MURDERED: Devan Duniver

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When Lori Dunover comes downstairs a few minutes before 2 in the afternoon of Saturday, June 27th, 1998, she's like trying to wrangle her kids for a trip to the grocery store. She's not like super surprised, although maybe a little frustrated, when her eight-year-old son says that his five-year-old sister, Devin, is somewhere outside, even though Lori specifically told them to stay put when she went upstairs to get ready at around 1.30.. Now, she knows Devin's got a lot of friends in the neighborhood she likes to play with, so she figures like she's got to be out with one of them. So Lori heads out to find her. The first kid she runs into right outside, this kid named Michael, says he hasn't seen her, and she gets the same responses at the house of a little boy named Adrian, just about a block away when she goes knocking on his door.

So finally, she heads to the home of a little girl named Caitlin, because if Devin is anywhere, it's got to be here at Caitlin's house, except nobody answers the door. So she heads back to their apartment building, and she and her son start kind of walking around outside, I mean, just calling out Devin's name, and I'm calling and calling and calling. And Lori is starting to get worried enough that she even offers another neighborhood kid that she knows five bucks to help them look for her. This kid was Michael, that first kid. she ran into, Michael's 12-year-old brother, Anthony.

So he joins them for the next few hours until Lori's friends and family start showing up to help out. But even with extra feet on the ground, they're coming up empty, and Lori's getting more concerned as evening approaches. I mean, for one, because she knows that a massive storm is forecast to hit any time now. So massive, in fact, that they end up having multiple tornado warnings that night. But she's still thinking, like, look, no one answered the door at Caitlin's.

Maybe she's there playing and, like, no one heard her knocking or something. So her cousin goes to Caitlin's house one last time, but what they learn only worries them more, because a neighbor ends up telling them that the whole family is actually out of town. They're on vacation. And that's one of those, like, record-scratch moments in a TV show. So at 8-11, after about six hours of not being able to find her daughter, and with this storm barreling in, a desperate, Lori calls the New Philadelphia Police Department to report her daughter missing.

Now, that lapse in time puts NPPD at an immediate disadvantage. But what's done is done, and there are no do-overs. So they get to work, first by getting the word out to the community that a little girl is missing and they need help. And despite nightfall and despite the awful weather, volunteer searchers show up in a massive way. I mean, hundreds of them.

The team is so big that one searcher named Donna tells 2020 producers that all the flickering in the dark could almost be mistaken for fireflies, if you didn't know any better. And a lot of these people out there searching are out way past midnight. Storms and darkness be damned.

But still, in this search, they leave no stones unturned, especially in that wooded area behind Lori's apartment building. Because everyone knows that the neighborhood kids like to play there, and there are plenty of little nooks and crannies, hiding places, as Josie calls them, every time she finds a bush she can climb into a fort. So these searchers aren't even just on foot, but literally on hands and knees, sometimes getting down on all fours to see under fallen branches, see under other storm debris. But everywhere they look, there is no Devon. So they end up doing this all through the morning of the 28th.

And when two volunteers named Marsha and Amy join the search, they head to the wooded area, even though it's already been searched numerous times. Honestly, they're probably expecting to find nothing. But as they approach a recently fallen tree, one that had collapsed last night, I mean, in the storm, Marsha notices an unnatural flash of red in this sea of earth tones. It's like peeking out through some nearby briar and brush and fallen limbs. And this immediately gets her heart just like pumping, because they've all been told what Devon was last wearing when she went missing, which included a pair of red shorts.

Janet Frankston reports in the Akron Beacon Journal that Marsha is just thinking, oh God, don't let this be what I think it is. And out loud, she's screaming, oh no, oh no. But it is exactly what she doesn't want it to be. Marsha checks a fully clothed Devon for a pulse, but it is far too late for that. And even for two experienced EMTs, which they both are, by the way, it's a devastating scene, only made more jarring by the awkward position that Devon is in, like she had just almost been tossed there unceremoniously and left exactly as she'd fallen.

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So right away, the police department opens up a homicide investigation. And the day after she's found, NPPD Captain Jeff Urban runs into 12-year-old Anthony Harris while he's out canvassing. That same Anthony who helped Lori search the afternoon that Devin went missing. And according to Captain Urban, he is taken aback when he asks Anthony if he knew Devin. And Anthony's response includes something about her being a quote-unquote, nasty, rude little girl.

