Many leads, but 13-year-old Mo. boy still missing

BEAUFORT, Mo. (AP) -- Authorities on Wednesday were pursuing more than 220 leads as in their effort to find 13-year-old Ben Ownby, two days after the boy disappeared and was feared abducted after getting of a school bus near his rural eastern Missouri home.

A white pickup truck seen speeding away from near Ben's house is the focus of the investigation, and reported sightings of similar trucks have been pouring into the Franklin County Sheriff's Department.

"There are a lot of white trucks running around. We've been getting a lot of calls," said Sheriff Gary Toelke. His department is conducting the investigation along with the FBI and Missouri Highway Patrol.

Ben's father, William Ownby, said the strain increases longer his son is gone.

"We'd like to get our son back," Ownby said. He asked anyone who might be holding the boy to do the right thing.

"Drop him off somewhere where he can make a phone call," Ownby said.

For hours before Ben turned up missing Monday afternoon, a neighbor saw a beat-up white pickup cruising his rural neighborhood, Ownby said. Police are investigating that lead.

A schoolmate saw what was possibly that same truck speeding away about the time Ben disappeared, near U.S. 50 in Beaufort, an unincorporated town about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Two FBI profilers arrived in Franklin County to compile a sketch of what the kidnapper could look like. Toelke said the profile would be shared with the public.

An extensive search of the rugged, hilly area around the Ownby home turned up no clues.

FBI Special Agent Roland Corvington said stranger abductions are extremely rare, so it's likely Ben met his abductor before.

Loyd Bailie, Ben's uncle, said the family has scrambled to think of anyone suspicious that Ben might have met. They have given police a list of names to investigate.

William Ownby said he is convinced his son was taken by "some stranger in the area."

Toelke said investigators are looking at a list of registered sex offenders in the region. Police also blocked off U.S. 50 Tuesday and questioned all passing motorists.

"I think (the road block) revealed a few individuals we were interested in, or became interested in," Toelke said.

Ownby said his son is a computer enthusiast who played computer games every day after school. Police took the family's computer Monday night and scoured the hard drive to see if there was evidence that Ben met someone on the Internet who may have abducted him.

Both Ownby and Toelke said a search of the computer turned up no evidence of an Internet stalker. They said Ben rarely went online.

Ben was a described as a model student and Boy Scout who loved to read. Bailie said it would be out of character for Ben to run away or take a ride from a stranger.

Toelke said Ben was last seen by a fellow student after the two boys got off the bus after attending middle school in nearby Union.

The boys separated, and Ben's friend told authorities he looked back minutes later to see a white pickup truck with a camper shell in an apparent hurry, backing into a ditch briefly before speeding away.

Toelke asked that residents in the region keep an eye out for the white pickup. It had the word "Nissan" written in black letters on the back, but authorities weren't certain it was a Nissan.

Toelke said the pickup had dents and rust and lacked hubcaps. The camper shell had one continuous window along the sides, with what appeared to be a ladder rack on top.

Ben is white, 4-foot-10 and weighs about 100 pounds. He was last seen wearing a hooded St. Louis Rams windbreaker and blue jeans.

Memories are still fresh in surrounding Franklin County of another high-profile kidnapping less than four months ago.

Police say Lonedell resident Shannon Torrez allegedly slashed the throat of her neighbor and stole her infant child Abigale Woods, or "Baby Abby" as she became known in the five days she was missing.

Woods was recovered after Torrez's sister-in-law contacted police. The child is back home with her parents while Torrez is jailed awaiting trial.