New Charges of Attempted Murder for Michael Devlin

Update 4/18/07 8:18PM

The Devlin Task force is asking for the publics help. Please see this blog . (new photos of a very young looking Michael Devlin are posted there as well)

Also, of all the info I have seen about this case, Operation Cyber Tip is right on the money. They have came up with other possible victims way before the news got it, such as the latest one, Steven Kraft.

If you are looking for info on this case, go to their message boards. Lots of info there you may not have seen.

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Original Blog

In a press conference today, Washington County prosecutor John Rupp stated new charges were filed Monday against Michael Devlin of attempted murder, armed criminal action, three counts of forcible sodomy and one count of attempted forcible sodomy.

A copy of the charges state that Michael Devlin committed the sex crimes against “SH” on Oct. 6, 2002, the day of the kidnapping, and in the days after the kidnapping. The charges also said Devlin tried to suffocate the victim.

He also stated that they are looking for anyone to come forward that may have loaned Devlin a vehicle.

“We know for a fact that he drove a lot of vehicles that were not his,” Nothum said.Nothum said the task force has eliminated Devlin as a suspect in two cases, but is now looking at a case out of Michigan.

Investigators no longer believe Devlin could have played a role in the abduction of Angie Housman in 1993 and the disappearance of Bianca Piper in 2006.

Housman was abducted from near her St. Louis County home; her body was found nine days later by hunters in St. Charles County.

Bianca was last seen walking near her home in the eastern Missouri town of Foley. Nothum said investigators do not believe Devlin preyed on girls.

Now, the task force is looking at the case of Steven Kraft, 12, who disappeared in 2001 near Pentwater, Mich. Nothum said Devlin often vacationed with his family in that area.

The task force is still looking at two other eastern Missouri cases. Charles “Arlin” Henderson, then 11, disappeared in 1991 while riding his bike on a rural road in Moscow Mills in Lincoln County, about an hour’s drive from St. Louis.

And Scott Allen Kleeschulte was 9 when he disappeared while riding his bike near his home in St. Charles, during a thunderstorm in June 1988.

Nothum said Devlin was known to travel widely in Lincoln and St. Charles counties.

In addition, the task force is looking at the case of Dalton Mesarchik, 7, who was kidnapped in March 2003 from his front lawn in Streator, Ill., and found dead the next day on the banks of the Vermilion River; and Jacob Wetterling, 11, who was abducted by an armed man in St. Joseph, Minn., in October 1989 while riding his bike with several friends.

I have blogged previously that I thought both Scott Kleeschulte, Arlin Henderson and Dalton Mesarchik may have been previous victims.

I had someone on a message board state that they did not think this because Devlin had kept Shawn and not killed him; therefore only making him a pedophile and not a killer. However, I think these new charges of attempted murder prove otherwise. The question begs though, why didn’t he? Obviously that’s a good thing, but what stopped him from completely smothering Shawn Hornbeck to his death? The other question remains; were there more?


Visit Article Sited

Also see my previous blogs:

Update on Arlin Henderson
What Makes a Boy a Monster?
Dalton Mesarchik Slaying Connected to Michael Devlin?
Shawn Hornbeck’s Story
Photos may be Arlin Henderson?
Brian’s Predictions - A Hoax or for Real?
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is - Shawn Hornbeck trust fund set up at local bank
“If it wasn’t for Ben, I might not be here right now”
O’Reilly Eating His Words - Prosecutor Says “Shawn was abducted against his will. Period. End of story”
Did Michael Devlin Join The Search For Bianca Piper?
Michael J. Devlin - Could there be more?
Michael J. Devlin - A Monster Caught
Found Alive! Ben Ownby & Shawn Hornbeck
Another Child Lost – William “Ben” Ownby (And small update on Austin / Homer Clark)

Making a Difference

I usually don’t do these sorts of blogs (”plugging” other sites or what not) but I have found that there are some people out there working to make a difference.

The first one is Operation Cyber Tip. This site was founded for Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownsby, but it has grown into a huge undertaking. This website has set out to help make people aware of all the current missing kids cases and how they can report tips from the internet or other sources.

