May 28, 2024 • 40 mins
On a warm summer day, a five-year-old Devan Duniver tried to find someone to play with. Her mom was inside preparing for dinner and she thought Devan was playing with her older brother. Time had gotten away from her when she noticed Devan wasn't around. She began to search for Devan by going next door to see if she had made her way inside with another small child she often had played with. Unlike many young children, Devan was not afraid to talk to anyone, especially if they were willing to play with her. Had Devan just wandered off and waited for her mother to find her or did someone take Devan? Minutes turned to hours. The hours began to go by so quickly. Word had spread of the missing child and the community came out to help look for her. The search carried over into the next day when the horrific discovery of her body occurred in a small patch of tall grass and weeds not far from her home. The beautiful little girl had been stabbed many times. The devastation was unbearable for the family and the community as a search for a child murderer had begun. The fear spread across the town. Parents wouldn't let their children out of their sight for weeks. Eventually, the police arrest a young boy and he is convicted of the murder of Devan, but it was later determined he was not the person who would do something this heinous. In the flash of an eye, innocence was lost for both Devan and the young man accused of her murder. To this day her case has gone cold and the monster who took her life is still out there somewhere.
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Tuscarawas County Sheriff's Office
2295 Reiser Ave SE New Philadelphia OH 44663 Office: 330-339-2000
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You said you had not back but instead you attack you got me out of my head
(00:08):
Won't go and solve this time, won't catch you and your crimes will be shining alive
Welcome to Colgate's MHS Monsters and Demons
Where real education meets real life
I'm your host Randy Hubbard and I thank you for listening
So if you've been listening to our podcast over the three seasons that we've been doing this
(00:29):
You know that I've had some pretty steady co-hosts along the way
And then every once in a while I'll throw a new one in on you
This one is pretty special to me because he's my colleague and we've been working a long time on forensic stuff
And he's now hopefully going to take over for me in the Colgate's realm
And he's been a big part of helping us get this thing started
(00:50):
And that is Mr. Paul Berry and I'm going to let him introduce himself about this and what he wants to do with this
Yeah, thanks for having me Randy
Like Randy said I'm honored to be here
I think it's a great thing that these kids are doing and Mr. Hubbard's laid the foundation for this Colgate's class
I know it wasn't easy getting this set up
You know allowing kids to really have a great experiential learning, experiential learning, excuse me
(01:15):
But just that he's laid the foundation for this and you know this podcast now has 11,000 listeners
Which is pretty impressive for something that started from scratch three years ago
And just to keep in mind and I think this is always important is the purpose of this is for the victims and for the victims' families
You know a lot of times when you hear things and they talk about serial killers and all these shows that are on Netflix and stuff
(01:40):
All the focus is on the bad guy
Whereas I think that we need to kind of flip the script a little bit and put the importance of where is, you know, who is the important people in here
And obviously, you know, the bad guys are because you want to catch them
But then once you catch them or if you don't know who they are, you know, the focus needs to go on the people that are important
The victims, you know, who had no say in this and who were put in the wrong place at the wrong time or something bad
(02:06):
They're, you know, where they live, they're socioeconomic level, they're neighborhood, they're upbringing, you know, all that stuff
And it's just, I think it's a really big deal and hopefully one of these days that one of these cases, somebody out there hearing this
Will say, yeah, I know something about that and we can put some closure and help a family out that's had a horrific thing happen to them
Well, and I appreciate you joining me and thanks for all that you've done along the way and let's get started with the show
(02:32):
Sounds good
My name is Lydia and I'm Lindsay
And on today's episode we're going to be talking about the tragic murder of five-year-old Devin Brokodon of her
Who vanished from her home in New Philadelphia, Ohio on June 27th, 1998
Unfortunately, all the recent media coverage about this case has shifted to Anthony Harris, the boy who was arrested for Devin's murder
(02:54):
So in our forensic classes and you and I were talking about how unfortunate it is that the killer often gets more attention than the victim
And we talked about that with Ted Bundy and those kind of things
What do you think about this potato case?
Well, yeah, we were talking about how most people in society can tell you who John Wayne Gasey is and Ted Bundy and the BTK killer
(03:18):
But people probably can't name the victims and that's, you know, that's the thing that's important in these types of situations is who are the victims
Because they're the ones that are the important ones in these cases
I think this one's a little bit different, however, because the victim was a five-year-old girl
And the initial suspect was also a kid
(03:40):
So I think that that plays a role in this
It's a little bit different than the other situations just because of the age of the victim and more importantly probably because of the age of the suspect
And the fact that he was later found wrongly accused of the crime
Right, I mean, you can't imagine being a 12-year-old being accused of murder and you didn't do it
(04:02):
Anybody being accused of murder that didn't commit the homicide, you know, let alone a little kid
That has to affect him forever
Even now, this was 1998, so he's, you know, in his 30s now, late 30s, and it's probably still something that's with him
Our goal with this podcast is to get the story back out about Devon
(04:25):
In order to understand everything that happens in this case, we want to start by speaking about who Devon was in her upbringing
Devon was born on October 19, 1992 in Guernesee County, Ohio, which is in the southeastern part of Ohio
Devon was the youngest of two children to Richard Dunnevere and Laurie Valentine, then Dunnevere
She has an older brother named Dylan, who is three years older than her
(04:49):
When Devon was two years old, Richard and Laurie separated on March 23, 1995
Richard later remarried and filed for a new marriage license with Carol Jean Buher on September 5, 1997
At the time of her death, Devon and Dylan had at least three half-siblings and three step-siblings
According to our research, Devon was the youngest out of all of these children
(05:11):
So again, when you look at victims, you have to look kind of at their background, their victimology is what we call it
Unfortunately with Devon, she's so young, there's really not much of the victimology
The really thing you have to look at is her family background
And in this case, she's the youngest or a really big family, but it's a family of multiple parts
(05:32):
And sometimes, the younger ones don't have the same attention that the older ones had
Speaking from experience, being the youngest of three kids, my parents were probably a lot stricter
And hands-on with my older two sisters than they were me, just because the more kids you go through that you have
(05:55):
It's not as easy to pay attention to
And in this case, they have eight
And then I think the other thing that you were mentioning, when you talk about victimology in this instance
Her being so young, you just look at the entire family dynamics, was the kid go outside and play a lot
It was Devon always outside, in that instance, if that's the case, then people walking by, people in the area
(06:19):
They see the kids outside a lot, versus a kid that's outside with other kids
Did she play outside alone, or was she always have her siblings with her?
