Fayetteville police arrest adoptive mother of missing siblings on murder charges

Ninety days after the Fayetteville Police Department first announced the search for Fayetteville teen Blake Deven, investigators have confirmed the missing Fayetteville boy is dead — and possibly at the hands of his 63-year-old adoptive mother. 

Avantae Deven was arrested June 26 on a slew of charges allegedly tied to the deaths of Blake and his sister, London. But as investigators in the case have gradually pulled back the curtain on the horrors that allegedly took place in Avantae Deven’s Berriedale Drive and Eichelberger Drive homes, more questions than answers have emerged. 

How was Avantae Deven able to adopt five children from three different North Carolina counties? How did she conceal her alleged abuse of the children in her household? And why did it take so many years to uncover the truth — that two of her children had died long before officials got involved?

As Deven awaits her day in court without bail in the Cumberland County Detention Center, arrested on a charge of kidnapping and two charges each of first-degree murder, concealment of a death and felony child abuse, here’s what CityView’s research has found.

‘Appalling conditions’

CityView previously reported in April the known timeline of events in the Deven case, which began with Avantae Deven’s move to Fayetteville in 2015. The Fayetteville Police Department announced Blake Deven’s disappearance March 28 and London Deven’s disappearance April 4. Blake would have been 17 at the time, and London would have been 27, police said.

Until Deven’s arrest June 26, the public’s knowledge of the case stemmed from the police department’s news releases and public records gathered by media outlets. CityView reported in April that Avantae Deven’s 95-year-old mother, Leonie Maxwell, had been placed in the custody of the Cumberland County Dept. of Social Services. Maxwell was hospitalized with complications from an anoxic brain injury, and hospital staff could no longer get in touch with Avantae, court records claimed. Officials also suspected Avantae of financially abusing her mother, the records show.

According to public records from the Cumberland County Register of Deeds, Maxwell died May 21. 

The Fayetteville Police Department announced Avantae Deven’s arrest hours after she was taken into custody at her Berriedale Drive home June 26. In a brief press conference, Police Chief Kemberle Braden revealed investigators believed Blake and London Deven were dead.

Sgt. Jeff Locklear said the investigation began in November, when officers were called to Avantae Deven’s home for a mental health crisis one of her children was experiencing. 

“The victim who was going through the mental health crisis told authorities that he had not seen his brother Blake in five years, and that the last time he had seen him, he had a broken arm, and that he’s now dead,” Locklear said.

Investigators discovered Avantae had adopted five children — three boys who were biologically related and two girls who were not related to each other or to the boys, according to Locklear. Interviews uncovered the “appalling conditions” at least three of those children lived in, he said. 

“Avantae Deven is said to have kept them in small rooms, in complete darkness at times,” Locklear said. “They were given little or no food and could earn nourishment by doing ‘paperwork.’ That means they had to write hundreds of paragraphs to apologize for behavior.” 

Deven allegedly beat some of the children so badly they should have received medical attention, but the children only received “natural cures, like honey,” he said.

“The investigation uncovered Blake likely passed away while the Deven family lived at the Eichelberger Drive home,” Locklear said. “We believe he was mentally abused. He was physically starved, and his body could no longer take the inhumane treatment.” 

Avantae then allegedly forced “another person in the household” to help her dismember and burn Blake’s remains, according to Locklear. Further investigation revealed London had likely suffered the same fate, he said. 

“Additional information led Fayetteville Police Department detectives to locate a metal burn barrel,” Locklear said. “ … Forensic testing confirmed the barrel contained two separate sets of human remains.” 

One set, consistent with the remains of a female age 15 to 19, was confirmed through DNA testing to belong to London Deven, he said. The other set, consistent with a child age seven to 10, has yet to come back with a match, but is believed to belong to Blake Deven, according to Locklear. The remains were found at a property in Autryville in Cumberland County, he said.

Blake had not been seen since 2017 and London had not been seen since 2019, Locklear said. At the time of Blake’s last sighting, he would have been 10 or 11 years old, while London would have been 22 or 23 years old at the time of her last sighting. Locklear noted London “had special needs and depended on Avantae to care for her.” 

Fayetteville Police Department spokesperson Rickelle Harrell declined to provide further details on any conditions London had been diagnosed with.

