Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
ABC 20/20‘s “Gone Before the Storm” chronicles Devan Duniver’s 1998 murder and the wrongful conviction of accused killer Anthony Harris. The upcoming episode will air on the network this Friday, August 23, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET. Now-grown Harris speaks to 20/20 for the first time since his exoneration “for a crime he didn’t commit.” Meanwhile, “her killer is still wanted,” reads an official synopsis.
Five-year-old Devan Duniver went missing from a New Philadelphia, Ohio, apartment complex on June 27, 1998. Devan left her apartment to play outside and never returned. Her mother informed the authorities, prompting a widespread search with the aid of the neighborhood residents. The search concluded with the discovery of Devan’s body in the nearby woods the following day. She died of multiple stab wounds to the neck, per ABC News.
During Devan Duniver’s murder investigation, detectives focused on her neighbor, 12-year-old Anthony Harris. They failed to pursue other leads despite having multiple other potential suspects and coerced the boy into falsely confessing to Devan’s murder. He revealed in ABC 20/20’s “Gone Before the Storm” how the investigator “basically told me that, ‘If you confess to this murder you can go home.'”
The case ended in Anthony Harris’ conviction in 1999. However, after two years in juvenile detention, he successfully appealed his conviction. Then, in June 2000, an appeals court overturned his conviction.
Who killed Devan Duniver?
Detectives have never successfully solved Devan Duniver’s decades-old murder case. According to People Magazine, despite having multiple potential suspects, they initially focused on Anthony Harris. Investigators alleged that Harris, then 12, gave inconsistent details about his whereabouts when Devan disappeared on June 27, 1998. The five-year-old girl’s body was found the next day in the woods.
After the discovery of Devan Duniver’s remains, authorities called Anthony Harris to the stationhouse. There, Thomas Vaughn, Millersburg police chief, interrogated Harris and coerced the boy into confessing to the murder. Harris would later reveal how the pressure of Vaughn repeatedly asking him if he killed Devan got to him.
Recalling the hostile interrogation, Anthony Harris told ABC 20/20, “The investigator, he had basically told me that, ‘If you confess to this murder you can go home.’ It’s like, ‘Okay. Well, I’m over here scared, so I want to go home.” Harris then confessed to Devan Duniver’s murder, a crime he did not commit, and faced charges.
In 1999, Anthony Harris, then 13, stood trial in a juvenile proceeding. A Juvenile and Probate Court Judge, Linda Kate, found him guilty. Kate eventually handed him a maximum sentence to serve in juvenile detention until he was 21. A year later, Harris successfully appealed his conviction. The Ohio 5th District Court of Appeals would then overturn his conviction in June 2000. The court believed the investigator had coerced him into confessing to the murder.
Subsequent lawsuits stated detectives failed to pursue other potential leads in Devan Duniver’s murder case. Per these claims, possible suspects included Devan’s mother, Lori Duniver, who had allegedly considered a murder-suicide with her children. The five-year-old victim’s biological father was also among them for allegedly disputing with the mother. Additionally, he had a history of domestic violence.
Among the potential suspects was Lori Duniver’s boyfriend, who had allegedly kidnapped Devan on one occasion. Furthermore, neighbors had claimed the victim’s brother was violent and had allegedly stabbed a cat once. Perhaps the most incriminating instance was when search dogs had led authorities to the home of a recently released convicted child molester.
In 2005, a special prosecutor named Richard Dobbins started looking into Devan Duniver’s murder case. But, two years after starting the investigation, Dobbins ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. Ohio’s Tuscarawas County district attorney, Ryan Styer, had the case filed in 2022. After a review of the special prosecutor’s findings, Styer told 20/20 that they “invested a lot of time conducting many interviews of witnesses and known persons of interest.” He also believes there is not enough evidence to prosecute the case.
Anthony Harris gave his first interview since his exoneration on ABC 20/20’s “Gone Before the Storm.” Harris stated that he hasn’t given up hope on finding Devan Duniver’s killer. He said, “We’re going to figure this out [and] give her some kind of closure.”
The episode will re-air on the network this Friday, August 23, 2024.
