Parents Suspect Abducted Son Was Abused
Michael Devlin Pleads Not Guilty To Kidnapping; Authorities Say He Confessed
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Man Charged In Mo. Kidnapping
CBS News RAW: Missouri prosecutors said Michael Devlin, 31, faces 10 to 30 years in prison if convicted of abducting 13-year-old Ben Ownby after the boy stepped off a school bus this month.
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Devlin Arraigned In Missouri
Kidnap suspect Michael Devlin appeared before a judge via video link from a Missouri jail and entered a "not guilty" plea. He's accused of kidnapping two Missouri boys. Gwen Belton reports.
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Not Guilty Plea In Mo. Kidnap
CBS News RAW: Michael Devlin pleaded not guilty to kidnapping 13-year-old Ben Ownby, one of two missing boys found in Devlin's apartment in Missouri.
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Michael Devlin, 41, pleaded not guilty to kidnapping charges from the Franklin County, Mo. jail on Jan. 18, 2007. (CBS)
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Ben Ownby, 13, was kidnapped Jan. 8, 2007. Michael Devlin,41, was charged this week with the kidnapping. (AP)
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Kidnapping suspect Michael Devlin, center, arrives at the Franklin County Sheriff's Department in Union, Mo., on Jan. 12, 2007. Devlin was arrested after a 13-year-old boy who has been missing for a few days and a 15-year-old boy who had been missing since 2002 were found in Devlin's home in Kirkwood, Mo. (AP Photo/Post-Dispatch)
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Shawn Hornbeck, 15, smiles at his stepfather, Craig Akers, during a news conference after he was reunited with his family. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam)
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The comments came the same day the man suspected of snatching 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck in 2002 pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping another boy on Jan. 8.
Michael Devlin, a 41-year-old pizzeria manager, was accused of taking 13-year-old Ben Ownby just after he got off the school bus in Beaufort. A schoolmate's tip about a white pickup truck helped lead authorities to Devlin's suburban St. Louis apartment and to the dramatic rescue of both boys on Jan. 12.
Prosecutors said Devlin, who also is charged with kidnapping Hornbeck, terrorized the boy with a handgun to get him to cooperate.
Devlin's attorneys said Thursday that they may ask for a change of venue, reports CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith.
"There's no way we can get a fair trial in this county due to the amount of attention it's gotten," attorney Michael Kielty said.
The case has prompted authorities to investigate Devlin in cases involving two missing boys and one girl in eastern Missouri dating back to 1988.
During an interview with Oprah Winfrey on a show that aired Thursday, Hornbeck's parents said they have not asked their son what happened 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."
While it is CBS News' policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual abuse in most cases, Hornbeck's case has been widely publicized and his name is well-known. Also, the family has gone public, conducting several national interviews.
Hornbeck's grandmother, Anna Quinn of St. Louis, told the AP on Thursday that the boy has not spoken Devlin's name and that he has said little to relatives about what he went through. But Hornbeck did tell his family that at times during his captivity, he would be awakened every 45 minutes by his captor.
"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.
Kielty 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.
N.G. Berrill, 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," Berrill 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," Berrill said. "I suspect he has this need to keep kids. He's sort of collecting children."
Lincoln County, Mo., authorities called Devlin the "most viable lead" in the case of Charles Arlin Henderson, who was 11 when he disappeared while riding his bike in 1991 and has never been found.
The boy, known as Arlin, was, like Ownby and Hornbeck, about 100 pounds and from a rural town about an hour from St. Louis.
After 16 years, Henderson's mother is hoping for answers, reports Smith.
"Oh my God, Arlin could come home or I could know," said Debra Henderson-Griffith.
"We can't discount him in an investigation into any missing child," Lt. Rick Harrell said.
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See all 54 CommentsBefore I read your comment I have to say that judging from the boys behavior/demeanor on camera this past week I would never have guessed that there had been abuse or sexual assalt going on.
I'm wondering if any of the authorities have noticed yet that there seems to be a regular interval between kidnappings.
The first suspected one was 10 yrs before Shawn's, there was 5 yrs between Shawn and Ben...I think they may be missing one child taken around 1995.
All the boys look somewhat alike, all were approximently the same age...it seems like this man is trying to "replace" someone from his life--until the abuse allegations, I would have thought it a younger brother, or son...so the question becomes what happens to the "old" victim once he gets a "new" one? Does he let them go, or do they upset his fantasy to the point to where he would harm them?
Yes I know this sounds like its a set-up for the insanity plea, but then he would still have to prove that he was demented enough NOT to know what he was doing was wrong...I don't think he could do that.
Pass my best wishes on to the family.
I heard one of the questions he asked was "how long will you look for him?"...probable translation "are my parents still looking for ME?"...poor kid.
This piece of excrement will probably try to claim that Shawn "wanted it" & that kidnapping Ben was Shawn's idea. He will try to place the blame on the kids & make himself out to be the victim. I can just hear him now: "I did every thing for Shawn, let him stay out of school, fed him, clothed him...I was like a father to him..."
