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Kidnap Victim Visible Via Xbox Community Site

Posted by Zonk on from the people-are-strange dept.

Via Joystiq comes the confusing tale of Shawn Hornbeck. Shawn was kidnapped more than four years ago, and his absence has made his parents worry and left a hole in his friends' lives. He's been returned safely home, so there's a happy ending to this tale. Strangely, though, he has been publicly visible for over a year now - via Xbox Live. From the Joystiq post: "The GamerTagPics profile for Xbox Live user 'DevilDevlin' shows the kidnapped Hornbeck outside what appear to be [alleged kidnapper Michael] Devlin's apartment. The profile was created Sept. 4, 2005 but hasn't been accessed since early 2006. DevilDevlin's Gamertag reveals that someone played Saints Row on the account as recently as Friday. It seems likely that Hornbeck used the account -- a Washington Post story reveals Devlin's neighbors 'often spotted Shawn out and about, visiting friends on his bicycle or playing video games with the apartment door open.'"

27 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. The real travesty here by Durrok · · Score: 5, Funny

    He was possibly playing Saint's Row and he is only 15! That game has an M rating! One can only imagine what this has done to that poor child's psyche.

    --
    I keep telling myself I'm not the desperate type.
  2. Kidnap? by Bob+Gelumph · · Score: 5, Funny

    Doesn't sound like kidnapping to me. "Hey kid, you wanna come play video games for a few years." "Sure, thanks mister"

    --
    I'm gonna need a spec.
    1. Re:Kidnap? by mharms1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It will be interesting to find out what Shawn's been up to all this time. According to a report on Foxnews.com:
      "Neighbor Rick Butler, 43, said the FBI came to his door Thursday night and showed a picture of Ben, asking if he had seen him. He said he had not. But he had seen a boy he now believes was Hornbeck.
      He said he saw no evidence that the boy now believed to be Hornbeck was scared or trying to get away. He had seen Devlin and the teen pitch a tent in the courtyard.
      "I didn't see or hear anything odd or unusual from the apartment," Butler said. "I just figured them for father and son."

      I have also heard that Hornbeck had access to a cell phone. I wonder why he didn't just call home?

    2. Re:Kidnap? by snarlydwarf · · Score: 3, Informative

      why bother when the kidnapper is in custody?

    3. Re:Kidnap? by Drachemorder · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's probably not just Stockholm. The boy got to play games all day and didn't have to go to school. To a kid, that's about a step down from paradise. It's quite possible he didn't really want to go home because of that.

    4. Re:Kidnap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      He had seen Devlin and the teen pitch a tent in the courtyard.

      Huh. Huh huh huh. Huh huh huh huh huh.
      </Beavis>

    5. Re:Kidnap? by Fred+Ferrigno · · Score: 4, Interesting

      According to some reports he posted a couple messages on the website for the foundation created by his parents in his name. He used his captor's last name (as Shawn Devlin) and asked "How long are you planing (sic) to look for your son?" It could have been Devlin himself, taunting the parents, but Devlin would have been unlikely to use Shawn's first name.

      Other details in the AP article confirm that he was mostly free and had plenty of access to the outside world. Apparently Devlin even taught him how to drive and he was seen driving the truck unsupervised at least once. Stockholm just seems too easy or too simple of an explanation.

    6. Re:Kidnap? by niteice · · Score: 3, Funny

      National Association of Marlon Brando Look-Alikes?

      --
      ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
  3. so now the feds are.... by ganjadude · · Score: 5, Funny

    gonna start looking through Xbox live users. You know for all the terrorist suspects and pedofiles (well you might find some of these type but) I can see it now

    bush -------- "halo is being used as a training device for the terrorists, we need access to the user database. NukeDukeum1987 has been posting terrorist threats -
    You are so Ded you think your 1337? bring it im gonna blow up your whole city than kidnap your son and make him my bitch-
    If we cant monitor these people, they have already won."

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  4. Worry? by avalys · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Shawn was kidnapped more than four years ago, and his absence has made his parents worry..."

    It's only January, and we already have a solid nomination for understatement of the year!

    This sounds like something a third-grader would say while giving a book report.

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    This space intentionally left blank.
    1. Re:Worry? by zcubed · · Score: 3, Funny

      Father: Hey, didn't someone else used to live here?
      Mother: I recall someone that use to eat all the food and leave a pile of dirty clothes, but I am trying to remember who that was.
      Father: Was he our son?
      Mother: Oh, that's right! Our son, I wonder where he is? I guess I should be worried about him, but it is nice not having to do all that laundry and cooking.


      Understatement indeed calling the parents worried after what was surely the most horrifying four years of their lives.

  5. common by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is more common then you would think.

    It has to od with how a child determins whats safe and whats not. In the beginnibg, he was probably afraid and wishing to be rescued. After a while the attacker becomes the protector and it seems somewhat normal. also, the attacker does things to remind the victom they are the provider and protector, maybe slipping in some things about how his real parrent gave him away durring a poker game or something. After time this will lead to the kid/victom not thinking anything is wrong.

