[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A teenager has admitted to dismembering her young adopted brother’s body, just another wrinkle in one of the most heinous true crime cases in the history of the state of North Carolina.
As you may recall from last July, we’ve been covering the story of Avantae Deven (pictured above, inset, mugshot). She’s an adoptive mom from the city of Fayetteville, NC who was charged last year with two counts of first-degree murder. She has been accused of kidnapping, child abuse, murder, and concealment of the death of her two adopted children — daughter London and son Blake — after their remains were found burned in a barrel last summer.
Blake had last been seen in 2022, and London hadn’t been seen since way back in 2019, before cops were tipped off by one of Avantae’s surviving foster children. Cops descended on Avantae’s home and previous residences and eventually found evidence of human remains in several locations. From there, they arrested Avantae and charged her. But this horrifying story seems to only be getting started…
Related: Reality TV Stripper Murdered — And A Marine Is Under Arrest!
Now, Avantae’s daughter Cherish Deven (pictured above, right) has come forward and admitted she was forced to help dismember Blake’s body after his 2022 death.
According to WRAL Investigates, this unexpected turn in the Deven story started in September of last year when Fayetteville Police and the news outlet learned of the presence of an audio recording. On the recording, an unidentified young woman admits to helping dismember Blake’s body after his death — allegedly at the behest of Avantae. In that disturbing audio clip, the then-anonymous young woman can be heard saying:
“I’ve been going through hell and I’m tired. She [Avantae] starved him to the point where it killed him and she never called the f**king cops or the ambulance. She starved him so much that she killed him, bro! She didn’t call the ambulance, she didn’t call the police. She didn’t try to make up a story to tell them, ‘Oh, well he passed away, he’s a preemie.'”
From there, the unnamed woman’s claims about what happened to Blake Deven only get more horrific:
“It’s been on my f**king mind and I don’t know what the f**k to do. And I’m really trusting you not to go back and tell her this s**t. Like, she literally had me buy a f**king trash can, dude, and keep him in there for a month. And then after that, she literally had me buy a f**king saw to cut him open and disintegrate the f**king body, dude. Like, this s**t is messing with my [head] and I keep having nightmares and s**t since I’ve been back here. I had to watch his f**king body burn.”
WTF…
Then, in December, Cherish came forward to cops and admitted it was her voice on the recording, and that she’d been 16 or 17 years old when her mother had allegedly forced her to dismember the young corpse. And now, in a brand-new interview that aired in North Carolina last week, she spoke to WRAL Investigates on the record about that awful situation.
Related: 16-Year-Old Murders Entire Family — Then Drunkenly Calls 911 To Confess
According to Cherish — who is now 18, per the Fayetteville PD — her mother forced her to become involved in the grisly murder case. The young woman maintains she was so scared of her domineering momma, she didn’t dare say no — even to something as unthinkable as helping dismember her kid brother’s body:
“I was afraid of what Ava was going to say and do because I know the type of woman she is. There was no asking. There was just, ‘You do it. You’re doing it. If not, you’re getting in trouble.’ I’m sitting there as a young child just thinking, ‘Oh, my God. What do I do?'”
Cherish also used the interview to reveal how awful she feels to have been involved at all:
“It wasn’t that I was like I wanted to do this on my own. Again, I was forced to do it. Detectives know this. Everybody knows this already. It disgusts me that I can live with myself knowing what I’ve seen, what I’ve done, because someone led me on and forced me to do something as a child myself. I am a victim, regardless of what anyone says.”
Ugh.
Sadly, that’s not even everything Cherish says she went through under Avantae’s watch. As we previously reported, conditions in the family’s home leading up Blake and London’s deaths were so bad that all five children — biological, adoptive, and fostered — were starved and locked in their rooms for hours on end. Cherish recalled:
“I went through a lot as a child, and for me to sit here right now today talking to you about it is even hard for me. It got to the point where I was hiding dog food in the vents just to eat, because I was that hungry.”
Dog food in the vents just to eat?! Goodness f**king gracious…
The young woman then wrapped the interview by telling WRAL Investigates what she’d say to Avantae now, as her mother awaits trial on the charges, if given the chance:
“I hate you. You told me that you were my mother, you told me that you loved me. You told me that you would be there for me and you never were.”
Just awful. We honestly can’t even imagine what any of these poor children went through in that home, what they must have thought about their self-worth being treated like that. Our broken hearts are with all the kids — both alive and dead — after going through this gut-wrenching reign of terror.
If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
[Image via Fayetteville Police Department/WRAL]
Related Posts
CLICK HERE TO COMMENT-
Categories