The latest WRAL documentary, "Broken: Foster Care in North Carolina," premieres this week.
The documentary shows how the tragic deaths of Blake and London Deven, two adopted siblings in North Carolina, exposed serious failures within the foster care system.
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The Deven siblings' case and the need for systemic change are the driving forces behind the documentary, hosted and produced by WRAL Investigative Documentary Reporter Cristin Severance and Documentary Photojournalist Dwayne Myers.
WRAL Anchor and Reporter Chris Lovingood’s relentless reporting on the Deven case provided exclusive and unprecedented access to key figures in the story, including members of the children’s biological family and the surviving adopted daughter of Avantae Deven, who was arrested and charged with the murders of Blake and London Deven.
"Broken: Foster Care in North Carolina" premieres at 7:30 p.m. ET Thursday.
Here’s a timeline that provides a look at how we got to this point in the disappearances of Blake Deven and London Deven:
Timeline of Blake Deven and London Deven’s disappearances
2006: Blake Deven was born.
2007: The last known photo of London Deven was taken when she was about 12 years old, Fayetteville police said.
2011: Madison County Department of Social Services said Blake Deven was placed into Buncombe County foster home.
January 2011: Avantae Emerald Deven filed a petition to adopt London, according to court documents.
March 2011: Avantae Deven’s petition for London Deven’s adoption gets approved, according to court documents.
May 2011: A licensed private child placing agency placed Blake Deven in a foster home located in Buncombe County, according to the Madison County Department of Social Services.
2012: The last known photo of Blake Deven was taken when he was about 6 years old, Fayetteville police said.
April 2013: Court documents state Avantae Deven filed a petition to adopt Blake.
July 2013: Avantae Deven’s petition for Blake Deven’s adoption got approved, according to the Madison County Department of Social Services.
2015: Deven family moves to Cumberland County, according to the Madison County Department of Social Services.
Fayetteville Police Chief Kemberle Braden has also said the Deven family moved to the “Fayetteville area” in 2015.
November 2016: The Deven family moved to a Fayetteville home on Eichelberger Drive near Devlin Drive, police said.
Police said the Deven family lived at the home until June 2019. The family who currently lives at home are not related to this investigation and are fully cooperating.
June 2019: The Deven family moved to a home on Berriedale Drive near Tarbert Avenue, police said. Police said the Deven family still lives there as of Thursday, April 18, 2024.
2019: This year marks the last time London Deven was seen in Fayetteville, according to the police.
Aug. 1, 2022: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children database stated Blake Deven has been missing since 2022.
When Fayetteville Police Chief Kemberle Braden held a news conference about the search for Blake Deven on April 5, 2024, he said Deven was possibly last seen in 2022 at a Walmart, when he would have been between 14-15 years old.
November 2023: Fayetteville police said during a June 26, 2024, press conference that officers at responded to a mental health crisis at the home on Berriedale Drive. At that time, a person at the residence told officers that Blake Deven had not been seen in five years and when he had been seen last, he had a broken arm.
January 2024: Public documents list Blake Deven was reported missing in January, but Fayetteville police did not publicly announce this until March 29, 2024.
March 27, 2024: The Fayetteville Police Department and the FBI searched three locations in Fayetteville in the investigation to find Blake Deven.
Fayetteville Police Chief Kemberle Braden declined to provide specifics of the locations searched.
March 28, 2024: Fayetteville police issued a news release asking for the public’s help finding Blake Deven, a 17-year-old boy, and included a photo of Blake that was taken around 2012, when he was in elementary school.
With help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, police also provided an age-processed photo of what Blake could look like.
Police did not say how long Blake had been missing. However, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children stated Blake has been missing since 2022.
Braden did not offer a reason for the gap in time between when Blake was last seen and when the search for him was made public.
April 4, 2024: Fayetteville police announced they were also looking for London Deven, who is now 27.
Police released a photo of London from around 2007 when she was about 12 years old.
The FBI also added posters of Blake Deven and London Deven to its missing persons website.
April 5, 2024: Fayetteville Police Chief Kemberle Braden held a news conference urging the public to help find Blake Deven and London Deven.
Specifically, Braden asked people to contact the police or FBI if they had contact with the two missing people.
During the April 5 news conference, Braden did not say if police had identified any people of interest in the cases.
Braden said the FBI joined the search for Blake and London Deven. He did not say whether Cumberland County Social Services was involved in the search.
Braden said police had executed a search warrant that day at a home along Eichelberger Drive, where Blake and London Deven were known to have lived with Avantae Deven.
“I want to be clear, the family that lives at the home now is extremely cooperative with us and has no connection at all to this investigation,” Braden said. “These are unusual missing person cases.”
Braden said the police department’s investigation did not start with a 911 call, calling it a “complex investigation” that would “take time.”
Also, Braden said police and the FBI could not publicly release certain information in the interest of finding Blake Deven and London Deven.