And I want to pause here, little disclaimer, because this exchange comes up a lot and there are no recordings of it, as far as I can tell. In fact, in a recorded interview just a few days later, it is Captain Urban who asks Anthony if Devin was a quote-unquote nasty little girl. Now, is he asking because Anthony had already said something to that effect? Or is this one of those things where he suggested the sentence and got a 12-year-old kid to agree, and then brought it up again days later to get it on tape? I don't know.

But when she comes back out, Captain Urban and Anthony are just gone.

Obviously, that's the goal here, or else, like, they wouldn't be able to do an interview. And you wouldn't be asking without his mom present.

Cindy raised her sons to respect authority, especially when it comes to law enforcement. Like, she's been telling them that the police are the good guys. They're there to protect you, follow their instructions, cooperate with them.

I mean, that's where Lori ran into him as she was walking out of the woods where Devin's body was later found, because that's where she offered him five bucks to help her search, which isn't great. I get it. But remember, all the kids played in these woods and they cut through them sometimes. And this area was searched repeatedly by numerous volunteers, none of whom saw Devin's body there until Marsha and Amy found her in the afternoon the next day. And, by the way, Lori never saw any blood or anything on Anthony, which I think is important to note, like as he's coming out of the woods.

But because he was in the woods, because his story is changing, because he supposedly called her a nasty girl, Urban is suspicious. This obviously isn't enough to hold Anthony on, at least at that time. So he just has to keep digging, keep trying to talk to him. So Captain Urban convinces Anthony's mom, Cindy, to consent to a search of their apartment. And there will be disputes in the future over just how voluntarily Cindy's consent is.

I'm not sure that it matters much, because what Captain Urban doesn't tell her is that he's already got a search warrant in hand. During the search, investigators seize Anthony's clothes from the day of Devin's disappearance. They don't find anything that they were hoping for, like the thing that could really crack the case wide open, a pocketknife, which is what they're guessing she was stabbed with. So when he asks Cindy to bring both Anthony and his brother Michael back down to the station on July 15th, saying that investigators wanted to give them both voice stress tests, she doesn't hesitate. Devin's own brother has already been given one, which he passed, so Cindy's confident that her sons have nothing to hide.

She has no concerns that the same won't happen here. Now, when they get to the station, Cindy has all the right instincts. She says she wants to be in the room while the tests are conducted. But according to Captain Urban, he says it's important that Chief Vaughn, this guy that they bring in to do it, be alone with the person that he's interviewing. And besides, he says they can watch and listen from this adjacent room through this two-way mirror.

So Anthony is taken into an interrogation room with Chief Vaughn. He's the chief of police of a neighboring town. And they basically bring him in because he's got the right certifications, basically to administer this stress test that Captain Urban doesn't have. But they go in one room. Cindy and Captain Urban go on the other side of the mirror.

They take their seats where they can indeed see Anthony and Chief Vaughn, but they can't hear anything. And what they can't hear turns out to be critical. But thankfully, it was at least recorded, so we do know exactly what goes down. And Chief Vaughn starts with Anthony's Miranda rights, which again, he's 12.. And you guys, it doesn't take long for this interview to just get gross.

I don't know how else to describe it, just like gross. And for this to make sense, I do have to fill you in on kind of the broader social context that we're operating in here. Because New Philadelphia is predominantly a white town, like overwhelmingly white. Same with local law enforcement. And Anthony's family, the Harris's, are not.

They're black. One of the few black families in the area. Britta actually found this excerpt from a 2014 American Psychological Association press release that I thought was really interesting. It's about the adultification of black male children. Would you just read this one thing for me real quick?

So he's already going to seem older than most 12-year-olds, without accounting for any kind of racial bias. Right. So that's the scene. Six-foot-tall, black 12-year-old Anthony, seated across the table from an older white chief, bond with Captain Urban and Cindy watching on, but unable to hear a word. Now, before the voice stress test can be conducted, it's standard and considered important for the investigator to establish a rapport with the person that they're interviewing.

Although, I mean, I guess, is it? Because I think these tests have been proven to be super, like, unreliable under any circumstances.

So next, Chief Bond tries some faux empathy. You know, I can only help you if you're honest. Like, you didn't mean for this to happen. And things just got out of hand. But Anthony still doesn't budge.

He insists that he had nothing to do with Devin's death. And it is here, if you ask me, where this already derailed train goes up in full flames. Because of all the places that he could take this interview, Chief Bond goes straight to racial grievance. 20-20 has audio of the interview, and Chief Bond says, quote, Anthony, a lot of African-Americans have a lot of hate built up over the years, and it's because of what we did to you. He goes on to say, quote, I know that people react different ways, and there are certain things that trigger everybody.

