1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,880 You said you had not back but instead you attack you got me out of my head 2 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:17,840 Won't go and solve this time, won't catch you and your crimes will be shining alive 3 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,880 Welcome to Colgate's MHS Monsters and Demons 4 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:22,880 Where real education meets real life 5 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:25,880 I'm your host Randy Hubbard and I thank you for listening 6 00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:29,880 So if you've been listening to our podcast over the three seasons that we've been doing this 7 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:32,880 You know that I've had some pretty steady co-hosts along the way 8 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:35,880 And then every once in a while I'll throw a new one in on you 9 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:42,880 This one is pretty special to me because he's my colleague and we've been working a long time on forensic stuff 10 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:46,880 And he's now hopefully going to take over for me in the Colgate's realm 11 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:50,880 And he's been a big part of helping us get this thing started 12 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:57,880 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 13 00:00:57,880 --> 00:00:59,880 Yeah, thanks for having me Randy 14 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:01,880 Like Randy said I'm honored to be here 15 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:07,880 I think it's a great thing that these kids are doing and Mr. Hubbard's laid the foundation for this Colgate's class 16 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:09,880 I know it wasn't easy getting this set up 17 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:15,880 You know allowing kids to really have a great experiential learning, experiential learning, excuse me 18 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:22,880 But just that he's laid the foundation for this and you know this podcast now has 11,000 listeners 19 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:26,880 Which is pretty impressive for something that started from scratch three years ago 20 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:34,880 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 21 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:40,880 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 22 00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:43,880 All the focus is on the bad guy 23 00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:50,880 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 24 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:53,880 And obviously, you know, the bad guys are because you want to catch them 25 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:58,880 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 26 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:06,880 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 27 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:13,880 They're, you know, where they live, they're socioeconomic level, they're neighborhood, they're upbringing, you know, all that stuff 28 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:19,880 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 29 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:26,880 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 30 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:32,880 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 31 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:33,880 Sounds good 32 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:35,880 My name is Lydia and I'm Lindsay 33 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:41,880 And on today's episode we're going to be talking about the tragic murder of five-year-old Devin Brokodon of her 34 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:46,880 Who vanished from her home in New Philadelphia, Ohio on June 27th, 1998 35 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:54,880 Unfortunately, all the recent media coverage about this case has shifted to Anthony Harris, the boy who was arrested for Devin's murder 36 00:02:54,880 --> 00:03:03,880 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 37 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:07,880 And we talked about that with Ted Bundy and those kind of things 38 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:09,880 What do you think about this potato case? 39 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:18,880 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 40 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:27,880 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 41 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:31,880 Because they're the ones that are the important ones in these cases 42 00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:36,880 I think this one's a little bit different, however, because the victim was a five-year-old girl 43 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:40,880 And the initial suspect was also a kid 44 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:44,880 So I think that that plays a role in this 45 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:54,880 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 46 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:57,880 And the fact that he was later found wrongly accused of the crime 47 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:02,880 Right, I mean, you can't imagine being a 12-year-old being accused of murder and you didn't do it 48 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:09,880 Anybody being accused of murder that didn't commit the homicide, you know, let alone a little kid 49 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:11,880 That has to affect him forever 50 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:21,880 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 51 00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:25,880 Our goal with this podcast is to get the story back out about Devon 52 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:32,880 In order to understand everything that happens in this case, we want to start by speaking about who Devon was in her upbringing 53 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:39,880 Devon was born on October 19, 1992 in Guernesee County, Ohio, which is in the southeastern part of Ohio 54 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:45,880 Devon was the youngest of two children to Richard Dunnevere and Laurie Valentine, then Dunnevere 55 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:49,880 She has an older brother named Dylan, who is three years older than her 56 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:55,880 When Devon was two years old, Richard and Laurie separated on March 23, 1995 57 00:04:55,880 --> 00:05:01,880 Richard later remarried and filed for a new marriage license with Carol Jean Buher on September 5, 1997 58 00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:07,880 At the time of her death, Devon and Dylan had at least three half-siblings and three step-siblings 59 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:11,880 According to our research, Devon was the youngest out of all of these children 60 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:17,880 So again, when you look at victims, you have to look kind of at their background, their victimology is what we call it 61 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:21,880 