William “Ben” Ownby found alive
Posted
January 12, 2007 at
7:14 pm by
Prescott
I’ll admit that I’m quite the pessimist and did not anticipate a good outcome when Ben Ownby was abducted several days ago. And now it’s being reported that not only did this story have the happy ending of him being found alive, but also the amazing news that they also found Shawn Damian Hornbeck, a boy that was last seen over four years ago. Holy Deep End of the Ocean! From CNN.com:
Two missing St. Louis-area boys, one of them missing since 2002, were found alive in a Kirkwood, Missouri, apartment, and a suspect was arrested, Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said Friday.
Shawn Damian Hornbeck, 15, of Richwoods, Missouri, was last seen riding his bike to a friend’s house in October 2002. Richwoods is about 60 miles south of St. Louis.
The man found with the boys, Michael J. Devlin, 41, was arrested and charged with only one count of kidnapping, but certainly charges regarding Shawn’s abduction are to follow shortly.
I can’t even imagine the emotion that their families — especially the Hornbecks — must be experiencing right now. I wish them all the best, and in this instance am extremely glad my “half-empty” view of life was completely wrong.
Tags: abduction, Ben-Ownby, michael-devlin, News-&-Politics, shawn-damian-hornbeck |
6 Responses to “William “Ben” Ownby found alive”
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1. Bizimama said:
January 13, 2007 @ 6:59 am
It’s so nice to read about positive news, thanks for the update
Bizimama
http://www.bizimama.com
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2. Jessica said:
January 13, 2007 @ 8:38 am
Holy Shit! That is soooooo “Deep End of the Ocean”. And I remember saying to people how that book/movie could never happen!
What a freaky and yet, touching and beautiful story.
I am so worried about Shawn though. Imagine what he has been through over the last 4 years, with a convicted child molester. It’s unthinkable!
3. anthromomma said:
January 13, 2007 @ 7:25 pm
This is such big news here– I only live maybe 10 miles from where they found the boys.
I can’t imagine what Shawn has gone through– I worry for his mental health. Apparently, people in that apartment complex had been hearing horrible screams for years now, but no one could ever pinpoint the apartment that they were coming from. That makes me want to vomit.
4. Snuffles said:
January 13, 2007 @ 10:49 pm
Thank god they found these boys! My heart goes out to them and their families. It’s sad to say but I’m sure it’s going to come out that this pervert was looking for a younger boy because Shawn was growing up too much for his liking.
We had a similar, but much more gruesome case about a year and a half ago close to where I live. A pervert, Joeseph Duncan (who had already spent 17 years in a WA state prison for molesting a young boy), came from Minnesota, stole a SUV in Missourie where he’s accused of molesting 2 young boys, drove to Idaho and saw 2 kids playing in a kiddie pool from the freeway. He got off at the next exit and actually staked out the house these kids lived at for three days. On the third night, wearing night-vision goggles, he entered the home and killed the mother, step-father and the thirteen year old son, and kidnapped the young boy (9) and the young girl (8). He then fled to Montana and kept the kids in a remote campsite while doing unspeakable things to them. He eventually burned the young boy alive while he made the sister watch. Amazingly, he went BACK TO THE AREA SHE LIVED IN and took her to a Denny’s one night at 1 am. The server reognized the girl and that’s how they caught him. (Some of you might have seen this story covered on Dateline.) It’s so sick and twisted, I honestly couldn’t make this stuff up!
5. Jessica said:
January 14, 2007 @ 8:15 am
Snuffles, why in the hell was this guy free??!!!?? I just don’t get it. I don’t understand why the ACLU and their cohorts defend these people, so flippantly, rationalizing it as if they’re just having a bad day or something. Our society does not do it’s job in protecting our children. People ought to be ashamed of the jaded disrespect of the most innocent in our society.
6. Snuffles said:
January 14, 2007 @ 11:52 am
Well, as I mentioned, he had just done 17 years for raping a young boy at knife point, so “technically” he had paid his debt to society. When he was released from prison, he moved to Minnesota and there are allegations of molestion there connected to Duncan, and when he stole the SUV, there’s allegations AGAIN, that he molested 2 young boys. Since his arrest, they had found a blog he had on the comp and it was honestly HORRIFYING! He was talking about all these things he had done to kids and how “the voices and demons” made him do what he did. The stuff he posted on the internet is NOTHING compared to what he has written in code on a blog he never posted. In there, he links himself with the death of 2 young girls in WA state that he killed after being released and another 2 boys in CA AND others prior to his incarceration. Our county declined to pursue the death penalty right now, so we’ve got him in prison for life. If the FEDS don’t go after him for the death penalty for crossing state lines in a felony kidnapping/murder, then ID will go back and seek the death penalty.
He did REALLY horrible things to this family. I’ve kept many of the details out because it truly is SO horrible, but the little girl will have to wear a colostomy bag the rest of her life because of him and will live with the memories of listening to her family being murdered and watching her brother burn to death. And agian, that is just the TIP of this iceburg!
I agree with you Jess, these people are MONSTERS in every sense of the word! Unspeakable acts are committed against children EVERY DAY in this country and many times people are just too absorbed in thier own lives to see what’s going on right next door, like the Ownby/Hornbeck case.
Back in the 80’s, a boy was abducted and they went on to make a movie about it and called it “I Know My First Name Is Steven”. It was about a boy who was abducted who was VERY young at the time and as he grew up with this pervert, all he could remember was that his name was Steven. His story is so incredible, Hollywood didn’t have to improvise at all. This pervert kept Steven for YEARS but when he started getting too old, he wanted Steven to help him kidnap another young boy. Once they did, and had the boy in possession, Steven realised that the pervert was going to do to the kid what he had been doing to him and he helped the kid escape. The boys were returned to their families and a fairy tale ending ensues for all, right? Well, not really. Do you remember a few years back (within the last 5 years) there was a few killing up in Yellowstone National Park? Some girls from CA? Well, it turns out that the guy who killed them was none other than STEVEN’S BROTHER! It turns out that once the family got Steven back, they doted on him to the exception of all others and it messed this guy up. (NO! I’m not saying he’s blameless!) What I am saying is that there are far reaching concequences to these things that we won’t even see/realise until many years down the road.