Shawn Hornbeck's family describes changes year has brought

RICHWOODS, Mo. -- One year after Shawn Hornbeck's safe return to his family, the parents of the kidnapped boy describe their life as a new kind of normal.

Saturday marked the anniversary of the rainy Jan. 12, 2007, when authorities discovered not one, but two kidnapped boys when they entered abductor Michael Devlin's apartment in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood. They had been searching for then 13-year-old Ben Ownby who was missing for four days. Shawn, then 15, had been gone more than four years.

Devlin, a former pizzeria manager, was convicted in three counties and federal court for kidnapping and abusing the boys. He is expected to spend the rest of his life in a Missouri prison.

Shawn's parents, living in a donated home built for the family after the boy's return, said Friday that they no longer utter Devlin's name. "Part of that is not allowing him to take up one more second of our time," said Shawn's stepfather, Craig Akers, 46.

He and Shawn's mother, Pam Akers, 44, held hands on a couch in their rural home while Shawn, now a high school freshman, was at class. Craig Akers said Devlin has been judged in this life, and he believes he will be judged in the next. "Our goal is to put him out of our heads," he said.

But life has not been the same since Shawn's abduction and return. It is "a new normal," Craig Akers said. "There's no way our lives will ever be the same as they were before Shawn's disappearance."

They want Shawn to enjoy his everyday experiences: After working extensively with a tutor, he's gone from a fifth-grade level when just freed from his captor to a 3.9 grade point average at a private school in the St. Louis area. He's just one year behind other classmates his age. He plays basketball and roller hockey, and loves baseball and riding his motorcycle.

But Shawn's parents also say it can be hard to give him freedoms, the independence a 16-year-old seeks. They've let him go to the movies with friends, but got lunch nearby and shopped in the same mall. On another occasion when he went out, Pam Akers joked, "It was 'call me when you get there. Call me when you leave, and bring me the ticket stub.'"

While Shawn was missing they didn't seek counseling, feeling at the time that they did not need it. These days, each of the three sees a separate counselor, and they also have therapy sessions together. It has helped tremendously, they said.

Shawn has been journaling, which his parents think has helped him. "Once he has it on paper, he's able to flip that page and then turn the page," Craig Akers said.

Shawn's kidnapping brought Craig and Pam Akers into an unenviable network of families whose children have gone missing. At first, it seemed the families of other missing children were the only ones who really understood their experience. "It's not a pretty place. It's not a pleasant place to be," Craig Akers said. They blamed themselves for letting Shawn go on a bike ride alone the day he was taken, and say they still do.

They still speak to other parents, like Ed Smart, the father of Elizabeth Smart of Utah who was found alive after her abduction. He recently encouraged them to join a survivors' group for families of missing children, and they plan to get involved, Craig Akers said.

Shawn's relatives planned to mark the one-year anniversary of his return with a private "family fun day," Pam Akers said. She said she knows the public is interested in celebrating with them and suggested they could create their own family days together to mark the anniversary.