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KMOV - Kirkwood Police Devlin investigation


News 4 gains access to Kirkwood Police investigation of Michael Devlin
October 18th, 2007






The above news clip was actually of Tom Blanes - head of the FBI investigation
The actual article that the news article related to is reproduced below from the St Louis Post-Dispatch

A catalog of missed chances in Devlin case
By Jeremy Kohler and Todd C. Frankel
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/18/2007



Quote:
In late 2006, about three months before Shawn Hornbeck was rescued by police, the question was put directly to the teen who told everyone his name was Shawn Devlin and that Michael J. Devlin was his dad:

Are you really that kidnapped boy?

Shawn, then 15, was briefly away from his abductor. He was headed in a car with a good friend to a wrestling match. His friend's mother, Grace Milliken, drove. Her cell phone rang.

It was her cousin, who had noticed a missing-persons poster with Shawn Hornbeck's photo outside a Kmart. The image, although nearly four years old, looked just like the boy she knew as Shawn Devlin. The nose. The shape of the mouth. The earring in one ear. Could it be?


Milliken thought her cousin was crazy, but she turned to Shawn. "Is that your real dad or were you taken?" Milliken asked, half-joking.

Shawn looked dumbfounded, Milliken recalls. "Why would you ask that?" he responded. "That's my real dad." And it was dropped.

It was a near-miss — one of several cataloged by Kirkwood police in documents released Wednesday to the Post-Dispatch. The reports provide new details and insights into the ordeal suffered by Shawn Hornbeck and a second kidnapping victim, William "Ben" Ownby, 13.

Both were rescued from Michael Devlin's apartment in Kirkwood on Jan. 12. Shawn had been gone for four years, Ben for four days.

Devlin, 41, pleaded guilty last week in four jurisdictions to assorted charges of kidnapping, sexual assault, attempted murder and child pornography, and was sentenced to multiple life terms that will keep him in prison until at least age 96. His lawyers said he chose to avoid trial to spare the boys from testifying and ease the burden on his own family.

The Post-Dispatch does not normally identify victims of sexual abuse, but the names of Shawn and Ben are widely known.


The Kirkwood documents include interviews with dozens of people, including neighbors, co-workers, relatives and the two young victims themselves.

— A St. Louis man says he was Devlin's boyfriend for a period in 2000. The man also tells police Devlin bragged of a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old boy in Michigan that same year. Police talked with another man, who confirmed the adult relationship and overheard the comment about a purported incident with a boy.

But investigators found no outside evidence to support the claims, which appear to contradict what Devlin told the FBI shortly after he was arrested: that he never had any adult male lovers and that kidnapping Shawn was his first crime. The claims might explain why authorities investigating Devlin were especially interested in the disappearances of boys in Michigan and Minnesota. The FBI has said it has found no evidence of other victims.

Devlin's attorney, Michael Kielty, said any claims that his client had a boyfriend or other lovers is baseless. "This is one of many false reports," Kielty said. "You would have no idea how many crazies come out of the woodwork in a case like this."

— Devlin told Shawn that he was "the first," and Shawn told police he never saw any evidence in the apartment that other boys had been kidnapped before him.

— Three months after being kidnapped, Shawn was left alone while Devlin was in the hospital, having toes amputated due to diabetes. Shawn told police Devlin left him money to order pizza and called to check on him. Later, when Devlin was recuperating at his parents' home, he occasionally stopped by the apartment to make sure Shawn was still there and had enough money.

Devlin's former boss at an Imo's Pizza in Kirkwood, Mike Prosperi, previously told the Post-Dispatch that Devlin missed three months of work, from January to March 2003, for the amputation.

— Devlin's mother, Joyce Devlin, told police she visited her son's residence just once, years ago, even though it was only a few miles away.

His father, James Devlin Sr., said he had never been inside. The father told police the revelation that his son was a kidnapper "hit him like a baseball bat, he was so caught off-guard." His mother told police "they never even thought about the possibility that Michael was responsible for this."

— Devlin Sr. told police he once saw Devlin with a boy. "Mr. Devlin advised that approximately 2-3 years ago he saw Michael with a boy at Walgreens. Mr. Devlin advised that he asked Michael about the kid and Michael said it was a neighbor and he was baby-sitting. Mr. Devlin advised that he did not think anything of it after that."

— Shawn's girlfriend told authorities that in a phone conversation with him on Jan. 8 — the day Ben was kidnapped in Franklin County — Shawn said his dad, Devlin, did not want people just "showing up" at the apartment.

Two days later, Shawn came to her house appearing upset. She said he had been "acting odd all week" and had told her he would be leaving town for a wedding in Illinois over the weekend.

The next night, Jan. 11, she said she briefly talked to Shawn on the phone. He didn't call her back, which she thought was odd. The next day, Shawn sent her a text message; the report did not explain what he said. That was the day authorities discovered Shawn and Ben in the apartment.

— Shawn said that Devlin commented about 30 times over four years that Devlin wanted to "do things with another kid." He talked to Shawn about "getting another boy" about a month or two before Ben was kidnapped.

— The day Ben was kidnapped, Devlin told him that he previously tried to kidnap another kid, but a "dog barked." Devlin also told Ben that Shawn was a "kidnapped kid, too."

— Ben told police he was home alone with Shawn every day he was held, with Devlin at work and the boys spending time talking about and playing video games.

— Shawn told police one reason he did not try to run away was that he was afraid Devlin would "mess with my family." It was previously reported that Devlin tried to strangle him after about a month, and spared him on the promise he would accept captivity.

— Devlin provided Shawn with a library card and passes to the city parks and pool.

— Shawn often told curious friends that his mother had died in a car accident when he was young.

— A couple of days before Christmas 2006, an off-duty Kirkwood police officer recognized Devlin from Imo's; they smiled and waved at each other. The officer noticed a boy with Devlin but gave it no thought.

— A former co-worker said that whenever news coverage came over the Imo's TV about a child abuse or kidnapping, Devlin would make comments like abusers were "scum of the earth."