Posted on 01/18/2007 9:06:06 PM PST by Graybeard58
ST. LOUIS -- A suburban St. Louis man suspected of kidnapping two youngsters also is under investigation in the disappearance of another Missouri boy 16 years ago.
Michael Devlin is the ''most viable lead'' in the case of Charles Arlin Henderson, who was 11 when he disappeared in 1991 and has never been found, Lincoln County sheriff's deputies said.
Devlin was arrested last week after police found two kidnapped boys in his apartment in suburban Kirkwood: 13-year-old Ben Ownby, who was taken Jan. 8, and 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, who vanished 4½ years ago.
The long-missing boy, known as Arlin, was, like Ben and Shawn, about 100 pounds and from a rural town about an hour from St. Louis. Both Shawn and Arlin vanished at age 11 while riding their bikes.
''If you were to take a photo of Arlin Henderson and you place it next to Shawn's picture, there is a striking resemblance,'' sheriff's Lt. Rick Harrell said.
Arlin's uncle, James McWilliams, said the boy came home from school a few months before he disappeared and told his mother a ''tall, thin man'' had been taking pictures of him.
Asked whether the man's description fit that of Devlin, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 300 pounds, Detective Chris Bartlett said: ''It matched the description enough that we have to pursue him as the most viable lead.''
I fear that this man may have been involved in more that just the disappearence of these three boys. This type of preditor would want to replace a victim with a younger boy once the other one reached a certain age. If this Arlin boy went missing in 1991 at the age of 11, this perp would probably want to get a fresh victim in around four years or so. If you look at the timeline of this last victim being taken in 2007, and the one before taken around 4 years earlier (2003), four years earlier to that would be 1999; then 1995 and 1991, which is the time that this Arlin disappeared. That means, if this predator follows a pattern like this, that he may have victimized around five boys at least. Of course, this is purely speculation, but it could make sense. I hope the police have considered this.
It's well-documented that homosexual pedophiles have very specific criteria for their victims: e.g., age, build and (according to one I had the unfortunate experience of evaluating) odor.
Yes, and they also tend to be "creatures" of habit. That is, for those who capture and hold their victim, they feel the need to obtain a fresh victim once the other reaches a non-desirable age. Thus the reason I feel that LE might be missing a couple more victims in this case at the least.
see the 19th item, I posted on
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1768479/posts
Good Lord I'm going to be sick
If this man has been doing this as far back as 1991 or earlier, then yes it is possible he might have killed one in front of another. Again, this is purely speculation. But it would fit the profile.
Good Grief! How does one hide a kid for years in an apartment house? No complaining neighbors?
How long before the American public revolts against our government (all three branches) and demands an end to pornography, which feeds these monsters.
Geez. That's even more creepy than I care to think about. Glad I'm not an LEO.
LEO's are just the front line of those dealing with these monsters and their aftermath. Then there's the court system and the counselors who have to try to put the victims back together. And, the effect on the local community as well. These monsters really do a lot of damage.
Well, the "habit" is actually a fixation and not due to the traditional repetition effect one usually ascribes to habit. That is, a pedophile picks his victims to match his own childhood experiences: e.g., same age, etc., that the pedophile was when he was sexually (and repeatedly molested.) The pedophile attempts to recreate his experiences through his selection of victims. This is a very narrow window of selection, I might add. A one year age discrepancy in either direction may render the intended victim "unusable," for example.
But your suggestion that there are other victims of this same perp who match this slection criteria are well-founded.
Unfortunately so. My use of the word "habit" was not intended in the usual sense of the word, and your clarification is appreciated.
BTW, I am a father of a soldier as well, and thank you and your offspring for service to our country.
You both come across to me as knowing some of the modus operandi of criminals who abduct young boys. I did not realize that they have a particular agenda they follow.
Kidnapping a child is horrific, but their future intentions give us even more reason to worry, if that's possible.
Where did you learn how these creeps work? I doubt the average person knows anything beyond what they read about these cases.
What should their punishment be? How can society prevent this? I'd appreciate your opinions!
Your thanks are greatly appreciated, and returned to you for the sacrifices of your family during this time of war.
Sexual preditors of all types usually stick to certain patterns of behavior when determining who their victims will be. They also are ritualistic in how they victimize them. Remember BTK who was fairly recently caught after several decades of committing sexual crimes? He kept to certain patterns of behaviors of which he described to the court when he allocuted his crimes. His descriptions would be considered textbook examples of how the mind of this type of perpetrator works. This guy in Missouri is probably not much different in that he sticks to his own patterns of determining victims ages and looks etc.
In terms of "punishment"? IMHO, a bullet to the back of the brain works for me. The damage these perps do is enormous and far reaching. Often their victims become victimizers themselves. There's little hope in ever rehabilitating them, and the vast majority will always reoffend if placed back in society.
Preventions? How do you prevent someone from developing their desire to commit such horrid criminal acts against children when we don't really know why they develop these desires in the first place. Not every person who was molested as a child becomes a child molester. So, that is not the only cause of their behavior. We have to have a better understanding of the brain and what areas are involved when dealing with someone who "craves" having this type of "relationship" with a child. Other than locking them up for the rest of their lives when they are caught, or just killing them outright, I don't have the answer (or I would be writing books and making obscene amounts of money). Abnormal human behavior is as old as humankind.
First the public would have to prove that it is not against our Constitutional rights to ban garbage. A federal court will have to decide the case. It probably would end up in the Supreme Court and they may see it as unconstitutional.
Dismantling the ACLU might be a good start, but that brings us back to the courts again.
These vermins were not nice, normal folks before they discovered porn. But, yes, it fed them. Why should people have to live in fear of some sleaze abducting their kid? I am fed up with the oh-so-moral bleeding hearts holding vigils outside a prison when a proven murderer FINALLY gets the punishment he/she deserves. If execution of kidnappers could cause them to kill these victims, maybe life in prison with zero chance of parole is the answer for the first offense. Then there won't be a second.
But even that's not enough of a deterrent.
I think so much hinges on the innate personality of each of us.
...how the mind of this type of perpetrator works., along with ...a bullet to the back of the brain and There's little hope in ever rehabilitating them...
I'm understanding that you look at it as a mental aberration, not a deliberate, evil choice.
If so, I also agree that we simply cannot give "sick" people ("crazy" is now politically incorrect, I suppose), the freedom to do evil things.
The woman who drowned her four children comes to mind.
How to determine who deserves punishment and who does not.
And somehow most of us stay sane despite all the grief. Amazing!
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