They also intend to hold all info on as many cases as possible in a database passing on any appropriate info to the authorities etc. Keeping all this info together in one place will hopefully help to notice similarities between cases and the like.

I received this the other day from them:

We have now set up a page detailing all the SEVEN suspected cases being used in the connections to Devlin.

It details all the abductions with pictures and age-progressed ones for those still missing.
Also includes annotated maps of the areas covered.

And a link to the discussions boards.

More will be added later. But now its up to others to look through the info and add to it.
The task force seem to want the publics help so IMO this is everyones chance to help.
Please sign up to the boards and add your comments. Any info - no matter how small is important.

That one tiny piece of info may help to solve a crime. You never know.
I’m sure Mitch Hults didn’t expect to solve two crimes in one day with his tip - did he?

They also have a message board for sleuths that want to discuss cases.

Visit Operation Cyber Tip

The second undertaking by people trying to make a difference was born out of the Christopher Barrios Case. If you are not aware of the Christopher Barrios case, Christopher was from Brunswick, Georgia. Christopher disappeared in March and his little body was found days later in a trash bag, not far from his home. The perpetrators were his neighbors.

According to this article:

According to an indictment issued Wednesday, convicted child molester George Edenfield and his father took turns sexually assaulting Christopher while the molester’s mother watched, then they choked the boy to death.

Visit News Article Sited

Born from this tragedy was outrage and people wanting to make a change. They are trying to get both Federal and State Laws passed called Christopher’s Law. This would basically signify that if you were convicted one time for child molestation, you would receive a life sentence. It’s basically a one-strike law.

There are obviously some kinks to be worked out with this one because I personally think they need to re-categorize sexual predators and not lump in 18 year old boys engaging in consensual sex with their 16 or 17 year old girlfriend. I know there was a case here in Georgia not too long ago where the boy got 10 years.

That said, I do agree that if you are predator of children, you need to be taken out of society so that you are not allowed to prey upon our most vulnerable.

Visit Message Board on Christopher’s Law
Sign Federal Petition for Christopher’s Law
Sign State of Georgia’s Christopher’s Law (if you are a resident of Georgia)

Dalton Mesarchik Slaying Connected to Michael Devlin?

In researching new information in the Michael Devlin case in which he abducted Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownsby, I found that tonight they are investigating the link between the murder of 7 year old Dalton Mesarchik in 2003 and Devlin.

However, tonight I also saw some disturbing photos of Shawn (purportedly of Shawn) looking like a gangster and brandishing a gun with a bandanna around his face. When I saw these photos, I thought so many things. First thing that came to mind was that damn, the media will have a field day with this one. Shawn has been massacred in so many ways, by being abducted and stripped from all he knew, terrorized and brainwashed for years, and now this.

What makes a CHILD that has been abducted turn into whatever? There isnt much research because most of them don’t survive it. Therefore, I more sorry for Shawn and his family more than ever that this is just another devastating hit on Shawn. I debated back and forth on even blogging about it, but I thought that at least I can hopefully tune people into the fact that no matter what, Shawn was a victim. Period. Whatever happened and whatever he did after being abducted was this child’s way of dealing with it.

What about Michael Devlin? What about he MONSTER that did this to him? I bet his lawyers are having a field day with this entire media event, one after the other convicting the victim over and over. I so hope that Shawn doesn’t actually have to testify against Devlin. It will be brutal to say the least.

Authorities are now looking into a case from 2003 in which little 7 year old Dalton Mesarchik disappeared from his front yard in Streator, Illinois while waiting on a church bus that never came. He was found beaten to death with A three-pound Benchtop Pro hammer.

I am not sure whether or not Devlin had anything at all to do with little Devin’s murder but authorities have now searched his previous residence that he lived at around two years before he abducted Shawn, and they searched his current apartment again. Maybe they found something that we don’t know. I believe Devlin had his toes amputated at the time due to his diabetes, so was this murder possible or not?

One thing that I believe is that this man did do something to some child way before the age of 37 when he abducted Shawn. People like this build up to this sort of crime.

