Posted on 01/24/2007 9:49:46 AM PST by Halls
The sheriff of Franklin County is condemning as speculation a television news report that kidnap victim Shawn Hornbeck himself helped to kidnap another victim, William "Ben" Ownby, 13.
The news report has been aired by KMOV-TV (Channel 4), which attributes it to "authorities close to the case."
The station says that on Jan. 8 near Ownby's house in Franklin County, Hornbeck shoved Ownby into a pickup truck owned by Michael J. Devlin, 41, of Kirkwood
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
PING
thanks
A Patty Hearst story???
Makes sense. Now that he had outgrown his purpose he had to replace himself.
Like that's a surprise?
yep
Thanks. I especilly appreciated the second part of the story which deals with the Shawn Hornbeck foundation finances and all the false allegations of the parents being paid for publicity. People need to see that.
I am sick of people wanting to make a villian out of Hornbeck.
me to!
I am, too.
I can only imagine the mind control to which the victim Hornsbeck was subject. There was another report that said at one time the boy actually was in contact with the police and did not say he had been abducted.
From what I have read, this is very typical behavior of someone who has been convinced that any appeal for help is useless and that the authorities are aware of the crime and are in cahoots with the abductor. If there was any help it was done because the boy feared the consequences of not obeying his abductor.
Me three! One villian here...It is devlin. He is scum of the earth. Taking other people's children to be used only for his own evil pleasures and devices. Sicker than sick. We need tougher laws.
"With the volume of investigators, and witnesses involved in this case, there are going to be leaks. As we have stated in two prior releases, the public has a right to know what happened in these cases. However, due to the sensitivity of these cases, the release of this information needs to be done in a timely manner. It needs to be released through the courts, and in the best interest of the victims and their families. Knowing there would be leaks, we have asked twice that the media not release any information about the actual investigation no matter where the source or how accurate it is felt the information is.
"This case, as have many, is again being tried in the media before it has a chance to go through court. Trying to investigate this case based on confidential sources, sources close to the investigation and speculation is victimizing these boys and their families again. They need a positive response in their life which they are getting from the public. They do not need 'why' and 'how' questions based on speculation and alleged confidential sources. Information about what happened in these cases needs to be judged by the media and public when it comes from the court. That release will be 'accurate,' and in the best interest of the victims. Book deals, movie rights, talk shows, what ever may come of this situation need to be considered after the case goes through the judicial process.
"I would again request that the media refrain from releasing information, correct, incorrect, or from any source about the facts in this investigation until they are made available through the judicial proceedings. Please do not ask me to respond to this letter or do an interview; it is what it is. I greatly appreciate those news agencies who have cooperated by withholding information in order to respect the victims and their families."
The media needs to STFU.
They really do. Does anyone know when Devlin will be arraigned on charges regarding Shawn?
I'm glad to see that addressed, too.
I'm tired of seeing attempts to villify the Hornbeck family, and Shawn. The villain in all this is Michael Devlin. I hope that when he is finally prosecuted, it will be an impetus to toughen the penalties against such monsters.
Yup. Me four.
Even FReepers can be incredibly cruel people. I was just indexing some of the Hornbeck threads and on the last one, someone had the keywords "blingbling" and "loot" for a story about the Akerses having a new house given to them!
Bah!
I hope you hit the abuse button, and asked the moderator to remove those keywords. Since google caches everything on FR, those kind of keywords make FR look like a lunatic site.
I saw some keywords earlier that were very uncharitable, and the moderator was kind enough to remove them. Besides that, nobody would type in crackpot phrases in a serious search.
Thanks, I didn't realize there was an abuse button there - now I see it. I'll go do that. Appreciate it.
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