Those are the kind of things that you look at to try to figure out where a situation would be, what someone would be able to take advantage of that type of situation
And I think sometimes parents, when they get involved in either having to get ready to go somewhere, or putting dinner on the table or something like that
(06:47):
Sometimes, they'll have to lose their kids for a little while
Especially in a situation where you have eight, and I'm sure the father, the mother, and the other siblings, there are probably times where
They count on the older siblings to watch the younger siblings, and maybe the mother thought the father was watching her at that time
So it's kind of like it gets lost in the sauce a little bit, as far as who's watching the kid, and somebody thinks somebody's watching them, but they're really not
(07:13):
And then that whole dynamic plays a role too
Right, exactly
Devin was an independent and bright young girl who loved to play outside
Devin was looking forward to participating in gymnastics in the coming fall and wanted to be a ballerina when she grew up
Devin was looking forward to starting kindergarten in the fall, and every night Lori and Devin would read Dr. Seuss's One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
(07:37):
Devin has been quoted to be a happy and spoiled little girl
Now Devin's older brother at the time of Devin's murder was eight years old
Like Devin, Devin had many activities planned for the fall, such as baseball
Now Devin was an unusual young child, while researching we found out that apparently Devin killed small animals, which is indicative of a psychopathic mindset
(08:00):
He was also claimed to be, by his school's principal, the student most likely to commit this crime
The first thing, when I hear that, the striking thing to me is the fact that the principal would say that without any evidence
And as far as evidence, as far as doing that, sure, we're around kids as teachers all the time, but to just blankly say that kind of a statement about how old was the kid
(08:24):
That was eight
Yeah, I mean to say that is just kind of a, that's a far-reaching statement
I do, you know, we've talked about in forensics and stuff, the characteristics that all serial killers have in common as far as torturing animals, bedwetting and setting fires, I believe is the third one
I mean, not every kid that does that's going to grow up to be a psychopath or a serial killer
(08:49):
Sometimes, you know, kids are just, they're inquisitive and they do things that, you know, seen by adults is inappropriate, but for a kid's mind it's a little bit different
It's just interesting that the principal would say that about an eight-year-old
Right, unless there's something we don't know about, unless there are reports on him, he's been in trouble at school, you know, maybe he's threatened people, you know, because back then it was a little bit different than now
(09:14):
Yeah, just based on that information, you know, you'd say, you know, that's unusual behavior for sure, for someone to engage in, you know, kids eight to just make a blanket statement that, you know,
he feels like he was the one that did it without any kind of other evidence, just his little stretch, far stretched
(09:35):
Right, and I think the other biggest thing in there is that just because you mentioned it earlier, they do weird stuff like that with their kids
I mean, we've all done stupid stuff with our kids and then realize that was dumb, doesn't necessarily mean that he's a psychopath or he's going to grow up to be a psychopath
And here's the other thing, not all psychopaths are killers
Right
So that's the thing that we have to be careful with
And not all killers are psychopaths
(09:57):
Exactly
Now, Lori Valentine was a single mother, she worked in HR in the Cambridge area
After her and Richard Denver split, Lori, Devon and Dylan lived in New Philadelphia
When Lori moved into the area, they didn't have any friends, her closest friend was Cynthia Harris, the next-door neighbor and mother of Anthony Harris, who as we've said, was convicted for the murder of Devon
(10:19):
After Devon's murder and the following trial, Lori and Dylan moved back to Guernesey County
Devon's father, Richard, lived in Cambridge, Ohio, which is around a 40-minute drive from New Philadelphia where Lori lived with the children
We are unaware of what custody agreement was decided, but Devon and Dylan appeared to have had a good relationship with both of their parents
(10:40):
As we stated earlier, Richard was remarried at the time of Devon's death
When looking into the family, we have found that Richard has been married to or had children with at least eight women
We are no way judging him, we just think it is important to note that this was not the first relationship he had that resulted in separation
While we were searching social media to try to reach out to the siblings, it appeared that the siblings are close and have a relationship with their father
(11:05):
Now we want to talk about New Philadelphia itself
New Philadelphia was known to be a small, quiet town where, quote, nothing like this ever happened
In an interview, Lori said that her cousin had told her that New Philadelphia was the best place to raise children
They had good schools, good community, and good people, but tragedy struck this small town on June 27, 1998
(11:30):
Early that morning, Devon and Dylan had just come home after spending a week with their father in Cambridge, Ohio
According to Anthony Harris' appeal timeline, which is important to note because times fluctuate depending on where you look
Devon and Dylan went outside of the apartment complex that they lived in to play
This was a common occurrence for the Denver siblings as they would try to play with their friends that lived in the complex as well
(11:53):
This is in the 90s and unlike today, so many children would be playing outside all the time, not necessarily with parents looking over their every move
Now, at around 1.30, Lori told Devon to stay inside the house as she was leaving for the grocery store
However, Devon went outside anyways to go play with a different neighbor in the building next door, Dale Resker's daughter
(12:14):
About 20 minutes later, at 1.50 p.m. Lori Valentine comes back downstairs from getting ready and realizes that Devon is missing
She sees Dylan and asks where Devon went, where he responds that she went outside
Lori goes outside and realizes that she does not see Devon anywhere
Lori begins to search for Devon
Devon reportedly had the tendency to wander off, so Lori went to Devon's friend's house to see if Devon tried to go play there
(12:39):
When we were looking at the course it would take to get to that house, it seems unlikely that this would happen because it is a long way for a 5 year old to go
Ultimately, the family was on vacation, so no one was there
At 2 p.m. Lori sees Anthony Harris in the woods on his way home
She offers him $5 to have him help her look for Devon
At around 5.20 p.m. after about 3 hours of searching, Anthony goes home
(13:03):
Almost 7 hours since she last saw Devon, Lori calls the New Philadelphia Police Department to report Devon missing at around 8.11 p.m.
We are not trying to point fingers, we just believe that it is strange to wait 7 hours to call the police for your missing 5 year old
The first 48 hours are the most valuable time to locate someone, especially a child
(13:24):
This 7 hours in between when she initially last saw Devon and when she called the police and 2 people searching, it would have been able to have covered more ground if the police had been contacted
So it does seem a little strange that she waited 7 hours to call the police
I will say that maybe that's not necessarily too weird in the fact that she's out looking for a daughter, she's worried about her
(13:52):
I thought she could find her because she's normally probably at a friend's house, things like that
And I also think that sometimes parents back then thought they had to be gone for a certain amount of time
Which was not true, but TV shows and things like that kind of made it sound like that
I'd be interested, I mean was it 7 hours from the last time she saw her or was it 7 hours from when she knew she was missing
(14:17):
But to me that kind of makes a bit of a difference because I think about my own kids
I mean if my kids is 5 and I'm looking for them and I'm looking for an hour or 2 hours
And then you guys say go back to the victimology aspect of it and say is her just going off to friend something that she did
If it is then it makes a little bit more sense, like if this has happened in the past and they found her at a neighbor's house playing with a dog in the backyard or something
(14:44):
Or is this a one off and it's never happened before, I mean I just know personally and everybody's different
But if I'm looking for my 5, you gotta think 5 years old, it's not like they're 12, 15
You know, a 5 year old really can't fend for themselves or hardly at all
That is a little bit strange but I do understand your point too as far as that 24 hour window
(15:08):
But I don't know, I mean 7 hours is a long time
Very long time, now she also had other kids so I don't know how she was handling that situation
I mean it's a phone call, not that difficult
You call the police and they say well you gotta wait 24 hours and now you know, I mean that's, you know, like you said we don't know what's going on in that situation
And the franticness of it and the time might have just slipped away, you know, so there's a lot of things that could factor into that
(15:36):
Now after Lori contacts the police, they put out a radio call to have searchers come in from all over the New Philadelphia area to help look Devon
Because this is a radio call, it is impossible to track exactly who was in the search party
And we just know that there are many people there to help look
And the weather that night that they were looking for Devon was between 70 and 80 degrees so it was fairly warm
(15:57):
There was also a storm earlier that night which caused the ground to be wet and as well as having debris all over the place
When we were looking for ways that it could have been able to help locate Devon and what happened between the time that she went missing and the time that her body was ultimately found
We came across search dogs being used
These dogs were not from the police department but voluntarily used to help find Devon
(16:22):
The first dog arrived around 10pm on June 27th
This dog went to a neighbor's house where Devon was confirmed to have gone, returned to the apartment
And then took an elaborate pathway to the side entry door of the house near the garage
There was a second dog that went out around 2am and followed the exact same pathway as the first
Depending on the speed of which you walked, this walk could take around 45 minutes
(16:46):
When looking to see who this house belonged to, we found that the house adjacent to this house belonged to a convicted child molester
Who had recently been released from prison
Even though it was confirmed to the neighbor's house that the dogs went to the location that Devon had been that day
It seems as if the dogs were not believed after they went on the elaborate pathway that they took
(17:07):
This lead has seemed to have never been followed
We believe that they did initial questioning of the person that owned the house adjacent but we don't know what happened since
I kind of find it interesting that they wouldn't have done any more investigation on the house the dogs went to with the convicted child molester
Just for the mere fact that we do victimology to figure out how the victim acts and things like that
(17:34):
You think you would take the past historical data of somebody who is a possible suspect into account too
Maybe put a little bit more time and resources into investigating that and as far as the path taking 45 minutes
If she was gone for 7 hours, there could have been some wandering, there could have been some walking around
If the dogs lost the trail and picked it up again, possibly that Devon got in a vehicle
(18:01):
Those are all things that are possible but perhaps if we don't have the information
Maybe the person whose house that the police went to, maybe they had a solid alibi
Maybe they weren't there, if we don't have that information, we don't want to make judgments on that based on information that we don't have
And the thing about the dogs is that they weren't actually police dogs, they were retired police dogs I think
(18:25):
Possibly even cadaver dogs, they had been retired and once a dog retires and they don't practice that a lot
Sometimes they're not considered to be solid at the job
Is the thought there too the fact that the dogs didn't find the victim when they were in the woods?