End, quote. And, like, that's his setup. And then he goes on to, just, like, make up his own theory, suggesting that maybe Devin had called Anthony a racial slur, and then he killed her out of anger. But Anthony still doesn't budge, even as Chief Bond keeps turning up the heat. Until, that is, he does.

Because a scared, isolated, inexperienced kid can only withstand so much pressure, so much gaslighting.

But Anthony doesn't know the right answer, and he just kind of stammers in response. So Chief Bond volunteers that maybe it was just once or twice, and Anthony says, quote, probably just one. Yeah.

Here's actually an audio clip of that interaction. Again, it's from this 2020 episode, which is where we're getting all the audio clips that you'll hear. And, fair warning, the audio quality isn't the best.

Okay. No. No. No. No.

No. No.

So Chief Bond asks him if he can write out a statement. And Anthony says that he'll try. And when he asks if Anthony has any questions, he's only got one.

If you couldn't quite hear that, Anthony's question was, can I talk to my mom?

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What Anthony says in response to his mom is, quote, I didn't do... He wants me... I don't... I don't know. That I'm...

If I did it, I would have done it. But I didn't do it. But he said I did. And look, Bray, you and I are six and a half years deep by this point. I don't think there's anyone out there who doesn't understand how a false confession happens.

I think there are probably some of you who are like, I would never. And it's true. Maybe you wouldn't. Like, go ahead. Clutch your pearls.

It's easy to say with your headphones on in the comfort of your own space, not under any kind of threat. But to say that there's no way that this kid was particularly susceptible. when Chief Vaughn is out here, implying to him that if he just hurry up and confess, he could get the heck out of here, go home where it's warm and safe and full of the people he loves most, who love him most. I mean, this kid is scared and he wants to go home. But even though you get it and I get it and the crime junkies get it, the idea of this, of a confession that wasn't at all based in reality, is largely a foreign concept in 1998..

Especially to the general public. Like, I know, there are some scholars and academics who are catching on to how frequent false confessions are happening, but the broader public, it's not even on their radar. Even Cindy doesn't know about this. So she's like demanding Anthony tell her the truth. and she asks him point blank if he killed Devin.

And when he says no, which he'll end up reiterating some 20 times, her response is borderline disbelief.

Did you catch that? Like, when she asks why he would have confessed to something he didn't do, he just says the questions were too hard.

He decides to pull in the district attorney, a woman named Amanda Spies, though at that time she was going by Amanda Spies Bornhorst, but she eventually drops the Bornhorst, as I'm going to, for clarity's sake. But whatever may be, giving Captain Urban some sense of pause apparently doesn't have the same effect on Spies, because she's like, lock him up. He just confessed to murder. The end. And I think it's important to hear these players in their own words, especially Anthony's, so I'm going to play another clip from the 2020 episode on this case.

Talking to 2020 as an adult, Anthony says this. That day was just such a bad day. My mother and I were together one last time, and we were crying, and she, you know, I'm all, you know, on her arms over here asking to go home.

Yeah. Oh, my goodness, that one hurt. Oh God, that hurt.

But if there is one teensy, tiny, barely there sliver of a silver lining, it's that in Ohio in 1998, kids under the age of 14 can't be tried as adults. And if they're convicted, they can only be confined in a juvenile facility until they turn 21..

Taryn jumps into this case with both feet and starts, naturally, with the most obvious move, requesting that Anthony's supposed confession be thrown out. And he's honestly optimistic that his request is going to be granted. So as Anthony's trial approaches, the NAACP asks this guy named George Forbes, who is the president of the Cleveland chapter, to review Anthony's file and see if they should maybe get involved. So in mid-September, George, who is a practicing attorney, and a colleague named Dennis Liconti, do step in as co-counsel for the defense. And I want to be clear here, this is not out of concern for Taryn's competence or commitment to Anthony's case.

George even tells a reporter named Frankston that Taryn's doing a great job, but Taryn is white. And in a case with such insidious racial undertones.

That's the request they did to suppress his confession. And the significance of that request can't be overstated. Like a decision in either direction, as far as Anthony's supposed confessions go is basically game over. So his team brings in an all-star lineup of experts to testify to all the reasons that that confession should be considered coerced, at worst, and just plain inadmissible at best. But at the conclusion of the suppression hearing, Judge Kate goes rogue a little.

She says that the trial's gonna start the next day, before she even rules on the admissibility of Anthony's statements. Wait, wait, yeah, you know, you should be confused.