Shawn Hornbeck’s Story

In my earlier post I reported that Shawn Hornbeck and his mother and step-father Craig and Pam Akers went on the Oprah Winfrey Show. At the time it was being reported that he didn’t speak but now reports are coming out that he did and this is some of what he had to say:

“Every day I prayed to God that one day I would be back with my family. Every night I crossed myself. We’re a very Christian family,” Shawn, 15, said in a pre-taped interview that Winfrey included in her one-hour show. “There was a time when I was thinking about giving up, then I just thought of what (my parents were) doing and searching for me, and then I know they (weren’t) giving up so I figured I shouldn’t.”I felt their hope and love.”

Winfrey’s show was a combination of pre-taped interviews with Shawn and his parents, and then a talk with the parents and an aunt before a studio audience. Winfrey said she asked Shawn off-camera why he didn’t try to escape, and, “He said to me he did not because he was terrified to do so.”

His parents, Craig and Pam Akers, told Winfrey they hadn’t asked Shawn whether he had been sexually abused during the more than four years he had been missing.

“When this stuff comes out, we need professionals there that know how to deal with the specific circumstance, whenever we find out what that circumstance is,” Craig Akers said. “The last thing we want to do is put him through any more mental anguish. “Certainly we want to know and the world wants to know, but that’s not the important thing. That’s insignificant. The important thing is that Shawn is back home.”

Missing since Oct. 6, 2002, Shawn was reunited with his family on Jan. 12 after police rescued him from a Kirkwood, Mo., apartment along with another missing boy: William “Ben” Ownby, 13, who had disappeared Jan. 8 after getting off a school bus near his home in Beaufort. Officers who went to the apartment seeking Ben were astonished to find Shawn there as well.

Michael J. Devlin, 41, a pizza-store employee, was arrested that day and is charged with kidnapping both boys. He pleaded not guilty Thursday in Franklin County in the case of Ben, and he awaits arraignment in Washington County on charges accusing him of Shawn’s abduction.

Winfrey’s broadcast was the first to include an interview with Shawn. The one-hour show also included interviews with Ben’s parents, William and Doris Ownby, and Kirkwood police officers Gary Wagster and Chris Nelson. The officers became suspicious of Devlin while talking to him about his white pickup truck parked outside his apartment on the night of Jan. 11. Such a truck was seen near where Ben disappeared.

Ethan Corlija, a lawyer for Devlin, had no comment on the statements on Winfrey’s show.

The Akerses said they thought their son didn’t escape because he felt threatened.

“I honestly and truly in my heart feel that in some way or another, he had to have felt either he was going to be threatened or his sisters or myself or his dad,” said
Pam Akers. “I honestly believed if the alleged person would have said, `You can
leave at any time’ everything would be fine, and Shawn would have come home in a
heartbeat.”

Shawn said he spent his days sleeping, watching television, playing video games and playing with friends, and he said he had told people a story about his life that his kidnapper had concocted. He said he was the “Shawn Devlin” who posted a question on his parents’ website asking how long they planned to search for their son.

“I was hoping to give some kind of hint,” Shawn said.

Craig Akers said he remembered the posting, but he didn’t take special notice of it “because you get so many weird messages.”

Shawn said he was grateful to Ben Ownby.

“(I feel) thankful that he held in there for those couple of days, and I’m sorry for what he went through, because I told myself a long time ago I never want any other kid to go through what I went through,” Shawn said. “But I am thankful for him holding in there, and I’m happy that he’s back with his family.”

The Akers said they never gave up hope.

“We’ve always believed that there was absolutely hope that he was out there and that we would find him,” Craig Akers said.

Shawn said he wanted to return to his old life: “Go back to school, spend time with each other, work on stuff, fix cars - (Dad’s) transmission needs it. It’s very comforting knowing that I’m back with my family, but then I’ve missed out on a lot of stuff.”

Said Pam Akers, “It’s definitely not the little boy that I had at 11. There’s going to be a lot of adjustments. . . . We just won’t let him out of our sight, and he’s just not
understanding that yet. I can tell that there is a lot on his mind. I can tell that I think he will eventually talk to us, that he wants to, but there’s still some distance between us.”

