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   2 Missing boys found in man's home

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Topic: 2 Missing boys found in man's home (Read 459 times)

Rhune
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2 Missing boys found in man's home
« on: Jan 12^th, 2007, 11:37pm »

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BEAUFORT, Mo. | Hope was running thin Friday in the search for 13-year-old Ben Ownby. Relatives were planning to plea with neighbors to search vacant sheds and outbuildings for the boy after an intensive four-day search proved fruitless.

Then the unimaginable happened.

Authorities found Ben alive on Friday. Even more stunning: With him was 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, a boy who disappeared just as mysteriously four years ago.

Authorities found the boys when they searched the apartment of 41-year-old Michael Devlin, in the St. Louis suburb Kirkwood, 60 miles from where Ben was abducted.

Why Devlin had the boys, and how he kept Shawn Hornbeck captive for four years, remained a mystery Friday night. Devlin was charged with one count of first-degree kidnapping and was being held in Franklin County Jail on $1 million bond.

Ben vanished from the gravel road near his home in Beaufort, Mo., 60 miles southwest of St. Louis, Monday afternoon. Shawn was last seen in October 2002 riding his bike near his home in Richwoods, Mo., about 50 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said both boys appeared unharmed. Ben appeared somewhat dazed as he walked inside the sheriff's department, where he was reunited with his family Friday night. Hornbeck and his family also have been reunited.

Toelke said the break in the case came Thursday night. Kirkwood city police officers were serving a warrant on an apartment complex when they noticed a white truck matching the description of a vehicle authorities had been searching for in the Ownby investigation.

Kirkwood officers contacted the Franklin County Sheriff's Department and determined where the owner of the truck was and then searched Devlin's home.

Toelke said authorities were surprised to find another boy who identified himself as Shawn Hornbeck.

Ben's uncle, Loyd Bailie, told The Associated Press he was escorted to the Franklin County Sheriff's Department with Ben's parents. He said Ben was delighted when he saw his parents.

"His eyes lit up like silver dollars," Bailie said.

Everyone broke into tears and Ben's parents embraced him as tightly as they could, Bailie said.

Ben seemed in perfect health, but was hungry. Sheriff's deputies brought in sandwiches and a honey bun and Ben instantly devoured the sweet, Bailie said.

Toelke confirmed that Shawn and his family were reunited but disclosed no details.

In Kirkwood Friday night, a half-dozen law enforcement officials congregated outside the modest brick apartment where Devlin lived. Temporary lights and trailers were set up in the apartment complex courtyard as a cold, driving rain fell.

Another neighbor, Rick Butler, 43, said the FBI came to his door Thursday night and showed a picture of Ben, asking if he had seen him. He said he had not. But he had seen a boy he now believes was Hornbeck.

He said he saw no evidence that the boy now believed to be Hornbeck was scared or trying to get away. He had seen Devlin and the teen pitch a tent in the courtyard.

"I didn't see or hear anything odd or unusual from the apartment," Butler said. "I just figured them for father and son."

Ben, a straight-A student and Boy Scout, was last seen after he stepped off his school bus and ran toward his home down a gravel road on Monday. A friend who left the bus with the boy told authorities that after the two parted, he saw a small white pickup with a camper shell speeding away from where Ben had been walking.

Searchers on foot, horseback and all-terrain vehicles looked for Ben in the hilly area about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Hornbeck disappeared from his rural home when he was 11. He went for a bike ride and never returned.

Hornbeck's parents, Pam and Craig Akers, met their son in Union, the Franklin County seat and where the sheriff's department is, Toelke said.

His parents have devoted themselves to bringing missing people home since Shawn vanished from his hometown.

His parents, dozens of volunteers and sniffer dogs searched for weeks. The couple set up a Web site and listened to anyone who offered a tip.

Craig Akers, Shawn's stepfather, quit his job as a software designer to devote his time to a foundation bearing his son's name. They depleted their savings, borrowed against their retirement and talked to psychics. The financial strain forced both of them back to work.

