NC NC - Blake Deven & London Deven, missing dates and ages are uncertain, FBI involved, Fayetteville

[Breezie]

I'm getting the impression from the 2nd portion of the Q&A (thanks for transcribing that, @tlcya !)
that it's perhsps an extended family member who is providing credible info/details to LE or one of the other minor or adult children from the adoptive home perhaps vs the adoptive parent(s) themselves? No one reported either of these two as missing at the time they actually went missing- the only reasons I can come up with for failing to do so at the time are:

1. being involved in the disappearances

2. being involved in something else and not wanting that discovered during an unrelated missing person investigation

3. indifference / simply not caring about the safety, well-being of these two and whether or not they are missing.

any other ideas?

London would have been 23 when she was last seen. If she told them that she was leaving, then the adopted mom might not have thought to report her as missing.

Blake was 15 when last seen at Walmart. He should have been reported as missing even if she thought he had run away. Reporting Blake as missing would have brought people looking into their home life.

There is very little info out there on an Avantae Emerald Deven. The fact that there are no recent photos of Blake and London is odd but Avantae might not have used social media. It also makes home schooling more likely since there are no more recent school photos of them.

It is possible that both London and Blake wanted to leave what could have been an extremely limited and oppressive environment. It is also possible that they became sick from not enough food or lack of medical care.

The family may have been a multi-cultural family given the name Avantae Emerald. The Harts enjoyed the attention of being multicultural adopters or “rescuers” while Avantae appears to be a much more private person. JMO

 

[Eli9]

London would have been 23 when she was last seen. If she told them that she was leaving, then the adopted mom might not have thought to report her as missing.

Blake was 15 when last seen at Walmart. He should have been reported as missing even if she thought he had run away. Reporting Blake as missing would have brought people looking into their home life.

There is very little info out there on an Avantae Emerald. The fact that there are no recent photos of Blake and London is odd but Avantae might not have used social media. It also makes home schooling more likely since there are no more recent school photos of them.

It is possible that both London and Blake wanted to leave what could have been an extremely limited and oppressive environment. It is also possible that they became sick from not enough food or lack of medical care.

The family may have been a multi-cultural family given the name Avantae Emerald. The Harts enjoyed the attention of being multicultural adopters or “rescuers” while Avantae appears to be a much more private person.

I was under the impression that Emerald is the middle name. Last name Deven. MOO

 

[carbuff]

I was under the impression that Emerald is the middle name. Last name Deven. MOO

I believe that is correct. I did find some things for Avantae Deven, though nothing beyond confirming her existence.

 

[Palisades]

.

The family may have been a multi-cultural family given the name Avantae Emerald. The Harts enjoyed the attention of being multicultural adopters or “rescuers” while Avantae appears to be a much more private person. JMO

I was thinking she could have changed her name to Avantae Emerald Deven. Been born with a different name.

 

[Breezie]

London’s birth mom is also posting on FB trying to find her.
Both birth moms have more photos than the adoptive mom.
London’s birth name was Moriah Foster.
With both names, her birth mom’s FB page should pop up.

 

[Breezie]

Police return to Fayetteville home linked to missing teen and female relative

A search began in Fayetteville for Blake Deven on March 27 and just this week authorities learned his relative, London Deven, has also disappeared, according to the FBI and police.

www.cbs17.com

Police in Fayetteville Friday night returned to a home they had previously searched in the case of a missing boy — whose disappearance is now linked to a female relative who has also vanished.

Friday night, police were positioned near crime scene tape and large, bright lights were installed overlooking a home along Berriedale Drive. Earlier in the day Friday, the FBI said their agents were involved in a search at a former home of either Blake Deven or London Deven, who are both missing.

This doesn’t sound good. They must have found something concerning to come back and search again.

 

[Stunned]

Could London have left taking Deven with her for some reason?

 

[Eli9]

Could London have left taking Deven with her for some reason?

Or came back to get him maybe?

 

[Breezie]

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1433-Berriedale-Dr_Fayetteville_NC_28304_M56694-04707

Police return to Fayetteville home linked to missing teen and female relative

A search began in Fayetteville for Blake Deven on March 27 and just this week authorities learned his relative, London Deven, has also disappeared, according to the FBI and police.

www.cbs17.com

This could be the house in the article.

