Missing boy 'mentally shackled by kidnapper'

For more than four years, Shawn Hornbeck seemed to have had every chance to escape, left alone for hours to ride his bike, play video games and walk past missing-child posters showing his own age-progressed image.

However, American mental health experts say this troubling case is not so simple, and that Shawn was probably kept mentally shackled by terror and domination from the man accused of kidnapping him, 41-year-old Michael Devlin.

“I think it’s a real mistake to judge this child. Whatever he did to this point to stay alive is to his credit,” said Terri Weaver, an associate psychology professor at Saint Louis University, Missouri.

Weaver, an expert on post traumatic stress disorder, said children in such situations kicked into survival mode, “doing what needs to be done to keep yourself going day-to-day”.

Devlin, a pizza parlour manager, is accused of abducting Shawn four years ago when the slight boy, taken as he was riding his bike, was just 11.

Now a gangly 15-year-old with floppy hair and a pierced lip, he was found by surprise on Friday when police acting on a tip went to Devlin’s modest two-bedroom apartment in the St Louis suburb of Kirkwood, Missouri, to rescue 13-year-old Ben Ownby, who had been snatched four days earlier on his way home from school.

Now investigators are piecing together the details of Shawn’s captivity and Ben’s abduction, trying to discover how the boys could have been kept captive in an apartment where neighbours often heard banging, shouting and arguing.

Internet profiles posted as far back as two years ago that were created using pictures of Shawn emerged over the weekend when a blog mentioned them. A Kirkwood detective said yesterday that he had heard about the profiles but did not know what role they might be playing in the investigation.

A Yahoo user homepage belonging to “xxdevildevlinxx” was created in April 2004 and shows a partial picture of a boy, strongly resembling recent photos of Shawn, with an eyebrow piercing. On Saturday, the boy had a lip ring and three ear piercings.

Another Yahoo profile using the same picture is registered to an “mdevlin” in Kirkwood, Missouri.

A separate profile was taken out under the name Shawn Devlin in November 2005, according to the Yahoo page. It contains a full picture of a young boy similar to pictures of Shawn; the page says the user lives in Kirkwood, Missouri.

A website called the True Crime Blog mentioned the pages this weekend.

Residents in Shawn’s home town of Richwoods were shocked the boy could have so much contact with the outside world but remain at his captor’s side – refusing to flee even as Devlin had two jobs that forced him to leave Shawn and, later, Ben, alone.

Weaver said repeated contact with outsiders could actually reinforce an abducted child’s sense of helplessness.

“Over time, your safety has been threatened. You are a child. You may have been traumatised in other ways. You may feel helpless to reach out to other people,” she said.

Devlin’s family released a statement on Saturday praising law enforcement agencies for returning the boys to their families. “Just as we are relieved that both Ben and Shawn are now safe, we hope that Michael will be safe as the facts of his case are revealed,” the statement said.

Devlin’s childhood neighbours told the St Louis Post-Dispatch that Devlin was adopted and one of six children.

Sarah Sullivan described him as a quiet child in an otherwise outgoing family. He was always big for his age and avoided sports. He had a hot temper and spent a lot of time in his room, she said.

Devlin got a job at Imo’s Pizza when he was in high school. He never left the pizza parlour over the years. He has no apparent criminal past, except for a pair of traffic fines, officials said.

Devlin is being held in the Franklin County jail charged with first-degree kidnapping.

Police say Devlin drove his pick-up truck to Beaufort, Missouri, last Monday and kidnapped Ben. A witness spotted his truck and its description was broadcast in a missing child bulletin.

Police spotted the truck outside Devlin’s apartment complex. He was questioned and later arrested at his workplace.

A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said FBI agents went to Imo’s Pizza, where Devlin was a manager, and that the suspect revealed details giving agents probable cause to arrest him and search his apartment.

They then found the boys, said the source.