A retired police officer volunteered to work on the case until Shawn was found.

Even though so much time had passed, Pam Akers said her son is frozen in her memory as an 11-year-old boy.

"It's been four years," she said on the anniversary of his disappearance last fall. "But for me, it's just been one long continuous day."

Toelke said authorities were still investigating the motive behind the abductions. Franklin County Prosecutor Robert Parks said more charges are likely to be filed.

"There are a lot of things we don't know right now," Toelke said.

Several media reports said Devlin was a registered sex offender in Utah. But the Utah offender and the Missouri suspect appeared to be different people. The Utah Department of Corrections said the Devlin living in Kirkwood had a different Social Security number than the sex offender in Utah.

AP reporters Cheryl Wittenauer, Betsy Taylor and Jim Salter in St. Louis, and Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake contributed to this report.

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Joab
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Re: 2 Missing boys found in man's home
« Reply #1 on: Jan 13^th, 2007, 12:01am »

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I hope the boys are fine now! Are they like sexually assulted or abused or anything? I seriously hope not. Sad

« Last Edit: Jan 13^th, 2007, 12:02am by Joab »

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Tyler
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Re: 2 Missing boys found in man's home
« Reply #2 on: Jan 13^th, 2007, 3:25pm »

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I was wondering the same thing. What could he possibly do with them for such long of a time and keep them alive.

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Rhune
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Re: 2 Missing boys found in man's home
« Reply #3 on: Jan 13^th, 2007, 8:39pm »

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They are extremely likely to have been regularly sexually assaulted, having been kept alive in his home like that. There have been other situations similar to this and they have all so far been the result of someone being kept alive for sex. They will both need a lot of therapy to overcome being kidnapped, but there's probably not enough therapy in the world for someone who's lived with that for 4 years to forget or become "normal" again. He'll probably have to struggle with trust and intimacy issues his whole life. If a bunch of sex crime charges are not brought against this guy in the coming week, I will be shocked.

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Rhune
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Re: 2 Missing boys found in man's home
« Reply #4 on: Jan 13^th, 2007, 8:47pm »

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Ecstatic parents of boys found in Missouri hail 'miracle'
POSTED: 7:55 p.m. EST, January 13, 2007

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- Two very relieved and beaming families hugged their sons at news conferences Saturday, the day after the two missing boys were found -- one after four days, the other after four years.

Police had been searching for Ben Ownby, 13, who disappeared Monday, when they found him with another teenager in a man's apartment in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. That boy told the officers that he was Shawn Hornbeck, who was last seen riding his bike in 2002, when he was 11.

The apartment owner, Michael J. Devlin, 41, was arrested Friday and charged with one count of first-degree kidnapping, according to Franklin County Prosecutor Robert Parks.

He is being held on $1 million bail and may also face federal charges.

The rescued boys' families told their stories at separate news conferences, each filled with emotion and overwhelming relief.

Shawn's mother, Pam Akers, and his stepfather, Craig Akers, said they had never given up hope.

"We've got a lot of catching up to do," said a tearful Pam Akers. "He's grown up on me, that's for sure."

"Shawn is a miracle here," she said.

"This is one of those rare, rare things. To have one missing child found is just extraordinary," Craig Akers told reporters. "To have two found at the same time is one of those things -- you don't even read about things like that."

Shawn sat at a table close to his mother, exchanging hugs with her and smiling as he watched his stepfather talk excitedly to reporters. At one point, he put his forehead on the table in mock embarrassment as Craig Akers relayed, to much laughter, that Shawn's first request was a hamburger from McDonald's.

Akers said there's one task the family will need to attend to right away.

"We really don't have any plans as of yet other than to go shopping and buy some clothes," he said. "His old stuff doesn't fit him, obviously.

"However, they were still in his dresser at the house. You can open up the dresser drawer, and there's his clothes just the way he left them four years ago."