The fact that he hesitated when asked how he pleads, is enough evidence of his guilt for me. "Not guilty" yeah, right. That lying sack of...
Why would a "family friend" feel the need to make comments like that? Some friend you are!
Anyone who can kidnap a child and do anything to them deserves to rot in hell and suffer horribly.
Even MORE shame on Saint Oprah, she should be way above this sensationalism. She has used very bad judgement/taste in airing this show.
I wish this young man peace, no more of this kind of show. Ugly stuff!
I wonder if what you say here is the key to their silence... and at this stage all people can do is wonder.... if a child saw the evidence of the last child being fazed out, then wouldnt that be enough to keep him silent...then and now...he would not want to recount the horrors he might have seen himself...
Not that it isn't obvious anyway - young boys abducted and held by older men - only one reason.
You and I, as adults, know the boy has done nothing to be ashamed of, but children have not reached that same level of thought. My 10-year-old niece was raped. The day he was sentenced to prison for 10 years, she made the choice herself to tell a classmate who was her friend, who told another, who told another, etc. My niece was teased by her classmates, who didn't understand that my niece was an innocent victim. They laughed at her and made fun of her. She cried and felt that maybe she did do something to deserve being laughed at. By the end of the day, the principal, who had been keep in the loop throughout, had to hold a meeting with her classmates to try to explain the situation. Childrens' ignorance, age and inexperience can make them appear cruel. There's no reason why adults should provide avenues to promote problems and stress.
They can "believe" anything they wish, but believing doesn't make it fact, till the proof is presented in a court of law and found valid, this was an abduction and kidnapping.
He's already been charged - abduction with a weapon, and a police spokesperson has already said (with a little heat and contempt for those requiring him to answer so stupid a question, imho), that Shawn was abducted at gunpoint and there was no previous contact between them.
Threats have also been confirmed by Shawn's parents. Being human, they're not pressing him to relive all the details so quickly after he's finally escaped his 4 year nightmare.
Posted by besttyper
Exactly right, and THIS whole media circus on this, the allegations, rumors and all the rest are making this WORSE, it reminds me of the nwspaper story here about a mom whose young TEEN AGED daughter opened the mail and catalogues and one of them was a catalogue for mild pornography tapes etc. The article went on to say that the girl screamed and ran to mom and was ALL upset. Why? because she saw a NUDE man on the cover of the catalogue.
SCREAMED AND RAN to her mommy all upset and crying because she saw a PICTURE of a nude man on the cover of a catalogue. Sounded to me like mom was teaching major PARANOIA because that level of reaction is NOT normal.
We are rapidly turning kids into paranoid babbling morons who scream and run if anyone so much as LOOKS their way.
This was a teenager not a 5 year old, a TEEN never saw a picture of a nude man before? where was mom's *** ed years before?
'Posted by besttyper'"
What are you talking about. The kid's won the lotto! Soon there'll be books out and then a movie deal. The kid is financially set for life! Unfortunately he's paid a vey high price for his fame.
You've got your facts wrong. Shawn didn't have the truck when he got picked up for being out late with his friend. The boys where out late riding BIKES ! The truck belongs to the abducter. I'm sure the abducter would NEVER let Shawn drive his car. And Shawn's neighbor friend said that Shawn didn't go to school. I think the abducter was letting Shawn run free because Shawn was over the age limit he wanted. Maybe by the time he was done with him,he was hoping Shawn would run away.
You are talking about an eleven-year old child. Even if he ran away, why would any grown man bring him into his home and let him live there without notifying someone? I also thought going on National TV was a poor judgment on both families part, but until we are put in that situation we can%u2019t judge them. Who knows how we would react. I don%u2019t think they should have told the world that they thought he had been sexually abused and I think it was in poor taste for Opera to even ask. Unfortunately, as proven on this message board, even though he is a victim, people will find a way to blame him.
I also thought Shawn was acting funny, but again, how can I say how someone should react when I have never been put in that situation. Who knows what things this man told him. Until you have been in this type of situation, leave the analyzing too the experts!
My thoughts and prayers are with both families.
Then perhaps the reason they're not is because it's reasonable to hold a 15 y.o. to a higher standard. Persons younger than 15 have been tried as adults for murder and sexual crimes; obviously several states consider a 15 y.o. to have the mental capacity of an adult when it comes to making common-sense decisions about one's behavior.
SCH had 4.5 years to escape. By his own admission, he didn't try once. Instead, he played video games, stayed out after curfew, lost the cell phone that Devlin gave him, rode bikes all over kingdom come with his friend from the apartment bldg., went to the Mall to get lip and ear piercings and God knows what else.
If SCH *had* called 911 on Devlin, then Ben wouldn't have been abducted. But SCH's deeds went beyond that: He *assisted* Devlin in holding Ben captive while Devlin was away at work. At some point, SCH stopped being a victim (assuming he ever was one) and crossed the line to become a co-conspirator.
This is no different than the '70s case involving Patti Hearst.
15 y.o. is definitely old enough to be held accountable for one's actions or *lack* thereof. SCH is less a victim we should take pity upon than a suspect who should not be spared hard-line questioning by the police and his parents.
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