed this was a lie, Locklear said. With the help of the FBI, cops searched the home where the family lived from November 2016 to June 2019. On the property, detectives found a burn barrel with partial human remains, authorities said. Last week, the results came back that the remains belonged to two people: a female aged 15 to 19 and a male aged 7 to 10. The female was identified as London Deven while the male is believed to be Blake Deven, Braden said.
According to Locklear, investigators believe that the mother would force the kids into a dark room and gave them little to no food. Avantae Deven allegedly said the kids could earn food by writing hundreds of paragraphs to apologize for their behavior. Locklear said after the boy and woman died, she made someone from the home help her dispose of the bodies in the burn barrel. They likely died sometime before 2019 when they lived at the home where the remains were discovered, according to Lockyear.
Avantae Deven is being held at the Cumberland County Detention Center with no bond.
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