Unfortunately with Devon, she's so young, there's really not much of the victimology 62 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:24,880 The really thing you have to look at is her family background 63 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:32,880 And in this case, she's the youngest or a really big family, but it's a family of multiple parts 64 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:39,880 And sometimes, the younger ones don't have the same attention that the older ones had 65 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:48,880 Speaking from experience, being the youngest of three kids, my parents were probably a lot stricter 66 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:55,880 And hands-on with my older two sisters than they were me, just because the more kids you go through that you have 67 00:05:55,880 --> 00:05:58,880 It's not as easy to pay attention to 68 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:00,880 And in this case, they have eight 69 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:04,880 And then I think the other thing that you were mentioning, when you talk about victimology in this instance 70 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:12,880 Her being so young, you just look at the entire family dynamics, was the kid go outside and play a lot 71 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:19,880 It was Devon always outside, in that instance, if that's the case, then people walking by, people in the area 72 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,880 They see the kids outside a lot, versus a kid that's outside with other kids 73 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:27,880 Did she play outside alone, or was she always have her siblings with her? 74 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:39,880 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 75 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:47,880 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 76 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:50,880 Sometimes, they'll have to lose their kids for a little while 77 00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:58,880 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 78 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:05,880 They count on the older siblings to watch the younger siblings, and maybe the mother thought the father was watching her at that time 79 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:13,880 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 80 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:16,880 And then that whole dynamic plays a role too 81 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:17,880 Right, exactly 82 00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:21,880 Devin was an independent and bright young girl who loved to play outside 83 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:27,880 Devin was looking forward to participating in gymnastics in the coming fall and wanted to be a ballerina when she grew up 84 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:37,880 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 85 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:41,880 Devin has been quoted to be a happy and spoiled little girl 86 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:47,880 Now Devin's older brother at the time of Devin's murder was eight years old 87 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:51,880 Like Devin, Devin had many activities planned for the fall, such as baseball 88 00:07:51,880 --> 00:08:00,880 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 89 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:06,880 He was also claimed to be, by his school's principal, the student most likely to commit this crime 90 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:14,880 The first thing, when I hear that, the striking thing to me is the fact that the principal would say that without any evidence 91 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:24,880 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 92 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:25,880 That was eight 93 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:31,880 Yeah, I mean to say that is just kind of a, that's a far-reaching statement 94 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:44,880 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 95 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:49,880 I mean, not every kid that does that's going to grow up to be a psychopath or a serial killer 96 00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:59,880 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 97 00:08:59,880 --> 00:09:04,880 It's just interesting that the principal would say that about an eight-year-old 98 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:14,880 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 99 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:28,880 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, 100 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:35,880 he feels like he was the one that did it without any kind of other evidence, just his little stretch, far stretched 101 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:42,880 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 102 00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:49,880 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 103 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:52,880 And here's the other thing, not all psychopaths are killers 104 00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:53,880 Right 105 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:55,880 So that's the thing that we have to be careful with 106 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:57,880 And not all killers are psychopaths 107 00:09:57,880 --> 00:09:58,880 Exactly 108 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:03,880 Now, Lori Valentine was a single mother, she worked in HR in the Cambridge area 109 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:08,880 After her and Richard Denver split, Lori, Devon and Dylan lived in New Philadelphia 110 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:19,880 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 111 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:25,880 After Devon's murder and the following trial, Lori and Dylan moved back to Guernesey County 112 00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:32,880 Devon's father, Richard, lived in Cambridge, Ohio, which is around a 40-minute drive from New Philadelphia where Lori lived with the children 113 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:40,880 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 114 00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:44,880 As we stated earlier, Richard was remarried at the time of Devon's death 115 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:51,880 When looking into the family, we have found that Richard has been married to or had children with at least eight women 116 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:58,880 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 117 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:05,880 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 118 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:08,880 Now we want to talk about New Philadelphia itself 119 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:14,880 New Philadelphia was known to be a small, quiet town where, quote, nothing like this ever happened 120 00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:21,880 In an interview, Lori said that her cousin had told her that New Philadelphia was the best place to raise children 