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World famous psychic Sylvia Browne is dead at the age of 77, according to her website. Browne, who made appearances on programs like "Larry King Live" and "Unsolved Mysteries," died Wednesday morning in San Jose, California, the site reported. Her son, Chris, confirmed her death to TMZ, saying she passed away while surrounded by family and friends. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/psychic-sylvia-browne-dead-77-reports-article-1.1524107#ixzz2lFGsj590

This week, Michael Devlin pleaded guilty in four different Missouri courts to charges of abduction, sexual assault and attempted murder involving two boys: Shawn Hornbeck and William (Ben) Own by. That brought to a close a case that riveted the nation back in January when police, who were searching for Ben, found him at Devlin’s apartment along with Shawn, a teenager who had been missing for more than four years. New disturbing details about the kids’ captivity emerged during Devlin’s court appearances this week. He admitted to tying Shawn to a futon in the early days after kidnapping him, making...

ST. LOUIS — For nearly a year, two Missouri boys have been preparing to walk into a courtroom and face the man accused of kidnapping and abusing them. Now, an apparent surprise deal will spare them the ordeal. Michael Devlin, the former pizzeria manager accused of kidnapping Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby, will plead guilty next week to kidnapping and sexual abuse charges, a prosecutor and a relative of one of the boys said Friday. Devlin's surprise decision brings a sudden end to a massive criminal case that has drawn international attention.

One of the more disturbing of the more than a dozen images obtained by KTVI appears to show Hornbeck with his face shrouded in a red bandanna pointing a gun at the camera. Investigators say the images show a "different side" of Hornbeck, and they hope that they will help them piece together the teen's puzzling disappearance.

Monster Next Door? From Webster Groves High to Imo’s Pizza to a cheap apartment in a forlorn corner of Kirkwood. For years Michael Devlin was all but invisible. Now he’s Public Enemy No. 1. By Malcolm Gay Michael Devlin as he appears in his junior-year photo in the 1983 Webster Groves High School yearbook. Jennifer Silverberg After working for roughly twenty years at the Imo's Pizza in Kirkwood, Michael Devlin had become a neighborhood fixture. Jennifer Silverberg Authorities allege that Devlin held Shawn Hornbeck and William "Ben" Ownby captive in this ground-floor apartment on South Holmes Avenue near I-44 in...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Detectives investigating accused kidnapper Michael Devlin have shown photographs of a teenage boy to the family of Charles "Arlin" Henderson, asking if the pictures resemble the then-11-year-old who disappeared in 1991, Arlin's relatives said Wednesday. Arlin's mother, Debra Henderson, and his uncle, James McWilliams, were both shown the pictures this week by Lincoln County Sheriff's detectives. McWilliams said detectives told him the pictures came from someone who claims to know Devlin and who said the teenage boy pictured was an acquaintance of Devlin's from years ago. Detectives were investigating whether the source did in fact know...

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

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. - Shawn Hornbeck's parents hope "to step out of the spotlight" to focus on their abducted son's healing now that he has returned home. That plan to take a lower profile was announced Tuesday during a news conference, as a suburban St. Louis homebuilder detailed plans to build a new house for Shawn and his parents, Craig and Pam Akers. The home will include office space for the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, which Shawn's parents began as a means to aid in the search for missing kids soon after Shawn disappeared in 2002.

(KMOV) -- Authorities close to the case tell News 4, that Shawn Hornbeck was forced to help kidnap Ben Ownby. Those authorities say that Shawn Hornbeck, a kidnapping victim himself, was forced to participate in the abduction of 13-year-old Ben Ownby and that a gun and duct tape were involved. Police say that Michael Devlin grabbed Ben Ownby after the boy got off his school bus on a rural road, but News 4 has learned that Devlin had help.

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. -- A St. Louis-based homebuilder is donating a new house to Shawn Hornbeck and his family. McBride and Son Homes said the ranch-style home will be built on the property where Shawn and his parents now live in Richwoods.