April 6, 2024: According to Blake Deven’s biological mother, Felicia Chandler, Blake went into foster care in 2011 because of abuse allegations, which she denies.
Chandler said she discovered her son was missing in February 2024 when the Fayetteville Police Department notified her.
Chandler said Blake’s birth name is Trenton Dewayne Shuler. She said Blake was placed into foster care more than a decade ago. She said she last had contact with him in 2013.
Blake's aunt, Miranda Miller, said other family members haven't seen Blake in five years. She said Blake's adoptive mother never enrolled him in school.
"As far as we know, from the time that she got them, she homeschooled them," she said.
April 8, 2024: FBI agents and Fayetteville police searched a home on Berriedale Drive where police said Blake and London Deven lived as children before they were reported missing
The FBI executed a search warrant on April 8 to search that home along with Fayetteville police and forensics teams.
The search warrant was sealed, but sources close to the investigation told WRAL News authorities were looking for evidence in the home that may explain the disappearance of the two missing people.
Law enforcement began searching the home at 8 a.m. on April 8. It was the second search of the property. Authorities were also at the home between April 5-7.
The investigation appeared to focus on the garage and interior of the home, and some investigators were wearing hazmat suits.
The home belonged to the Deven family years earlier, police said, and a family currently living in the home is not related to the search but is cooperating with the investigation.
April 9, 2024: WRAL News spoke with neighbor James Howard, who lives in a house on Berriedale Drive in Fayetteville. The home is across the street from the one that Blake and London Deven lived in as children.
Howard said he last saw the children around 2018.
He said the picture of London released by police shows a younger child than the teenage girl he saw at the house. However, he said he is pretty sure that both the photograph and the girl he knew are the same person.
Howard said he knew the woman who cared for the two children as Ava Maxwell. Fayetteville police said the woman who lives there is Avantae Deven, adoptive mother of Blake and London Deven. WRAL News knocked on the door of that home on April 9 but got no answer.
April 10, 2024: Sherry Foster, the biological mother of London Deven, provided new pictures of her daughter. The photos were taken through various stages of London’s childhood. It remains unclear what London Deven looks like now.
Foster said she didn’t learn of Deven’s disappearance until April 4.
Also, Foster told WRAL News that she hadn’t seen or heard from her daughter since 2001.
Foster said Deven’s birth name is Moriah Elizabeth Foster.
April 12, 2024: Fayetteville police found partial skeletal remains in the search for Blake Deven and London Deven. However, investigators did not confirm if the remains were connected to the two missing people.
Testing to determine the identification could take “weeks or months,” police said. Also, police said testing does not always result in positive identification.
April 14, 2024: Sherry Foster spoke with WRAL News about the disappearance of her daughter, London Deven. Foster said she is praying that one of the sets of remains does not belong to her daughter.
“All these years I thought she didn’t want to see me [and] now I find out she’s missing,” she said. “You see it on the news and never think, ‘Oh, it’s not going to happen to me.’”
April 18, 2024: Fayetteville police ask for the public’s help again in pinning down when Blake Deven and London Deven were last seen.
Investigators asked anyone who visited the Deven family at either their home along Eichelberger Drive or at their current home on Berridale Drive to contact them.
Specifically, police asked anyone who visited the homes to deliver something, buy something, sell something, repair something or saw anything to call the Fayetteville Police Department at 910-578-2697 or the FBI at 1-800-225-5324.
April 19, 2024: WRAL News obtained a document showing where Blake and London Deven may have been home schooled.
The home school called Deven Academy lists the address for the home school as the same address on Eichelberger Drive, which is where Fayetteville police said the Deven family lived until June 2019.
On April 19, WRAL News reached out to the person listed as the chief administrator of the school but did not hear back.
The documents show the home school opened in 2007. In 2013, the documents show two students were enrolled.
It's the same year Avantae Deven adopted Blake Deven and at least one other child who is not London Deven.
Since learning of Blake and London Deven's disappearances, WRAL News hasn't been able to reach Avantae Deven.
April 26, 2024: CityViewNC.com shared a recording of a 911 call made on Jan. 19, 2024, by the children's adoptive mother, Avantae Deven.
According to the recording, Avantae Deven contacted emergency services to report Blake missing and said she needed to file a missing person report.
Avantae Deven said Blake had been missing "around the holidays" in 2022 between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
At the end of the call, the dispatcher asked Avantae Deven about the last location she saw Blake, and she was unable to give an answer.
The Fayetteville Observer reported Avantae Deven is accused in a civil court petition of financially exploiting and neglecting her ailing mother.
The Cumberland County Department of Social Services filed a request for an emergency order of protection on behalf of 95-year-old Leonie Maxwell.
In its request, DSS states that Maxwell is unable to advocate for herself because she is on a ventilator in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center after sustaining an anoxic brain injury in November.
June 26, 2024: Avantae Deven, the adoptive mother of Blake and London Deven, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and child abuse in relation to their deaths.
