Investigators believe Deven abused the children and ended up killing and dismembering them.
A 63-year-old woman in the US has been arrested and accused of killing two of her adopted children after their bodies were discovered inside a burnt barrel. According to Independent, two of Avantae Deven’s adopted children, Blake and London Deven, hadn’t been seen in years. London was last seen in 2019, but her mother never reported her missing. Blake hasn’t been seen since 2022, but Deven only reported him missing earlier this year.
Authorities in Fayetteville, North Carolina, were alerted to the situation in 2023 after one of her surviving adopted children made a mental health call to police. When officers investigated the various homes the family lived in, they found human remains in several homes. Detectives found a burned barrel with partial human remains inside it. Forensic examinations revealed that they belonged to a woman aged 15 to 19 and a man aged 7 to 10.
Investigators believe Deven abused the children and ended up killing and dismembering them. According to NBC affiliate WRALLondon died of starvation and neglect as tests continued on the boy’s remains.
More chilling details released by authorities this week revealed that the brothers, along with three other adopted children, lived in brutal conditions while in Deven’s care. Blake and London were adopted by Deven in 2013 and 2011 respectively, according to court documents obtained by ABC11.
They were kept in a small, dark room and given little or no food. They would have managed to “earn” food by writing hundreds of paragraphs to apologize for their behavior. The children told social workers that they were also beaten at times, to the point where they needed medical assistance.
During a press conference, police said they had forensic evidence to support allegations of torture, starvation and isolation.
”We believe he (Blake) was mentally abused and starved. His body was unable to sustain the inhumane treatment. So, Avantae developed a plan to hide Blake’s remains. She forced another person in the house to participate,” said the sergeant. Locklear said. London Deven died “in the same painful way Blake died, from starvation and abandonment,” Locklear added.
Deven now faces two counts of first-degree murder, concealment of death, kidnapping and felony child abuse, according to the Fayetteville Police Department. She is being held at the Cumberland County Detention Center without bond.
“We all have soft spots for children and cases involving children are the most difficult we deal with. The fact that these were allegations of abuse in the deaths of children was certainly what caught my attention the most, particularly the way the allegations suggest the manner in which they died,” said Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West.
This story originally appeared on Ndtv.com read the full story