(18:46):
Is the thought that maybe that she wasn't in the woods yet?
So that's why she was maybe at a house or somewhere else when the dogs were looking and then was placed in the woods later
And there's some evidence to kind of prove that possibly she was killed somewhere else and then moved to that spot
So that's why they think the dogs didn't go into that area because they brought the body back later
(19:10):
Now in this seven hour time span from the time she was noticed missing to the time the police were called
Were the dogs in that or were the dogs after that?
They were after that, they were part of the search team
So then how from that seven hour time when she was missing when was she found?
That is a good question. I want to say she was found the next day because there was a storm that came that night
(19:36):
They found the next day like at four o'clock in the afternoon
So there's a pretty long time there plus the rain may have affected the scent and things like that too
So this was from start to finish was less than 24 hours?
Yes
Our only question is that if Devon's body had been in the woods all night, how would the dogs have not picked up the scent there?
(20:02):
This leads us to believe that the reason Devon's body had not been found that night when they were searching was because she was not in the woods
But possibly in that house
Now at around 2.30pm on June 28th 1998 Devon's body was found by an off-duty ENT officer
This area that it was found was claimed to be previously looked by by searchers during the search period time
(20:25):
It was around 100 yards away from the apartment complex and it was in a small bare spot in a dense brush covered with weeds
The path leading to her body was tunneled out area of weeds where it said that children were known to crawl on their hands and knees
We now want to talk about the body when she was found. There was no signs of sexual assault on her
(20:46):
There were seven stab wounds to her neck area which partially severed the carotid artery which would lead to a lot of blood loss
We also learned that her hair enclosed her wet most likely from being outside in the storm
Her body was also infested with insects. She had no defense wounds on her body but there was no blood surrounding the scene
(21:07):
When we were researching more we found out that the way that the blood cooled and settled was in a different position than how it would have been with how her body was placed
So as we were talking about earlier with the police dogs, the police dogs went to a neighbor's house but they never actually the retired police dogs
They never found the actual body which leads you to think maybe the body wasn't there when the police dogs were searching as far as what that time frame was
(21:34):
And then also the fact that they mentioned that the blood appeared to be how it cooled and congealed the right word
We actually were at the corner and they talked about what's called Levitity which is in the body you can see where all the blood settles in the body due to gravity
(21:55):
Because obviously it's not pumping anymore and if she was in a certain spot you would expect all the blood to be in whichever spot was down on the ground and if it's not the case then it does show that possibly she wasn't moved or murdered there or that maybe she was moved
Right and the other thing about the injuries to her is that if the person they had looked at who was a sexual predator would have done something like this
(22:21):
They probably would have seen sexual assault and they didn't see that in her and that does kind of point to a younger suspect but that suspect had to be able to kill her somewhere where they probably wouldn't have made a huge mess and then move her body there
And most kids are not going to do that so it's kind of a conflicting thing when we talk about the evidence and where she was found
(22:44):
So she was stabbed how many times?
She was stabbed 15 I think
In her carotid artery?
In her carotid artery was hit yes
So did any mention as far as like how much blood was at the actual scene because that would create a lot of blood
And actually that's why they said when she found her body there was not enough blood there to have been stabbed in the carotid artery
(23:05):
So it's pretty, I mean everybody pretty much agrees that she wasn't killed there is that the conventional thought behind this or is there still some questions as far as that?
I think there's some questions about that I think the resource that we had who happened to be somewhat close to the case he seems to think that she was moved there and wasn't stabbed there
I mean it looks like most of the evidence kind of leads to that with the dogs not finding her the levidity patterns of where the blood was and then the fact that there's not a lot of blood at the actual scene that would be caused from her getting stabbed that many times
(23:38):
It kind of raises some questions about that
Right now one of the other things is that Lydia did a lot of work and she didn't put it in here because she's a little humble but she does a lot of work and something we're doing right now in class with the frenzy entomology
She found that the autopsy report had collected maggots and said they were in second instar and she went back and found the temperatures and everything from those days and figured out that her body was outside and probably killed somewhere around four o'clock the previous day
(24:15):
And she did all the math and stuff for that which would also show that most likely she was killed somewhere else but still outside and then the body was moved there because they didn't find the body would have been giving off gases and things like that and the dogs didn't go through that area prior to that
So the investigators did not take it through the entomology to figure out what the men and max colonization was and what the possible time frame could have been they did not do that in their case?
(24:44):
We don't know if they did that. We didn't have that information from the police department.
That's not public, correct?
Yes, it's not public, correct. So we don't know exactly if they did that or not.
Because that's an important thing because it can really put a time frame there.
Now we want to talk about potential evidence that could have been found at the scene.
First there was a garbage bag found next to Devin's body. Unfortunately we do not know very much about it as during the police investigation this bag was not collected.
(25:06):
A similar thing happened with the partial shoe print also found at the location. We found a mention of a shoe print in the article that we read but it was also not recorded by the police.
These are the only two pieces of evidence that we could even find through our research through articles and court cases.
Now we want to talk about the new Philadelphia Police Department as itself.
This was the biggest case that had happened in a long time quite possibly ever because people would say that something like this would never happen in this small town.
(25:33):
We found in our research that the police chief had many years of experience and he said that he had only experienced one other murder case before this in his entire career.
In order to be able to do an autopsy they had to use an adjacent county, Stark County, to do the autopsy because they did not have the resources to do so.
(25:54):
This is something that has probably meant a lot of small towns. We even talked about it the other day as we went to the coroner's office. Some states are limited on the number of medical examiners have and things like that.
In a small town where jurisdictions have a small police force and probably lack of experience, sometimes things get missed especially in protocol and things like that.
(26:18):
Especially in a higher profile case of a young child getting killed. Did they make mistakes? Maybe. Is it unusual in cases like that? Probably not.
I don't think that we can focus so much on the mistakes that are made but what can we do now to fix those?
It's kind of like a catch-22 when you live in a town like that because there's not a lot of crime that's being committed.
(26:39):
Then B, there aren't a lot of people that have the resources to know how to investigate those crimes. You start to think about what is the requirement of that.
How far out does the police chief and that police department have to go? What is their due diligence? Do they have to reach out to the state and have the state authorities come in?
Or do they try to handle it themselves? Is there any rules in place? Because probably a lot of it just depends on how much effort the local people want to put into solving it.
