Family, friends won't give up search for missing 11-year-old

RICHWOODS, Mo. -- The dense woods of rural Richwoods have taken on the red-orange and yellow hues of autumn. And with it has come a tinge of despair for Shawn Hornbeck's parents, Pam and Craig Akers.

Since Shawn's disappearance more than three weeks ago, the wooded hills, abandoned strip mines, farm ponds and open fields of this area have failed to yield any trace of Shawn or his bicycle. The volunteer searchers, numbering more than 200 in first few days after Shawn disappeared, dwindled to about 30 this past weekend.

"If he was just hurt or lost out there, I believe we would have found him by now," says Pam Akers, adding that she still believes her son is alive.

It's an awkward sort of optimism.

If Shawn isn't hurt or lost, she theorizes, then he must have been taken. And if he has been taken, then he can be returned.

"Some people say I'm in denial but, as a mother, I don't have a bad feeling yet," Akers says. "I guess it's probably because, as a mother, I'm so hopeful that we're going to find him and bring him home. In my heart and in my gut, I know somebody out there knows something, and eventually, they're going to have to say something. If they've got any heart or conscience at all, they're going to have to say something."

Police disbanded a command post in Richwoods more than a week ago. But Akers says her family will continue searching, for as long as it takes, or as long as they can.

A photograph of Shawn is staked near the road in Pam and Craig Akers' front yard. His smiling face greets visitors beneath a single word: Missing.

In the weeks since Shawn disappeared, the sign has become a sort of shrine. There's a toy truck beneath the sign, beside some flowers and a red teddy bear.

When Shawn disappeared, it was his friend Patrick Reeves, also 11, who received the first phone call. Authorities used his team jersey to show searchers what Shawn had been wearing -- the two had been baseball teammates.

But Patrick hadn't seen Shawn that day and didn't know where to tell his parents to look. Shawn didn't have any secret hiding spots, he said.

Patrick, too, hopes that Shawn has been abducted. At least then, he says, he'd be in a house and warm.

"I really wouldn't want him in the woods because of how cold it's been getting," Patrick says. "I've got a feeling he's all right. One day he'll ride his bike to his mom's and come in and say, 'I'm home.' That's what I predict will happen."

Patrick's father, Tim Reeves, said his son truly believes Shawn will return home.

"If and when the reality hits, I don't know how he's going to handle it," Tim Reeves said. "I just hope it gets over soon. It's got everybody on edge because you don't know. Is there somebody out there?"

Shawn's desk in Donna Miley's fifth-grade classroom at Richwoods elementary school has been decorated with a yellow ribbon and notes from his classmates. They talk about missing him and worrying about him.

Shawn's sisters, Jackie Friday, 17, and Jenny Friday, 16, went back to class at Potosi High School last week.

They didn't want to, but Pam Akers says she knows they have to move on.

"We'll never be back to normal as a family," she said, "but we have to start."

Shawn's dad, Craig Akers, has taken an indefinite leave from work while he continues to search for Shawn.

Shawn was a little over a year old when Craig and Pam Akers met. When Craig and Pam were married three years ago, it was Shawn who gave his mother away.

Shawn wanted to be a computer programmer like Craig and told him he planned to take over his job one day so Craig could stay home.

"He had it all planned out," Craig said. "He didn't want his dad to have to work so hard."