Episode 104: The Enrique Roman-Martinez Cold Case from North Carolina

I discussed wilderness therapy camps and Trails Carolina in Lake Toxaway specifically in Episode 88. Trails Carolina was founded in 2008, with the belief that a wilderness setting enhances the benefits of therapy. It accepts children ages 10-17 on wilderness expeditions, and therapists are supposed to meet with the campers on a weekly basis. The program bills itself as helping minors with conditions such as depression, anxiety, anger management and oppositional defiant disorder. Participants typically stay with the program for 85 days, with tuition ranging from $675 to $715 per day.

Back in 2014, 17-year-old Alec Lansing became disillusioned with the program and left a group he’d been assigned to camp with. He was missing for about 10 days before his body was found in a stream in the Nantahala National Forest. It appeared he’d fallen out of a tree, broke his hip, and then died of hypothermia. Trails Carolina was fined $12,000 after Alec’s death but was allowed to keep operating.

On the morning of February 3 of this year, a 12-year-old boy was found deceased at Trails Carolina. As a reminder, here are details that came out of a search warrant executed by the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office, with reporting provided by WBTV news:

The boy, whose name is not being shared by the media, was found on a mat on the floor of a bunk house. He was already in rigor mortis. He was lying on his back with his arms on his chest and his knees bent upwards toward the sky. He was wearing a hoodie and t-shirt but his pants and underwear were placed next to his shoulder. None of the staff interviewed by the detectives could explain how his pants and underwear were taken off and ended up in that location. The staff member who was assigned to watch the boy overnight said he experienced a panic attack between midnight and 12:30 a.m. They said the boy was checked on at midnight, 3 a.m., 6 a.m., and found dead at 7:45 a.m. However, he was cold to the touch when they found him dead. This child had arrived at the camp less than 24 hours prior to his death.

Within a week of the boy’s body being found, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter ordering Trails Carolina to stop accepting new patients. On February 16, state officials ordered all children to be removed from Trails Carolina to “ensure the health and safety of the children.” On May 17, the Department of Health and Human Services revoked the Trails Carolinas license, citing that the residential therapeutic camp violated state regulations. The DHHS said the camp violated medication administration requirements, failed to ensure clients could communicate with their parents or guardians, and failed to comply with incident reporting requirements. Trails Carolina was given the option to contest the decision after 60 days.

Trails Carolina Autopsy Reveals Cause of Death

On June 24, the autopsy report revealed the death of the 12-year-old boy has been ruled a homicide. The cause of death is officially listed as asphyxia due to smothering. The news station WLOS clarified that the North Carolina Office of Chief Medical Examiner said that asphyxia due to smothering refers to death as the inability to breathe in oxygen. There were no signs of trauma or sexual assault, or evidence of a drug overdose or any other natural causes that could have led to the boy’s death. As of right now, no charges have been announced. The Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office has stated it is reviewing the autopsy report and will be discussing it with the local district attorney.

Blake and London Deven from Fayetteville, N.C.

In Episode 96 I shared the unusual story of Blake and London Deven, two adopted siblings from Fayetteville, North Carolina who hadn’t been seen in years. Here are a few details I shared in that episode.

An infant boy named Trenton Dewayne Shuler was born in 2006 and placed into a foster home in Buncombe County, near the Asheville area, in May 2011. His named was changed to Blake Deven at some point. His birth mother recently told the media that he went into foster care because of abuse allegations, which she denies. She did not know he was missing until the Fayetteville Police notified her in February of this year.

That same year, in January, Avantae Deven filed a petition in a Madison County court to adopt a 7-year-old girl named Moriah Elizabeth Foster, whose name was changed to London. Her birth mother had not seen or heard from her biological daughter since 2001. The adoption was approved in March 2011. In April 2013, Avantae filed a petition to adopt Blake, who would have been around 6 years old at the time. That adoption was approved just a few months later. In 2015, Avantae and the two children moved across the state to Cumberland County. In 2016, they moved into a home on Eichelberger Drive near Devlin Drive. Then, in June 2019, they moved to a house on Berriedale Drive, where the family still lives.

This past spring police became aware Blake Deven was missing. When police questioned Avantae Deven, she told a few different stories about when she’d last seen Blake, at first saying she thought he was at a Buddhist retreat. Police said they were also trying to figure out the last time London Deven was seen, as she should be around 27 years old now.

On April 12, police announced they had found partial skeletal remains during a physical search for Blake and London Deven. They would not say specifically where the remains were found, or if they were connected to the missing Devens.

