Neighbors react to arrest in connection with Blake, London Deven disappearances

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- Ring door bell video from James Howard's Fayetteville home shows the moment police closed in on Avantae Deven.

"This just didn't happen overnight," said Howard who was at work at the time. "This has been going on for years."

Howard--a veteran of Desert Storm--said he and other neighbors were suspicious of his neighbor on Berriedale Drive long before investigators came to the community for a mental health check last November.

Long before we knew two children were missing from this Fayetteville home.

"She gave me a whole fake name and all that," Howard said. "I didn't know any of this stuff."

Investigators revealed on Wednesday that the two children they had been looking for since April--Blake and London Deven--were dead.

Their remains were allegedly found in the town of Autryville 25 miles to the east in Sampson County in metal barrels.

Their alleged killer was their adoptive mother Avantae Deven.

"Avantae is said to have kept them in small rooms in complete darkness at times," said Sergeant Jeff Locklear of the Fayetteville Police Department. "They were given little to no food and earned nourishment by doing paperwork."

Investigators said Blake has been missing since 2017, and London has been missing since 2019.

If alive today, Blake would've been 17, and London would've been 27.

"We've seen so much but seen so little at the same time," Howard said. "I've been to war so I don't know how to explain it. I've seen it but don't know how to explain it. I feel bad that it happened to them."