Kim Evans, family spokeswoman and office manager for the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, said neither the Akers family nor the foundation received money for appearing on Oprah.

She said other media outlets offered to pay for the first interview, but the family chose to go on Oprah because they hoped to reach a larger audience.

“We wanted to get the message of hope out to as many people as we could that there is hope for their sons and daughters,” Evans said. “They took Oprah for that reason, because she has the largest audience. To my knowledge, there was no money involved.”

From early morning to late night Thursday, the family gave interviews with local, national and international news organizations. The family required each to sign a contract promising not to publish or broadcast any report on the interview until 6 a.m. Friday. One provision of the two-page contract required news organizations that violated the embargo to pay $100,000 to the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation.

Hornbeck tells of life in captivity

Brian’s Predictions - A Hoax or for Real?

If you see my site’s name, you will notice that it is dedicated to Colton Levi Clark. According to his adoptive parents, Becky and Rex Clark, Colton went missing on April 20, 2006 around 1:30PM, right before an appointment with a psychiatrist and then later that day a social worker.

I won’t rehash the case here in this post. If you are interested in Colton’s case, which I hope you are, please look in my archives. Lots of information there.

In my search for Colton I stumbled across a site called Brian’s Predictions. I’m not sure how the whole thing works, but supposedly Brian goes into some sort of meditation and comes up with these drawings that are equal to what psychics call premonitions.

He did one for Colton and it in no way went along with what I believe happened to Colton and what the evidence showed. Therefore I put very little credence in his claims.

Last night someone that was reading my archives for Colton posted a tip on the blog Timeline Into the Disappearance of Colton Clark about the Brian Prediction for Colton. It made me remember Shawn’s so I went to look.

Here are his predictions for Shawn Hornbeck:

I believe that Shawn is alive and safe, and I do not think he has been psychically harmed. The boy was taken by a 37 year old man and brought to his apartment in St. Louis.

This is the man that took Shawn, he’s a short white man, approximately 5 foot five inches, wears very round glasses. The man has worked at a McDonalds in the area…and for some reason this is very important to the case.

This is the outside of the apartment where Shawn was taken and has been there ever since. Also says “he still likes to read”

Now he obviously got Devlin’s description way off. Devlin is 6 ft. He described the man as short, around 5 ft. Also, he said Devlin would be working at McDonald’s but instead was working at a Pizza place instead.

Check out the apartment sketch too though:

Brian’s Predictions - Shawn Hornbeck

If it wasn’t for Ben, I might not be here right now

Shawn Hornbeck and his parents, Craig and Pam Akers appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show yesterday. (see previous post for picture)Craig and Pam Akers said that although Shawn has not discussed many details regarding his time in captivity with Michael Devlin, they believed their son was sexually abused.

During an interview with Oprah Winfrey on a show that aired Thursday, Shawn’s parents said they have not asked their son what happened on the advice of child advocacy experts.

“OK, I’m going to go there and ask you, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?” Winfrey asked Shawn’s parents, Craig and Pam Akers.

Both nodded and said, “Yes.”

The parents of a kidnapped Missouri boy said Thursday they believe their son was molested during the four years he was missing, and his grandmother claimed his captor had awakened the boy every 45 minutes, apparently as a way to control him.

Shawn’s grandmother, Anna Quinn of St. Louis, told the AP Thursday that the boy has not spoken Devlin’s name, and that he has said little to relatives about what he went through. But Shawn did tell his family that at times during his captivity, he would be awakened every 45 minutes by his captor.

“Think to yourself when you don’t get enough sleep,” Quinn said. “He had to do something to get his cooperation.”

“If it wasn’t for Ben, I might not be here right now,” Shawn said. “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.”

On another note, Devlin appeared via a closed-circuit video link during Devlin’s arraignment, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007 in Union, Mo. Devlin pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping Ben Ownby, 13. Reason noted for the video appearance was for security reasons.