(27:09):
That's the human element that's involved also that goes along with it. It's a problem with resources based on where you live and the state or the country.
Now we just wanted to mention a little bit about Anthony Harris. While our main focus is on Devon, it is still important to know what happened to Anthony.
Anthony was the don of his neighbor as I said before and he would often play with the don of hers outside. He was said to be a kind kid.
(27:36):
When the police decided to bring Anthony in for questioning, they said they were just going to do a voice stress test.
He was in an interrogation room with a detective alone at age 12.
You don't know why he was alone without his mother, but they said they would just do a vocal stress test and that this would be easy and simple process.
The police had Mrs. Harris on the other side and was able to see in what was happening.
(28:01):
After a multiple page confession that we were able to read from Anthony Harris, Anthony ultimately confessed to this crime in order to be able to see his mother because they said that he would be able to walk out.
Now Anthony was arrested a few weeks after Devon's murder, but two years later due to lack of evidence and a coerced confession, Anthony appealed his case and was let out of prison.
(28:24):
Since then, all the media attention has shifted onto Anthony and our goal is to bring this story back to Devon.
To our knowledge, there has been no other leads that were followed after appealed his case and was let out from prison.
The following are people we believe should be talked to or looked into by the police, so hopefully we can bring justice for Devon and closure for her family and the community.
(28:45):
We are no way accusing anyone of murdering Devon, we just believe that they should be talked to.
Our first is Jamie Redman. This is Lori's ex-boyfriend. He was a drug addict, a convicted felon, and he lived in the Columbus area.
In 1997, so a year prior, he kidnapped Devon for three days. The police apparently did nothing about this, which is why Lori claims that she did not contact the police until 8pm.
(29:11):
Since this incident, he was under court order to stay away from Devon.
Residents of New Philadelphia had claimed that they had seen Jamie's car in the area on the day of June 27th.
The police pulled over his car in Columbus the next day and asked him why he was in New Philadelphia.
He said that he was visiting a sick relative and to our knowledge they didn't question him any further.
(29:34):
There are multiple reports of a mysterious man being seen by searchers when they were looking for Devon.
We first found this man from the ABC 2020 episode that came out in May of 2022.
He had long, curly, light brown hair and was said to be about 5'6". He was wearing a gray flannel that was buttoned up all the way to his neck and down his arms,
(29:55):
which looked out of place for a hot, humid day in the middle of summer.
There were reports of this mysterious man being seen 10 minutes by searchers before Devon's body was found.
There are a couple of things here that raised some questions for me. Number one, the ex-boyfriend who kidnapped Devon for three days.
He's in the area and it doesn't seem like the police really do an in-depth investigation of him.
(30:21):
That's one. Two is the person in the woods that's dressed in flannels, long clothes and all that stuff in the middle of July.
That doesn't make a lot of sense. And then third, the volunteer paramedic who finds the body in an area that they've already searched.
Then the question is, like you mentioned earlier, is why was that person going back to an area they already searched?
(30:46):
That kind of brings up, you know, and maybe since nobody knows who this person was based on the information that we have,
who's to say that all three of them or at least two of those aren't the same person. So, you know, those are the...
That's the biggest questions that I have. You know, you talk about the cadaver dogs not fighting the body, the police dogs.
Then you have a person that's not dressed appropriately for the temperature. Then you have the boyfriend.
(31:13):
Then you have the volunteer paramedic. So all those things kind of rolled together really makes it super suspicious.
One of the things about the boyfriend is that we just did not find any information about what the police did with him.
They may have questioned him. They may have...
So he may have had a great outcry. We just don't know.
Right. We just don't know. They didn't communicate with us. So we really don't know.
(31:35):
Did he live in that area?
He lived in Columbus, which was not too far away.
Okay, so it's not unusual for him to have been in that area. It's not like he went way out of his way.
Right. It wasn't that far of a drive. I think it was like 18 minutes away or something.
So he could drive through there and he did have some kind of excuse about why he was there.
To me, the most interesting or intriguing or the one I would look into more would be that volunteer paramedic.
(32:02):
Why did they go back to an area that was already searched?
Right. And we actually talked to one of the people that was in the search who said they searched that area.
Then said 10 minutes later they'd go back and find her body there.
And one of the things I think that we also have to look at is why would that person do that?
Why would they watch to see where they had searched already and then put the body there?
(32:25):
So one of the resources that we had talked to...
Part of it would be if they knew they already searched there, then they know nobody would be there when they put the body there.
Right. And were they trying for the body to be found or were they really trying to hide it thinking nobody would go back there?
So those are some of the things that are just kind of weird in this case, especially one of the things that I'd learned before is that
(32:51):
a lot of times the person that calls 911 or the person that finds the body usually is also one of the first suspects you look at.
Right.
And who is this volunteer paramedic that found her because we don't know who that is and we haven't been able to find that out from anybody.
Interesting.
This is the most realistic person of injuries that we have, we just don't know who this person is.
(33:13):
If anyone listening knows any information about this person, please contact the authorities as any information is helped.
Now, next is Richard Denever.
At the time of Devin's disappearance, he was in a bar claiming he was too busy to help look.
Now, it is important to note that he was paying child support at this time for Devin and that Devin also had a light insurance policy on her.
One of the things that me and you talked about that wasn't previously mentioned on the podcast, and one of the, yeah, it is interesting that the father was too busy to help look,
(33:42):
kind of raises some suspicion, you know, what it tells us and what the actual details are of that, you know, we don't really know.
But the thing that we were talking about earlier, off air, about how the father, you guys found that he was a witness to a case that put a guy in jail for 15 to life for murder,
or what we don't know if it was murder or not.
(34:04):
But the possibility that maybe this was some sort of retribution revenge type thing, and just curious if anybody's looked into that aspect of it.
You know, I don't know if the police have looked into it or not.
I'm sure they probably checked his background and so forth.
But the thing that was really exciting for me about this is how Lydia worked so hard to find this case.
(34:28):
She actually looked at court cases from different counties around where Devin disappeared and just having to stumble upon this particular case where her father was the key witness to put this guy in jail.
And the resource that we had talked to about it also kind of mentioned that maybe this was a crime to show that they could get to him in his family,
(34:54):
which is an unfortunate thing for Devin because she was caught in the middle of that.
Now, we don't know for sure if that really happened or not, but it is something that needs to be looked at.
Well, it's one of the things that you look at to say, you know, as far as Lydia, yeah, that she went above and beyond and found a lot of information because, you know,
the cold case is really an exercise of frustration because it's, you know, the waters are muddy, nothing's ever clear, and especially for high school kids, you know, a lot of the public agencies aren't always forthcoming to give information to kids as far as the cases are concerned.
(35:31):
But just the fact that she was able to find all this information on her own is outstanding, number one. And then number two, just, you know, to give these kids an understanding of how hard it is to go through these cold cases.
Because when you think about it, I mean, they're cases that police couldn't even solve when they happened. So to go back and look at it again and just the fact that we have a group of kids here at Mason High School that are,
(35:54):
you know, passionate about this type of stuff and it's a credit to you and to all the kids that are in this cold case class.
Well, and we all said maybe that little extra thing will maybe turn the case around. Who knows?
Now, as this investigation continues, it's important to look into people that weren't talked to. This could lead to new information and potential new leads that could help bring Devin's case to a close.
(36:17):
If anyone listening to this has any information regarding this place, you can contact the Tuscalara's County Sheriff's Department at either their phone 330-339-7713 or their email, sheriff at co.tuscaras.oh.us.
(36:46):
And if you're uncomfortable with contacting the police directly, please contact us at our email coldcaseatmasonohiosschools.com, our phone number 513-398-5025, or our social medias at MHS Cold Case.
