'I was in shock': Aunt of missing Fayetteville teen said she learned of disappearance days ago
Days after Fayetteville police asked for help locating a missing boy, a family spoke to WRAL News and said they hadn’t seen the boy in years.
Police said they are searching for Blake Deven. Police said Deven is now 17-years-old. According to the Missing Children Database, Deven has been missing since 2022.
However, his aunt, Miranda Miller, only learned of his disappearance days ago.
“When I first found out about it, I was in shock [and] I was scared,” she said. “It baffles me why this kid has been missing for at least two years.”
Miller lives in the Asheville area and said she hadn’t seen Deven, her brother’s son, since being placed in foster care over 10 years ago.
“There’s a family that’s hurting right now that’s full of questions and concerns,” she said. “We just want to know [that] he’s okay.”
Police said they were conducting interviews on March 29 in a separate investigation, and several members of the boy’s family mentioned they hadn’t seen Blake in years.
The last known photo of Deven is from 2012, and the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children provided a photo of what Deven would look like currently.
Private investigator Joshua Freeman, who is not affiliated with the investigation to find Blake, said there could be new obstacles, given the timeline.
“The more time that passes, you worry about evidence going stale, evidence going missing, you have to worry about witnesses that might not have recalled certain events that surrounded that time frame,” Freeman said.
Freeman said he was struck by the circumstances of the case.
“It’s very disheartening when you hear that a missing child is in danger or missing,” Freeman said. “That’s a cause for concern.”
As she spoke with WRAL News, Miller continued to ask the same question: Where’s Blake Deven?
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” she said. “He can always call me. I’ll always be here waiting for him to come back home.”
Police are asking anyone who knows Blake or may have seen him to call the police at 910-578-2697.