121 00:11:21,880 --> 00:11:30,880 They had good schools, good community, and good people, but tragedy struck this small town on June 27, 1998 122 00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:36,880 Early that morning, Devon and Dylan had just come home after spending a week with their father in Cambridge, Ohio 123 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:43,880 According to Anthony Harris' appeal timeline, which is important to note because times fluctuate depending on where you look 124 00:11:43,880 --> 00:11:47,880 Devon and Dylan went outside of the apartment complex that they lived in to play 125 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:53,880 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 126 00:11:53,880 --> 00:12:02,880 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 127 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:08,880 Now, at around 1.30, Lori told Devon to stay inside the house as she was leaving for the grocery store 128 00:12:08,880 --> 00:12:14,880 However, Devon went outside anyways to go play with a different neighbor in the building next door, Dale Resker's daughter 129 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:21,880 About 20 minutes later, at 1.50 p.m. Lori Valentine comes back downstairs from getting ready and realizes that Devon is missing 130 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:27,880 She sees Dylan and asks where Devon went, where he responds that she went outside 131 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:31,880 Lori goes outside and realizes that she does not see Devon anywhere 132 00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:33,880 Lori begins to search for Devon 133 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:39,880 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 134 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:47,880 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 135 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:50,880 Ultimately, the family was on vacation, so no one was there 136 00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:55,880 At 2 p.m. Lori sees Anthony Harris in the woods on his way home 137 00:12:55,880 --> 00:12:58,880 She offers him $5 to have him help her look for Devon 138 00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:03,880 At around 5.20 p.m. after about 3 hours of searching, Anthony goes home 139 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:12,880 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. 140 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:19,880 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 141 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:24,880 The first 48 hours are the most valuable time to locate someone, especially a child 142 00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:36,880 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 143 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:41,880 So it does seem a little strange that she waited 7 hours to call the police 144 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:52,880 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 145 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:56,880 I thought she could find her because she's normally probably at a friend's house, things like that 146 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:04,880 And I also think that sometimes parents back then thought they had to be gone for a certain amount of time 147 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:09,880 Which was not true, but TV shows and things like that kind of made it sound like that 148 00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:17,880 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 149 00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:23,880 But to me that kind of makes a bit of a difference because I think about my own kids 150 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:29,880 I mean if my kids is 5 and I'm looking for them and I'm looking for an hour or 2 hours 151 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:36,880 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 152 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:44,880 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 153 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:50,880 Or is this a one off and it's never happened before, I mean I just know personally and everybody's different 154 00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:55,880 But if I'm looking for my 5, you gotta think 5 years old, it's not like they're 12, 15 155 00:14:55,880 --> 00:15:01,880 You know, a 5 year old really can't fend for themselves or hardly at all 156 00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:08,880 That is a little bit strange but I do understand your point too as far as that 24 hour window 157 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:12,880 But I don't know, I mean 7 hours is a long time 158 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:17,880 Very long time, now she also had other kids so I don't know how she was handling that situation 159 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:21,880 I mean it's a phone call, not that difficult 160 00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:28,880 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 161 00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:36,880 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 162 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:43,880 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 163 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:48,880 Because this is a radio call, it is impossible to track exactly who was in the search party 164 00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:51,880 And we just know that there are many people there to help look 165 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:57,880 And the weather that night that they were looking for Devon was between 70 and 80 degrees so it was fairly warm 166 00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:05,880 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 167 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:14,880 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 168 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:17,880 We came across search dogs being used 169 00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:22,880 These dogs were not from the police department but voluntarily used to help find Devon 170 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:26,880 The first dog arrived around 10pm on June 27th 171 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:31,880 This dog went to a neighbor's house where Devon was confirmed to have gone, returned to the apartment 172 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:36,880 And then took an elaborate pathway to the side entry door of the house near the garage 173 00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:41,880 There was a second dog that went out around 2am and followed the exact same pathway as the first 174 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:46,880 Depending on the speed of which you walked, this walk could take around 45 minutes 175 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:54,880 When looking to see who this house belonged to, we found that the house adjacent to this house belonged to a convicted child molester 176 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:56,880 Who had recently been released from prison 177 00:16:56,880 --> 00:17:02,880 Even though it was confirmed to the neighbor's house that the dogs went to the location that Devon had been that day 178 00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:07,880 It seems as if the dogs were not believed after they went on the