A North Carolina mom allegedly starved her two adoptive children to death after lying that one of them was at a Buddhist retreat.
A mother claimed that her son fled to a Buddhist retreat but actually starved him and another child to death.
Avantae Deven, 63, has been jailed after two of her children, who she had adopted, were discovered burned and buried in a barrel.
Blake Deven, 17, was reported missing in late March after family members had not seen him for a few years.
A week later on April 4, investigators announced that they had identified another possible missing relative, London Deven, 28, who was last seen in 2019 in Fayetteville.
In mid-April, detectives found partial skeletal remains which were sent to the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
The police department last Tuesday stated that ‘partial human remains found during this investigation were forensically tested and were determined to belong to two people’.
A private lab confirmed that one set belonged to London, and testing on the other set believed to belong to Blake continued.
Avantae is accused of lying about the whereabouts of Blake and London, who had special needs.
‘Initially, she was giving us a story that Blake was possibly at a Buddhist retreat in the mountains,’ said Sgt Jeff Locklear, according to Law & Crime.
The mother told a similar story in a 911 dispatcher.
‘He is generally religious. He used to go back and forth about a Buddhist retreat… but this time he never called back,’ she said on the call obtained by WTVD.
‘My daughter did one once for six months, and she called, so I thought OK. He’s really independent, strong and brave and bossy, so it’s not really unlikely of his character.’
Avantae is believed to have forced the children into a dark room with barely any food or none at all and telling them they could be fed by writing to apologize for their actions. When Blake and London died, likely before 2019, she allegedly told someone in the home to help put their bodies in a burn barrel.
She appeared in court on Thursday and has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of concealment of death, a count of kidnapping in connection with London’s death and two counts of felony child abuse linked to Blake’s death.
She is has been booked into Cumberland County Detention Center with no bond.
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