Shawn Hornbeck kidnapping. Why didn’t he run away from his captor?

The Shawn Hornbeck kidnapping case caused a stir in the United States for different reasons. In the first place, it is one of the few kidnappings that, after several years, four to be exact, is resolved satisfactorily and the culprit is caught and convicted. However, it caused a stir for other reasons as well. One of them was the fortuitousness of the capture of his kidnapper, but even more important is the fact that, despite having had multiple occasions to escape and ask for help, and even having had direct contact with the police on one occasion, he never attempted to escape, and had he not been rescued, there is no telling how much longer he might have been held captive.

In this article, we find out what happened, when, how, and by whom Shawn was kidnapped, when and how he was rescued, and why he never tried to run away from his captor.

The Shawn Hornbeck Kidnapping

Shawn Hornbeck was an 11-year-old boy who was abducted on October 6, 2002 while riding a bicycle in a small rural town in Washington County called Richwoods, in the state of Missouri, United States, about 50 miles from the second city largest in the state, St. Louis. His kidnapper, Michael Devlin, manager of a pizzeria, had spent months walking lonely streets in search of a young victim. Shawn had traveled that same road countless times, but on that fateful October day he had the misfortune to bump into Devlin in his delivery van.

Seeing Shawn, Devlin threw him off his bike and kidnapped him without much difficulty, taking him away from the scene. When Shawn did not arrive, his mother, Pam, and his stepfather Craig Akers, to whom Shawn was like a son, immediately reported him missing to the police and the search began.

Years passed without hearing from little Shawn. They searched for him everywhere, in the forests, in the surrounding towns, they put ads on social media, to no avail. However, they never gave up, until one day, more than four years after he was kidnapped, something completely unexpected happened that would put an end to the search.

a second victim

Four years after the Shawn Hornbeck kidnapping, a second drama was unfolding in a town near Rochwoods called Beaufort, in Franklin County, Missouri, about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis. Little Ben Ownby, 13 years old, disappeared while waiting for the school bus at the bus stop near his house. Fortunately, Ben’s neighbor, Mitchell Hults, witnessed the abduction and was able to provide the description of Devlin’s truck to the authorities, who set out to search for him.

They had been searching for three days when without success; However, on the fourth day, a fortuitous turn of events changed everything, and not just for Ben and his family.

The Missouri Miracle

Gary Toelke, the Franklin County sheriff where Ben Ownby’s kidnapping was reported gave a press conference outside his office. In his own words, he let those present know that he had some good news and some downright incredible news to deliver. On January 12, 2007, while police were searching for a suspect in an unrelated crime in the Ben Ownby kidnapping case in the 400 block of South Holmes Street in Kirkwood, Missouri, officers identified the white pickup truck which Mitchell Hults had described in his statements relating to the day of Ben’s abduction. The cops immediately alerted the FBI, obtained a search warrant, and entered Michael Devlin’s apartment.

The first thing they discovered, to their great relief, was little 13-year-old Ben, safe and sound. Next to Ben, sitting quietly, was a second teenager who turned out to be none other than Shawn Hornbeck.

The unexpectedness of the events, the way in which they fortuitously found the truck that they had been looking for for four days and the surprising fact that little Ben was accompanied by a second kidnapping victim who had been missing for 4 years and 3 months caused the media to refer to the The case was called “the Missouri miracle,” and the news went around the world.

The owner of the apartment and the white van, Michael J. Devlin, was placed under the custody of the authorities while the children were reunited with their families, ending the despair and uncertainty of Craig and Pam Akers.

Testimonials from neighbors

How could Shawn sit there looking so calm while the police rescued them when he had been held prisoner by a degenerate like Devlin for 4 years? He was already a 15-year-old boy, why hadn’t he tried to escape before? Devlin’s apartment was nothing like a maximum security prison. These and other questions immediately began to arise, especially after interviewing Devlin’s neighbors.

No one ever suspected that Shawn was kidnapped. He seemed like a normal kid who went out to play around, had friends and even dated a girl. The most obvious conclusion was that this was indeed Devlin’s son. Who could doubt it?

More questions than answers

There were two facts of the case that raised even more questions. Shawn once contacted the police to report that his bike had been stolen outside a shopping mall. Why didn’t he ask for help at that time?

Worse still: at one point, Shawn even contacted his parents using the name Shawn Devlin, asking them how long they would continue to search for their missing son. It’s hard to imagine what reasons poor Shawn couldn’t bring himself to speak.

A pact with the devil: the truth is discovered

Anyone who wants to judge Shawn for not having the courage to run away is sorely mistaken. Thanks to Shawn’s own testimonies and Michael Devlin’s confession, the horrible reality of his kidnapping became known. Devlin turned out to be a pedophile who had kidnapped Shawn with the sole intention of sexually assaulting and murdering him. In fact, after repeatedly raping him, he took him to a distant field and began to strangle him to take his life.