elaborate pathway that they took 179 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:09,880 This lead has seemed to have never been followed 180 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:16,880 We believe that they did initial questioning of the person that owned the house adjacent but we don't know what happened since 181 00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:26,880 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 182 00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:34,880 Just for the mere fact that we do victimology to figure out how the victim acts and things like that 183 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:40,880 You think you would take the past historical data of somebody who is a possible suspect into account too 184 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:47,880 Maybe put a little bit more time and resources into investigating that and as far as the path taking 45 minutes 185 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:54,880 If she was gone for 7 hours, there could have been some wandering, there could have been some walking around 186 00:17:54,880 --> 00:18:01,880 If the dogs lost the trail and picked it up again, possibly that Devon got in a vehicle 187 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:07,880 Those are all things that are possible but perhaps if we don't have the information 188 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:12,880 Maybe the person whose house that the police went to, maybe they had a solid alibi 189 00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:19,880 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 190 00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:25,880 And the thing about the dogs is that they weren't actually police dogs, they were retired police dogs I think 191 00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:33,880 Possibly even cadaver dogs, they had been retired and once a dog retires and they don't practice that a lot 192 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:38,880 Sometimes they're not considered to be solid at the job 193 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:46,880 Is the thought there too the fact that the dogs didn't find the victim when they were in the woods? 194 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:50,880 Is the thought that maybe that she wasn't in the woods yet? 195 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:58,880 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 196 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:03,880 And there's some evidence to kind of prove that possibly she was killed somewhere else and then moved to that spot 197 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:10,880 So that's why they think the dogs didn't go into that area because they brought the body back later 198 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:17,880 Now in this seven hour time span from the time she was noticed missing to the time the police were called 199 00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:20,880 Were the dogs in that or were the dogs after that? 200 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:22,880 They were after that, they were part of the search team 201 00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:28,880 So then how from that seven hour time when she was missing when was she found? 202 00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:36,880 That is a good question. I want to say she was found the next day because there was a storm that came that night 203 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:39,880 They found the next day like at four o'clock in the afternoon 204 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:44,880 So there's a pretty long time there plus the rain may have affected the scent and things like that too 205 00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:52,880 So this was from start to finish was less than 24 hours? 206 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:53,880 Yes 207 00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:02,880 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? 208 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:09,880 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 209 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:11,880 But possibly in that house 210 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:19,880 Now at around 2.30pm on June 28th 1998 Devon's body was found by an off-duty ENT officer 211 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:25,880 This area that it was found was claimed to be previously looked by by searchers during the search period time 212 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:33,880 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 213 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:40,880 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 214 00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:46,880 We now want to talk about the body when she was found. There was no signs of sexual assault on her 215 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:53,880 There were seven stab wounds to her neck area which partially severed the carotid artery which would lead to a lot of blood loss 216 00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:59,880 We also learned that her hair enclosed her wet most likely from being outside in the storm 217 00:20:59,880 --> 00:21:07,880 Her body was also infested with insects. She had no defense wounds on her body but there was no blood surrounding the scene 218 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:18,880 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 219 00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:27,880 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 220 00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:34,880 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 221 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:46,880 And then also the fact that they mentioned that the blood appeared to be how it cooled and congealed the right word 222 00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:55,880 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 223 00:21:55,880 --> 00:22:09,880 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 224 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:21,880 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 225 00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:37,880 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 226 00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:44,880 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 227 00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:46,880 So she was stabbed how many times? 228 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:49,880 She was stabbed 15 I think 229 00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:50,880 In her carotid artery? 230 00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:52,880 In her carotid artery was hit yes 231 00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:58,880 So did any mention as far as like how much blood was at the actual scene because that would create a lot of blood 232 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:05,880 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 233 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:14,880 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? 