Why Didn't He Escape? When police served a search warrant on the apartment of Michael Devlin, listed as the owner of the pickup truck, they found Ben Ownby along with Hornbeck, who disappeared in October 2002 while riding his bike in Richwoods, Missouri, about 50 miles southwest of St. Louis.
Immediately questions were raised as to how Devlin was able to hold Shawn Hornbeck for four years without him being about to get away. Why didn't he run away? Why didn't he reach out for help?
This week, as Michael Devlin pleaded guilty in four different courtrooms to charges related to kidnapping and assaulting the two boys, the answers to those questions were revealed. Shortly after Devlin kidnapped Hornbeck, back in 2002, he planned to kill the boy after repeatedly sexually assaulting him. He took Shawn back to Washington County in his pickup truck, he pulled him from the truck and began to strangle him.
"I attempted to kill (Shawn) and he talked me out of it," Devlin said. He stopped choking the boy and sexually assaulted him again. In what prosecutors called a "deal with the devil" Shawn told Devlin at that time that he would do whatever Devlin wanted him to do to stay alive.
"We know now the details that made him not run away," said Shawn's stepfather, Craig Akers. Over the years, Devlin used many methods to control Shawn. The details of the abuse Shawn endured are so horrific and graphic it was not released by most media outlets, although the reports were readily available.
Devlin admitted to making pornographic photographs and videotapes of Shawn and taking him across state lines to engage in sex acts. To continue to control Shawn, Devlin took him with him when he abducted Ben Ownby in January 2007, telling Shawn that because he was in the truck he was an accomplice to the crime. Authorities said Shawn was a hero, who tried to protect Ben Ownby from the torture that he had to endure.
Devlin told Shawn that he planned to kill Ownby after keeping him a short time. "I think that Shawn Hornbeck is really a hero," Ethan Corlija, one of Devlin's attorneys, told reporters. "He really threw himself on the sword many times so Ben would not have to go through any undue torture.
" Over the past four days, Devlin entered guilty pleas to dozens and dozens of charges in four different courts. At last count, he received 74 life sentences to run consecutively, which will keep him in prison the rest of his life. "We're just so glad this is the outcome, that the monster is caged and will remain caged," said Craig Akers.
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