At his news conference, Ben appeared at ease and happy as he stood with his sister and his parents, Don and Doris Ownby.

Doris Ownby said she was "just, just ecstatic" to have Ben back. "I didn't say anything, I just grabbed him and held him."

She said the first thing Ben wanted to do was to play a computer game, and the first thing she did that morning was check to see if Ben was still there.

Family wants to spread hope
The Akerses, who have spent the past four years helping in other missing children cases, said they wanted to give hope to those parents. Craig Akers said he remembered the day he heard Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart was found -- on March 12, 2003, nearly a year after being kidnapped.

"I remember how much that raised our hopes, how much fuel that gave us to keep going," he said.

The conference was held in a room decorated with balloons and handmade posters that read "Miracles Do Happen" and "We All Missed You, Shawn."

"I want to give that hope to the families, to the family that their kids can come home," Pam Akers said. "It may be years later, may be days later, may be weeks later, but they can come home safe and just always keep that faith and hope."

The boys were found in Kirkwood, Missouri, about an hour away from the Akers' home in Richwoods.

The break came after reports of a sighting of a rusty white Nissan pickup truck that matched the description of one sought in the disappearance of Ben, last seen getting off his school bus in Franklin County, near St. Louis.

Two police officers in suburban Kirkwood went to the apartment complex to serve an unrelated warrant and spotted the pickup, Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke told reporters Friday.

"That resulted in the recovery," Toelke said.

It is not clear what happened to the boys while they were with Devlin, but Craig Akers said Shawn did not go to school during the four years he's been missing.

"All the questions will come later," said Pam Akers. "We're just trying to absorb that he's home."

'That's my son'
Craig Akers described driving home from work and getting the call that Shawn might have been found. "It took a minute to find a suitable place to pull over," he said.

"The words -- 'We think we found Shawn, we're 95 percent sure that we found Shawn and that he's alive' -- were the sweetest words I ever heard in my life," he said.

Driving to see their son was "the longest drive we ever had to do," he said.

When the parents and Shawn saw each other, there were no words, he said.

"Just a split second of shock," Akers recounted. "The last time we saw him, he was yea tall and 11 years old. It kind of throws you for a second. But ... once we saw the face, we said, "Oh, my God, that's my son...

"That was pretty much where we were the first five minutes. Not a lot of words spoken, except a lot of 'I love you's,' kisses, and 'We're so glad that you're home.' "

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Bumper
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Re: 2 Missing boys found in man's home
« Reply #5 on: Jan 14^th, 2007, 4:43pm »

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on Jan 13^th, 2007, 8:39pm, Rhune wrote:

Both of these boys are lucky but that older boy, the one that has been missing for several years, is one EXTREMELY lucky kid. Pedophile Predators tend to stay in a certain age range. It's very possible that this young man had grown out of his Abductor's preferred age range and was about to be "replaced". It would have been highly unlikely that this predator would have let him live and just walk away.

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Joab
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Re: 2 Missing boys found in man's home
« Reply #6 on: Jan 14^th, 2007, 8:10pm »

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At his news conference, Ben appeared at ease and happy as he stood with his sister and his parents, Don and Doris Ownby.

Doris Ownby said she was "just, just ecstatic" to have Ben back. "I didn't say anything, I just grabbed him and held him."

She said the first thing Ben wanted to do was to play a computer game, and the first thing she did that morning was check to see if Ben was still there.

I know i know, i nearly cried reading this part. Cry

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Pocket
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Re: 2 Missing boys found in man's home
« Reply #7 on: Jan 14^th, 2007, 8:33pm »

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These seem to be working families, so I hope they're able to get these boys counseling. They will need someone impartial to speak to for a while, especially the older one, Shawn.

« Last Edit: Jan 14^th, 2007, 8:34pm by Pocket »

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LittleBoy
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Re: 2 Missing boys found in man's home
« Reply #8 on: Jan 15^th, 2007, 8:03am »

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Omg... What an experience.

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