Disclaimer: This text comprises mentions of homicide. Reader discretion is suggested.
ABC 20/20‘s “Gone Earlier than the Storm” chronicles Devan Duniver’s 1998 homicide and the wrongful conviction of accused killer Anthony Harris. The upcoming episode will air on the community this Friday, August 23, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET. Now-grown Harris speaks to twenty/20 for the primary time since his exoneration “for a criminal offense he didn’t commit.” In the meantime, “her killer continues to be needed,” reads an official synopsis.
5-year-old Devan Duniver went lacking from a New Philadelphia, Ohio, residence complicated on June 27, 1998. Devan left her residence to play outdoors and by no means returned. Her mom knowledgeable the authorities, prompting a widespread search with the help of the neighborhood residents. The search concluded with the invention of Devan’s physique within the close by woods the next day. She died of a number of stab wounds to the neck, per ABC Information.
Throughout Devan Duniver’s homicide investigation, detectives targeted on her neighbor, 12-year-old Anthony Harris. They did not pursue different leads regardless of having a number of different potential suspects and coerced the boy into falsely confessing to Devan’s homicide. He revealed in ABC 20/20’s “Gone Earlier than the Storm” how the investigator “principally instructed me that, ‘In the event you confess to this homicide you possibly can go house.’”
The case led to Anthony Harris’ conviction in 1999. Nonetheless, after two years in juvenile detention, he efficiently appealed his conviction. Then, in June 2000, an appeals court docket overturned his conviction.
Who killed Devan Duniver?
Detectives have by no means efficiently solved Devan Duniver’s decades-old homicide case. In keeping with Folks Journal, regardless of having a number of potential suspects, they initially targeted on Anthony Harris. Investigators alleged that Harris, then 12, gave inconsistent particulars about his whereabouts when Devan disappeared on June 27, 1998. The five-year-old woman’s physique was discovered the following day within the woods.
After the invention of Devan Duniver’s stays, authorities referred to as Anthony Harris to the stationhouse. There, Thomas Vaughn, Millersburg police chief, interrogated Harris and coerced the boy into confessing to the homicide. Harris would later reveal how the stress of Vaughn repeatedly asking him if he killed Devan bought to him.
Recalling the hostile interrogation, Anthony Harris instructed ABC 20/20, “The investigator, he had principally instructed me that, ‘In the event you confess to this homicide you possibly can go house.’ It’s like, ‘Okay. Properly, I’m over right here scared, so I wish to go house.” Harris then confessed to Devan Duniver’s homicide, a criminal offense he didn’t commit, and confronted costs.
In 1999, Anthony Harris, then 13, stood trial in a juvenile continuing. A Juvenile and Probate Court docket Decide, Linda Kate, discovered him responsible. Kate ultimately handed him a most sentence to serve in juvenile detention till he was 21. A 12 months later, Harris efficiently appealed his conviction. The Ohio fifth District Court docket of Appeals would then overturn his conviction in June 2000. The court docket believed the investigator had coerced him into confessing to the homicide.
Subsequent lawsuits said detectives did not pursue different potential leads in Devan Duniver’s homicide case. Per these claims, potential suspects included Devan’s mom, Lori Duniver, who had allegedly thought-about a murder-suicide together with her kids. The five-year-old sufferer’s organic father was additionally amongst them for allegedly disputing with the mom. Moreover, he had a historical past of home violence.
Among the many potential suspects was Lori Duniver’s boyfriend, who had allegedly kidnapped Devan on one event. Moreover, neighbors had claimed the sufferer’s brother was violent and had allegedly stabbed a cat as soon as. Maybe essentially the most incriminating occasion was when search canines had led authorities to the house of a not too long ago launched convicted youngster molester.
In 2005, a particular prosecutor named Richard Dobbins began wanting into Devan Duniver’s homicide case. However, two years after beginning the investigation, Dobbins dominated that there was inadequate proof to prosecute. Ohio’s Tuscarawas County district lawyer, Ryan Styer, had the case filed in 2022. After a evaluate of the particular prosecutor’s findings, Styer instructed 20/20 that they “invested loads of time conducting many interviews of witnesses and identified individuals of curiosity.” He additionally believes there’s not sufficient proof to prosecute the case.
Anthony Harris gave his first interview since his exoneration on ABC 20/20’s “Gone Earlier than the Storm.” Harris said that he hasn’t given up hope on discovering Devan Duniver’s killer. He mentioned, “We’re going to determine this out [and] give her some type of closure.”
The episode will re-air on the community this Friday, August 23, 2024.