And what she decides is that the recorded July 2nd statement from Anthony to Captain Urban, like, that's out. But the recorded July 15th statements to Chief Vaughn aren't in, as is the July 2nd search of the Harris apartment.

And I know what everyone's thinking, well, you didn't tell us there was DNA evidence. Yeah. And, well, that's because we don't have DNA evidence, or at least not any. that helps clarify anything. You see, what Glenn testifies to is that his lab had tested these teensy, tiny little red spots, presumably blood, from Anthony's shirt and shorts the day that Devin was killed.

And I'm talking, like, two or three little spots. And the one on the T-shirt was nearly as small as the size of a pen mark. Itty bitty. And so what Glenn is testifying to is that the mark on the shorts was conclusively determined to contain human DNA that did not belong to Devin. I'm guessing Anthony couldn't be included or excluded, because there's, like, no reporting on that.

Or they didn't test that. But the spot on the T-shirt was trickier. That one was a mix of human DNA and then something or something else, like might not even be blood. And so when one of Anthony's lawyers asks if it could be, for example, a mixture of sweat and tomato juice, Glenn's like, yeah, totally possible. And Glenn couldn't exclude either Anthony or Devin as being contributors of that.

In fact, he says about 51.1 percent of the world's white population could have contributed to that spot. So as for the percentage of black people who could have contributed, he wasn't asked that question.

And they want to preserve everything they can to be raised on appeal, including what they see as bias by Judge Kate. I mean, they even make not one but two requests to the Ohio Supreme Court to have her removed from this case, which, to be clear, is like a massive F-you, like a message that lawyers generally hesitate to send to a judge in the middle of a trial. But when it's the defense's turn to present its case, they call a whole bunch of volunteer searchers, some from Saturday night, some from Sunday, all of whom say that there is absolutely no way Devin's body had been where it was found the whole time, which the prosecution, like their version of events, they swear it was like that's their story. And this is an important point, because Anthony is all but alibied for just about every single minute, past 2 p.m. on Saturday, the 27th.

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Which, by the way, I've never been part of a big search like this. I didn't know that was a thing. I probably would have never thought of it. Like, of course, everyone out here in the woods is looking for the same missing girl. Like no fool who maybe just abducted a little girl, is going to show up here in the woods and, like, we need to distinguish ourselves from him.

Yet, here we are. So apparently this guy deliberately avoided making eye contact with Nancy. And look, that could be chalked up to shyness or neurodivergence or a bazillion other things. But like, put it all together. You know what I mean?

Like, when you got the, your dress. kind of weird.

And there were other searchers who saw this man, by the way. It's not just Nancy. And they were all equally put off by him. Which again, they all testify about openly. And then the defense also calls a famed forensic pathologist.

Like she was on a mission more or less. And don't worry. I'm not like moving on completely. I'm sticking with this car, like maybe this guy's car, TBD. But anyway, so they end up calling this pathologist named Charles Petty, who comes to the stand and he says, look, this little girl's body was clearly moved.

And the liver mortis proves it. And liver mortis, again, is blood pooling in the lowest parts of a lifeless body. That had set in and was clearly present on Devon's right side. You could even see impressions of the things that she had been laying on top of on her right side. The reason this is important is because when she was found, she was found laying on her left side.

Ergo, she had been there the whole time. Her liver mortis should have been on the left side. So she had to have been moved, which means there's also a good chance that a vehicle was involved. And again, we already know that the searchers had been scouring those woods both the night she went missing and the next day. So what the defense is trying to show is that she was dumped there close to the time she was found.

You've got this car, which she might have been moved in. And then you have this guy who seemed right in the area where she ends up being found, who nobody can identify, who's like creepy AF. But all of this, again, it's a very good alternative when you're looking for reasonable doubt. But this is where I do have to leave you hanging. because they aren't able to identify this guy.

They present him as a potential alternative. And they also present the fact that police never even tried to find out who this guy was.

He didn't violate the terms of his home confinement or behave disrespectfully in court. She just suddenly decides it's in his best interest. So yet again, Cindy has to watch her devastated child being led away by strangers with just tears streaming down his face. And that might explain why Anthony is largely unemotional when Judge Kate delivers her verdict five days later, guilty. And she sentences Anthony to the maximum sentence, confinement in a youth facility until the age of 21..

In response, he summons the courage to boldly declare in court six simple words. I did not commit this crime. November of 1999, a team of respected appellate attorneys file a 60 page appeal on Anthony's behalf. And they raise so many reasons that the conviction should be set aside. But a big one has to do with the lack of physical evidence to corroborate the crime that the prosecution said was committed.

