Kidnapped Boy Breaks His Silence On Four-Year Captivity
Posted January 19, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
He didn’t quite look or sound like a 15-year-old boy should.
Shawn Hornbeck didn’t say much about what happened to him during his four years in captivity on Thursday. But in his first public pronouncement since he was recovered from the home of his alleged kidnapper last week, the Missouri teen showed he clearly underwent an ordeal.
During an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, a soft spoken and subdued Hornbeck wasn’t directly asked about what happened to him during his time in captivity.
But his parents believe he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by the alleged pedophile who spirited him away in 2002.
Hornbeck, who was not allowed to go to school during the time he was kept hostage in the town of Kirkwood, would only say that he whiled away the hours sleeping, playing video games and riding his bike, as his alleged kidnapper worked two jobs.
He also revealed that he prayed and crossed himself frequently, asking God to return him to his family.
His parents have refused to ask him about his time away on the advice of counselors, who say Shawn must come to them when he’s ready.
But his grandmother, Anna Quinn, has gleaned the information that the child was deprived of sleep and awakened every 45 minutes as the man who took him tried to induce a form of mind control over him.
It may well have worked. Hornbeck noted off camera that the reason he didn’t leave was because he was “terrorized” and feared what would happen if he tried to escape.
“Think to yourself when you don’t get enough sleep,” Quinn relates. “He had to do something to get his cooperation.”
There were some other revelations.
Shawn admitted that he had access to the Internet and that he did, in fact, post two strange messages on the website his parents had set up to find him. One asked, “how long are you going to keep searching for your son?”
He claimed he was hoping it would trigger some sort of response from his relatives. But by then, they’d received so many different comments from across the country that it never registered with them.
The piercings that the boy displayed after he was rescued were gone, but there were no explanations of why he had them or where they went.
And he adds he never really met Ben Ownby, the kidnapped 13-year-old whose abduction eventually led to his own freedom. The younger boy disappeared after getting off a school bus and was located four days later.
It was the description of a truck provided by a friend that led cops to the apartment of 41-year-old Michael Devlin. Ironically, the officers were at his complex to arrest another suspect who wasn’t home.
But one spotted the white truck and when Devlin came out to throw out his garbage, the officers became suspicious of what one called his suddenly “squirrely” attitude.
Horneck hugged both men, and in a tear-inducing moment, silently mouthed thank you, aware that if it hadn’t been for Ownby’s disappearance and their sharp eyes, he’d still be a captive.
“If it wasn’t for Ben, I might not be here right now,” he reflected. “I’m thankful that he held in there for those few days. I told myself a long time ago I never wanted any kid to go through what I went through.”
Counselors believe both boys will need extensive therapy before they can resume any kind of a normal life.
Hornbeck just wants to go back to school, although with a four year gap between grades and his current need for psychiatric help, there’s no word on when that might happen.
Devlin appeared in court on Thursday charged with the abduction of both boys. He’s pled not guilty and his lawyers have asked for a change of venue, because the case has received so much publicity.
Photo courtesy: Shawnhornbeck.com
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