Blake and London Deven’s biological mothers did not respond to CityView’s requests for comment. 

What records show

It is unclear exactly when Deven adopted all of her five children, but London Deven’s adoption papers show she was born in North Carolina on Aug. 29, 1996, and was placed with Avantae Deven in Buncombe County on Nov. 2, 2010. Avantae’s adoption of London was finalized March 30, 2011, according to the decree of adoption. North Carolina law generally requires the consent of minors age 12 and up in their adoption, but a judge waived the requirement for London to consent, the decree states. It’s not clear why that requirement was waived, though the law permits judges to do so if they find it is “not in the best interest of the minor to require the consent.” 

Records from the Fayetteville Fire Department show emergency services were called to Deven’s Eichelberger Drive and Berriedale Drive residences dozens of times while her family lived there.

Cumberland County property records show Deven’s LLC, Nelson & Johnson, purchased her 1834 Eichelberger Drive home Nov. 29, 2016, and sold the home June 4, 2019. During that time period, according to the fire department’s records, EMS were called to the home 10 times.

Deven’s LLC purchased a home on June 5, 2019, on Berriedale Drive, where Deven lived until her arrest, according to county property records. From 2021 until early this year, EMS were called to that home over a dozen times, fire department records show.

The incident report tied to Avantae Deven’s 911 call reporting Blake as missing lists one of her adopted children, whom CityView is choosing not to name to protect their privacy, as having an Autryville address on Beaver Dam Road. That address falls within Cumberland County limits, according to property records. 

A Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office incident report shows deputies assisted another police agency at an address on Beaver Dam Road the morning of April 9, three days before the Fayetteville Police Department announced it had discovered “partial skeletal remains” at an undisclosed location.

‘It would be a red flag’

Emily Putnam-Hornstein is the John A. Tate Distinguished Professor for Children in Need at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Social Work. She told CityView several factors should have given pause to those involved in Avantae Deven’s adoptions.

Adopting five children from three different counties, for example, would typically be an issue, Putnam-Hornstein said. 

“It would absolutely be a red flag for me based on my practical experience,” she said. “It would be a red flag for me based on my child welfare policy experience. It would be a red flag for me as a parent.”

Putnam-Hornstein has not consulted on Deven’s case, but in her professional experience, she said, adopting several children from different families could also pose a problem.

“They all have to be integrated into her home as a member of her family,” she said. “These are children who have had the disruptions of whatever attachments were formed with their biological parents initially, and then whatever other foster homes they were coming from before they ended up with her.”

According to an adoption assistance eligibility checklist created by the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, a wide range of factors makes adopted children eligible for their parents to receive monthly payments from the state until they turn 18 (or 21 if adopted on or after their 16th birthday). The Child Welfare Information Gateway, run by the Children’s Bureau under the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, states adoptive parents can also receive as much as $2,000 per child as part of a one-time reimbursement for certain expenses accrued in the adoption process for a “special needs” child in North Carolina.

Braden declined to say at last week’s press conference if Deven was receiving adoption assistance payments.

Putnam-Hornstein said she believes policies need to be in place to check on the wellbeing of children who are being homeschooled, like Deven’s children. WRAL reported Deven established her “Deven Academy” homeschool in 2007.

“This is yet one more situation where, from a child protection standpoint, we have to think about where there are children who have particular vulnerabilities and where the state has, I would say, an affirmative obligation to take additional actions to ensure that the child is safe and being cared for,” she said.

Putnam-Hornstein called for greater transparency from agencies that handle child protection and foster care. 

“Unfortunately, we tend to only demand information when there’s a child death or a child tragedy, but I would love to see much greater transparency and engagement with communities generally around the decisions that are being made with regards to abuse and neglect of children,” she said.

Fortunately, she noted, extreme cases like Deven’s are relatively rare — but child abuse and neglect are not.

According to Lives Cut Short, a project headed by Putnam-Hornstein and other experts on child welfare and abuse, at least 16,913 infants and children have died from abuse or neglect over the past 10 years in the United States, with at least 262 of those deaths occurring in North Carolina. Lives Cut Short lists at least seven children who have died in Cumberland County from alleged abuse or neglect since 2022 alone.

Reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com or 910-423-6500.

This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501c3 charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.