Experts: Mo. boy was controlled by his captor

updated 6:41 a.m. ET Jan. 15, 2007

KIRKWOOD, Mo. - For more than four years, Shawn Hornbeck seemed to have had every chance to escape, left alone for hours to ride his bike, play video games and walk past missing-child posters showing his own age-progressed image.

But mental health experts say this troubling case is hardly so simple, and that Hornbeck was likely kept mentally shackled by terror and domination from the man accused of kidnapping him, 41-year-old Michael Devlin.

“I think it’s a real mistake to judge this child. Whatever he did to this point to stay alive is to his credit,” said Terri Weaver, an associate psychology professor at Saint Louis University.

Weaver, an expert on post traumatic stress disorder, said children in such situations kick into survival mode, “doing what needs to be done to keep yourself going day-to-day.”

Devlin, a 300-pound pizza parlor manager, is accused of abducting Hornbeck four years ago when the slight boy, taken as he was riding his bike, was just 11. Now a gangly 15-year-old with floppy hair and a pierced lip, he was found by surprise Friday when police acting on a tip went to Devlin’s modest-two-bedroom apartment in this St. Louis suburb to rescue 13-year-old Ben Ownby, who had been snatched four days earlier on his way home from school.

Piecing together details, Internet profiles
Now investigators are piecing together the details of Hornbeck’s captivity and Ownby’s abduction, trying to discover how the boys could have been kept captive in an apartment where neighbors often heard banging, shouting and arguing.

Internet profiles posted as far back as two years ago that were created using pictures of Hornbeck emerged over the weekend when a blog mentioned them. A Kirkwood detective said Sunday that he had heard about the profiles but didn’t know what role they might be playing in the investigation.

A Yahoo user homepage belonging to “xxdevildevlinxx” was created in April 2004 and shows a partial picture of a boy, strongly resembling recent photos of Hornbeck, with an eyebrow piercing. On Saturday, the boy had a lip ring and three ear piercings.

Another Yahoo profile using the same picture is registered to an “mdevlin” in Kirkwood, Mo.

A separate profile was taken out under the name Shawn Devlin in November 2005, according to the Yahoo page. It contains a full picture of a young boy similar to pictures of Hornbeck; the page says the user lives in Kirkwood, Mo.

A Web site called the True Crime Blog mentioned the pages this weekend.

Residents in Hornbeck’s hometown of Richwoods were shocked the boy could have so much contact with the outside world but remain at his captor’s side — refusing to flee even as Devlin worked two jobs that forced him to leave Hornbeck and, later, Ownby, alone.

Weaver said repeated contact with outsiders can actually reinforce an abducted child’s sense of helplessness.

“Over time, your safety has been threatened. You are a child. You may have been traumatized in other ways. You may feel helpless to reach out to other people,” she said.

Control established through fear
The case is reminiscent of the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. The Salt Lake City teen was taken for nine months by a religious zealot and passed up several chances to escape.

Stephen Golding, a forensic psychologist who examined the suspect in the Smart case, said captors often establish control over their victims through fear.

“People are led to believe, through someone taking advantage of their vulnerabilities, that leaving is not an option, that things will get worse for them or will get worse for others,” Golding said.

Neighbors describe Devlin as a loner with a quick temper. He obsessed over a reserved parking space at his apartment complex.

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