Timeline of events in the Fayetteville case of two missing adopted siblings

Joseph Pierre and F.T. Norton, Fayetteville Observer
Updated ·5 min read

As police continue their search for two Fayetteville siblings missing for years, officials have made a plea for information to formulate a timeline of Blake and London Deven in Fayetteville.

The Fayetteville Police Department announced in late March that the now-17-year-old Blake had been missing since 2022. Several days later, police revealed that his adopted sister, London Deven, 27, was missing and had not been seen since 2019.

Then authorities announced April 12 that skeletal human remains were found in the search for the two. The identity of the remains is pending results from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Police Chief Kemberle Braden has urged the public to report any interactions with the missing children or the Deven family to police.

Anyone who has been to the Berriedale and Eichelberger homes during the time London or Blake were living there is asked to contact the Fayetteville Police Department at 910-578-2697 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL FBI or online at tips.fbi.gov.

School records

While Cumberland County Schools says it has no record of London or Blake ever attending school here, records from the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education show that a homeschool called Deven Academy was first licensed in Asheville in 2007.

That same year, the Deven Academy changed its address to the town of Marshall in Madison County. Then in 2009, the address was changed to the town of Leicester in Buncombe County and the following year the academy was registered at a second location in Leicester.

The next notation in the record is of Deven Academy's first registration in Fayetteville. On March 30, 2017, the address was changed to the family's former home here on Eichelberger Drive.

The most recent photo of London Deven, now 27, pictured in 2007 when she was likely 12 years old.
The most recent photo of London Deven, now 27, pictured in 2007 when she was likely 12 years old.

The academy is listed as a religious home school and in addition to numerous address has had six phone number changes since first registering in 2007, according to the records.

The record shows that the school closed Aug. 30, 2021, and reopened and then inactivated on the same day, Dec. 22, 2023. The last record notes it was reopened on Jan. 1, 2024 and had two students — a 13-year-old male and a 15-year-old male.

The Deven Academy is currently registered at the family's Berriedale Drive home.

Attempts to contact Avantae Deven have been unsuccessful.

The most recent photo of Blake Deven, now 17, in 2012 when he was likely 5 years old.
The most recent photo of Blake Deven, now 17, in 2012 when he was likely 5 years old.

Timeline of the missing Blake and London Deven

— January-March 2011: Buncombe County court documents show that Avantae Emerald Deven filed a petition in January 2011 to adopt London Deven and was approved two months later.

— April-July 2013: Madison County court records show that Avantae Deven filed a petition in April 2013 to adopt Blake and the adoption was approved the following July.

— 2015: The Deven family moves to Fayetteville. Publicly available records indicate they moved to the area from the Asheville region.

— November 2016: The Deven family moves into 1834 Eichelberger Drive.

— June 2019: The Deven family moves into 1433 Berriedale Drive. This is also the same month and year that the Fayetteville Police Department incident report indicates London Deven was last seen.

Related: Fayetteville police release second address where missing teen and adopted sister lived

— Jan. 19, 2024: Avantae Deven reports she last saw her adopted son Blake Deven, 17, at the Walmart on Ramsey Street. The case is recorded by the Fayetteville Police Department as a runaway.

— March 27, 2024: The Fayetteville Police Department announces Blake Deven is missing and that investigators searched three properties, including the family home on Berriedale Drive. It is not known what prompted the searches three months after police were notified Blake was missing.

— April 4, 2024: Police announce London is also missing. Officials said they learned of her disappearance while investigating the disappearance of Blake. According to the incident report released on April 4, 2024, London was last seen near Raeford Road and Revere Street on June 6, 2019.

— April 5, 2024: Police Chief Kemberlee Braden holds a news conference. He gives few details in the case but urges residents to contact law enforcement if they've ever had contact with or observed the Deven family. He said that in addition to the Berriedale Drive address, the previous home in which the family lived was also searched and its new residents were cooperating. He said the FBI was called in to assist in the investigation.

Police Chief Kemberle Braden addresses the media on April 5, 2024, in front of photos of Blake and London Deven, reported missing years after family said they were last seen. Blake would now be 17 and London 27, authorities said.
Police Chief Kemberle Braden addresses the media on April 5, 2024, in front of photos of Blake and London Deven, reported missing years after family said they were last seen. Blake would now be 17 and London 27, authorities said.

— April 9, 2024: Miranda Miller, the sister of Blake's biological father, Trevor Shuler, said that the last time she saw Blake was in 2011. Miller said she was unsuccessful in an attempt to get custody of Blake after the Department of Social Services got involved.

— April 12, 2024: The Fayetteville Police Department announced that information gathered in the hunt for the missing siblings led to the discovery of skeletal remains. The location and date of when the remains were found were not released and police declined to answer any questions. "At this time, investigators have not confirmed who the remains belong to, testing could take weeks or months and do not always result in a positive identification," a news release said.

Related: Human remains recovered in search for missing Fayetteville teen and adopted sister

— April 14, 2024: Police issue a news release repeating the request for help from the public and releasing the Eichelberger address.

"The Fayetteville Police Department and the FBI need the public’s assistance to build a timeline of exactly when and where 17-year-old Blake Deven and 27-year-old London Deven were last seen," the release said.

— April 16, 2024: Sherry McClelland tells The Fayetteville Observer that she is the biological mother of London Deven and hasn't seen her since the girl was 4 years old. McClelland posted a video the same day stating London's name at birth was Mariah Foster.

Public safety reporter Joseph Pierre can be reached at jpierre@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Timeline: Fayetteville police continue search for Blake and London Deven