 

[Eli9]

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1433-Berriedale-Dr_Fayetteville_NC_28304_M56694-04707

Police return to Fayetteville home linked to missing teen and female relative

A search began in Fayetteville for Blake Deven on March 27 and just this week authorities learned his relative, London Deven, has also disappeared, according to the FBI and police.

www.cbs17.com

This could be the house in the article.

I don't see a septic system but there is "Basement Features: Crawl Space". Light's are set up to illuminate the car port.

 

[grannygates]

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1433-Berriedale-Dr_Fayetteville_NC_28304_M56694-04707

Police return to Fayetteville home linked to missing teen and female relative

A search began in Fayetteville for Blake Deven on March 27 and just this week authorities learned his relative, London Deven, has also disappeared, according to the FBI and police.

www.cbs17.com

This could be the house in the article.

House records indicate it was sold 2019 (to current occupants?) The street view has prior dates from 2012 and 2007, same car in the driveway, unable to make out name on mailbox.

 

[grannygates]

Name on mailbox appears to be original owner of house per county records, perhaps it was just not removed when house was sold in 2019? May be a rental property now as was sold to an LLC. MOO

Property Summary - County Real Property Data

 

[Breezie]

Fayetteville Police and FBI ask public's help to find Devens

London Deven has not been seen since 2019.

spectrumlocalnews.com

Police said they searched the old Fayetteville home of the Devens', who no longer live there, on Friday. The Deven family moved to the Fayetteville area in 2015, according to police. They also confirmed that they previously searched three places, but did not disclose the locations or why they searched them.

They were probably renters. They lived in 3 or 4 locations since 2015.
There most have been some reason for them to search the Berriedale home twice.

 

[Laughing]

Could London have left taking Deven with her for some reason?

Has anyone rabbit-holed social media of their birth names? If London went back to using the birth name provided by here birth mom -- MF -- are there old MySpace pages, Facebook, anything?

Same for Blake?

No school friends, neighbors, Sunday school friends with anything to say? Other kids from foster placements?

Apparently the other adopted sibs are keeping quiet, probably good advice from LE?

 

[Mack the Knife]

The photo NCMEC has posted looks a bit older than the one going around.

I think it's bizarre that there is not a recent photo of Blake--he was adopted in 2013 and they didn't even take a celebratory adoption photo? But whatever, I've seen a lot of reports of missing kids with outdated or low quality photos.

What I really don't understand is why there needs to be an age progression illustration based on early photos. If the Deven family was living with him until 2022, surely someone could describe him to a sketch artist for an accurate representation.

 

[grannygates]

The photo NCMEC has posted looks a bit older than the one going around.

I think it's bizarre that there is not a recent photo of Blake--he was adopted in 2013 and they didn't even take a celebratory adoption photo? But whatever, I've seen a lot of reports of missing kids with outdated or low quality photos.

What I really don't understand is why there needs to be an age progression illustration based on early photos. If the Deven family was living with him until 2022, surely someone could describe him to a sketch artist for an accurate representation.

They apparently have video or some type of evidence that he was at Walmart in 2022. Even a still from that video would be more helpful for people to identify

 

[Mack the Knife]

Timeline
Here's what I've got:

Around 2007	Most recent available photo of London (~12) (according to the FBI)	CBS 17 April 6
February 2011	Madison County Department of Social Services received Blake Julian Trenton Deven (~4) into its custody.	WRAL April 4
May 2011	Blake was placed in a foster home in Buncombe County through a licensed private child placing agency (according to Madison County Department of Social Services)	WRAL April 4
2012	Most recent available photo of Blake (~5)	CBS 17 April 6
July 2013	Blake (~6) was adopted by his foster family (according to Madison County Department of Social Services)	WRAL April 4
2015	Deven family moves to Fayetteville	CBS 17 April 6
2019	Last time the Deven family saw London (~23), she was not reported missing (according to police)	CBS 17 April 6
Five years ago	Blake's aunt says family members haven't seen Blake in five years, and "As far as we know, from the time that she got them, she homeschooled them". It's unclear if this means that Blake's adoptive mother had taken in his biological siblings.	WRAL April 4
2022	Last time the Deven family saw Blake (15), he was not reported missing (according to police). (Other reports say that police have not confirmed when Blake was last seen, and 2022 comes from the Missing Children Database.)	CBS 17 April 6
August 1 2022	Date Blake has been missing since, according to NCMEC. (Compiler's note: I doubt this date is particularly accurate. Police have not confirmed a date and family members don't seem to know. I would bet that a date is required by the database, so they are forced to guesstimate.)	NCMEC
February 2024	Blake Deven's biological mother (who had no custody of Blake) says she was informed by Fayetteville police that Blake was missing in February	WRAL April 4
March 27 2024	Police conducted interviews in a separate investigation and family members mentioned not having seen Blake in years.	WRAL March 28
March 27 2024	Fayetteville police begin searching properties associated with the Deven family. As of 2024-04-06 they have searched at least 3.	CBS 17 April 6

