In March 2024, Fayetteville police went public with the case of a missing child. Blake Deven hadn’t been seen in years. Since that time, WRAL has been investigating and highlighting critical failures in North Carolina’s foster care system.
The WRAL Documentary “Broken: Foster Care in North Carolina” led state lawmakers to approve a bill to establish a watchdog office to review foster care cases and to advocate for children involved in the system. In June 2024, Gov. Josh Stein signed the bill into law.
On March 28, 2024, Fayetteville police issued a news release asking for the public’s help finding Blake Deven, a boy who would have been 17 at the time. Police included a photo of Blake that had been taken about 12 years earlier, when he was in elementary school.
Authorities provided an age-processed photo of what Blake could look like in 2024.
Police did not say how long Blake had been missing. However, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children stated Blake had been missing since 2022.
On April 4, 2024, Fayetteville police announced Blake’s adoptive sister, London Deven, was also missing.
London Deven was last seen in 2019 in Fayetteville, when she was about 22 years old. Investigators released a photo of London from around 2007 when she was about 12 years old.
Why weren’t there more recent photos of Blake or London Deven?
On April 12, 2024, Fayetteville police found partial human remains on property where Avantae Deven had lived with her adopted children, including Blake and London Deven.
Blake and London's adoptive mother, Avantae Deven, was arrested on June 26, 2024.
The North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined some of the remains found belonged to London Deven.
At a June 26, 2024, news conference, Fayetteville Police Chief Kem Braden announced the arrest of Avantae Deven. Braden said authorities believe Blake and London Deven were dead.
During the news conference, Sgt. Jeff Locklear said Avantae Deven was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of felony child abuse, one count of kidnapping and two counts of concealment of death.
Fayetteville police said Blake Deven was malnourished, starved and mentally abused. They believe London died in a similar way.
Authorities believe Blake Deven likely died while the family lived on Eichelberger Drive in Fayetteville. Locklear said Blake Deven was dismembered and his remains were burned. Evidence supported claims of isolation, torture and starvation.
Tap to Read Fayetteville police revealed chilling details that underscored brutal living conditions and indicated children in Avantae Deven's care were isolated, starved and beaten. Deven was charged with murder and child abuse on Wednesday.
WRAL News learned Avantae Deven adopted a total of five children across three counties: Buncombe (1), Madison (3) and McDowell (1) counties.
One of the children she named Cherish Deven.
Cherish Deven told WRAL Investigates that Avantae forced her to dismember Blake's body after his death. She said she was 16 or 17 at the time.
Cherish Deven also said during her time in foster care, she could not recall a Division of Social Services case worker ever asking about living conditions in the Deven household.
Given the severity of the charges Avantae Deven is facing, WRAL Investigates asked how she was able to adopt her children.
She was a licensed foster parent from 2007 and 2013 through an agency known as Grandfather Home, which was based in the town of Banner Elk.
A Children's Hope Alliance spokesperson said nonprofit Grandfather Home licensed Avantae Deven after a required 40 hours of training and a background check.
Grandfather Home merged with other organizations to form Children’s Hope Alliance in 2014.
The agency had on file seven letters of recommendation for Deven as a foster parent, from various agencies and private practices, including two behavioral health agencies.
Grandfather Home worked with the necessary county social services and submitted proper paperwork during Avantae Deven's effort to adopt her children.
Children’s Hope Alliance said Deven declined post-adoption support offered in 2013.
What happened between the time of the Deven children's adoption and Blake and London's deaths is unclear.
What is clear is the message from critics of North Carolina's foster care system: It’s broken.
As of March 2025, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said there are 10,125 children in foster care in the state of North Carolina. As of April 30, 2025, there are 5,818 licensed foster homes in North Carolina, according to the state.
There are 100 counties in North Carolina. Each county operates its own DSS systems.
Before spring 2025, there was no central IT system for social workers across the state, and no central way to check a child’s history before they were moved from one foster home to another.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reports that between 2018 and 2024, there were 63 deaths of children in foster care.
NCDHHS acknowledged that any child death is a tragedy. However, the organization clarified that most of the deaths of children in foster care in the past six years were connected to medical conditions.
This includes children who developed chronic congenital conditions because of parental substance abuse.
Accidental deaths are included in the data, too.
As for proven foster care abuse claims reported to the state, of the nearly 14,800 children in regular foster care in 2024, there were 50 abuse reports.
These are substantiated reports in which the foster parent was the abuser.
In 2023, there were 63 abuse reports.
Between 2018 and 2022, there were a total of 271 of these reports.
Note: These numbers reflect less than 1% of the total number of children in foster care at the time of the reports.
