Boy missing for four years hints at ordeal

A kidnapped Missouri boy gave a hint as to the ordeal he suffered when he told a US television audience he “never wanted any kid to go through what I went through".

Family members of 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck said they believe he was molested during the four years he was missing and, at times, his captor woke him every 45 minutes in an apparent attempt to control him.

The man suspected of snatching Hornbeck in 2002 pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of kidnapping another boy on January 8.

Michael Devlin, a 41-year-old pizzeria manager, is accused of taking 13-year-old Ben Ownby just after the boy got off a school bus in Beaufort, about 50 miles south-west of St Louis.

A schoolmate’s tip about a white pickup helped lead authorities to Devlin’s apartment in a St Louis suburb, where they found Own by and Hornbeck on January 12.

Prosecutors said Devlin, who also is charged with kidnapping Hornbeck but has not yet entered a plea in that case, terrorised him with a handgun to get him to cooperate.

The case has prompted authorities to investigate Devlin in at least one other missing child case.

During an interview with Oprah Winfrey on a TV show that aired last night, Hornbeck’s parents said they have not asked their son about his ordeal on the advice of child advocacy experts.

“OK, I’m going to go there and ask you, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?” Winfrey asked Hornbeck’s parents, Craig and Pam Akers.

Both nodded and said, “Yes.”

Hornbeck’s grandmother, Anna Quinn, said the boy has not spoken Devlin’s name, and that he has said little to relatives about what he went through. She said Hornbeck did say that at times during the last four years, Devlin would wake him every 45 minutes.

“Think to yourself when you don’t get enough sleep,” Quinn said. “He had to do something to get his cooperation.”

Hornbeck, who had dark floppy hair and piercings in his face when he was found, had a cleaner look in a taped interview with Winfrey. He said he always hoped for a reunion with his family.

“If it wasn’t for Ben, I might not be here right now,” Hornbeck said. “I’m thankful that he held in there for those few days. I told myself a long time ago I never wanted any kid to go through what I went through.”

Hornbeck said he was not ready to discuss details of his abduction and the subsequent 51 months he spent living with Devlin. Winfrey said the boy told her off-camera that he was “terrified” to contact his parents during the last four years.

Devlin’s attorney, Michael Kiely, declined to respond to the claim of sexual abuse, saying he hasn’t seen evidence in the case. “The only thing I have is an allegation,” he said.

NG Beryl, a psychologist and director of the consulting firm New York Forensic and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said it makes sense to look into old cases now that a suspect is in custody.

Devlin “may have tried this before and not known how to pull it off,” Beryl said.

He said a serial kidnapper tends to be “an isolated, socially awkward individual ... the kind of person people say that seemed OK and people didn’t get to know them.

“He looks like an average Joe,” Beryl said. “I suspect he has this need to keep kids. He’s sort of collecting children.”

Lincoln County, Missouri authorities have called Devlin the “most viable lead” in the case of Charles Marlin Henderson, who was 11 when he disappeared while riding his bike in 1991 and has never been found.

The boy, known as Marlin, was, like Own by and Hornbeck, about 100 pounds and from a rural town about an hour from St Louis.

“We can’t discount him in an investigation into any missing child,” Lt Rick Harrell said.