Is nobody safe anymore?
Posted
January 9, 2007 at
7:43 pm by
Jessica
You would think a middle schooler could ride a school bus to and from school without worry of being abducted. One might think that a 13-year-old boy can surely run away, use clever tactics and fight off an offender and scream his way out of a scary situation, right? For Ben Ownby, the fear must have overtaken him in the small town in Missouri where he vanished, perhaps he was just too naive for his own good, or I’m just plain wrong about my assumptions. Whatever the reason, let this add yet another burden of worry to the tremendous amount of anxiety and fear I already feel on a day-to-day basis. Frozen concern is something that comes naturally to me as it is, but you hear about a young tween being randomly taken and it’s enough to make you grab your chest.
Perhaps details will surface that will suggest that this isn’t what it seems to be after all — an angry relative or a revengeful parent took the boy and he is now watching Yu-Gi-Oh GX, stuffing his face with Pez candies and getting out of homework — I hate to think of the alternative. If not, I have a sinking feeling this isn’t going to turn out well. Not well at all.
From myfoxdc.com:
Boy, 13, Missing And Feared Kidnapped
By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD
Associated Press WriterBEAUFORT, Mo. — The search resumed Tuesday for a 13-year-old boy feared abducted after getting off a school bus near his rural eastern Missouri home.
William “Ben” Ownby was last seen around 4:15 p.m. Monday near Missouri Route 50 in Beaufort, an unincorporated town about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis. An Amber alert was issued Tuesday as the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the FBI were joined by dozens of volunteers in the search.Ben and a friend got off the bus after attending middle school in nearby Union, then separated. Ben’s friend told authorities he looked back minutes later to see a white pickup truck with a camper shell in an apparent hurry, backing into a ditch briefly before speeding away.
Ben’s father, William Ownby, said the abduction came “out of the blue,” and he couldn’t imagine why anyone would be motivated to take his son.
Ownby described Ben as a straight-A student, a Boy Scout who loves to play computer games. He said the boy was dropped off every day at the same bus stop, about 500 feet from their home in a wooded neighborhood.
Picture of William (Ben) Ownby, age 13, abducted off the school bus
Tags: abducted, amber-alert, Beaufort, Ben-Ownby, Missouri, News-&-Politics, William-Ownby |
17 Responses to “Is nobody safe anymore?”
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1. Sara said:
January 11, 2007 @ 4:01 pm
FYI - Doesn’t matter how old you are for someone to take you. A 13 year old boy possibly being told a lie for him to get in, a person twice his size to grab him and not to mention the boy lives in the middle of no where. Who’s to say he tried to scream and kick for his life. We don’t know because no one saw it happen. People will do anything. But for the parents sake, pray for them and this child for his safety, or pray to be thankful your child is still safe and sound with you.
2. Jessica said:
January 11, 2007 @ 6:35 pm
Amen to that.
It’s just so incredibly sad. It makes me ill.
3. Christy said:
January 11, 2007 @ 11:37 pm
HOW?? Our most innocent!! Our LEAST expected!!! Our “babies” Our children, HOW????
This has GOT TO STOP!!
Several years ago, I was told by the transportation department of our local school district, which justified why they could not make more frequent stops in order to pick up my five year old daughter closer to home because they did not want to wear out the school bus brakes. I was forced to stay close to home, outside of my daughter’s bus stop’s view to care for my infant son………….because they (as stated) could not over use the bus’s brakes.
Today, my son, now 15 years old (very close to the age of Ben Ownby), and walks three blocks to, and from, his bus stop. So that EVERY teacher of his school district can have FULL, 24/7, usage of a school financed laptops.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY??
4. Chris said:
January 12, 2007 @ 8:01 am
[quote comment="60298"]HOW?? Our most innocent!! Our LEAST expected!!! Our “babies” Our children, HOW????
This has GOT TO STOP!!
Several years ago, I was told by the transportation department of our local school district, which justified why they could not make more frequent stops in order to pick up my five year old daughter closer to home because they did not want to wear out the school bus brakes. I was forced to stay close to home, outside of my daughter’s bus stop’s view to care for my infant son………….because they (as stated) could not over use the bus’s brakes.
Today, my son, now 15 years old (very close to the age of Ben Ownby), and walks three blocks to, and from, his bus stop. So that EVERY teacher of his school district can have FULL, 24/7, usage of a school financed laptops.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY??[/quote]
The school buses dont come into my neighborhood because there is not enough kids or they dont feel like turning around…I find it hard to believe we pay for the bus service and we still have to drive our children to school because we dont want them waiting outside in the wee hours on a busy road…nevermind abduction…how about my child getting run over? Parents need to take a stand…lets get these buses coming in front of our houses, lets make sure our children are safe and in our sights.
5. Dario said:
January 12, 2007 @ 8:56 am
God, I am heartbroken. This boy is about the same age as my boys and is the spitting image of one of them. My heart aches for what his parents must be going through. You can see how full of life this boy is — how much promise he showed. How unspeakably awful. Unbearably tragic. :^(
6. Sara said:
January 12, 2007 @ 2:25 pm
I was going to let my son ride the school bus home but not anymore. I’m a stay at home mom who works from home. And here I was being selfish not wanting to stop working the middle of the afternoon to get my kid. I will sacrifice my time to ensure that my children are safe and sound with me in our home. No amount of money or time can replace our children.
