Investigation of missing boy considers abduction option

RICHWOODS, Mo. -- Federal, Missouri and local authorities focused on an 11-year-old boy's disappearance as a possible abduction Thursday as the fifth-grader's family pressed on with volunteers in trying to find the child missing since last weekend.

"Because there are no clues uncovered, that's the primary reason we are searching" for Shawn Hornbeck, said Craig Akers, the father of the boy last scene on his bike Sunday headed for a friend's house in this former eastern Missouri mining town south of St. Louis.

"We feel someone doesn't vanish off the face of the earth without leaving some sort of a clue."

Hours after the FBI and Missouri State Highway Patrol set up a high-tech command post outside this community's fire station, the FBI's Mike McComas said investigators continued ferreting out leads in trying to pinpoint what happened to the boy.

"We're confident in reaching a solution. We always are optimistic," McComas said as the investigation's thrust turned to a criminal probe that as of Thursday produced no suspects or arrests.

On Wednesday night, Washington County sheriff's deputy Jim Nichols first disclosed that authorities were considering the case a possible abduction, given fruitless searches of the rugged, thorny and densely wooded terrain of this area marked by abandoned mines.

Searched for three days

"We've searched for three days and checked everything at least three times. We've covered every piece of ground within a 20-mile radius, and we've found absolutely nothing. No sign, no anything," Nichols said. "Even if he has been abducted, we're hoping he's still alive. We're going to say that he is until we find reason to believe that he's not."

McComas didn't discuss the abduction scenario Thursday, beyond saying that "of course it's a criminal investigation."

"A child is missing, and that's all that matters," he told reporters during an afternoon briefing.

Undaunted and still optimistic about perhaps finding Shawn safe, the boy's family and volunteers continued searching in teams by horse, foot and all-terrain vehicles, having set up their own command center -- complete with aerial maps, computers and radios -- in a church next to the firehouse.

As skies turned cloudy Thursday, Shawn's father remained buoyed by hope.

"It's a race against the clock at this point," he said.