Devan Duniver was killed in the early 2000s and the case still remains unsolved.
This Friday, TABC News will air a 20/20 segment about a cold case in New Philadelphia. Anthony Harris, at 12 years old, admitted to murdering his 5-year-old neighbor Devan Duniver in 1998.
Harris was found guilty by a judge, but his defenders claimed that the police used threatening interrogation methods to compel him into admitting. He won his appeal after two years in juvenile jail, and his conviction was eventually reversed.
ABC 20/20: What Happened To Devan Duniver?
Anthony Harris was 12 years old when he was accused of murdering his 5-year-old neighbor, Devan Duniver, and was eventually convicted. Harris’ conviction was finally overturned, but he claims the murder still haunts him more than 20 years later.
During an exclusive interview with ABC News’ “20/20” two years ago, Harris said that she was so young and she had died away.
Residents who spent hours searching for Devan after she went missing on June 27, 1998, in her New Philadelphia, Ohio, neighborhood mirrored Harris’ opinion. According to Harris, there were leads in the case that were not followed.
After she walked outdoors to play, Devan vanished. Lori spent the afternoon looking for Devan and phoned the cops in the evening when she learned that she was missing. Harris and his family shared an apartment building with the Dunivers and assisted with the hunt.
Hundreds of people turned out to assist in the hunt.
Devan was discovered dead in the woods behind her house the next day, with several knife wounds to her neck. When Harris was first questioned, investigators claimed he supplied conflicting facts about where he was and what he was doing during the period the girl was missing.
Devan Duniver Murder Wikipedia
Two young community members were abruptly torn from their life during the summer of 1998 for inhabitants of a New Philadelphia, Ohio, apartment complex.
Devan Duniver, then five years old, vanished from her residence on June 27 of that year. There was optimism for a time that the child was okay, but that hope was immediately dashed the next day when her body was discovered in a nearby forested area. She had been fatally stabbed seven times in the neck.
Locals were reeling from the terrible and brutal death of an innocent young girl, and police were under increasing pressure to apprehend her attacker.
Who Killed Devan Duniver?
Authorities identified Anthony Harris, a 12-year-old child who lived in the same apartment as Devan, two weeks after his corpse was discovered. He first aided Lori in the hunt, but the police were suspicious of him due to his earlier threat against Devan.
Following that, Anthony and his mother, Cynthia Harris, proceeded to the police station for a vocal stress test.
Before the test, one of the investigators sat down with Anthony, while Cynthia watched from another room. The interview was supposed to develop a rapport between Anthony and the investigator at the time.
However, Anthony was frequently accused of murdering Devan throughout that session. While he initially denied any involvement in the incident, he finally confessed, admitting to stabbing her in the throat. “Probably twice,” Anthony responded when asked how many times he had done it.