In the summer of 2022, a 16-year-old boy named Blake Julian Trenton Deven was last seen in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Reports suggest his final known contact was a phone call to his mother from a local Walmart on August 1, 2022. Blake, a white male with blond hair and blue eyes, had a history of medical conditions, including static encephalopathy, a form of brain damage. Despite the circumstances, a considerable amount of time would pass before he was officially considered missing.
The last available photographs of Blake were from several years prior to his disappearance, making it difficult to know what he looked like as a teenager.
The journey to uncover what happened to Blake began unexpectedly in November 2023, when police responded to a mental health crisis call at his adoptive mother's home. During this call, one of Blake's brothers revealed a startling piece of information: he had not seen Blake in five years and recalled that the last time he saw him, Blake had a broken arm. This disclosure prompted further investigation, yet it wasn't until January 19, 2024, that Blake's adoptive mother, Avantae Emerald Deven, officially reported him missing. She told authorities that Blake was religious and had gone to a Buddhist retreat, suggesting his absence was not out of character. However, as investigators delved deeper, they discovered that another child in the home, Blake's adoptive sister London Deven, had also been missing since 2019.
The investigation into the disappearances of Blake and London Deven soon shifted from a missing persons case to a homicide investigation. Disturbing accounts emerged from the other siblings in the home, who told investigators that both Blake and London had died as a result of starvation and abuse at the hands of their adoptive mother. The siblings alleged they were kept in a small, dark room, underfed, and severely beaten. The investigation uncovered that Blake likely passed away while the family was living at a previous residence, and that his adoptive mother allegedly devised a plan to hide his remains, forcing another person in the household to help dismember and burn his body. In April 2024, authorities found human skeletal remains while searching for the siblings. Subsequently, Avantae Deven was arrested and faced multiple charges, including first-degree murder, felony child abuse, and concealment of death in connection to both cases. While the remains of one child were confirmed to be London's, the tragic overview of this case concludes with the grim reality that Blake's life was cut short by unimaginable cruelty, hidden from view for years until the truth was brought to light through a separate family crisis.Last Seen: Aug 1, 2022
