BEAUFORT, Mo. – A 13-year-old boy who vanished from the gravel road near his home five days ago was found alive Friday about 60 miles away in a suburban St. Louis home, along with a 15-year-old boy missing since 2002, authorities said.
The boys were found in a Kirkwood home belonging to Michael Devlin, 41, who has been charged with one count of first-degree kidnapping, Sheriff Gary Toelke said.
The sheriff said both boys appeared unharmed. William Ownby, who goes by Ben, appeared somewhat dazed as he walked inside the sheriff’s department, where he was reunited with his family Friday night.
“His eyes lit up like silver dollars,” said Loyd Bailie, who was escorted to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department with Ben’s parents. Everyone broke into tears and Ben’s parents embraced him as tightly as they could, Bailie said.
The straight-A student and Boy Scout was last seen after he stepped off his school bus and ran toward his Beaufort home down a gravel road on Monday.
A friend who left the bus with the boy told authorities that after the two parted, he saw a small white pickup with a camper shell speeding away from where Ben had been walking.
Searchers on foot, horseback and all-terrain vehicles looked for Ben in the hilly area about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.
Toelke said the break in the case came Thursday night. Kirkwood city police officers were serving a warrant on an apartment complex when they noticed a white truck matching the description of a vehicle authorities had been searching for in the Ownby investigation.
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 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.
His parents have devoted themselves to bringing missing people home since Hornbeck vanished from his hometown 65 miles southwest of St. Louis.
His parents, dozens of volunteers and sniffer dogs searched for weeks. The couple set up a Web site and listened to anyone who offered a tip.
Craig Akers, Shawn’s stepfather, quit his job as a software designer to devote his time to a foundation bearing his son’s name. They depleted their savings, borrowed against their retirement and talked to psychics. The financial strain forced both of them back to work.
A retired police officer volunteered to work on the case until Shawn was found.
Even though so much time had passed, Pam Akers said her son is frozen in her memory as an 11-year-old boy.
“It’s been four years,” she said on the anniversary of his disappearance last fall. “But for me, it’s just been one long continuous day.”
Toelke said authorities were still investigating the motive behind the abductions. Franklin County Prosecutor Robert Parks said more charges are likely to be filed.
“There are a lot of things we don’t know right now,” Toelke said.
Neighbor Rick Butler, 43, said the FBI came to his door Thursday night and showed a picture of Ben, asking if he had seen him. He said he had not. But he had seen a boy he now believes was Hornbeck.
He said he saw no evidence that the boy now believed to be Hornbeck was scared or trying to get away. He had seen Devlin and the teen pitch a tent in the courtyard.
“I didn’t see or hear anything odd or unusual from the apartment,” Butler said. “I just figured them for father and son.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
