In the late autumn of 2023, the quiet community of Aiken, South Carolina, was disturbed by a grim discovery. On November 28th, the body of 30-year-old Devon Cruz Xavier Tricoche, a Black / African American male, was found submerged in the South Fork Edisto River. A fisherman happened upon the scene near the boat landing on New Holland Road at approximately 1:43 p.m. and immediately alerted the authorities.
The Aiken County Coroner's Office was called to the scene and, upon recovering Tricoche's body, determined that he had sustained at least one gunshot wound. An autopsy was scheduled to confirm the exact cause of death, though investigators were treating the case as a suspicious death from the outset.
The investigation into the death of Devon Tricoche soon revealed a story of a violent crime that began in a neighboring county. Authorities determined that Tricoche had been shot and killed in Leesville, located in Lexington County, during what was described as an attempted armed robbery. After the fatal shooting, his assailants transported his body to Aiken County and disposed of it in the Edisto River in an attempt to conceal the crime. The Aiken County Sheriff's Office, working in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, began to piece together the events that led to Tricoche's untimely death.
By February of the following year, the investigation led to the arrests of two individuals in connection with the murder of Devon Tricoche. Allon Triante Adams, 22, and Cady Elise Keener, 19, were taken into custody and faced a litany of charges for their alleged involvement in the crime. These charges included murder, armed robbery, criminal conspiracy, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and desecration of human remains. As the legal proceedings against Adams and Keener began, it came to light that the pair were also linked to another fatal shooting that had occurred on December 30, 2023, further deepening the gravity of their alleged crimes. The charges against them in relation to Devon Tricoche's death are reportedly still pending.