Secrets from the Deven Home Revealed

At a news conference last week, Fayetteville Police Chief Kimberle Braden announced that evidence points to Blake and London Deven both being deceased. They said this initial investigation began last year in November 2023 when police responded to a call from the Deven house on Berridale Drive. This call stated someone in the house was having a mental health crisis. This person was one of Avantae Deven’s other adopted children, a male who said he hadn’t seen his brother Blake in five years. In fact, he said the last time he had seen Blake, he had a broken arm. Avantae Deven had actually adopted five children from three different counties, three boys who were biologically related and two girls who were not biologically related to one another or the boys.

Once children in the home were interviewed by both police and the Department of Social Services, they painted a grim picture. They said they were often kept in a small, dark room, with little to no food. They earned food by writing pages of apologies to their adoptive mother for their behavior. They were also severely beaten. Police believe Blake died from physical abuse and starvation when the family still lived on Eichelberger Drive. Someone in the home, possibly a sibling, was forced to dispose of and burn Blake’s body after his death.

They found remains of two different people in a burn barrel on one of the two properties they searched, and lab tests have confirmed those to be belonging to London Deven. Police believe she died when she was between the ages of 15 and 19. Avantae Deven had never reported London missing. Although she was an adult, police have said she had special needs and was dependent upon Avantae for her care. They are still awaiting confirmation of Blake’s remains, but the ones they found are estimated to have belonged to a male between the ages of 7 and 10.

Sixty-three-year-old Avantae Deven, the adoptive mother of Blake and London Deven, was arrested on June 27 and charged with two counts of first degree murder, two counts of concealment of death, one count of kidnapping related to London Deven’s death, and two counts of felony child abuse related to Blake Deven’s death.

She is being held without bond at the Cumberland County Detention Center.

Madalina Cojocari Updates

I’ve been providing updates on Madalina Cojocari, the 11-year-old who went missing from Cornelius, North Carolina in November of 2022 and her mother and stepfather were charged with failure to report a missing child. Madalina’s mother, 39-year-old Diana Cojocari, pleaded guilty to her charges this past spring and has already been released for time served. Her stepfather Christopher Palmiter chose to go to trial. A jury recently found him guilty on the charge of failure to report a child missing. He was sentenced to 30 months of supervised probation.

In Episode 101 I shared some interesting details that came out about what Madalina’s home life was like, including the fact that Christopher and Diana met online and did not have a traditional marriage. It seemed more like a business arrangement and Christopher was tasked with caring for Madalina more like a caregiver than a parent. He also testified that Diana had grown paranoid that someone from her past was after her and she was performing religious rituals in their home. She had also wired a large amount of money to her mother and a church and/or priest back in Eastern Europe in the month of after Madalina disappeared.

The Cornelius Police Department has now stated publicly that Diana Cojocari is a suspect in her daughter’s disappearance.

In an interview with the local news affiliate WCNC, Deputy Chief Jennifer Thompson said, “There are other charges that exist and I’m not going to say they necessarily pertain to this but there are other charges, and we are considering all options but that is not where we are right now.” Thompson added. She would not comment on whether Palmiter or anyone else was considered a suspect at this time but instead referred back to Diana Cojocari, who has always been a person of interest. The department has shared new flyers with this information, and there is one version in English and one in Romanian.

Deputy Chief Thompson also said, “I remain in the belief that Madalina is alive, I’ve been asked if that is because I’m a mom and that is something I want to believe … but bottom line is we want to bring Madalina home,” Thompson said.

The police are asking the public to keep sharing the flyers and Madalina’s story because it could bring the information they needed to solve this investigation and find Madalina. Diana Cojocari’s passports were seized at the beginning of the investigation and have not been returned to her.

Enrique Roman-Martinez

On Memorial Day weekend in 2020, a U.S. Army soldier stationed on Fort Bragg went missing while on a camping trip at the Cape Lookout National Seashore. Enrique Roman-Martinez, age 21, was from Chino, California and served as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. He had joined the Army at age 17, attended airborne school in Georgia, and worked as a human resources specialist at Fort Bragg. During his time in the service, he received an Army Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, Global War On Terror Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon and the Army Parachutist Badge.