According to reports Devlin will have a hard time with his case since he had previously confessed. His lawyers are already vying for a change of venue, stating that because of all the publicity, Michael Devlin will not be able to get a fair trial. (umm maybe they should conduct the trial on the space station because I believe everyone has heard of this case unless you are living under a rock)

Link to Story

O’Reilly Eating His Words - Prosecutor Says Shawn was abducted against his will. Period. End of story

(Shawn pictured in the middle sporting a new hairdo on the taping of the Oprah Winfrey show, along with his parents, Craig and Pam Akers)

Today’s latest story sheds more light on the Shawn Hornbeck case. Ironically, according to a Fox News Station in St. Louis, MO, Shawn was abducted at gun point and held against his will:

And while some may wonder why Shawn didn’t escape over the years, experts say no one should rush to judgment about a boy stolen from his loved ones at age 11.

“Most 11-year-olds taken from their support systems are in a state of shock,” said Dr. Sharon Cooper, a pediatrician on the faculty of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. “Their worry is who is going to provide their basic needs.”

Shawn, she said, was “was totally displaced from his family and home. This offender had established a new life for that child and he accommodated that.” The boy, she added, grew to accept Kirkwood as “his community.”

Cooper, a consultant for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, also said it’s much easier to dupe a younger kid than a teen.

“When you take a pretty young child away from the city they live in, after a while the child becomes compliant and complacent in the environment they’re in,” she said.

At a news conference Wednesday, authorities charged Devlin with Shawn’s kidnapping and said the 41-year-old pizza parlor worker had used a gun to threaten the boy when he was abducted in 2002.

John Rupp, prosecutor in Washington County, dismissed any suggestion that Shawn had run away. “Shawn was abducted against his will,” he said. “Period. End of story.”

On the other Hand, News Hounds is reporting today that Bill O’Reilly came out to say “”Now last night, I said 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck might have accepted his kidnapping by that creep Michael Devlin rather than trying to escape. I also said I don’t believe much in the “Stockholm Syndrome — that is the captive becoming attached to the kidnapper. — It happens, but it’s rare.”

Looks like Bill will slowly be eating his words, and in the meantime losing viewers by the droves.

In the meantime Shawn accompanied his parents to Chicago for the Wednesday taping of an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show. He sat in the front row, gripping his sisters’ hands, but he didn’t answer questions.

In an interview recorded earlier, Shawn said he was frightened during those four years and prayed his family would find him.

Shawn made his first public appearance last Saturday at a news conference in his hometown of Richwoods, a rural community about 60 miles from St. Louis. Teachers, friends and well-wishers crowded into his old school — a sign outside read: “Thank God! Welcome Home Shawn” — and applauded him as he entered the gymnasium.

Shawn flashed a shy smile, whispered in his mother’s ear, laughed softly and clutched her hand under the table. When his tearful stepfather, Craig Akers, reported that Shawn and one of his sisters had spent much time the previous night reminiscing about their childhood, Shawn confided to his mother: “We remember everything.”

Did Michael Devlin Join The Search For Bianca Piper?

According to the following article, maybe I was wrong for weeding out the Bianca Noel Piper case being linked to Michael J. Devlin:

Lincoln County investigators believe kidnapping suspect Michael J. Devlin used child abduction cases in their county as a manual for crime.

Detectives say there are startling similarities between the Hornbeck and Ownby abductions, and a 16-year-old case that’s still unsolved.

Tuesday, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Detectives poured over volumes of case files and evidence bags from two unsolved missing children’s cases.

13-year-old Bianca Noel Piper disappeared in March of 2005 while walking on a rural Foley Road, and 11-year-old Arlin Henderson vanished in July of 1991 in rural Moscow Mills.

The recent rescues of 15 year-old Shawn Hornbeck after more than 4 years of captivity and 13-year-old Ben Ownby after more than four days, have given new hope to other families living in anguish.

“Hey, anything is possible, so we’re hoping and praying because that was a miracle, not just for one but they found two,” says Jim McWilliams, Arlin Henderson’s uncle.

The arrest of kidnapping suspect 41-year old Michael J. Devlin is breathing new life into the Henderson and Piper cases.