According to his appeal, quote, when Anthony emerged from the wooded area, which, if he were the killer, would have been mere minutes after the stabbing. He immediately encountered Devin's mother, with whom he spent the next several hours helping look for Devin. End quote.

And so, on June 7th of 2000,, the clouds finally break. The sun starts peeking through and Anthony's lawyers get notice that his conviction has been set aside. His July 15th statements, clearly obtained under coercive conditions by a child lacking the ability to understand or waive his Miranda rights, never should have been admitted into evidence. Leading up to that, Anthony had been confined at a facility called the Indian River School.

But the devastation of this rocked more lives than just theirs, more than just their family's lives too. Now, Anthony is released on June 8th, and, despite later battling substance use disorder and even surviving a suicide attempt, he eventually goes on to join the Marines, although not on the first try. Because mother f***ing Spies, badmouths him to the recruiters and convinces them to reject his application. Bitch, back down. I know.

So he actually had to file suit in federal court in 2003,, which, if you thought we were done, hang on. This is when his lawyers finally uncover a ton of Brady violations.

But okay, put him aside. There's also Devin's father, who allegedly had a history of domestic violence and was not thrilled about his child support obligations, and you might have noticed I haven't mentioned him being involved in the volunteer search efforts. It's possible he joined on Sunday, but I know on Saturday evening he told Lori that he just couldn't make it. He was too drunk. And I've seen kind of contradictory things about whether or not he had a solid alibi, although it had to have been good enough for investigators to cross him off their list.

However much stock you want to put in that. And then there was Lori's ex-boyfriend, a guy named Jamie, and he is a real charmer. A convicted felon who was legally prohibited from being anywhere near Devin, specifically because he had kidnapped her and held her hostage for three days the previous summer.

Never even speaks to him. Just crosses him off the list, even freaking though, Devin was known to be afraid of this guy, and investigators at some point found a pack of kids playing cards in his possession for no discernible reason. Oh, and that alibi, it was given by someone who gave a false name and false social security number.

And then there was Lori herself. I mean, it seems that she was really struggling with her mental health in the weeks leading up to Devin's death. She had even recently called a suicide crisis line, saying that she was afraid that she might hurt herself and her kids. But she was crossed off the list early on too. So the point is, I don't know if any one of these people had anything to do with Devin's death, but there were a lot of people that should have been explored and a lot of information there that would have been extremely helpful in Anthony's first trial, had they had that information.

So it is no surprise that the law enforcement agencies settle fairly quickly and three unnamed officers even send Anthony an apology letter-ish. Do you want to read an excerpt of this?

Today, Anthony is officially listed in the National Registry of Exonerations, which is an incredible joint project between the Newkirk Center for Science and Society at UC Irvine and the Michigan State University College of Law and the University of Michigan Law School, which just so happens to be sponsored by a certain little Midwestern podcast company you might have heard of.

So do that thing. you do, crime junkies, because this is incredible work that they're doing. And actually, Anthony's story is now taught in at least one law school as a case study in juvenile false confessions. And listen, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Devin and her family, who put all of their faith into law enforcement and have been left without justice for a beautiful little girl who was brutally killed before she even got to the first grade. Lori hasn't said much publicly since Anthony's conviction, but we do know that she was devastated when it was thrown out.

Her sister, Katrina, told reporters for the Akron Beacon Journal that the family still firmly believed in his guilt and that Lori felt like he had gotten away with murder. Now, I don't know if their opinions have evolved since then, but you can mark that down as just another tragedy. within this tragedy. Lori had every right to believe the NPPD. And even just her feeling as though her daughter's murderer got off scot-free is heartbreaking, even if the reality is that it was never that guy.

Is anyone even trying? And the honest-to-God truth is, I don't know. A special prosecutor I know looked into this case from 2005 to 2007 and eventually determined that there wasn't enough to pursue a prosecution. But I know he never got in touch with any of the searchers, who, to me, sure as heck, feel like they've got some relevant insight. And I know that Devon isn't listed in the Ohio Attorney General's unsolved homicide database.

But that doesn't mean that there isn't any hope of her case actually being solved someday. So if you have any information on the murder of Devon Dunover in June of 1998 in New Philadelphia, Ohio, please reach out to the NPPD. You can call them at 330-343-4488.. And if you, or anyone you know, struggles with suicidal ideation, please know that help is available. You can reach out to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat with them at 988lifeline.org.

You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com.

Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? I approve!

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