Police in North Carolina say that the bodies of two of her adopted children were found burned in a barrel and had been there for years. The mother is now in jail.
A police news release said that Avantae Deven, 63, is being charged with two counts of first-degree murder, concealing death, kidnapping, and felony child abuse. She is charged with killing Blake Deven and London Deven, who had special needs. Blake hadn’t been seen since 2022, and cops thought London Deven hadn’t been seen since 2019. But it wasn’t until March that their mother said they were lost.
In November, police were called to the Deven home because someone was having a mental health crisis, Fayetteville police Chief Kemberle Braden said at a press conference. This is when the investigation started. Further, the person who had the crisis told police that he hadn’t seen his brother Blake Deven in five years and that the last time he did, Blake had a broken arm, Braden said.
As the police began their investigation, they found out that London Deven, another family member, was also missing. The mother had adopted four children—three boys and two girls—including London Deven, who needed help.
Sgt. Jeff Locklear said Avantae Deven tried to get police to look in the wrong place.
At first, she told us that Blake might have been at a Buddhist retreat in the woods, he said.
When the mother called 911 in March to say her kids were missing, she told the same story.
“He is religious most of the time.” He often called back and forth about a Buddhist retreat, but he didn’t call this time. My daughter did one for six months, and she called, so I said it was fine. “He’s very independent, brave, strong, and bossy, so it’s not really out of character for him,” she said on the call that WTVD in Raleigh got.
He said that more research showed that this was a lie. Police searched the family’s home from November 2016 to June 2019 with help from the FBI. Police say that on the land, detectives found a burn barrel with some human remains in it. The results showed last week that the bodies belonged to two people: a girl aged 15 to 19 and a boy aged 7 to 10. Braden said that the female was named London Deven and the boy is likely Blake Deven.
Locklear says that police think the mother would lock the kids in a dark room and feed them very little or nothing. Advantage Deven is said to have told the kids that they could get food by writing hundreds of lines to say sorry for what they did. Locklear said that after the boy and woman died, she had someone take care of the bodies in the burn barrel. Based on what Lockyear says, they probably died before 2019 because they were living in the house where the bodies were found.
Ava Deven is being held without bond at the Cumberland County Detention Center according to Law&Crime.