An arrest warrant dated June 26, 2024, alleges Avantae Deven forced one of Blake Deven’s siblings to purchase tools and items from a store to use to dismember his body. The warrant also states Avantae Deven enlisted a friend of the family to pretend to be Blake Deven during a visit from the Cumberland County Department of Social Services [DSS].
Following Avantae Deven's arrest, WRAL Investigates asked the state Department of Health and Human Services [NCDHHS] if it would investigate how Avantae Deven secured adoptions in western North Carolina in Buncombe, Madison and McDowell counties.
A spokesperson said, "Yes, NCDHHS will partner with all counties to conduct a thorough assessment of decision making that led to selection of Ms. Deven as an adoptive parent."
June 27, 2024: District Court Judge Caitlin Evans read the charges Avantae Deven faces on June 27, 2024, in a Cumberland County courtroom. Deven is charged with first-degree murder, concealment of death, kidnapping and felony child abuse. Authorities will hold Deven on no bond. If convicted on the murder charges alone, Deven could face the death penalty.
July 25, 2024: Authorities transferred Avantae Deven from the Cumberland County Jail to the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh. Deven is designated a "safe keeper." It means an inmate has security, health or mental health issues of some kind.
July 28, 2024: Tifanie Kreft, who spent time with Avantae Deven in 2000 in Las Vegas, tells WRAL News that Deven withheld food, beat her, and forced her to dress and pose in a certain way to deceive her family into thinking she was OK.
July 29, 2024: Tyson Alvarez, ex-husband of Avantae Deven, recalled his shock at hearing about her murder charges. He said he saw a lockbox containing multiple identifications with Deven's picture using different names. The two were married from 1996 to 2006.
Aug. 27, 2024: Investigators have released aliases that Avantae Deven used along with a photo of her from the 1990s in hopes of sparking a memory for someone who could connect dots in the case.
Investigators learned that "Avantae Deven" is one of several aliases that she has used.
All of Deven's known aliases include:
- Prentiss Adams
- Prentiss Chez
- Prentiss Giani
- Sherri Harris
- Michelle Spiegel
- Katherine Spiegel
- Ava Maxwell
- Kim Nelson
Police also provided a photo of Deven from the 1990s in hopes of bringing more evidence to light. At the time the photo was taken, Deven was believed to be known as Prentiss Adams or Michelle Spiegel.
Sept. 4, 2024: Former Superior Court Judge Carl Fox shared why he believes authorities have not announced additional charges in the murder of Blake Deven.
Nov. 13, 2024: WRAL Investigates learned Avantae Deven was a licensed foster parent from 2007-2013 through a nonprofit called Grandfather Home. She later became a licensed adoptive parent.
In 2014, Grandfather Home merged with other organizations to form Children's Hope Alliance, which is the agency that provided this information.
The agency requires 40 hours of training and a background check before a child is placed in a home.
A Children’s Hope Alliance spokesperson sent a statement, saying, "Grandfather Home records from 11 years ago indicate there were no concerns for Avantae Deven to adopt."
Children's Hope Alliance also noted Deven had seven letters of recommendation written on her behalf. The letters were from different agencies or private practices, including two behavioral health agencies.
Jan. 9, 2025: Cherish Deven admitted to dismembering Blake Deven’s body in an interview with WRAL Investigates. She said Avantae Deven forced her to do it. She admitted Blake Deven was very malnourished before he died. She also said she was in the room when he took his last breath.
Feb. 3, 2025: A new federal lawsuit wants the courts to step in to force North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees county social services departments, to fix what it alleges is a broken foster care system.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit:
- The state isn't properly overseeing county agencies, including making timely decisions on returning children to their parents or keeping them in the foster system
- The state and counties are failing to enforce caseload standards so social workers aren't trying to oversee so many children
- The state isn't providing adequate and timely mental health services for children, which the suit claims eventually costs the state more money because the children will need more specialized, expensive therapy as they get older.
Feb. 6, 2025: The latest WRAL documentary, "Broken: Foster Care in North Carolina," premiered.
The tragic deaths of Blake and London Deven exposed serious failures within the foster care system. Their case, and the need for systemic change, are the driving forces behind "Broken."
Feb. 14, 2025: A week after "Broken" exposed critical failures within North Carolina's foster care system, some state lawmakers said they have committed to trying to fix things.
March 26, 2025: State lawmakers proposed legislation to fix North Carolina’s foster care system — a move that comes just weeks after WRAL’s documentary, “Broken: Foster Care in North Carolina,” exposed significant failures.
The legislation would establish a new watchdog office called the Child and Family Welfare Ombudsman. If passed, this office would review foster care cases and advocate for what is best for the children involved.
April 2, 2025: North Carolina lawmakers introduced a bill that seeks to make reforms to the state’s foster care system — the latest effort to improve a system that sponsors say is broken.
House Bill 612, which sponsors call the “Fostering Care in NC Act,” proposes wide-ranging reforms to improve the safety and well-being of children in foster care.