A North Carolina mother accused of killing two of her five adopted children forced another child to dismember the bodies and threatened to hold him responsible for the murders if he came forward, shocking court documents reveal.
Avantae Deven, 63, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder after the remains believed to be those of his daughter London and son Blake were discovered late last month. According to documents obtained by the Fayetteville Observer..
The documents say Blake was believed to have been around 10 years old when he died in 2017, when his “body could no longer tolerate the inhumane treatment” he endured, including beatings, starvation and abuse. Blake’s sister, who was a teenager at the time, also died in 2019 from what appears to have been similar abuse, authorities said.
But their mother never even reported them missing, and alarms only went off in 2022 when their unidentified 15-year-old sibling called 911 saying he was having suicidal thoughts, the report said.
Deven then claimed she last saw her son when he left for a Buddhist retreat, and even had a family friend pose as Blake to trick the family into thinking her son was still alive, the documents state.
According to the affidavit, she actually forced one of Blake’s brothers to buy tools to dismember Blake’s body at a store, then burned the body in an incinerator in the backyard of her home.
According to the affidavit, Deven then allegedly forced the same child to cover up London’s death and threatened all of his children to never speak.
According to the warrant, she warned, “If this gets discovered, you guys will have to take responsibility. I will get the death penalty, but you guys are too old to take responsibility and it won’t be an issue.”
Investigators later found surveillance footage of Deven with the rest of his foster children buying a red cooler at Walmart, where London’s body was discovered, authorities said.
Detectives reportedly found metal cremation barrels containing two sets of human remains, one of which has been confirmed through DNA testing to be London’s, and the other which preliminary tests are expected to confirm to be Blake’s.
“During the investigation into the missing children, video, testimony, physical and documentary evidence of abuse, torture and starvation by (foster mother) Avante Deven was discovered,” the records state.
This included being confined with other siblings in small, pitch black rooms with little food and only a plastic container to use as a toilet, and being forced to write “hundreds, sometimes thousands, of sentences and paragraphs apologizing for the misdeeds they allegedly committed,” according to the documents.
According to court documents, Deven allegedly beat the children to the point that they required medical attention, but then refused to give them proper treatment, only using natural remedies such as applying honey to their open wounds.
Deven was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of child abuse causing serious bodily injury, two counts of abandonment of a human body/concealment of an unnatural death and one count of kidnapping.
She is being held in the Cumberland County Jail without bail.
