Boy found after 4 years missing!

Ramrod · 13-01-2007, 17:43

Link

Quote:

The family of a US teenage boy found by police four years after he went missing have been speaking of their joy and relief at his "miracle" return.

Shawn Hornbeck, 15, and a 13-year-old boy who vanished this week were found on Friday in a flat near St Louis.

A 41-year-old man, Michael Devlin, has been charged with kidnapping.

Wow!

Delta Whiskey · 13-01-2007, 19:27

It makes you wonder how many others are out there...

DW

greencreeper · 13-01-2007, 22:08

It's very disturbing that the kidnapper managed to keep the lad for so long. He then goes out and takes another lad, not much old then the first lad when he was taken. So that leads to the question, "What was he planning on doing with the first lad?" He now has a replacement - a new toy - so does he really need the first lad anymore

TheDaddy · 14-01-2007, 00:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by greencreeper

It's very disturbing that the kidnapper managed to keep the lad for so long. He then goes out and takes another lad, not much old then the first lad when he was taken. So that leads to the question, "What was he planning on doing with the first lad?" He now has a replacement - a new toy - so does he really need the first lad anymore

Best not to speculate imo, its to awful to contemplate, the workings of a disturbed mind are best left to the experts to try and unravel, my thoughts are with the two lads, I can't imagine how they will get over this but at least they are both still alive

scuzz · 14-01-2007, 04:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Best not to speculate imo, its to awful to contemplate, the workings of a disturbed mind are best left to the experts to try and unravel, my thoughts are with the two lads, I can't imagine how they will get over this but at least they are both still alive

Ditto.
And their parents must have been through hell too.

Tinky · 14-01-2007, 08:24

This is a weird one! I wonder what story the kidnapper told the first boy, because he obviously did not try to escape, otherwise he could have phoned home or the police, according to the story he had a mobile phone. We never seem to get the whole story.

Ramrod · 14-01-2007, 09:37

more news on this

Quote:

It was a simple message, posted on the internet by what seemed to be just another well-wisher who had followed the agonising hunt for the missing schoolboy Shawn Hornbeck.

Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby
Found: Shawn Hornbeck [left] and Ben Ownby

"How long are you planing (sic) to look for your son?" it inquired of the boy's parents, signing off as Shawn Devlin of Kirkwood, Missouri.

Only yesterday, as Shawn, 15, was reunited with his family after an extraordinary kidnap ordeal that lasted for four years, did it emerge that the message, left on the family's website in December 2005, may have been a cryptic cry for help from the boy himself. He was using the surname of his captor, Michael Devlin, who forced the boy to call him "Dad".

The 41-year-old pizza parlour manager was in custody yesterday, charged with kidnap, after Shawn and a second boy who was snatched off the streets last week were found at his home, in the St Louis suburb of Kirkwood.

"It's just mind-boggling that it was that easy to hide someone in plain sight," said Shawn's stepfather, Craig Akers, last night. "This has been going on for four years and he's been here under our noses all this time."
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Both boys appeared well, but psychologists speculated that Shawn â€“ who disappeared while riding his bicycle to a friend's house in 2002, when he was 11 â€“ may have developed Stockholm Syndrome, a condition in which hostages fall under the spell of their captors.

Halcyon · 14-01-2007, 11:03

That is great news that they are both well.
If only more people who get kidnapped could be found.

Druchii · 14-01-2007, 11:10

And someone i talk to on another forum: http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=447127

Scary to know people like this aren't exactly far from your circle of friends.

nffc · 14-01-2007, 18:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Druchii

And someone i talk to on another forum: http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=447127

Scary to know people like this aren't exactly far from your circle of friends.

... but on the other side of the Atlantic, though, and only a former colleague.

Anyway, isn't there this thing where you can link yourself with anyone else in six steps via friends etc?

Tinky · 14-01-2007, 19:24

Thanks Ramrod, Druchii and nffc for the links, certainly cleared up more than a few points for me. The abductor Michael Devlin is one weird SOB, will we ever fully understand the workings of the human brain or all it's myriad deviations? What he did was beyond any normal person's comprehension, and he had no concern whatsoever, for what the boy's parents would suffer as a result of his actions, nor for that matter, the long term affects on the boys themselves!