    Don't believe me, just look at all these teen mothers who get stuck with some looser who refuses to get a job and provide for the family, they often get abused in the process too. They know it sucks yet they refuse to leave. It is the same thing. It happens quit often! and it usualy isn't because of the guy having a big dick either.

    Of course i could be wrong and the kid wanted to stay for other reasons. Maybe a sexual relationship or something. I doubt it though. Even that would require some sort of conditioning simular to the previous to get the kid to stay. Especialy when another kid was introduced.

  6. 2 + 2 != 5 by pla · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Devlin's neighbors 'often spotted Shawn out and about, visiting friends on his bicycle or playing video games with the apartment door open.

    Y'know, call me crazy, but... Does anyone else find this entire situation somewhat unbelievable as a "kidnapping"?

    In child kidnapping cases that don't involve a parent or close relative, they either:
    A) Recover the child within a few days, or
    B) Recover the body within a few months.

    Yet, in this case, we have a kid missing for four years, found in good health, who had the freedom to leave the apartment and hang out with friends?

    Not to take a "blame the victim" stance here, but did running into a friend's house and begging the friend's parents to call the police never cross this kid's mind? Hello?



    Personally, I suspect the kid ran away and eventually hooked up with some random guy that let him live there. As for the second kid, well, I can't explain that one so well, but the "kidnapping" angle just doesn't sit right with me.

    1. Re:2 + 2 != 5 by posterlogo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's actually quite common for young kidnapping victims to (1) initially be too afraid to even attempt escape or indicate to other strangers that they are being held against their will, and (2) to eventually get accustomed to their kidnapper(s). Of course (2) can happen to anyone, e.g. the Stockholm syndrome. It doesn't necessarily imply that the kidnapped child was previously in a unhappy situation which he/she wanted to get away from. I'm not sure what you're implying by "hooked up", but it seems unreasonable for you to even be making these points now given that the man obviously kidnapped again, as you pointed out.

    2. Re:2 + 2 != 5 by Johnny+Mnemonic · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not to take a "blame the victim" stance here, but did running into a friend's house and begging the friend's parents to call the police never cross this kid's mind?

      How about the kidnapper told the victim that his parents hated him and gave him away? Proof was that they failed to come for him--if they wanted him back they would have asked for him back. If he was fed and taken care of, like one does a pet, one could put up with a lot--and I'd guess he put up with a lot, as he wasn't allowed to compare it with normalcy to see how his situation differed.

      You may forget how impressionable an eleven-year old is, and what they can be led to believe.

      --

      --
      $tar -xvf .sig.tar
    3. Re:2 + 2 != 5 by pla · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I guess you were out hunting crocodiles and working as a mercenary in the Civil War of Congo when you were eleven?

      No, just fish, rabbits, and game birds, and only within a few miles (ie hiking distance) of my parents' house. From your question, I suppose Nintendo's "Duck Hunt", from the living-room floor, about did it for you, then?

      Every response to me so far has take the stance that 11YO kids count as completely helpless idiots. They don't. They have the presense of mind to get help when they direly need it. They don't consider "bad men" omnipotent evil deities that can kill them and their parents. They understand the difference between "Wierd uncle Joe" and "Some guy that dragged me into his car at the mall one afternoon".

      Hell, I don't think most of the responses so far would have applied to me at six. By eleven, I truly believe that if I couldn't have outright escaped, I would have killed the guy in his sleep.



      So yeah, if it makes me an "asshole", I have trouble believing this as a simple kidnapping.

      For one, how about a motive???

    4. Re:2 + 2 != 5 by ElleyKitten · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Y'know, call me crazy, but... Does anyone else find this entire situation somewhat unbelievable as a "kidnapping"?
      The guy was probably molesting the kid. Why else would you keep some random pre-teen in your house for four years without ever sending him home or calling child services? He was only 11 at the time, so the guy probably bribed him with games and threatened him with force until the kid got used to it and thought it was "normal". I imagine the parents would much rather the world think that he spent four years playing video games (even if they do "blame the victim") than tell the world their kid was molested for four years, so they're not talking. That makes the most sense, I think.

      Goddamit I hate it that you can't edit posts.
      --
      "What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
    5. Re:2 + 2 != 5 by Hogwash+McFly · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Read the story of Natascha Kampusch, and you'll find that the whole kidnapping game is not as straightforward as you might think. Natascha was taken out by her kidnapper to shops, even introduced to third parties as a friend, and could have run away many times during her kidnapping. Wolfgang Priklopil, the abductor, had threatened her with suicide if she escaped, as well as telling her that the house was booby trapped. It was an extremely unusual situation for all concerned, especially when Natascha expressed grief over her kidnapper's suicide.