Two callouts:

• Bio mom says Fayetteville police informed her Feb that Blake was missing, but police say they found out in March? Huh? Police went public by the next day, so it can't just be a mix-up of dates.
• Blake was removed from his biological mother, placed with a foster family, then adopted by that family in a little over 2 years. I don't know how things are in North Carolina, but that seems very fast for a situation where it doesn't seem like the biological mother would voluntarily terminate her parental rights.

 

[AliceInPain]

Has it been mentioned anywhere what the initial investigation was about?

 

[Stunned]

Has it been mentioned anywhere what the initial investigation was about?

Not that I've seen. Very strange.

 

[Breezie]

Timeline
Here's what I've got:

Around 2007	Most recent available photo of London (~12) (according to the FBI)	CBS 17 April 6
February 2011	Madison County Department of Social Services received Blake Julian Trenton Deven (~4) into its custody.	WRAL April 4
May 2011	Blake was placed in a foster home in Buncombe County through a licensed private child placing agency (according to Madison County Department of Social Services)	WRAL April 4
2012	Most recent available photo of Blake (~5)	CBS 17 April 6
July 2013	Blake (~6) was adopted by his foster family (according to Madison County Department of Social Services)	WRAL April 4
2015	Deven family moves to Fayetteville	CBS 17 April 6
2019	Last time the Deven family saw London (~23), she was not reported missing (according to police)	CBS 17 April 6
Five years ago	Blake's aunt says family members haven't seen Blake in five years, and "As far as we know, from the time that she got them, she homeschooled them". It's unclear if this means that Blake's adoptive mother had taken in his biological siblings.	WRAL April 4
2022	Last time the Deven family saw Blake (15), he was not reported missing (according to police). (Other reports say that police have not confirmed when Blake was last seen, and 2022 comes from the Missing Children Database.)	CBS 17 April 6
August 1 2022	Date Blake has been missing since, according to NCMEC. (Compiler's note: I doubt this date is particularly accurate. Police have not confirmed a date and family members don't seem to know. I would bet that a date is required by the database, so they are forced to guesstimate.)	NCMEC
February 2024	Blake Deven's biological mother (who had no custody of Blake) says she was informed by Fayetteville police that Blake was missing in February	WRAL April 4
March 27 2024	Police conducted interviews in a separate investigation and family members mentioned not having seen Blake in years.	WRAL March 28
March 27 2024	Fayetteville police begin searching properties associated with the Deven family. As of 2024-04-06 they have searched at least 3.	CBS 17 April 6

Two callouts:

• Bio mom says Fayetteville police informed her Feb that Blake was missing, but police say they found out in March? Huh? Police went public by the next day, so it can't just be a mix-up of dates.
• Blake was removed from his biological mother, placed with a foster family, then adopted by that family in a little over 2 years. I don't know how things are in North Carolina, but that seems very fast for a situation where it doesn't seem like the biological mother would voluntarily terminate her parental rights.

On the last point, two years isn’t considered that fast. Some kids used to be in foster care, for 5 or more years, while their parents did some of the things on their case plan so their rights would not be terminated. This is called lack of permanence. The two year mark was picked to give kids permanance. Blake’s mom might have made a good effort to get her sons back but case plans can be very time consuming. It can include drug treatment, if there is a drug problem. If parents don’t have a job, the case plan could include working on a GED or job skills training. There are also parenting classes and anger management classes if that is an issue. They have to get some type of psychological and parenting evaluation. Birth parents must also go to their weekly scheduled visitations with their kids. If they don’t have a car, then they have to rely on busses to do all this. Many birth parents just aren’t able to do everything that they need to do in order to get their kids back.