Tags
Related Posts
Share This
Weighing in on the Shawn Hornbeck story
I’ve held off blogging on this (even though blogging about missing/abused kids and sex offenders tends to be my….ummmm, let’s say crusade, for lack of a better word), as I wanted to see where the story was going. But it just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
The background, in case you’re one of those rare people without cable (or not addicted to news, as I am)…about two weeks ago, a young boy named Ben Ownby was abducted in Missouri. Now, I was always under the impression that nothing much happened in Missouri, but it turns out that I am terribly uninformed, it seems that there’s been a number of child abductions in that state. Thanks to a very observant 15-year-old who got off the same bus as Ben, police were blessed with an excellent description of the truck the abductor was driving.
Authorities are focusing on the white truck seen near the spot where the boy disappeared in Beaufort, just 29 miles from Lonedell. Neighbors told police they saw the vehicle cruising the area earlier Monday. A schoolmate saw what may have been the same truck speeding away about the time Ben disappeared Monday afternoon.
Fast forward 5 days, and a pair of police officers, serving a warrant on an unrelated case, noticed a truck that seemed to match the description. They questioned the owner of the truck, and the interview raised enough red flags that these officers notified the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department. The next day, they were able to get a warrant to enter the apartment, where, much to their surprise, they not only found Ben Ownby, but also found Shawn Hornbeck, now 15, who had been missing since 2002.
Kirkwood officers contacted the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department and determined where the owner of the truck was and then searched Devlin’s house.
Toelke said authorities were surprised to find another boy who identified himself as Shawn Hornbeck.
Hornbeck disappeared from his Richwoods home in October 2002, when he was 11. He went for a bike ride and never returned.
Hornbeck’s parents, Pam and Craig Akers, were reunited with their son, Toelke said.
Now, a lot of questions have been raised as to why Shawn never tried to escape. Being the mom of an 11-year-old daughter myself, I can understand why Shawn was afraid to do anything. It’s been said that he was threatened, not only himself, but his family as well, by his kidnapper, Michael Devlin (and it doesn’t hurt to point out that Devlin is like 6’4″ and weighs 300lbs…just a bit intimidating to an 11-year old). Another thing that I keep in mind about kids this age…they’re terribly gullible, and tend to believe most everything that they’re told, especially by those who are older than them. If this guy said he’d kill Shawn, you can bet that he believed it. Some people seem to be looking at Shawn today, at 15, and forgetting that he was only 11 when he was abducted. Plus, nothing has really come out as to what this kid endured during his time in captivity. I dread to imagine. I’m sorry, but grown men don’t usually grab kids and rip them from their home because they have a sudden urge to be a daddy. They generally have something else in mind. This seems even more likely as, now that Shawn is older, no longer a “tween”, Devlin seems to have been looking for a replacement, hence, his kidnapping of Ben Ownby. Something even scarier is that it seems as though another, much earlier abduction of a child of the same age and general description (11 years old, a small child, weighing around 100 pounds) is now being linked to Devlin. And this child was never found.
Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies said Wednesday that Devlin is now the “most viable lead” in the investigation into the 1991 disappearance of Charles Arlin Henderson of Moscow Mills.
Both Shawn and Charles vanished at age 11 while riding their bikes on a rural road about an hour’s drive from St. Louis. Both boys were slight, weighing about 100 pounds, and had close-cropped hair.
“If you were to take a photo of Arlin Henderson and you place it next to Shawn’s picture, there is a striking resemblance,” sheriff’s Lt. Rick Harrell said…
What happened to this child? I dread to imagine, just as I dread to imagine what might have happened to Shawn, now that Devlin had a replacement, had he not been found.
Today, there was yet again “breaking news” in the case of Shawn Hornbeck. Turns out he had contact with the police, only 10 months after he was abducted.
According to a report in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Hornbeck spoke with a Kirkwood police officer to report his bike stolen about 10 months after he was kidnapped from nearby Washington County.