The Ownby’s were on tv last night, and the father was asked what kind of emotions he was feeling…..ah let me see…Shock, emotional distress, sleepness, worried…come on reporters THINK how you would feel. The area is swarming with FBI agents, police, etc. If they would have issued the amber alert earlier would he have been found? A white truck… where is it? Locally? In Texas, New York? Ben could be anywhere, please take a moment to check your neighborhood, you never know, Ben could be nearby. Any type of help for this family would be greatly appreciated especially if it were my child and I knew not just the law enforcement but also the entire natiion was out trying to search for him.
7. kate said:
January 12, 2007 @ 5:24 pm
“People will do anything. ”
No not people - MEN will do anything - coachs, scoutleaders, teachers, clergy, priests, fathers, stepfathers, brothers, boyfriends, husbands, uncles, grandfathers etctetcetc - when a child/teen/woman is abducted/raped/molested/preyed on/stalked/murdered/ the BOTTOM LINE is that ninety nine point nine ninenineninenineninenineninenineninenineninenine times out of a hundred the perp is a MAN. so i ask the question, what the F**K is wrong with MEN? Don’t agree? Start tallying the news stories about every abduction/rape/murder/molestation and sexual abuse case you can find, go back months, years, through HISTORY if you want to/ what’s the bottom line? Who does these abominations? Yup that’s right - MEN. And it’s don’t comfort yourself with the thought that it’s just some perv in the alley - watch those email chat stings on TV sometime - these are your pastor, your rabbi, your boss, your co-worker, your brother your son your father (one guy had daughters the same age as the 12 year old he wanted to f**k) your kid’s teacher their coach YOUR HUSBAND for chrissakes chatting with young girls (12-16) on line and then travelling with gifts viagra and condoms to have sex with them!
CHRIST ALMIGHTY! If the person who took this kid is anything but a man i’ll eat my own shorts. Think it’s time men and society need to start asking themselves very hard and very uncomfortable probing questions.
8. kate said:
January 12, 2007 @ 5:28 pm
P.S. just for the record - i don’t hate men - indeed i live with one who couldn’t hurt anything else if it bit him, and i love him to death. But it took a long time to find a man as gentle and kind as he. i know they are out there but i think he is the exception rather than the testoterone poisoned norm
9. Prescott said:
January 12, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
Wow, Kate, congratulations, you apparently found one of the only good men out there. And I’m thoroughly convinced — you don’t hate men AT ALL… do you have a bad back from carrying all that baggage?
The BOTTOM LINE is that the men that commit these atrocities are still a very tiny portion of the overall male population. But I will concede that it *is* mostly men that abduct neighborhood kids off the street — women prefer to just kill their own.
10. Dario said:
January 12, 2007 @ 6:29 pm
>>i know they are out there but i think he is the exception rather than the testoterone poisoned norm
11. kate said:
January 12, 2007 @ 6:51 pm
all i have to say is look at the stats - they speak for themselves! oh ya and they always throw that old ‘mothers killing kids’ thing into mix - sorry - find a different argument - the numbers of women who kill their kids vs the numbers of MEN who do the sorts of things i pointed out - well actually there is no comparison - again i say the numbers are staggering and they speak for themselves.
i rest my case.
12. kate said:
January 12, 2007 @ 6:56 pm
p.s.
WOW! - whaddaya’ know - they just found the kid (and another abducted kid) alive and they picked up - yup - you guessed it!!!
a MAN for the abductions - guess i don’t have to eat my own shorts this time either!
13. Sara said:
January 12, 2007 @ 6:56 pm
UPDATE ON BEN…..THEY FOUND BEN!!!! IN KIRKWOOD MO, AND SHAWN HORNBECK WHO WAS KIDNAPPED 4 YEARS AGO!! THEY ARE BOTH ALIVE!!! AND ARE BEING REUNITED WITH THEIR FAMILIES RIGHT NOW. YEA!!!!!
THANK GOD FOR ANSWERING EVERYONE’S PRAYERS.
14. prescott said:
January 12, 2007 @ 7:26 pm
[quote comment="60356"]all i have to say is look at the stats - they speak for themselves! oh ya and they always throw that old ‘mothers killing kids’ thing into mix - sorry - find a different argument - the numbers of women who kill their kids vs the numbers of MEN who do the sorts of things i pointed out - well actually there is no comparison - again i say the numbers are staggering and they speak for themselves.
i rest my case.[/quote]
The numbers also say that women are the majority of child abuse perpetrators. I think it’s time women and society need to start asking themselves very hard and very uncomfortable probing questions.
15. prescott said:
January 12, 2007 @ 7:29 pm
[quote comment="60358"]THANK GOD FOR ANSWERING EVERYONE’S PRAYERS.[/quote]
This is probably going to sound pretty crass, but since the story had a happy ending I’m going to say it anyway…
This is an incredible pet peeve of mine — where was god when these kids were abducted? Why did he wait 4 years to answer the other child’s parents prayers? I propose that we, instead, thank the police and detectives that were on the ball in this instance and tracked Ben Ownby down.
16. Response to Kate said:
January 12, 2007 @ 7:59 pm
So long have you and your butch dyke been together?
17. Sara said:
January 12, 2007 @ 8:51 pm
I can’t explain why God answers some prayers and not others. We make our own decisions, a right God gave us. It’s up to us to make the right choices when presented in front of us. God has a plan for each and everyone of us. At times, God presents challenges for us that we may not always agree with. But there is a reason. I have found from past experiences with God that I was angry at him, upset, didn’t understand why, but in the end it brought me closer to him and I’m thankful for that. Each and everyone of us has our own beliefs. Please don’t knock us. It’s our right to how we believe. And yes, I agree, I am thankful for law enforcement and the community. Living close to this event, our community has become closer.