We will get that information to the police.
(37:16):
Cold Case MHS Monsters and Demons is written by the Mason High School Cold Case students. The editing is done by current student Lydia Lisko.
The music was written and performed by MHS student Alexa Dahl. The artwork for this podcast was created by our Mason High School Students in Design Studio Internship.
Thank you for listening to Season 3 of Cold Case MHS. We really appreciate all the support you have given us this season.
(37:41):
I want to thank the students for all their hard work bringing light to those cases that have fallen into the dark.
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
(38:17):
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
(38:38):
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
(39:08):
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
(39:48):
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
(40:18):
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
You said you had not back but instead you attack you got me out of my head
(00:08):
Won't go and solve this time, won't catch you and your crimes will be shining alive
Welcome to Colgate's MHS Monsters and Demons
Where real education meets real life
I'm your host Randy Hubbard and I thank you for listening
So if you've been listening to our podcast over the three seasons that we've been doing this
(00:29):
You know that I've had some pretty steady co-hosts along the way
And then every once in a while I'll throw a new one in on you
This one is pretty special to me because he's my colleague and we've been working a long time on forensic stuff
And he's now hopefully going to take over for me in the Colgate's realm
And he's been a big part of helping us get this thing started
(00:50):
And that is Mr. Paul Berry and I'm going to let him introduce himself about this and what he wants to do with this
Yeah, thanks for having me Randy
Like Randy said I'm honored to be here
I think it's a great thing that these kids are doing and Mr. Hubbard's laid the foundation for this Colgate's class
I know it wasn't easy getting this set up
You know allowing kids to really have a great experiential learning, experiential learning, excuse me
(01:15):
But just that he's laid the foundation for this and you know this podcast now has 11,000 listeners
Which is pretty impressive for something that started from scratch three years ago
And just to keep in mind and I think this is always important is the purpose of this is for the victims and for the victims' families
You know a lot of times when you hear things and they talk about serial killers and all these shows that are on Netflix and stuff
(01:40):
All the focus is on the bad guy
Whereas I think that we need to kind of flip the script a little bit and put the importance of where is, you know, who is the important people in here
And obviously, you know, the bad guys are because you want to catch them
But then once you catch them or if you don't know who they are, you know, the focus needs to go on the people that are important
The victims, you know, who had no say in this and who were put in the wrong place at the wrong time or something bad
(02:06):
They're, you know, where they live, they're socioeconomic level, they're neighborhood, they're upbringing, you know, all that stuff
And it's just, I think it's a really big deal and hopefully one of these days that one of these cases, somebody out there hearing this
Will say, yeah, I know something about that and we can put some closure and help a family out that's had a horrific thing happen to them
Well, and I appreciate you joining me and thanks for all that you've done along the way and let's get started with the show
(02:32):
Sounds good
My name is Lydia and I'm Lindsay
And on today's episode we're going to be talking about the tragic murder of five-year-old Devin Brokodon of her
Who vanished from her home in New Philadelphia, Ohio on June 27th, 1998
Unfortunately, all the recent media coverage about this case has shifted to Anthony Harris, the boy who was arrested for Devin's murder
(02:54):
So in our forensic classes and you and I were talking about how unfortunate it is that the killer often gets more attention than the victim
And we talked about that with Ted Bundy and those kind of things
What do you think about this potato case?
Well, yeah, we were talking about how most people in society can tell you who John Wayne Gasey is and Ted Bundy and the BTK killer
(03:18):
But people probably can't name the victims and that's, you know, that's the thing that's important in these types of situations is who are the victims
Because they're the ones that are the important ones in these cases
I think this one's a little bit different, however, because the victim was a five-year-old girl
And the initial suspect was also a kid
(03:40):
So I think that that plays a role in this
It's a little bit different than the other situations just because of the age of the victim and more importantly probably because of the age of the suspect
And the fact that he was later found wrongly accused of the crime
Right, I mean, you can't imagine being a 12-year-old being accused of murder and you didn't do it
(04:02):
Anybody being accused of murder that didn't commit the homicide, you know, let alone a little kid
That has to affect him forever
Even now, this was 1998, so he's, you know, in his 30s now, late 30s, and it's probably still something that's with him
Our goal with this podcast is to get the story back out about Devon
(04:25):
In order to understand everything that happens in this case, we want to start by speaking about who Devon was in her upbringing
Devon was born on October 19, 1992 in Guernesee County, Ohio, which is in the southeastern part of Ohio
Devon was the youngest of two children to Richard Dunnevere and Laurie Valentine, then Dunnevere
She has an older brother named Dylan, who is three years older than her
(04:49):
When Devon was two years old, Richard and Laurie separated on March 23, 1995
Richard later remarried and filed for a new marriage license with Carol Jean Buher on September 5, 1997
At the time of her death, Devon and Dylan had at least three half-siblings and three step-siblings
According to our research, Devon was the youngest out of all of these children
(05:11):
So again, when you look at victims, you have to look kind of at their background, their victimology is what we call it
Unfortunately with Devon, she's so young, there's really not much of the victimology
The really thing you have to look at is her family background
And in this case, she's the youngest or a really big family, but it's a family of multiple parts
(05:32):
And sometimes, the younger ones don't have the same attention that the older ones had
Speaking from experience, being the youngest of three kids, my parents were probably a lot stricter
And hands-on with my older two sisters than they were me, just because the more kids you go through that you have
(05:55):
It's not as easy to pay attention to
And in this case, they have eight
And then I think the other thing that you were mentioning, when you talk about victimology in this instance
Her being so young, you just look at the entire family dynamics, was the kid go outside and play a lot
It was Devon always outside, in that instance, if that's the case, then people walking by, people in the area
(06:19):
They see the kids outside a lot, versus a kid that's outside with other kids
Did she play outside alone, or was she always have her siblings with her?