A federal lawsuit filed in February 2025 alleges that aspects of North Carolina’s foster care system are what make it a broken system and offers fixes.
A group of attorneys filed the lawsuit, including Daria Barazandeh. She's a former licensed foster parent who's now raising a brother and sister she adopted out of the system. Barazandeh is representing two young girls from Johnston County in the federal lawsuit, and she claims the state is failing foster children.
The lawsuit isn't seeking any money or damages, only court orders to improve the lives of foster children in North Carolina.
The lawsuit alleges:
WRAL Investigates also covered several cases of failures by county DSS operations.
The state temporarily took over Nash County DSS in 2023, the third time ever the state performed a takeover of a county’s social services operations, after WRAL Investigates’ report about the death of 8-year-old Christal Lane.
In 2023, Patricia Ann Ricks, Christal’s grandmother, was charged with first-degree murder and felony child abuse in the child’s death.
Although she had bruises and was beaten so badly she was unrecognizable, Christal and her four siblings remained in their grandmother’s custody.
The Nash County Sheriff said his investigators told Nash DSS to remove the children from the home. A month later, Christal’s grandmother beat her to death with multiple objects in the home.
In early 2025, Patricia Ann Ricks pleaded guilty to the murder of Christal. Ricks was sentenced to life in prison.
WRAL Investigates also learned in 2020, Chase Hilliard – not even 2 years old – died in the care of his mother, Vonquetta Hilliard.
Records revealed she was charged with second-degree murder after first claiming her son fell from a bed, but a medical examiner decided Chase died from complications of “non-accidental traumatic head injuries.”
A social worker told WRAL Investigates that Nash County social workers and supervisors recommended the boy be removed from his mother's care.
Much like in Christal Lane’s case, upper management did not approve Chase’s removal.
Further investigation revealed court documents in which Vonquetta Hilliard’s sister said social workers were involved in his mother’s life before he was born because of “improper prenatal care.”
In Johnston County, WRAL Investigates learned about a 7-year-old girl claimed to have been sexually assaulted inside the Johnston County Department of Social Services.
Records shared with WRAL News state a 17-year-old boy touched her while both were in the custody of child protective services in an office.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced it would take over the Vance County Department of Social Services' (VCDSS) child welfare services in June 2025. An investigation found the county violated several policies.
A report released in June 2025 highlighted strengths and significant areas for improvement within Person County's Department of Social Services. The report came one month after the death of 1-year-old Kemari Morgan while in foster care.
To curb shortfalls of the North Carolina foster care system, state lawmakers have taken steps to make changes.
House Bill 165 was filed in hopes of establishing the Child and Family Welfare Ombudsman, a watchdog office to review foster care cases and advocate for children involved in the system.
The bill was filed in the North Carolina House along with a request of $282,000 to create the office and hire staff to operate it.
The ombudsman would review foster decisions, answer questions, and step in to protect the interests of children.
A bipartisan effort also led to the creation of House Bill 612, known as the Fostering Care in NC Act.
The bill provides sweeping reforms to fortify the protections and well-being of foster children.
The bill provides the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services more power, including the ability to review records and enforce rules within county departments of social services.
Republican Reps. Allen Chesser, John Bell, Donnie Loftis, and Democrat Rep. Vernetta Alston were sponsors of the bill.
The Fostering Care in NC Act also provides clearer rules for how children are placed in nonsecure custody.
It does this by strengthening visiting requirements by requiring supervised visits before a child is returned to a parent or guardian.
It’s important to remember children are 25% of our population and 100% of our future.– Allen Chesser, R- Nash
In June 2025, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein signed House Bill 612 into law. It provides sweeping foster-care reforms aimed at giving the state more oversight of North Carolina's foster care system.
In spring 2025, North Carolina also began the rollout of its statewide digital system for social workers to access called Path NC.
According to DHHS Secretary Dr. Devdutta Sangvai, much of the previous documentation happened on paper and existed at the county level.
Path NC is meant to allow social workers to better track their cases, including the history of a child’s move from home A to home B, possibly across counties.
In late 2025, NCDHHS is expected to connect PATH NC to the existing Child Welfare Fatality Information System (CWFIS).
CWFIS has been in place since 2018. It’s a system that allows child welfare agencies to report a child’s death to the child welfare system.
CWFIS also collects information on what led to a child’s death. The goal is to determine any possible changes that could be made to prevent additional child deaths.
Avantae Deven's murder trial is likely a couple of years out. Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West is predicting 2027.
As for why it will take that long, West said authorities have to consider the massive amount of information being gathered in this case.