However, Shawn was able to speak before it was too late and managed to talk him out of killing him. He promised to do whatever Devlin wanted to keep him alive, to which Devlin agreed, thus sealing something like a pact with the devil.

Thus began the true nightmare for the little boy of only 13 years of age. Only his iron will to live allowed her to carry on, enduring all kinds of abuse during the years that his torture lasted. His fear of angering Devlin was so palpable that Devlin himself was rightly convinced that the boy would not try to run, so he gave him considerable liberties, unheard of for a hostage. Also, Devlin was counting on the fact that Shawn didn’t know the town of Kirkwood, where they were, being from a small town outside of St. Louis, so he wouldn’t know where to go if he were to escape.

shawn the hero

The last manipulative bad move that Devlin played on Shawn was to force him to participate in the kidnapping of little Ben. Devlin convinced him that even if he wouldn’t lift a finger to help him kidnap his new victim, just being in the truck made him an accomplice, so he couldn’t go to the authorities for help without him. they will also charge him with kidnapping.

With no choice but to watch, Shawn watched helplessly as Michael Devlin selected and kidnapped his newest victim. Back at the apartment, however, Shawn dedicated himself to protecting Ben from Devlin so the little stranger wouldn’t have to put up with the misery he’d been enduring for years. Every time Devlin pretended to abuse the little boy or threatened to kill him, Shawn stood up to take the abuse himself instead.

Everyone agrees that Shawn, who didn’t have the courage to risk his own life to escape his captor, was a true hero in risking Ben’s life. Fortunately, Ben’s ordeal did not last as long as Shawn’s, and the perpetrator was caught before he could harm any more innocent children.

devlin sentenced

Michael J. Devlin pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and rape of Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownsby. In his statement he described the horrors he put little Shawn through, and how in his opinion Shanw, already 15 years old, was getting too old for him, which is why he decided to kidnap Ben.

For his crimes, Devlin was sentenced to 74 life sentences, two of them for the two kidnappings and 72 in total for charges of forcible sodomy on a minor and other crimes committed against both children. These life sentences would total 1,850 years, but he was later sentenced to a minimum of 170 years in federal prison on child pornography charges, bringing the total to 2,020, for which he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

He was incarcerated at the Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri, on January 30, 2008, a year after he was arrested. In 2011 he was attacked and stabbed multiple times by another inmate, who confessed to doing so out of anger and contempt he felt for Devlin’s crimes. Despite the fact that the prison directors wanted to remove Devlin from the state and even change his name for his safety, the relatives of the victims opposed it and he is still in Crossroads today, already at 56 years of age.

Shawn Hornbeck in the present

It would seem impossible to think of leading a normal life after living the horrible experiences that Shawn Hornbeck had to endure when he was just a child. However, showing impressive resilience, Shawn pushed on. Today, Shawn is happily married and a father. Just three days before his 28th birthday in 2019, Shaw’s stepfather, Craig Akers, died of bladder cancer. Shawn remembers her as his real father and will never forget how Craig never gave up looking for him or allowed his mother to.

References

Bet team. (2021, December 1). A boy vanishes without a trace, but 4 years later the police find him and another boy . Bet. https://www.apost.com/es/blog/a-child-vanishes-without-leaving-a-trace-but-4-years-after-the-police-finds-him-along-another- boy/39105/

Byers, C. (2007, October 9). Craig Akers dies 12 years after his missing son, Shawn Hornbeck, was rescued . St.Louis Post Dispatch. https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/craig-akers-dies-12-years-after-his-missing-son-shawn-hornbeck-was-rescued/article_e9b6fdf5-da6b- 5944-9aee-d52f8e8d7b04.html

Crime Museum, LLC. (2021, August 17). Shawn Hornbeck . Crime Museum. https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/kidnappings/shawn-hornbeck/

Frankel, T. (2011, May 11). Michael Devlin stabbed in prison with “ice pick” . St.Louis Post Dispatch. https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/michael-devlin-stabbed-in-prison-with-ice-pick/article_760735f6-7b7b-11e0-b48f-001a4bcf6878.html

Rhodes, C. (2021, January 12). “Missouri Miracle”: Today Marks 14 Years Since Shawn Hornbeck And Ben Ownby Founded . River Bender. https://www.riverbender.com/articles/details/today-marks-14-years-since-shawn-hornbeck-and-ben-ownby-was-found-46988.cfm

Shawn Hornbeck kidnapping: why he didn’t escape his captor . (2019, September 21). Science of Today. https://cienciadehoy.com/secuestro-de-shawn-hornbeck-por-que-no-escapo-de-su-captor/ Shawn Hornbeck Kidnapping . (2021). LesKanaris. https://us.leskanaris.com/6604-shawn-hornbeck-kidnapping-why-he-didnt-run-away-from.html