The report says Hornbeck identified himself to police officer Christopher Moss as Shawn Devlin and gave police no indication that he had been kidnapped. He told police the bike had been taken from outside the apartment where he lived with his alleged captor Michael Devlin.
Moss wrote in his notes “I spoke with Shawn Devlin and his father Michael Devlin.” After detailing the bike’s disappearance, Moss wrote “the Devlins had no suspect information.”
Now, please keep in mind that Shawn was living 60 miles from where he was abducted. After only 10 months, you’d think that this case would still be fresh in the minds of local police. How is it that he wasn’t recognized?!!? Yes, now, 4 years later, Shawn looks considerably different than he did when he was kidnapped. But after 10 months? I have a son who will be 15 in just a few weeks, and yes, there is a huge difference in how he looks now as opposed to when he was 11. Most of the changes have really come over the last year or so, he’s gone from a boy into being, almost, a man. But between 11 and 12, there was really very little change.
If only the police had recognized Shawn then, think of all that could have been avoided. Not only to Shawn, but to Ben Ownby as well. Talk about a missed opportunity. What an absolute shame.
Technorati tag Shawn Hornbeck
Technorati tag Ben Ownby
Technorati tag Michael Devlin
Technorati tag Abused Children
What happened to this child? I dread to imagine, just as I dread to imagine what might have happened to Shawn, now that Devlin had a replacement, had he not been found.
I have been thinking the same thing – and what about any boys that might have come before him.
I have been outraged at the chatter about Hornbeck.I hate to think of what the kid went through and what he has to go through yet. To drag his name through the mud when he’s a victim and still a KID is inexcusable to me.
I agree that fear was the reason that Shawn did not try to escape. Shawn said that it was fear. I think that there were probably two different fears that the boy had. The first fear was that he or his family would be hurt if he tried to escape. The second fear is the fear shared by all molested children. He feared that people would find out what happened. He feared that his parents would find out. It is possible that he also feared the national attention to what happened to him. What boy would want everyone in the country to know that he had sex with a man. Is it possible that his captor told him that that is exactly what would happen? Even when he was away from his captor and standing right next to a policeman, that second fear would be enough to keep him quiet. I know it hasn’t been officially announced that he was molested but I expect it will be. Like you said, men don’t abduct children because they want to be a daddy.
Tammy,
I think i is deplorable that some are even questioning the fact that he did not escape. HE WAS KIDNAPPED, he was 11, he was threatened. Even after 10 months went by he was still scared. I am sure this Devlin told him that no one would believed him too. He was just trying to survive. I think the biggest hero in this story is the young boy that gae the description of the truck. Had he not, both boys would still be missing.
I haven’t watched the news much the past few days, but I have heard people questioning why Shawn didn’t escape earlier. I agree that he was scared. Intimidation of an 11-year old would be fairly simple – especially by a man as big as Devlin. And the shame of being sexually abused. I’ve talked with a couple of sexual abuse survivors and they both told that they felt ashamed of it – even though they knew they shouldn’t.
MY daughter is AMANDA BROWN she was murdered 9-11-98 her body has never been recoverd.. This story gives new hope to famileys like mine and its shows how the amber alert is so imporent..thank you Amandas dad Roy Brown..
