Many leads in kidnapping case, but 13-year-old boy still missing

BEAUFORT, Mo. -- With every passing moment, the wait becomes more frantic for the family of a missing 13-year-old.

Ben Ownby, a straight-A student and Boy Scout, disappeared Monday afternoon, soon after the bus from his middle school dropped him off 500 feet from his rural eastern Missouri home.

More than 200 leads poured in by Wednesday, and the FBI provided profilers to aid in the search for the person who may have abducted Ben.

Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said investigators didn't have any breaks in the investigation, and would continue chasing down leads into the night.

"We're hoping we'll stumble across something," Toelke said.

Ben's father, William Ownby, said the strain increases the 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.

On Wednesday, Missouri State Highway Patrol officers and a SWAT team searched wooded areas near Ownby's home again, aided by helicopters and dogs. Family members said after the search there was no breakthrough.

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 flooding into the Franklin County Sheriff's Department.

"There are a lot of white trucks running around. We've been getting a lot of calls," Toelke said.

For hours before Ben turned up missing, a neighbor saw a beat-up white pickup cruising his rural neighborhood, Ownby said. 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 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.