“We’re starting to recieve new tips that may be critical to either of our investigations,” says Detective Chris Bartlett of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department.

Detective Bartlet says they are probing two chilling leads.

Did Devlin participate in volunteer searches for Bianca Piper to learn investigative techniques he would use later to elude authorities?

“Whether he was a part of it, in it, or in the middle, or just watching from afar, he absolutley knew what was going on,” says Detective Bartlet. “I certainly believe Michael Devlin was monitoring our search and the disappearance of Bianca Piper.”

And he says, there is a startling physical similarity between Arlin henderson and Ben Ownby.

“If you put each of the missing photographs up, they’re both almost scary to look at, each of them, and the comparison between the two,” says the detective.

Detectives also say both Arlin Henderson and Shawn Hornbeck were on their bikes when they vanished.

Lincoln County investigators say if you have information that could help solve the Bianca Piper or Arlin Henderson case, you should call them right away.

No matter how small a tip, it could be the one they need.

News Article Regarding this Story

I also thought I would take both Arlin and Ben’s photo and put them side by side as the article stated:

I am not seeing a strong resemblance as the article stated, but maybe with Ben’s glasses off it would be different. However, all of the other facts remain very similar and as I stated in another post I do not believe Shawn Hornbeck was the first.

Also, maybe one of the reasons he had gained such control over Shawn, is by the time he got Shawn, he had mastered his manipulation of children.

UPDATE 1/17/07 4:17PM

An Anonymous poster presented the idea that the article misquoted and should have said Arlin and Shawn favored alot. Here is their comparison:

Yes, Shawn and Arlin do favor for sure.

UPDATE 2 1/17/07 4:43PM

Anonymous was correct in saying that the article I posted here misquoted saying Ben and Arlin favored, but it should have read Shawn & Arlin:

“If you were to take a photo of Arlin Henderson and you place it next to Shawn’s picture, there is a striking resemblance,” Lincoln County Lt. Rick Harrell said Wednesday.

Link to Corrected Story

Update 3 1/17/07 5:01PM

Ok, since I was comparing pictures, I had to compare Scott Kleeschulte to Shawn and Arlin. Scott is the 1st boy:

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is - Shawn Hornbeck trust fund set up at local bank

There has been so much negative media about Shawn since the amazing news that he was found at Michael J. Devlin’s apartment, along with Ben Ownby.

I was appalled when I watched Bill O’Reilly today, and as a fan of FOX News, you can bet they will not have me as a viewer anymore.

It is a sad day in America when one minute we can rejoice as a nation in finding a boy that was abducted at the age of 11 and has been missing for 4 1/2 years, to basically having him publicly flogged in the media because some people don’t think this child should of acted the way they think their adult minds would act.

Shawn has a long road ahead of him and the negative media has to stop. This boy has to get back to some sort of normalcy, whatever that will mean for him. It’s time to put our money where our mouths are and let Shawn know that most of America is rooting for him. That although most of us could never understand what he has gone through, we can certainly empathize.

A trust fund has been established for Shawn Hornbeck and his family.

The fund will be used for tutors, counselors, and general support for the transition back to the family.

If you would like to contribute, you can mail a check to the Shawn Hornbeck Care Trust, C/O First Bank, 11901 Olive Blvd., Creve Coeur, MO, 63141.
Please make checks payable to the Shawn Hornbeck Care Trust.

Come on America! It takes a village to raise a child. Let’s let Shawn know we stand behind him!

News Story Regarding the Shawn Hornbeck Care Trust Fund

Shawn Hornbeck – Stockholm Syndrome

Update 1/16/06 11:38AM
(see original blog post below updates)

If you view the comments for this post you will see one from “Anonymous” who posted regarding their own experience and why a child would do whatever told by the abuser.
Anonymous stated, “It would be as easy as Devlin telling him that if he went back he would DIE. You forget how vulnerable a child is.”

Anonymous hit the nail on the head with that one.

Captor threatened Hornbeck’s family, investigators say

The captor who held Shawn Hornbeck for more than four years kept him from fleeing by threatening to kill the boy and his entire family, investigators said Monday.