Those are the kind of things that you look at to try to figure out where a situation would be, what someone would be able to take advantage of that type of situation
And I think sometimes parents, when they get involved in either having to get ready to go somewhere, or putting dinner on the table or something like that
(06:47):
Sometimes, they'll have to lose their kids for a little while
Especially in a situation where you have eight, and I'm sure the father, the mother, and the other siblings, there are probably times where
They count on the older siblings to watch the younger siblings, and maybe the mother thought the father was watching her at that time
So it's kind of like it gets lost in the sauce a little bit, as far as who's watching the kid, and somebody thinks somebody's watching them, but they're really not
(07:13):
And then that whole dynamic plays a role too
Right, exactly
Devin was an independent and bright young girl who loved to play outside
Devin was looking forward to participating in gymnastics in the coming fall and wanted to be a ballerina when she grew up
Devin was looking forward to starting kindergarten in the fall, and every night Lori and Devin would read Dr. Seuss's One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
(07:37):
Devin has been quoted to be a happy and spoiled little girl
Now Devin's older brother at the time of Devin's murder was eight years old
Like Devin, Devin had many activities planned for the fall, such as baseball
Now Devin was an unusual young child, while researching we found out that apparently Devin killed small animals, which is indicative of a psychopathic mindset
(08:00):
He was also claimed to be, by his school's principal, the student most likely to commit this crime
The first thing, when I hear that, the striking thing to me is the fact that the principal would say that without any evidence
And as far as evidence, as far as doing that, sure, we're around kids as teachers all the time, but to just blankly say that kind of a statement about how old was the kid
(08:24):
That was eight
Yeah, I mean to say that is just kind of a, that's a far-reaching statement
I do, you know, we've talked about in forensics and stuff, the characteristics that all serial killers have in common as far as torturing animals, bedwetting and setting fires, I believe is the third one
I mean, not every kid that does that's going to grow up to be a psychopath or a serial killer
(08:49):
Sometimes, you know, kids are just, they're inquisitive and they do things that, you know, seen by adults is inappropriate, but for a kid's mind it's a little bit different
It's just interesting that the principal would say that about an eight-year-old
Right, unless there's something we don't know about, unless there are reports on him, he's been in trouble at school, you know, maybe he's threatened people, you know, because back then it was a little bit different than now
(09:14):
Yeah, just based on that information, you know, you'd say, you know, that's unusual behavior for sure, for someone to engage in, you know, kids eight to just make a blanket statement that, you know,
he feels like he was the one that did it without any kind of other evidence, just his little stretch, far stretched
(09:35):
Right, and I think the other biggest thing in there is that just because you mentioned it earlier, they do weird stuff like that with their kids
I mean, we've all done stupid stuff with our kids and then realize that was dumb, doesn't necessarily mean that he's a psychopath or he's going to grow up to be a psychopath
And here's the other thing, not all psychopaths are killers
Right
So that's the thing that we have to be careful with
And not all killers are psychopaths
(09:57):
Exactly
Now, Lori Valentine was a single mother, she worked in HR in the Cambridge area
After her and Richard Denver split, Lori, Devon and Dylan lived in New Philadelphia
When Lori moved into the area, they didn't have any friends, her closest friend was Cynthia Harris, the next-door neighbor and mother of Anthony Harris, who as we've said, was convicted for the murder of Devon
(10:19):
After Devon's murder and the following trial, Lori and Dylan moved back to Guernesey County
Devon's father, Richard, lived in Cambridge, Ohio, which is around a 40-minute drive from New Philadelphia where Lori lived with the children
We are unaware of what custody agreement was decided, but Devon and Dylan appeared to have had a good relationship with both of their parents
(10:40):
As we stated earlier, Richard was remarried at the time of Devon's death
When looking into the family, we have found that Richard has been married to or had children with at least eight women
We are no way judging him, we just think it is important to note that this was not the first relationship he had that resulted in separation
While we were searching social media to try to reach out to the siblings, it appeared that the siblings are close and have a relationship with their father
(11:05):
Now we want to talk about New Philadelphia itself
New Philadelphia was known to be a small, quiet town where, quote, nothing like this ever happened
In an interview, Lori said that her cousin had told her that New Philadelphia was the best place to raise children
They had good schools, good community, and good people, but tragedy struck this small town on June 27, 1998
(11:30):
Early that morning, Devon and Dylan had just come home after spending a week with their father in Cambridge, Ohio
According to Anthony Harris' appeal timeline, which is important to note because times fluctuate depending on where you look
Devon and Dylan went outside of the apartment complex that they lived in to play
This was a common occurrence for the Denver siblings as they would try to play with their friends that lived in the complex as well
(11:53):
This is in the 90s and unlike today, so many children would be playing outside all the time, not necessarily with parents looking over their every move
Now, at around 1.30, Lori told Devon to stay inside the house as she was leaving for the grocery store
However, Devon went outside anyways to go play with a different neighbor in the building next door, Dale Resker's daughter
(12:14):
About 20 minutes later, at 1.50 p.m. Lori Valentine comes back downstairs from getting ready and realizes that Devon is missing
She sees Dylan and asks where Devon went, where he responds that she went outside
Lori goes outside and realizes that she does not see Devon anywhere
Lori begins to search for Devon
Devon reportedly had the tendency to wander off, so Lori went to Devon's friend's house to see if Devon tried to go play there
(12:39):
When we were looking at the course it would take to get to that house, it seems unlikely that this would happen because it is a long way for a 5 year old to go
Ultimately, the family was on vacation, so no one was there
At 2 p.m. Lori sees Anthony Harris in the woods on his way home
She offers him $5 to have him help her look for Devon
At around 5.20 p.m. after about 3 hours of searching, Anthony goes home
(13:03):
Almost 7 hours since she last saw Devon, Lori calls the New Philadelphia Police Department to report Devon missing at around 8.11 p.m.
We are not trying to point fingers, we just believe that it is strange to wait 7 hours to call the police for your missing 5 year old
The first 48 hours are the most valuable time to locate someone, especially a child
(13:24):
This 7 hours in between when she initially last saw Devon and when she called the police and 2 people searching, it would have been able to have covered more ground if the police had been contacted
So it does seem a little strange that she waited 7 hours to call the police
I will say that maybe that's not necessarily too weird in the fact that she's out looking for a daughter, she's worried about her
(13:52):
I thought she could find her because she's normally probably at a friend's house, things like that
And I also think that sometimes parents back then thought they had to be gone for a certain amount of time
Which was not true, but TV shows and things like that kind of made it sound like that
I'd be interested, I mean was it 7 hours from the last time she saw her or was it 7 hours from when she knew she was missing
(14:17):
But to me that kind of makes a bit of a difference because I think about my own kids
I mean if my kids is 5 and I'm looking for them and I'm looking for an hour or 2 hours
And then you guys say go back to the victimology aspect of it and say is her just going off to friend something that she did
If it is then it makes a little bit more sense, like if this has happened in the past and they found her at a neighbor's house playing with a dog in the backyard or something
(14:44):
Or is this a one off and it's never happened before, I mean I just know personally and everybody's different
But if I'm looking for my 5, you gotta think 5 years old, it's not like they're 12, 15
You know, a 5 year old really can't fend for themselves or hardly at all
That is a little bit strange but I do understand your point too as far as that 24 hour window
(15:08):
But I don't know, I mean 7 hours is a long time
Very long time, now she also had other kids so I don't know how she was handling that situation
I mean it's a phone call, not that difficult
You call the police and they say well you gotta wait 24 hours and now you know, I mean that's, you know, like you said we don't know what's going on in that situation
And the franticness of it and the time might have just slipped away, you know, so there's a lot of things that could factor into that
(15:36):
Now after Lori contacts the police, they put out a radio call to have searchers come in from all over the New Philadelphia area to help look Devon
Because this is a radio call, it is impossible to track exactly who was in the search party
And we just know that there are many people there to help look
And the weather that night that they were looking for Devon was between 70 and 80 degrees so it was fairly warm
(15:57):
There was also a storm earlier that night which caused the ground to be wet and as well as having debris all over the place
When we were looking for ways that it could have been able to help locate Devon and what happened between the time that she went missing and the time that her body was ultimately found
We came across search dogs being used
These dogs were not from the police department but voluntarily used to help find Devon
(16:22):
The first dog arrived around 10pm on June 27th
This dog went to a neighbor's house where Devon was confirmed to have gone, returned to the apartment
And then took an elaborate pathway to the side entry door of the house near the garage
There was a second dog that went out around 2am and followed the exact same pathway as the first
Depending on the speed of which you walked, this walk could take around 45 minutes
(16:46):
When looking to see who this house belonged to, we found that the house adjacent to this house belonged to a convicted child molester
Who had recently been released from prison
Even though it was confirmed to the neighbor's house that the dogs went to the location that Devon had been that day
It seems as if the dogs were not believed after they went on the elaborate pathway that they took
(17:07):
This lead has seemed to have never been followed
We believe that they did initial questioning of the person that owned the house adjacent but we don't know what happened since
I kind of find it interesting that they wouldn't have done any more investigation on the house the dogs went to with the convicted child molester
Just for the mere fact that we do victimology to figure out how the victim acts and things like that
(17:34):
You think you would take the past historical data of somebody who is a possible suspect into account too
Maybe put a little bit more time and resources into investigating that and as far as the path taking 45 minutes
If she was gone for 7 hours, there could have been some wandering, there could have been some walking around
If the dogs lost the trail and picked it up again, possibly that Devon got in a vehicle
(18:01):
Those are all things that are possible but perhaps if we don't have the information
Maybe the person whose house that the police went to, maybe they had a solid alibi
Maybe they weren't there, if we don't have that information, we don't want to make judgments on that based on information that we don't have
And the thing about the dogs is that they weren't actually police dogs, they were retired police dogs I think
(18:25):
Possibly even cadaver dogs, they had been retired and once a dog retires and they don't practice that a lot
Sometimes they're not considered to be solid at the job
Is the thought there too the fact that the dogs didn't find the victim when they were in the woods?
