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Task Force Press Conference
Task Force Hotline : 636-239-7496 OR 636-239-7614
Actual Full Press Conference Video
Full press conference here WARNING EXPLICIT WORDING TO CHARGES
After press conference footage here
Chris Regnier on Fox re: charges etc.
NEW - Hornbeck Family React to Charges
NEW - Devlin WhereAbouts/Previous Addresses
Press Release
Aired April 17th 2007
toneil@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8132 | St Louis Post-Dispatch
POTOSI — Michael J. Devlin sexually assaulted Shawn Hornbeck on the day he kidnapped the boy in 2002 and tried to suffocate him within the first month of captivity, according to new charges announced Tuesday.
Devlin now faces charges of attempted murder and sodomy in Washington County, where he was already facing kidnapping and armed criminal action charges.
Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John D. Rupp Jr. did not elaborate at a news conference Tuesday after reading the new counts.
Devlin, accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting Shawn, now 15, and William "Ben" Ownby, 13, faces a cascade of charges in three separate counties — Washington, Franklin and St. Louis — and in federal court.
Police arrested Devlin, 41, and freed the boys from his apartment in Kirkwood on Jan. 12, four days after Ben was abducted from Franklin County.
Shawn disappeared from near his home in Richwoods, in Washington County, on Oct. 6, 2002.
Rupp had been preparing for a May 9 preliminary hearing, a minitrial used to show a case merits trial. But he said he went instead to a grand jury, which meets in secret, to protect the victim from "the trauma of having to go through a public hearing."
Also at the news conference, Highway Patrol Sgt. Al Nothum asked the public for help in tracing a 1983 Toyota silver-and-gray pickup with a camper shell that Devlin owned — before he had the Nissan pickup allegedly used to abduct Ben.
Nothum said a task force investigating whether Devlin had abducted other children was interested in any information about Devlin's Toyota.
Rupp's reading of the new charges drew protests from one of Devlin's attorneys, who said they would try to move the case out of Washington County. Most St. Louis TV stations carried at least part of the news conference live.
"The inflammatory verbiage is unnecessary, prejudicial and unprofessional," said Devlin attorney Michael Kielty. "The (prosecutor) has decided upon a strategy to make it impossible to pick a fair jury."
Rupp responded, "Sorry he didn't like it, but that is what (Devlin) is charged with doing."
The indictment alleges that Devlin sexually assaulted Shawn three times and tried another time, in the first month of his captivity, but doesn't say where in Washington County.
Kielty said Devlin would plead not guilty to the new charges. He also said the defense "categorically denies Michael Devlin's involvement in any other cases."
Nothum said the task force had eliminated Devlin as a suspect in the abductions of two girls but added him as a suspect in the case of Steven Kraft, 12, who has been missing from Benton Harbor, Mich., since 2001. Devlin's family owned vacation property there.
Nothum said investigators were still looking for any links between Devlin and four other missing boys: Scott Allen Kleeschulte, who was 9 when he went missing in St. Charles in 1988; Charles Arlin Henderson, who was 11, missing from Moscow Mills since 1991; Dalton Mesarchik, 7, kidnapped from Streator, Ill., in 2003 and later found dead; and Jacob Wetterling, who was 11 when he went missing from St. Joseph, Minn., in 1988.
The cases involving girls are of Angie Marie Housman, who was 9 when she disappeared from St. Ann in 1993; and Bianca Noel Piper, who was 13 when she disappeared from Foley, in 2005.
Nothum said the task force believed that Devlin "knows what he was interested in, and it wasn't females."
He said officers also were seeking information on any vehicle that Devlin may have borrowed, and anything about trips he may have made in Missouri and Michigan.
"Nothing is too small in this case," Nothum said.
He asked people to call the task force at 636-239-7496 or 636-239-7614.
Additional Information from the Task Force
Also the task force are looking into the 2001 kidnapping of Steven Kraft from Benton Harbor. Michigan.
It is know that Devlin travelled in this area around this time.
Specifically they are looking into the areas around Benton Harbor and Pentwater, Michigan.
Steven Kraft lived in and dissappeared from Benton Harbor.
The Devlin's had a property at Pentwater.
They normally vacationed in Summer - Steven dissappeared in February.
However, Michael Devlin may have visited the property alone.
He was known to take weekends away in February.
Task Force are looking for Information on ANY vehicle that was loaned to Devlin for any length of time before 2001.
It is known that he drove many different vehicles that were NOT his own.
Anybody who knows about his travels is asked to come forward.
It is known he travelled widely in the following areas :St. Charles County, Lincoln County, Washington County amd Phelps County (near Rolla).
Anybody owning/working in a motel/Campground/Cabin etc. may remember Devlin over the past 18 years.
Also looking for the whereabouts on any details on a 1983 silver-and-gray Toyota pickup truck with a White Stripe and a Camper Shell that Devlin owned before his current vehicle.
This is a typical 1983 gray Toyoya pickup without the Camper Shell
There should also be a WHITE stripe running from front to door.
Anyone with ANY information should call :
Task Force Hotline : 636-239-7496 OR 636-239-7614
Both these lines will be staffed 24 hours a day
What everyone MUST remember is that NO information is TOO SMALL.
Photographs have also been released of
Michael Devlin from 1988 onwards
Three appear below from DECEMBER 1988 :
Next from the period 1991 - 1993
Next one from October 1997
Next one from November 2000
More details when we have them.....
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