NEW YORK – The man accused of kidnapping two Missouri boys and holding one of them for four years said life was good for him during that period, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Michael Devlin, 41, said his own parents, who live nearby, have not visited him since his arrest earlier this month, The New York Post reported.
“I don’t know how I’m going to explain myself to my parents,” Devlin said from the Franklin County Jail in Union, Mo., in his first public comments since his arrest, aside from a brief court appearance.
“It’s much easier talking to a stranger about these things than your own parents.”
The 41-year-old pizzeria manager is accused of taking 13-year-old Ben Ownby just after the boy got off a school bus Jan. 8 in Beaufort, Mo., about 50 miles southwest of St. Louis. A schoolmate’s tip about a white pickup led authorities to Devlin’s apartment in Kirkwood, Mo., a St. Louis suburb, where they found Ben and Shawn Hornbeck on Jan. 12.
Shawn had been missing since 2002.
“I guess I was relatively happy” during those four years, Devlin said.
Devlin pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of kidnapping Ben. He also is charged with kidnapping Shawn but has not entered a plea in that case.
“I will not discuss anything related to the case,” he said.
Devlin said he “was never really interested in” romantic relationships but wouldn’t say whether he was attracted to women.
“I can’t talk about that because it has to do with the case,” he said.
The Post said Devlin appeared downcast and red-eyed during the first interview Friday, but was smiling and more upbeat during an interview Saturday.
“I feel nothing,” he said in the first interview. “I hide my emotions from other people. I hide the way I feel.”
Around 2002, he started losing contact with close friends, most of whom he knew from Imo’s, the pizza parlor he managed in Kirkwood.
“I guess you could say I was lonely. All my friends starting getting married and having kids,” he said. “Hanging out with friends just becomes a lower priority (for them).”
Devlin is separated in jail from other inmates because his lawyers and guards believe other prisoners could attack him.
“I’m not worried. It’s inevitable. I will eventually have to deal with it,” he said, “I haven’t exactly done a great job of representing myself so far.”
Devlin’s attorneys said they planned to ask a judge today to move Devlin to a “more secure” facility, perhaps in nearby St. Charles or St. Louis counties. The lawyers claimed the reporter who got in to see Devlin presented herself as a “family friend” to jail officials, not as a reporter.
Franklin County officials have said they believe appropriate security measures are being taken.
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