(18:46):
Is the thought that maybe that she wasn't in the woods yet?
So that's why she was maybe at a house or somewhere else when the dogs were looking and then was placed in the woods later
And there's some evidence to kind of prove that possibly she was killed somewhere else and then moved to that spot
So that's why they think the dogs didn't go into that area because they brought the body back later
(19:10):
Now in this seven hour time span from the time she was noticed missing to the time the police were called
Were the dogs in that or were the dogs after that?
They were after that, they were part of the search team
So then how from that seven hour time when she was missing when was she found?
That is a good question. I want to say she was found the next day because there was a storm that came that night
(19:36):
They found the next day like at four o'clock in the afternoon
So there's a pretty long time there plus the rain may have affected the scent and things like that too
So this was from start to finish was less than 24 hours?
Yes
Our only question is that if Devon's body had been in the woods all night, how would the dogs have not picked up the scent there?
(20:02):
This leads us to believe that the reason Devon's body had not been found that night when they were searching was because she was not in the woods
But possibly in that house
Now at around 2.30pm on June 28th 1998 Devon's body was found by an off-duty ENT officer
This area that it was found was claimed to be previously looked by by searchers during the search period time
(20:25):
It was around 100 yards away from the apartment complex and it was in a small bare spot in a dense brush covered with weeds
The path leading to her body was tunneled out area of weeds where it said that children were known to crawl on their hands and knees
We now want to talk about the body when she was found. There was no signs of sexual assault on her
(20:46):
There were seven stab wounds to her neck area which partially severed the carotid artery which would lead to a lot of blood loss
We also learned that her hair enclosed her wet most likely from being outside in the storm
Her body was also infested with insects. She had no defense wounds on her body but there was no blood surrounding the scene
(21:07):
When we were researching more we found out that the way that the blood cooled and settled was in a different position than how it would have been with how her body was placed
So as we were talking about earlier with the police dogs, the police dogs went to a neighbor's house but they never actually the retired police dogs
They never found the actual body which leads you to think maybe the body wasn't there when the police dogs were searching as far as what that time frame was
(21:34):
And then also the fact that they mentioned that the blood appeared to be how it cooled and congealed the right word
We actually were at the corner and they talked about what's called Levitity which is in the body you can see where all the blood settles in the body due to gravity
(21:55):
Because obviously it's not pumping anymore and if she was in a certain spot you would expect all the blood to be in whichever spot was down on the ground and if it's not the case then it does show that possibly she wasn't moved or murdered there or that maybe she was moved
Right and the other thing about the injuries to her is that if the person they had looked at who was a sexual predator would have done something like this
(22:21):
They probably would have seen sexual assault and they didn't see that in her and that does kind of point to a younger suspect but that suspect had to be able to kill her somewhere where they probably wouldn't have made a huge mess and then move her body there
And most kids are not going to do that so it's kind of a conflicting thing when we talk about the evidence and where she was found
(22:44):
So she was stabbed how many times?
She was stabbed 15 I think
In her carotid artery?
In her carotid artery was hit yes
So did any mention as far as like how much blood was at the actual scene because that would create a lot of blood
And actually that's why they said when she found her body there was not enough blood there to have been stabbed in the carotid artery
(23:05):
So it's pretty, I mean everybody pretty much agrees that she wasn't killed there is that the conventional thought behind this or is there still some questions as far as that?
I think there's some questions about that I think the resource that we had who happened to be somewhat close to the case he seems to think that she was moved there and wasn't stabbed there
I mean it looks like most of the evidence kind of leads to that with the dogs not finding her the levidity patterns of where the blood was and then the fact that there's not a lot of blood at the actual scene that would be caused from her getting stabbed that many times
(23:38):
It kind of raises some questions about that
Right now one of the other things is that Lydia did a lot of work and she didn't put it in here because she's a little humble but she does a lot of work and something we're doing right now in class with the frenzy entomology
She found that the autopsy report had collected maggots and said they were in second instar and she went back and found the temperatures and everything from those days and figured out that her body was outside and probably killed somewhere around four o'clock the previous day
(24:15):
And she did all the math and stuff for that which would also show that most likely she was killed somewhere else but still outside and then the body was moved there because they didn't find the body would have been giving off gases and things like that and the dogs didn't go through that area prior to that
So the investigators did not take it through the entomology to figure out what the men and max colonization was and what the possible time frame could have been they did not do that in their case?
(24:44):
We don't know if they did that. We didn't have that information from the police department.
That's not public, correct?
Yes, it's not public, correct. So we don't know exactly if they did that or not.
Because that's an important thing because it can really put a time frame there.
Now we want to talk about potential evidence that could have been found at the scene.
First there was a garbage bag found next to Devin's body. Unfortunately we do not know very much about it as during the police investigation this bag was not collected.
(25:06):
A similar thing happened with the partial shoe print also found at the location. We found a mention of a shoe print in the article that we read but it was also not recorded by the police.
These are the only two pieces of evidence that we could even find through our research through articles and court cases.
Now we want to talk about the new Philadelphia Police Department as itself.
This was the biggest case that had happened in a long time quite possibly ever because people would say that something like this would never happen in this small town.
(25:33):
We found in our research that the police chief had many years of experience and he said that he had only experienced one other murder case before this in his entire career.
In order to be able to do an autopsy they had to use an adjacent county, Stark County, to do the autopsy because they did not have the resources to do so.
(25:54):
This is something that has probably meant a lot of small towns. We even talked about it the other day as we went to the coroner's office. Some states are limited on the number of medical examiners have and things like that.
In a small town where jurisdictions have a small police force and probably lack of experience, sometimes things get missed especially in protocol and things like that.
(26:18):
Especially in a higher profile case of a young child getting killed. Did they make mistakes? Maybe. Is it unusual in cases like that? Probably not.
I don't think that we can focus so much on the mistakes that are made but what can we do now to fix those?
It's kind of like a catch-22 when you live in a town like that because there's not a lot of crime that's being committed.
(26:39):
Then B, there aren't a lot of people that have the resources to know how to investigate those crimes. You start to think about what is the requirement of that.
How far out does the police chief and that police department have to go? What is their due diligence? Do they have to reach out to the state and have the state authorities come in?
Or do they try to handle it themselves? Is there any rules in place? Because probably a lot of it just depends on how much effort the local people want to put into solving it.
(27:09):
That's the human element that's involved also that goes along with it. It's a problem with resources based on where you live and the state or the country.
Now we just wanted to mention a little bit about Anthony Harris. While our main focus is on Devon, it is still important to know what happened to Anthony.
Anthony was the don of his neighbor as I said before and he would often play with the don of hers outside. He was said to be a kind kid.
(27:36):
When the police decided to bring Anthony in for questioning, they said they were just going to do a voice stress test.
He was in an interrogation room with a detective alone at age 12.
You don't know why he was alone without his mother, but they said they would just do a vocal stress test and that this would be easy and simple process.
The police had Mrs. Harris on the other side and was able to see in what was happening.
