An adopted sibling of two missing children — one dead and the other presumed dead — was allegedly forced by their adoptive mother to purchase tools and dismember the bodies, court records in the case reveal.
And when the state began asking questions and the Department of Social Services got involved, the record states, Avantae Deven enlisted a family friend to impersonate her adopted son.
The allegations are laid out in the murder case against Deven, 63, in the death of London Deven and the presumed death of Blake Deven. She is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of child abuse causing serious bodily injury, two counts of destroying human remains/concealing an unnatural death and one count of kidnapping. The two children are among five kids Deven adopted from three North Carolina counties, an official said.
Fayetteville Police Sgt. Jeff Locklear announced last week that investigators believe Blake, starved, isolated and abused, was about 10 years old in 2017 when “until “his body could no longer take the inhumane treatment” and he died at the family’s former home on Eichelberger Drive. The sergeant said it’s believed that two years later, London, equally abused and neglected, died at the family’s current home on Berriedale Drive.