234 00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:24,880 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 235 00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:38,880 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 236 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:42,880 It kind of raises some questions about that 237 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:54,880 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 238 00:23:54,880 --> 00:24:15,880 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 239 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:33,880 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 240 00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:44,880 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? 241 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:47,880 We don't know if they did that. We didn't have that information from the police department. 242 00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:48,880 That's not public, correct? 243 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:51,880 Yes, it's not public, correct. So we don't know exactly if they did that or not. 244 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:54,880 Because that's an important thing because it can really put a time frame there. 245 00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:58,880 Now we want to talk about potential evidence that could have been found at the scene. 246 00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:06,880 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. 247 00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:15,880 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. 248 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:20,880 These are the only two pieces of evidence that we could even find through our research through articles and court cases. 249 00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:24,880 Now we want to talk about the new Philadelphia Police Department as itself. 250 00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:33,880 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. 251 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:45,880 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. 252 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:54,880 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. 253 00:25:54,880 --> 00:26:05,880 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. 254 00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:18,880 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. 255 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:27,880 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. 256 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:33,880 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? 257 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:39,880 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. 258 00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:49,880 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. 259 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:58,880 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? 260 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:09,880 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. 261 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:21,880 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. 262 00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:28,880 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. 263 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:36,880 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. 264 00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:42,880 When the police decided to bring Anthony in for questioning, they said they were just going to do a voice stress test. 265 00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,880 He was in an interrogation room with a detective alone at age 12. 266 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:55,880 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. 267 00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:01,880 The police had Mrs. Harris on the other side and was able to see in what was happening. 268 00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:13,880 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. 269 00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:24,880 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. 270 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:31,880 Since then, all the media attention has shifted onto Anthony and our goal is to bring this story back to Devon. 271 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:36,880 To our knowledge, there has been no other leads that were followed after appealed his case and was let out from prison. 272 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:45,880 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. 273 00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:50,880 We are no way accusing anyone of murdering Devon, we just believe that they should be talked to. 274 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:59,880 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. 275 00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:11,880 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. 276 00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:15,880 Since this incident, he was under court order to stay away from Devon. 277 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:23,880 Residents of New Philadelphia had claimed that they had seen Jamie's car in the area on the day of June 27th. 278 00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:29,880 The police pulled over his car in Columbus the next day and asked him why he was in New Philadelphia. 279 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:34,880 He said that he was visiting a sick relative and to our knowledge they didn't question him any further. 280 00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:40,880 There are multiple reports of a mysterious man being seen by searchers when they were looking for Devon. 281 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:45,880 We first found this man from the ABC 2020 episode that came out in May of 2022. 282 00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:55,880 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, 283 00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,880 which looked out of place for a hot, humid day in the middle of summer. 284 00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:05,880 There were reports of this mysterious man being seen 10 minutes by searchers before Devon's body was found. 285 00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:15,880 There are a couple of things here that raised some questions for me. Number one, the ex-boyfriend who kidnapped Devon for three days. 286 00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:21,880 He's in the area and it doesn't seem like the police really do an in-depth investigation of him. 287 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:29,880 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. 288 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:40,880 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. 289 00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:46,880 Then the question is, like you mentioned earlier, is why was that person going back to an area they already searched? 290 00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:53,880 That kind of brings up, you know, and maybe since nobody knows who this person was based on the information that we have, 291 00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:59,880 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... 292 00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:05,880 That's the biggest questions that I have. You know, you talk about the cadaver dogs not fighting the body, the police dogs. 293 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:13,880 Then you have a person that's not dressed appropriately for the temperature. Then you have the boyfriend. 