(28:01):
After a multiple page confession that we were able to read from Anthony Harris, Anthony ultimately confessed to this crime in order to be able to see his mother because they said that he would be able to walk out.
Now Anthony was arrested a few weeks after Devon's murder, but two years later due to lack of evidence and a coerced confession, Anthony appealed his case and was let out of prison.
(28:24):
Since then, all the media attention has shifted onto Anthony and our goal is to bring this story back to Devon.
To our knowledge, there has been no other leads that were followed after appealed his case and was let out from prison.
The following are people we believe should be talked to or looked into by the police, so hopefully we can bring justice for Devon and closure for her family and the community.
(28:45):
We are no way accusing anyone of murdering Devon, we just believe that they should be talked to.
Our first is Jamie Redman. This is Lori's ex-boyfriend. He was a drug addict, a convicted felon, and he lived in the Columbus area.
In 1997, so a year prior, he kidnapped Devon for three days. The police apparently did nothing about this, which is why Lori claims that she did not contact the police until 8pm.
(29:11):
Since this incident, he was under court order to stay away from Devon.
Residents of New Philadelphia had claimed that they had seen Jamie's car in the area on the day of June 27th.
The police pulled over his car in Columbus the next day and asked him why he was in New Philadelphia.
He said that he was visiting a sick relative and to our knowledge they didn't question him any further.
(29:34):
There are multiple reports of a mysterious man being seen by searchers when they were looking for Devon.
We first found this man from the ABC 2020 episode that came out in May of 2022.
He had long, curly, light brown hair and was said to be about 5'6". He was wearing a gray flannel that was buttoned up all the way to his neck and down his arms,
(29:55):
which looked out of place for a hot, humid day in the middle of summer.
There were reports of this mysterious man being seen 10 minutes by searchers before Devon's body was found.
There are a couple of things here that raised some questions for me. Number one, the ex-boyfriend who kidnapped Devon for three days.
He's in the area and it doesn't seem like the police really do an in-depth investigation of him.
(30:21):
That's one. Two is the person in the woods that's dressed in flannels, long clothes and all that stuff in the middle of July.
That doesn't make a lot of sense. And then third, the volunteer paramedic who finds the body in an area that they've already searched.
Then the question is, like you mentioned earlier, is why was that person going back to an area they already searched?
(30:46):
That kind of brings up, you know, and maybe since nobody knows who this person was based on the information that we have,
who's to say that all three of them or at least two of those aren't the same person. So, you know, those are the...
That's the biggest questions that I have. You know, you talk about the cadaver dogs not fighting the body, the police dogs.
Then you have a person that's not dressed appropriately for the temperature. Then you have the boyfriend.
(31:13):
Then you have the volunteer paramedic. So all those things kind of rolled together really makes it super suspicious.
One of the things about the boyfriend is that we just did not find any information about what the police did with him.
They may have questioned him. They may have...
So he may have had a great outcry. We just don't know.
Right. We just don't know. They didn't communicate with us. So we really don't know.
(31:35):
Did he live in that area?
He lived in Columbus, which was not too far away.
Okay, so it's not unusual for him to have been in that area. It's not like he went way out of his way.
Right. It wasn't that far of a drive. I think it was like 18 minutes away or something.
So he could drive through there and he did have some kind of excuse about why he was there.
To me, the most interesting or intriguing or the one I would look into more would be that volunteer paramedic.
(32:02):
Why did they go back to an area that was already searched?
Right. And we actually talked to one of the people that was in the search who said they searched that area.
Then said 10 minutes later they'd go back and find her body there.
And one of the things I think that we also have to look at is why would that person do that?
Why would they watch to see where they had searched already and then put the body there?
(32:25):
So one of the resources that we had talked to...
Part of it would be if they knew they already searched there, then they know nobody would be there when they put the body there.
Right. And were they trying for the body to be found or were they really trying to hide it thinking nobody would go back there?
So those are some of the things that are just kind of weird in this case, especially one of the things that I'd learned before is that
(32:51):
a lot of times the person that calls 911 or the person that finds the body usually is also one of the first suspects you look at.
Right.
And who is this volunteer paramedic that found her because we don't know who that is and we haven't been able to find that out from anybody.
Interesting.
This is the most realistic person of injuries that we have, we just don't know who this person is.
(33:13):
If anyone listening knows any information about this person, please contact the authorities as any information is helped.
Now, next is Richard Denever.
At the time of Devin's disappearance, he was in a bar claiming he was too busy to help look.
Now, it is important to note that he was paying child support at this time for Devin and that Devin also had a light insurance policy on her.
One of the things that me and you talked about that wasn't previously mentioned on the podcast, and one of the, yeah, it is interesting that the father was too busy to help look,
(33:42):
kind of raises some suspicion, you know, what it tells us and what the actual details are of that, you know, we don't really know.
But the thing that we were talking about earlier, off air, about how the father, you guys found that he was a witness to a case that put a guy in jail for 15 to life for murder,
or what we don't know if it was murder or not.
(34:04):
But the possibility that maybe this was some sort of retribution revenge type thing, and just curious if anybody's looked into that aspect of it.
You know, I don't know if the police have looked into it or not.
I'm sure they probably checked his background and so forth.
But the thing that was really exciting for me about this is how Lydia worked so hard to find this case.
(34:28):
She actually looked at court cases from different counties around where Devin disappeared and just having to stumble upon this particular case where her father was the key witness to put this guy in jail.
And the resource that we had talked to about it also kind of mentioned that maybe this was a crime to show that they could get to him in his family,
(34:54):
which is an unfortunate thing for Devin because she was caught in the middle of that.
Now, we don't know for sure if that really happened or not, but it is something that needs to be looked at.
Well, it's one of the things that you look at to say, you know, as far as Lydia, yeah, that she went above and beyond and found a lot of information because, you know,
the cold case is really an exercise of frustration because it's, you know, the waters are muddy, nothing's ever clear, and especially for high school kids, you know, a lot of the public agencies aren't always forthcoming to give information to kids as far as the cases are concerned.
(35:31):
But just the fact that she was able to find all this information on her own is outstanding, number one. And then number two, just, you know, to give these kids an understanding of how hard it is to go through these cold cases.
Because when you think about it, I mean, they're cases that police couldn't even solve when they happened. So to go back and look at it again and just the fact that we have a group of kids here at Mason High School that are,
(35:54):
you know, passionate about this type of stuff and it's a credit to you and to all the kids that are in this cold case class.
Well, and we all said maybe that little extra thing will maybe turn the case around. Who knows?
Now, as this investigation continues, it's important to look into people that weren't talked to. This could lead to new information and potential new leads that could help bring Devin's case to a close.
(36:17):
If anyone listening to this has any information regarding this place, you can contact the Tuscalara's County Sheriff's Department at either their phone 330-339-7713 or their email, sheriff at co.tuscaras.oh.us.
(36:46):
And if you're uncomfortable with contacting the police directly, please contact us at our email coldcaseatmasonohiosschools.com, our phone number 513-398-5025, or our social medias at MHS Cold Case.
We will get that information to the police.
(37:16):
Cold Case MHS Monsters and Demons is written by the Mason High School Cold Case students. The editing is done by current student Lydia Lisko.
The music was written and performed by MHS student Alexa Dahl. The artwork for this podcast was created by our Mason High School Students in Design Studio Internship.
Thank you for listening to Season 3 of Cold Case MHS. We really appreciate all the support you have given us this season.
(37:41):
I want to thank the students for all their hard work bringing light to those cases that have fallen into the dark.
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
(38:17):
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
(38:38):
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
(39:08):
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
(39:48):
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
(40:18):
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.
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