[nmh]

Shawn Hornbeck holds the keys to this mystery.

I suspect the boy in the photo was Arlin. If that is true, then Shawn might have good reason to be utterly TERRIFIED of Devlin - he would probably know about Arlins murdered by Devlin. Shawn may have been so worn down emotionally and psychologically that obedience was what he used to stay alive ... not allowing himself to think about being too old and a toy to be gotten rid of like Arlin.

I firmly believe that Shawn's days were NUMBERED when his replacement, Ben, was abducted.

[Abigail Adams]

This is such an interesting and mysterious development. Does this mean that Devlin perhaps kept Arlin captive for 6 years? What happened to him after that? Did Shawn meet Arlin? How many other children has Devil messed with? So many questions...

[sockmonkey]

Shawn might have good reason to be utterly TERRIFIED of Devlin

I have no doubt that Michael Devlin is a monster..just how depraved a monster he actually is, I doubt most of us can even fathom.

[BonneBlue]

Of course this is all speculation right now, but if this is true, can you imagine the thoughts Shawn had when Devlin wanted to go after another boy, Ben? Terrified is the least of it. I was afraid this would go deeper. The Sheriff said today, wait till the facts come out.

[pepsionice]

This is how this whole thing worked. Devlin hung around a bunch of guys at age 14/15. No social life....no girls because he was a geeky guy. He started working at 16 at the pizza joint. And by 20...he started to notice his geeky guys were meeting girls and getting married. They weren't always available to go party, drink, socialize or gamble. Somewhere around age 20-25...Devlin...still acting his life out at the cool age of 14 and with no maturity whatsoever...kidnapped his first boy. The boy...would be a play thing...his best buddy. Devlin had no mature mind...he was simply acting the the only good life he could remember. He went to the pizza joint for work and money....but resorted to the "buddy" for his other life. So he kidnapped kid number one.

Eventually...kid number one would leave...for whatever reason. And no...you will find that he didn't murder the kid. So he went onto kid number two...same MO...had to be around 13-14 years old. Then he moved later onto kid number three and finally kid number four. Yes...I'm betting there were a minimum of four kids kidnapped.

Same story for all...they were to be his buddies...he gave them what they needed...they provided his full life (what little there was) and things just kept going. I'm betting the older of these two kids there in the house...had been giving signals that he was going to move on...there was no future in Devlin's life. Why stay? And the kid could have walked at any point...but with this whole mess...why go back to his parents? Devlin didn't keep this kid locked up...as we will all figure out eventually. And that will lead to the long history...with several kids kidnapped and all serving the purpose of "buddy".