Missing Missouri boys found alive

**BadlandsVikings** · 01-12-2007, 06:34 PM

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- 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.

William Ben Ownby, 13, had been missing since Monday. He was last seen after getting off his school bus in Franklin County, near St. Louis.

Thursday night, two police officers in suburban Kirkwood went to a residence at the apartment complex to serve a warrant, Toelke told reporters. While there, they noticed a rusty Nissan pickup truck that matched the description of that sought in the Ownby case and took photos of it.

"That resulted in the recovery," Toelke said.

Michael J. Devlin, 41, was arrested and has been charged with one count of first-degree kidnapping, said Franklin County Prosecutor Robert Parks. Devlin was being held on $1 million bail, he said, and more charges are likely.

Only one count of kidnapping was filed, Parks said, because authorities did not immediately have more information.

Hornbeck identified himself to officers, Toelke said.

"Both boys appear to be OK at this point," although they would be checked, he said.

Video footage taken at the Franklin County Sheriff's Office showed both boys exiting a vehicle. Ownby's relatives met him at the sheriff's office, and police were notifying Hornbeck's family, Toelke said.

Authorities divulged few details regarding the recovery or the criminal case.

"There's a lot of things that we don't know right now," Toelke said.

But he called the recoveries a "complete surprise. ... To have two endings like this is just unbelievable."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/01/12/missing.boys/index.html