File reveals missed chances in Devlin case

ST. LOUIS -- Three months before Shawn Hornbeck was rescued by police from Michael Devlin's home, an adult asked Shawn if he was the kidnapped boy in the missing-persons poster plastered throughout the community.

Shawn, then 15, was in a car driven by a friend's mother, briefly away from his abductor. She asked half-jokingly, "Is that your real dad or were you taken?"

Shawn, initially dumbfounded, told her Devlin was his real father, and the matter was dropped.

It was one of several near-misses cataloged by Kirkwood police in documents released to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The reports provide new details and insights into the ordeal suffered by Shawn, now 16, and a second kidnapping victim, William "Ben" Ownby, 13.

Both were rescued from Devlin's apartment in Kirkwood, a St. Louis suburb, on Jan. 12. Shawn had been gone for four years, Ben for four days.

Devlin, 41, pleaded guilty last week in four jurisdictions to assorted charges of kidnapping, sexual assault, attempted murder and child pornography, and was sentenced to multiple life terms.

The Kirkwood documents include interviews with dozens of people, including neighbors, co-workers, relatives and the two young victims themselves. Among the revelations:

• A St. Louis man says he was Devlin's boyfriend in 2000, and that Devlin bragged of a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old boy in Michigan that same year. Police said another man confirmed the adult relationship and overheard the comment about a purported incident with a boy.

But investigators found no outside evidence to support the claims, which appear to contradict Devlin's statement to the FBI after his arrest: that he never had any adult male lovers and that kidnapping Shawn was his first crime. The FBI has said it has found no evidence of other victims.

Devlin's attorney, Michael Kielty, said the claim that his client had a boyfriend or other lovers is "one of many false reports."

• Devlin told Shawn that he was "the first," and Shawn told police he never saw any evidence in the apartment that other boys had been kidnapped before him.
• Three months after being kidnapped in October 2002, Shawn was left alone while Devlin was in the hospital, having toes amputated due to diabetes. Shawn told police Devlin left money to order pizza and called to check on him.
• James Devlin, Devlin's father, told police he saw his son with a boy at a store more than two years ago. He told police he asked his son about the boy and his son said he was baby-sitting a neighbor. The elder Devlin said he did not think any more of it.
• Shawn's girlfriend told police he had been "acting odd" the week in January when Ben was kidnapped in Franklin County.

She said two days after Ben's abduction Jan. 8, Shawn came to her house appearing upset.

• Shawn said Devlin commented about 30 times over four years that Devlin wanted to "do things with another kid." He talked to Shawn about "getting another boy" about a month or two before Ben was kidnapped.
• The day Ben was kidnapped, Devlin told him that he previously tried to kidnap another kid, but a "dog barked." Devlin also told Ben that Shawn was a "kidnapped kid, too."
• Ben told police he was home alone with Shawn every day he was held, with Devlin at work and the boys spending time talking about and playing video games.
• Shawn told police one reason he did not try to flee was that he was afraid Devlin would "mess with my family."
• Devlin provided Shawn with a library card and passes to the city parks and pool.
• Shawn often told curious friends that his mother had died in a car accident when he was young.
• A couple of days before Christmas 2006, an off-duty Kirkwood police officer recognized Devlin from the pizzeria where he worked; they smiled and waved at each other. The officer noticed a boy with Devlin but gave it no thought.
• A former co-worker said that whenever news coverage came over the restaurant TV about a child abuse or kidnapping, Devlin would make comments like abusers were "scum of the earth."