'Inhumane treatment': Fayetteville warrant details disposal of adopted children's bodies

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.

Human remains found in April in the backyard of a home on Beaver Dam Road in Autryville were determined to belong to a boy between the ages of 7 and 10 and a girl between the ages of 15 and 19. Locklear said some of the remains were confirmed in mid-June to belong to London. The other remains are undergoing further testing, but the record states they "preliminarily appear" to belong to Blake.

Deven was arrested at her home June 26, some six months after reporting in a 911 call that she last saw Blake in 2022 as he was leaving to attend a Buddhist retreat.

Locklear said that Deven never reported London missing and police only learned about her disappearance during the hunt for Blake.

In addition to the adopted children Deven's elderly mother, Leonie Beverly Aileen Maxwell, lived with the family in Fayetteville, police said. Maxwell died May 31 at the age of 95 after an extended illness. Her death came in the wake of news that two of Deven's children had been missing for years and less than three weeks after a Cumberland County judge granted an emergency petition to the DSS for control over Maxwell's medical care as she languished in the hospital following a stroke and resulting brain injury in November.

Related: Adoptive Fayetteville mother accused in deaths of two of her children appears in court

Arrest warrant

According to the arrest warrant, the Fayetteville Police Department first learned Blake was missing after a child at the Deven home called 911 and said he wanted to kill himself. In follow-up interviews, the 15-year-old told officials, "He had not seen his brother Blake in five years and that the last time he saw Blake, he had a broken arm and that he is now dead," an affidavit states

The record alleges that once the Department of Social Services became involved, Deven became "nervous" and convinced a family friend to impersonate Blake during a visit from DSS. The record said these allegations were confirmed by the individual in police interviews.

The affidavit states that the Homicide Unit conducted interviews with multiple individuals close to the case, including one person who claimed the three oldest children adopted by Deven, Blake, London and another girl were kept in small rooms in complete darkness with little to no food and a plastic container to use as a bathroom. The children were also allegedly forced to do "paperwork" which "consisted of writing hundreds and frequently thousands of sentences and paragraphs apologizing for some misdeed they had supposedly done."

Another allegation was that Deven would beat the children severely enough to require medical care, "but AVANTAE DEVEN refused to provide adequate medical care only applying things she deemed as natural cures like applying honey to open wounds, etc."

During a search of the Eichelberger Drive home, detectives and FBI agents recovered biological and physical evidence from an upstairs bathroom, court records states.

Investigators reportedly recovered evidence that supports the allegations.

"Video, testimonial, physical and written evidence of the abuse, torture and starvation at the hands of (their adoptive mother) Avantae Deven has been located during the investigation into the missing children," the record states.

Deven also allegedly told one of her adopted children, "If this ever gets found out, you need to take the blame because I will get the death penalty and because of your age you won't get in trouble if you take the blame," the warrant states.

Related: 'Isolation, torture and starvation': Adoptive Fayetteville mom charged with murder of two kids

Blake's death

Someone who lived with the family on Eichelberger Drive told police that after long periods of isolation, starvation and torture, Blake's health began to fail in 2017, according to court records and Blake reportedly became lethargic and eventually lost consciousness. Despite the pleas of his siblings, the record states, Avantae Deven allegedly refused to call an ambulance and ultimately, Blake died.

The record alleges that afterward, Deven developed a plan to hide the young boy's remains until she could permanently dispose of them, the affidavit states.

She allegedly forced one of Blake's siblings to purchase equipment from a local store to use to dismember his body. It is alleged that Deven then incinerated Blake's remains in a burn barrel in the backyard of the Eichelberger Drive home and removed any evidence of the boy's death from the home, according to the affidavit.

London's death

The family soon after moved to Berriedale Drive, according to the warrant. During this time, one of the abused children fled the state. When the former member of the household visited and inquired about London, it is alleged that Deven told the person, "I had to put her in a mental institution," the record states.

In 2023, when DSS caseworkers began visiting the Berriedale Drive home after the November suicide attempt, Avantae Deven allegedly admitted to the family friend that she lied to him and that London "had died from a seizure, "had a seizure and died," according to the warrant.

Using the fact that the person had helped dispose of Blake, the warrant states, Deven allegedly forced the former household member to assist her in disposing of the evidence and covering up the death of London.

After the removal of all incriminating evidence of what happened to London from the home, including removing carpet and flooring, the former household member was allegedly directed by Avantae Deven to take the items to a secluded location and burn them, according to court records.

According to the warrant, investigators recovered surveillance video of Avantae Deven, with the two remaining adopted children in her care, at an area Walmart purchasing a red cooler, in which the record suggests London's remains were found.

Detectives recovered a metal burn barrel containing two sets of human remains, one of which was confirmed by DNA analysis to be London Deven, according to the warrant. A preliminary test of the second set of remains shows they appear to belong to Blake Deven.

Avantae Deven remained in the Cumberland County jail on Tuesday where she is being held without bail.

Public safety reporter Joseph Pierre can be reached at jpierre@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Warrant outlines abuse, deaths of adopted kids London and Blake Deven