That helps explain why Shawn, 15, freed Friday when police tracked a second kidnapped boy to an apartment in Kirkwood, did not seize ample opportunities to run or summon help, according to the investigators.

For the complete story: http://tinyurl.com/yhd5jt

On a second note, hopefully Bill O’Reilly will be eating his words. Here is a partial transcript from last night’s broadcast regarding Shawn Hornbeck. What alot of nerve Bill O’Reilly has. He really needs a swift kick in the ass!

From Steve Huff’s site: http://truecrimeblog.blogspot.com// :

Bill O’Reilly: You know the Stockholm syndrome thing, I don’t buy it, I never bought it, I don’t think It happened in the Patty Hearst Case. I don’t think it happened here…

Greta van Susteren: Woah, Can I just say something?

Bill O’Reilly: Yeah go ahead and jump in.

GVS: First of all we don’t know all the facts, Don’t forget that Elizabeth Smart likewise had an opportunity to leave and she did not. She was on the public street for some reason when young people are picked up and taken under the influence of adults they are very receptive of what adults do. So I would not dismiss the Stockholm syndrome –

BOR: The difference in the Smart case, and correct me if I am wrong, was this guy was always around the little girl and she wasn’t gone for the long period of time as this guy was. Now what we have learned — and this is why I don’t believe in Stockholm — this guy Shawn Hornbeck gone four years from 11-15. Authorities actually say that he taunted his own parents on his website. He’s got these piercing this is a troubled kid in my opinion –

GVS: The piercings, a lot of kids do the piercings. As far as the taunting goes on the website I think what can be established is that someone on this particular login taunted the parents. Was it done from this particular computer? If it was done from this particular computer that means that Michael Devlin did it, or Shawn did it or someone with access to the computer… let’s not forget he is a kid…. He may be 15 now…

BOR: No, I am not buying this if you’re 11 years old or 12 years old or 13 and you have a strong bond with your family. Even if the guy threatens you this and that. You’re riding your bike around, you got friends — the kid didn’t go to school. There’s all kinds of stuff, if you can get away, you get away. If you’re 11 –

GVS: Bill it seems bizarre to me, I agree it seems bizarre. Why not run, why not yell, why not scream? But the thing I keep going back to is, what was Patti Hearst’s story…

BOR: I didn’t buy that Patti Hearst story for a second.

GVS: Why was she so willing to sign up with her kidnappers and like wise Elizabeth Smart, she had opportunity — nice kid, nice family, why was she unwilling to run…?

BOR: Let me answer your question. This is what I believe in the Hearst case and in this case. The situation that Hearst found herself in was exciting. She had a boring life, child of privilege. All of a sudden she’s in with a bunch of charismatic thugs and she enjoyed it. The situation here with this kid is looks to me to be a lot more fun then when he had under his own parents. He didn’t have to go to school, He could run around and do what he wanted.

GVS: Some kids like school –

BOR: Well I don’t believe this kid did. And I think when it all comes down what’s going to happen is there was an element here that this kid liked about his circumstances…

_____________________________________________________________
One theme I have been seeing over and over again on various boards regarding the kidnapping of Shawn Hornbeck by Michael Devlin was a sense of blame for a child that did not run from his captor.

Granted none of these people that can sit on a public board and condemn a boy that was kidnapped at the age of 11 - will ever have to endure such a horrific experience in their small minded lives.

Stockholm Syndrome - In 1973, two men entered the Kreditbanken bank in Stockholm, Sweden, intending to rob it. When police entered the bank, the robbers shot them, and a hostage situation ensued. For six days, the robbers held four people at gunpoint, locked in a bank vault, sometimes strapped with explosives and other times forced to put nooses around their own necks. When the police tried to rescue the hostages, the hostages fought them off, defending their captors and blaming the police. One of the freed hostages set up a fund to cover the hostage-takers’ legal defense fees. Thus “Stockholm syndrome” was born, and psychologists everywhere had a name for this classic captor-prisoner phenomenon.