The man who fathered kidnapped teen Shawn Hornbeck was a convicted sex offender who did three years in a Missouri prison on drug and sodomy charges, The Post has learned. The late Walter Hornbeck was 60 when Shawn was born to him and his wife, Pamela Akers. He had little contact with his son, Akers said. Akers kicked him out of the house when the boy was just 6 months old, and the couple divorced in 1992, about a year after Shawn was born. Hornbeck was arrested in Washington County, near St. Louis, on Sept. 30, 1992, and charged with...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The man accused of kidnapping two Missouri boys and holding one of them for four years said life was good for him during that period, a newspaper reported Sunday. In two 15-minute interviews at the Franklin County Jail in Union, Missouri, Michael Devlin told The New York Post his own parents, who live nearby, have not visited him since his arrest earlier this month. "I don't know how I'm going to explain myself to my parents," Devlin, 41, told the Post in his first public comments since his arrest, aside from a brief court appearance.

UNION, Mo. — The hulking pizza manager accused of snatching two boys in Missouri is so ashamed of his arrest, he can't face his own mom and dad. "I don't know how I'm going to explain myself to my parents," said Michael Devlin, who is accused of kidnapping Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby, in an exclusive interview with The New York Post. "It's much easier talking to a stranger about these things than your own parents."

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Investigators announce a task force made up of federal, state and local investigators to examine whether the man accused of abducting Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby is responsible for other child kidnappings in eastern Missouri. Michael Devlin is charged in kidnappings in both Franklin County, where 13-year-old Ben was abducted January eighth, and Washington County, where eleven-year-old Shawn was abducted more than four years ago.

The media is beside itself trying to understand why Shawn Hornbeck, the youngster kidnapped four-and-a-half years ago, remained a captive despite being on his own much of the time. All the would-be psychologists on TV and in the press have been speculating wildly, coming up with a myriad of reasons such as a case of the Stockholm syndrome, for example, as to why the youngster did not flee his alleged captivity when he had many opportunities to get away from his alleged kidnapper. None of these people know what they are talking about. They don’t have the vaguest idea of...

Shawn Hornbeck's parents say they may never know the full story as to why their son Shawn never attempted to contact them or to escape during the more than four years he lived with the man police say abducted him in 2002. But they said comments by Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly that the boy may have enjoyed living with Michael Devlin more than his family had infuriated the couple. Shawn's stepfather, Craig Akers, said in an interview with TIME late Thursday evening. "Our son was 11 when he was abducted. A child that age can be mentally manipulated in...

SHAME ON BOY'S FOLKS AND OPRAH By LINDA STASI January 19, 2007 YESTERDAY, the parents of Shawn Hornbeck did what any parent whose child had been held captive and suf fered hell on earth would do in this circumstance: They put him on TV to suffer further pain, shame and humiliation. On "Oprah" yet. Yes, Pam and Craig Akers, Shawn's parents, who say they have not (yes, that's "not") asked him about his ordeal because it would be too painful right now, nonetheless had no problem dragging their traumatized child out before God and everyone to answer questions on national...

ST. LOUIS - 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. The comments came the same day the man suspected of snatching 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck in 2002 pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping another boy on Jan. 8. Michael Devlin, a 41-year-old pizzeria manager, was accused of taking 13-year-old Ben Ownby just after he got off the school bus in Beaufort. A schoolmate's tip about...

Devlin also is under investigation in the 1991 disappearance of another Missouri boy who still has not been found, The Associated Press has learned. 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. ... Investigators began re-examining the 1991 case after Devlin's arrest. Detective Chris Bartlett said a witness saw a man snapping photos of Arlin before the Moscow Mills boy vanished. Arlin's uncle, James McWilliams, said the boy came home from school a few months before...

Soon after the media reported Friday that a St. Louis-area boy who had been missing four days was found — along with a teen who had been missing four years — people all over the country took up the case. Those cybersleuths, most without even a hint of police training, began searching the Internet for information about the man who is accused of kidnapping Ben Ownby, missing since last week, and Shawn Hornbeck, who disappeared in 2002. They searched sex offender registries across the nation for the suspect's name, Michael Devlin, and gathered all sorts of news articles and other...