294 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:21,880 Then you have the volunteer paramedic. So all those things kind of rolled together really makes it super suspicious. 295 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:27,880 One of the things about the boyfriend is that we just did not find any information about what the police did with him. 296 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:29,880 They may have questioned him. They may have... 297 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,880 So he may have had a great outcry. We just don't know. 298 00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:35,880 Right. We just don't know. They didn't communicate with us. So we really don't know. 299 00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:37,880 Did he live in that area? 300 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:40,880 He lived in Columbus, which was not too far away. 301 00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:46,880 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. 302 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:49,880 Right. It wasn't that far of a drive. I think it was like 18 minutes away or something. 303 00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:54,880 So he could drive through there and he did have some kind of excuse about why he was there. 304 00:31:54,880 --> 00:32:02,880 To me, the most interesting or intriguing or the one I would look into more would be that volunteer paramedic. 305 00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:05,880 Why did they go back to an area that was already searched? 306 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:11,880 Right. And we actually talked to one of the people that was in the search who said they searched that area. 307 00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:15,880 Then said 10 minutes later they'd go back and find her body there. 308 00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:20,880 And one of the things I think that we also have to look at is why would that person do that? 309 00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:25,880 Why would they watch to see where they had searched already and then put the body there? 310 00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:29,880 So one of the resources that we had talked to... 311 00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:36,880 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. 312 00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:43,880 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? 313 00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:51,880 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 314 00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:58,880 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. 315 00:32:58,880 --> 00:32:59,880 Right. 316 00:32:59,880 --> 00:33:06,880 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. 317 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:07,880 Interesting. 318 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:13,880 This is the most realistic person of injuries that we have, we just don't know who this person is. 319 00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:19,880 If anyone listening knows any information about this person, please contact the authorities as any information is helped. 320 00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:21,880 Now, next is Richard Denever. 321 00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:26,880 At the time of Devin's disappearance, he was in a bar claiming he was too busy to help look. 322 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:33,880 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. 323 00:33:33,880 --> 00:33:42,880 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, 324 00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:50,880 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. 325 00:33:50,880 --> 00:34:01,880 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, 326 00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:04,880 or what we don't know if it was murder or not. 327 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:14,880 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. 328 00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:16,880 You know, I don't know if the police have looked into it or not. 329 00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:20,880 I'm sure they probably checked his background and so forth. 330 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:28,880 But the thing that was really exciting for me about this is how Lydia worked so hard to find this case. 331 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:42,880 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. 332 00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:54,880 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, 333 00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:58,880 which is an unfortunate thing for Devin because she was caught in the middle of that. 334 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:03,880 Now, we don't know for sure if that really happened or not, but it is something that needs to be looked at. 335 00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:12,880 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, 336 00:35:12,880 --> 00:35:31,880 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. 337 00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:44,880 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. 338 00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:54,880 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, 339 00:35:54,880 --> 00:36:00,880 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. 340 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:07,880 Well, and we all said maybe that little extra thing will maybe turn the case around. Who knows? 341 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:17,880 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. 342 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:46,880 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. 343 00:36:46,880 --> 00:37:06,880 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. 344 00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:16,880 We will get that information to the police. 345 00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:24,880 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. 346 00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:35,880 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. 347 00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:41,880 Thank you for listening to Season 3 of Cold Case MHS. We really appreciate all the support you have given us this season. 348 00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:47,880 I want to thank the students for all their hard work bringing light to those cases that have fallen into the dark. 349 00:37:47,880 --> 00:38:15,880 Tune in to Season 4 coming soon. 350 00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:38,880 Tune in to Season 4 coming soon. 351 00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:48,880 Tune in to Season 4 coming soon. 352 00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:28,880 Tune in to Season 4 coming soon. 353 00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:48,880 Tune in to Season 4 coming soon. 354 00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:58,880 Tune in to Season 4 coming soon. 355 00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:18,880 Tune in to Season 4 coming soon. 356 00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:28,880 Tune in to Season 4 coming soon. 357 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:38,880 Tune in to Season 4 coming soon. 358 00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:48,880 Tune in to Season 4 coming soon.