what follows is an account of what happened to me when i was 12 or 13 years old. my purpose in telling this story is to maybe shed some light on why some molestations go unreported. i will be graphic in what i say simply because it will help the reader to understand what it is i have to say….i am not sure of my age when this happened but i would guess it to be about 12 or 13…i know this because i remember i was unable to ejaculate at the time, my body had not reached that time when it was able to ejaculate….i had a paper route and the person who was the station manager molested me. he took me in his car and touched me. he also took me to a nearby city park and touched me and wanted me to masturbate which i knew nothing about. he masturbated and had me watch him, which i did. he asked me if i ever masturbated and i said yes, of course. i had never masturbated, didnt even know about maturbating. i suppose he didnt believe me because i remember him asking me if it felt good to masturbate or did it hurt….i replied it hurt. so he knew i knew nothing about it. my point in telling this story is that i willingly went with him in his car, several times. i willingly went to the park with him, several times. so now i ask myself why….i think that perhaps i was of the age where i was just becoming sexual…i was discovering my own sex, my sexuality, i was becoming curious and this man didnt really pose a threat to me so i went along with him. and i remember sometime later he was discovered molesting young boys and he got in trouble. my mom asked me if he ever did anything to me….i said no. i of course didnt feel threatened by this man.. i permitted this molestation to occur out of curiosity i think. for me the point to be made is that when molestation occurs without a feeling of being threatened it often times is not recognized as a molestation by someone so young….its perceived as sexual playing, a curiosity to a new found pleasure. and at that time i knew that sexual playing isnt something you share with your parents……i just dont know why i let it happen and when asked if it happened i lied…i said no it didnt happen. i knew it was wrong but i was ok, i was unharmed and i didnt share what happened to me with my parents….ever…..but imagine if i had been threatened by this man…i mean he had so much control over me without threatening me what if he did threaten me…what could have happened?
Having lived for a while in Mo. it is not so surprising that this could happen there. Much of it is a very backwoods sort of place that avoids outsiders and like many such areas you’d be amazed at the sort of things that go on that people outside rarely hear about.
Most people think that the living in the countryside is a clean and law-abiding lifestyle. While some of the dangers of big city life are certainly not as prevalent on the whole, it’s mostly the low population density and somewhat lack of communication with the outside world that creates the statistics and the illusion.
I suspect that there are actually higher occurances of certain types of crimes like rape, child – molestation, family abuse, serial killings, disappearances, and the sorts of crimes that would more likely get attention in the city.
The sad but sick truth is that generally the only such crimes that get public attention are those that happen to middle or upper class whites from more populated states or the exceptionally cute blond-haired woman or child.
How many Black, Hispanic, or Asian kids or women victims do you ever hear about? Generally the only crimes in the country you hear about involve guns.
The media has a bias towards the stories they report and as you have noted about in their treatment of Shaun Hornbeck are seriously lacking understanding in the psychology of such issues.
Mr. Brown, I’m so sorry about what has happened with your daughter. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
I was molested by my step-father from about age 9 to about age 11 or 12. Without going into graphic details, my younger sister and I spent weekends with my mother and her husband and he would “visit” our room at night. One night while he was bothering me, my younger sister awoke. She told my father what she saw. When I was asked, I lied about it. It was years and years later that I finally disclosed what had happened to my father and my mother, who then accused me of lying or of being confused. I don’t remember my step father threatening me with harm but somehow he did convey to me that everything was my fault and that my father, my mother, the authorities, nobody would believe me and that I could be taken away if I told anyone. Keep in mind this was 30 years ago. There wasn’t programs about this in the schools, the media didn’t discuss it, etc. I guess what I’m trying to say is kids like those in this situation are nearly always intimidated and embarassed and I imagine the tactics used on them is 100% worse than those that were used on me. My prayers are with all involved in this situation and I hope the police are able to uncover any other children that have not yet been identified. I imagine there are a few others. As for Mr. Devlin, he is a sick and disgusting individual, I just hope he gets the kind of justice he deserves.
just to clarify, it was my mother who called me a liar and basically any relationship we had, was ended when she didn’t believe me.
My step-father died about 6 years ago and still my mother and I have really no relationship.
You have a lfietime of work to unravel as does Shuan. I am not lost on critical times that hit either now or down the road. There is a site, Bipolar World, it uses anonymous nicks and yes, several older people were molested as kids, It is excellent as serious as well as light hearted. He may simply tell his story and many people listen. I can be found as Mikey. Wish you the best if you try. Its a door open 24 hours if he needs it. Be well
come on you think he didnt want to free