Missouri boy, 13, missing and feared kidnapped

BEAUFORT, Mo. (AP) -- Searchers fanned out in wooded areas around this eastern Missouri town again Tuesday, a day after a 13-year-old boy disappeared.

Authorities said William "Ben" Owenby was last seen around 4:15 p.m. Monday getting off a school bus with a friend. The Franklin County Sheriff's Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol said he is considered "endangered," and may have been kidnapped.

The friend told authorities that after the two parted, he saw a small white pickup with a camper shell leaving the direction where Been had been walking. He said the truck was speeding.

Beaufort Fire Chief William Borgmann described the terrain being searched as hilly. Searchers were on foot and using horses and ATVs.

"Everybody's willing to help," Borgmann said. "Everybody wants to do something."

Ben is an "A" student and his parents said it was out of character for him to go missing, authorities said.

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

Beaufort is a small unincorporated town about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.