      --
      Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
    6. Re:2 + 2 != 5 by sho222 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Goddamit I hate it that you can't edit posts.
      There is a handy preview feature though... Maybe it's disabled in IE7 - contact your tech support.
    7. Re:2 + 2 != 5 by ericlondaits · · Score: 5, Funny

      I completely agree with you.

      I once met this kid, couldn't have been more than eleven at the time, that was accidentally left home alone when his parents and brothers took a trip to France. During the first days the kid managed to do the cooking, cleaning and shopping all by himself, no problem. But then, he found out that some burglars had targeted the house assuming it was empty for the holidays, so this brilliant kid first tried to make the house appear occupied by a full family through some clever tactics and minor inventions (like cardboard cut-outs which he animated with ropes and then projected through the curtains).

      Eventually the burglars found out the house was just occupied by a very small kid and did the same as the GP here, and assumed 11 year olds are helpless morons. They found they were wrong the hard way, when the kid rigged the whole house making it a lethal burglar trap by using the coolest rube goldberg contraptions you can imagine.

      I could also tell you about very young kids who found a pirate's gold while exploring some sewers... but I think I made my point.

      --
      As a Slashdot discussion grows longer, the probability of an analogy involving cars approaches one.
    8. Re:2 + 2 != 5 by Chemisor · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > Personally, I suspect the kid ran away and eventually hooked up with some random guy that let him live there.

      Or may be he really was kidnapped, but wasn't too fond of his family.

      When I was a kid I had a sincere fantasy, hoping to be kidnapped by pirates and spend my teenage years robbing spanish galleons, courting lovely young ladies, and counting my piasters (yeah, I had been reading Captain Blood :) Life as a regular nerd in a big city just couldn't compare to the glory of the high seas...

  7. Um...why is this a Slashdot story? by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No, really. Some kid who was apparently kidnapped has his picture online. The only possible reason I can imagine is that there is an 'online' aspect to this story. But seeing as everyone and their granny is online these days I don't see why this story is interesting. Look on youtube, you'll see plenty of more interesting pictures than a picture of a kid who wasn't kidnapped.

    --
    Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
  8. Peter Pan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    More like MJ and Neverland

  9. Not surprising he kept quiet by the+Gray+Mouser · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Talk to any victim of sexual abuse you know. Most of them don't report it, especially while it's happening.

    Fear and shame are very, very powerful forces.

    What is truly scary is the thought that he kidnapped Ownby as a "replacement" for Hornbeck. Hornbeck had grown older, and was starting to look like an adult. Ownby is a very young looking boy.

    Even more scary is the thought that Shawn may have been a replacement for someone else.

  10. Officers brought him "home"? by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 2, Informative
    Larry Douglas said his younger brother, Tony, and Shawn were best friends and often went skateboarding and biking. He said Tony had no idea of Shawn's real identity. Larry Douglas said his family was not allowing his brother to speak to reporters.

    Before Tony Douglas' family made him unavailable to the media, he told Fox News that on three occasions, police stopped the two for being out beyond curfew. Officers gave the boys a lift home, unaware of Shawn's real identity, Tony said.

    The Post-Dispatch cited another encounter between Shawn and police that occurred Sept. 29 when an officer stopped the boy, who was riding his bike about 11:20 p.m., about a mile from the apartment.

    The police report stated that Shawn told the officer his name was Shawn Devlin and gave a birth date of July 7, 1991 - 10 days off his actual birthday. Shawn told the officer he was biking to the apartment after visiting a friend's home.

    ''He was wearing dark clothing and didn't have reflectors on his bike,'' Glendale Sgt. Bob Catlett told the newspaper. ''The officer stopped him to find out who he was.

    ''He said he was Shawn Devlin, and we had no reason to doubt him.''

    Tony sometimes spent the night at Shawn's apartment, but rarely spoke with Devlin. Larry Douglas said his brother saw no indication of abuse, or clues that Shawn was a captive.
    Source
  11. Maybe now I can find MY son! by Gerocrack · · Score: 3, Funny

    His name is XXmastorCheefRoxorsXX (it's a family name, on my mother's side.) I hope I can find him on Live...

  12. Reminds me of the Elephant Trap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    (from wikipedia)

    Elephant traps

    A method of confining elephants practiced in the Indian Subcontinent is far less physical and brutal, and more psychological, than earlier means. It is called the "elephant trap". The following is taken from a newsletter:

            From when an elephant is a baby they tie him for certain periods with a rope to a tree. The young elephant tries his hardest to escape, he pulls and wriggles and jumps and crawls yet the rope just tightens and to the tree it remains tied. Learning that, the elephant doesn't try to escape and accepts his confinement. A couple of years pass and the elephant is now an adult weighing several tons. Yet the trainer continues to tie the elephant to the tree with the same rope he's always used, for the simple reason that the elephant has the concept in his mind that the rope is stronger than him. Abiding to this conditioning the elephant is trapped for life. To break free all the elephant has to do is erase that limiting thought for in fact he is free to go.