Other victims of Stockholm Syndrome

Ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch disappeared on her way to school in Austria in 1998. In 2006, 18-year-old Natascha Kampusch reappeared in a Vienna garden after escaping from her captor’s home while he wasn’t paying attention. In a statement to the media read by the psychiatrist who is currently caring for her, Kampusch had this to say about spending eight years in a locked cell beneath her kidnapper’s basement: “My youth was very different. But I was also spared a lot of things – I did not start smoking or drinking and I did not hang out in bad company.” By most experts’ accounts, Kampusch is in a traumatized state and appears to be suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

Millionaire heir Patty Hearst, after having been kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Her unsuccessful legal defense was that she suffered from Stockholm syndrome and was coerced into aiding the SLA. She was convicted and imprisoned for her actions in the robbery, though her sentence was commuted in February 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, and she received a Presidential pardon from Bill Clinton.

Elizabeth Smart, a 14-year-old girl, was allegedly kidnapped and repeatedly raped by the mentally ill Brian David Mitchell who coerced and molested her during the months of June 2002 to March 2003; after initial harsh imprisonment, Smart spent several months living physically unrestrained with her captors. However, this may not be a case of Stockholm syndrome because she kept a journal in French about how much she hated her abductors, and she claims to have only co-operated out of fear.

7-year old Steven Stayner is kidnapped a few days before Christmas by Reverend Kenneth Parnell. Stephen like Shawn Hornbeck had many freedoms. However, under the belief that Parnell has been given legal custody of him, and that his family has moved away, he stays with Parnell for seven years, enduring repetitive sexual abuse the entire time. Finally, at fourteen, he returned home to his family when Parnell stole another child named Timmy White.

Further Explanation of Stockholm Syndrome

In order for Stockholm syndrome to occur in any given situation, at least three traits must be present:

· A severely uneven power relationship in which the captor dictates what the prisoner can and cannot do

· The threat of death or physical injury to the prisoner at the hands of the captor

· A self-preservation instinct on the part of the prisoner

Included in these traits are the prisoner’s belief (correct or incorrect, it doesn’t matter) that he or she cannot escape, which means that survival must occur within the rules set by the all-powerful captor; and the prisoner’s isolation from people not being held by the captors, which prohibits any outside view of the captors from infringing on the psychological processes that lead to Stockholm syndrome. In the most basic, generalized way, the process as seen in a kidnapping or hostage situation looks something like this:

1. In a traumatic and extraordinarily stressful event, a person finds herself held captive by a man who is threatening to kill her if she disobeys him in any way. She may be abused – physically, sexually and/or verbally – and having trouble thinking straight. According to the captor, escape is not an option. She will end up dead. Her family may end up dead, too. Her only chance at survival is obedience.

2. As time goes on, obedience alone may become less of a sure thing – the captor is under stress as well, and a change in his mood could mean harmful consequences to his prisoner. Figuring out what might set off her captor’s violence so she can avoid those triggers becomes another survival strategy. In this way, she gets to know her captor.

3. A minor act of kindness on the part of the captor, which can include simply not killing the prisoner yet, positions the captor as the prisoner’s savior, as “ultimately good,” to quote young Anne Frank’s famous characterization of the Nazis who ultimately led to her death. In the traumatic, life-threatening circumstances in which the prisoner finds herself, the slightest act of kindness – or the sudden absence of violence – seems a sign of friendship in an otherwise hostile, terrifying world, and the prisoner clings to it for dear life.

4. The captor slowly seems less threatening – more an instrument for survival and protection than one of harm. The prisoner undergoes what some call an act of self-delusion: In order to survive psychologically as well as physically – to lessen the unimaginable stress of the situation – the prisoner comes to truly believe that the captor is her friend, that he will not kill her, that in fact they can help each other “get out of this mess.” The people on the outside trying to rescue her seem less like her allies. They are going to hurt this person who is protecting her from harm. The fact that this person is also the source of that potential harm gets buried in the process of self-delusion.

More information regarding Stockholm Syndrome can be found here:

http://people.howstuffworks.com/stockholm-syndrome.htm