Enrique had joined seven other campers on this camping trip at the last minute. They were violating the COVID-19 restrictions banning travel off the base. The first night they were on Cape Lookout, it rained heavily. The next day, May 23, Enrique’s fellow soldiers reported him missing. They later told authorities they last saw Enrique around midnight the night he disappeared from the campsite. He had left behind his glasses, phone, and wallet in his tent. The soldiers ran into a park ranger asking them to move their vehicles away from the sand dunes the day Enrique went missing, but they didn’t mention anything about having a missing person in their group. Instead, Specialist Alex Becerra called 911 approximately 17 hours after he was last seen, told the dispatcher Enrique had suicidal tendencies and they hadn’t been able to find him.

Searching the Water

The search for Enrique included The National Park Service, Army Criminal Investigations Division, Wayne County Sheriff’s Office and their canine team, the U.S. Coast Guard, N.C. Marine Patrol and the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office.

A week after Enrique vanished, a severed head washed ashore on Shackleford Banks, close to where the soldiers had been camping. The head was later identified as belonging to Enrique Roman-Martinez, and a medical examiner said the death appeared to be a homicide. There was evidence of multiple chop injuries of the head, and Enrique’s jaw had been broken in at least two places. They could not determine a cause of death because the rest of the body was never found. Enrique’s family doesn’t believe he would have gone swimming in the water given the storms that weekend, nor do they believe he was suicidal. Enrique was on his way out of the Army and was planning to use the G.I. Bill to go to college. He wanted to buy a new car and travel.

The battalion commander of the 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division waited until Monday morning to inform the Army Criminal Investigation Division that Enrique was missing, and his barracks were not secured until almost a week later. Allegedly, one of the seven campers who had been with Enrique entered his room before it was locked down, according to the Rolling Stone article. A journal that Enrique kept, was not found with his belongings, according to his sister.

One of Enrique’s friends from California, Christian Romero, who was also serving in the Army and stationed at Fort Bragg, told Rolling Stone Magazine he didn’t understand why Enrique would have gone on the trip given the weather forecast and the nonstop rain. The ferry back to the mainland had stopped operating. Enrique was miserable and wanted to go back to the base. His tent toppled over while they were setting up camp and he allegedly walked away from the site. This friend had heard this from the soldiers who were on the trip with Enrique. They said he had last been seen wearing a pair of blue shorts and no shirt. Griselda Roman-Martinez, Enrique’s sister, said her brother could not see without his glasses and wouldn’t have left those behind in his tent.

Christian Romero said Enrique was known to have taken LSD and hallucinogenic mushrooms, and Griselda confirmed that. She said her brother believed they were therapeutic for mental illness. Did LSD have anything to do with what happened on that camping trip and Enrique’s death? No one else is talking.

Cold Case Status

In November of 2021, a spokesman for the Army Criminal Division spokesman said while Enrique’s case is not closed, it has moved into cold case status.

Four of the soldiers on the trip, Sgt. Samuel Moore, Becerra, Specialist Joshua Curry, and Specialist Benjamin Sibley, faced courts-martial for non-violent charges.

An attorney for the Roman-Martinez family told Rolling Stone Magazine that the Army CID believes Enrique was murdered by one or more of the soldiers on the camping trip, but they don’t have enough evidence to charge anyone in the homicide.

Charges Filed, But Not in Enrique’s Murder

According to an article that ran on the website Military.com, as of January 2023, Moore, Becerra, and Curry had pleaded guilty to various conspiracy and false statement charges, received reductions in rank, and were dismissed from the Army, according to a spokesperson for the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. Specifically, Becerra was convicted of three counts of disobeying a superior officer and one count of wrongful use of a controlled substance. Sibley was convicted of conspiracy to commit a false statement and making a false statement and was reduced in rank. He is no longer serving in the Army.

Private Annamarie Cochell and Private First Class Samad Landrum were granted immunity in exchange for their testimony at Becerra’s court-martial. Each admitted in advance of their testimony that the deal they made included just 30 days of confinement and that the charges wouldn’t be reflected in their records. They were also charged with wrongful use of LSD.

The Department of the Army Criminal Division is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for credible information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for his death. Anyone with information regarding the death of Enrique Roman-Martinez can contact the Army CID Carolinas Field Office at 910-391-4911. Persons wishing to remain anonymous will be honored to the degree allowable under the law and information will be held in the strictest confidence.

Show Sources:

Madalina Cojocari

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/crime/true-crime/madalina-cojocari-mother-diana-suspect-disappearance-cornelius-north-carolina/275-b9e889b0-9503-4e52-b2c4-a558ece88b0b

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/26/us/madalina-cojocari-missing-mother-suspect/index.html

Trails Carolina