Ecstatic parents of boys found in Missouri hail 'miracle'

[DeclinetoState]

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- Two very relieved and beaming families hugged their sons at news conferences Saturday, the day after the two missing boys were found -- one after four days, the other after four years.

Police had been searching for Ben Ownby, 13, who disappeared Monday, when they found him with another teenager in a man's apartment in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. That boy told the officers that he was Shawn Hornbeck, who was last seen riding his bike in 2002, when he was 11.

The man who lived in the apartment, Michael J. Devlin, 41, was arrested Friday and charged with one count of first-degree kidnapping, according to Franklin County Prosecutor Robert Parks.

CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/01/13/boys.found/index.html?eref=yahoo)

[Lubbock]

I still don't quite know what to make of this story.

It's only a miracle from God that the boy who was taken most recently was found alive.

As to the one who has been gone for almost five years, and was found living barely an hour from where he was taken, I just don't know what to make of.

Apparently this Devlin freak shares a name with a pedophile freak, because the first thing we heard was that Devlin was a convicted pedophole. That turns out not to be the case, and the Devlin greak who had the boys doesn't seem to be a known criminal.

I just don't know what to make of it.

The Ownby boy will probably come through his ordeal pretty much unscathed psychologically. It's anybody's guess as to the damage that's been done to the other boy.

I keep thinking about Steven Stainer who was taken and held for seven or so years, and all the hell that family has suffered as a result. I will always believe that Steven's abduction played a huge part in the fact that the younger brother became a four-time murderer

[DeclinetoState]

Being gone for four years from home is bound to be traumatic, no matter how old you are. When you're just 11 at the time of the abduction, by the time you get back you will have been gone for a quarter of your life. That's a huge chunk.

They should throw the book at the kidnapper.

[Lubbock]

The Hornbeck boy has suffered his own personal traumas during the time he was gone, while the parents and siblings have surrered their own trauma. The adjustments that the family will have to go through is more than I can even imagine.