Teen Says He Was 'Terrified' Of Captor

Michael J. Devlin, the suburban St. Louis man accused of abducting two boys and holding one for four years, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Franklin County, Mo., court to one count of kidnapping in last week's abduction of William "Ben" Ownby, 13.

Devlin was also charged with felony kidnapping and felony armed criminal action in nearby Washington County, Mo., on Wednesday in the 2002 abduction of Shawn Hornbeck, 15. Prosecutor John D. Rupp Jr. has alleged that Devlin, 41, initially brandished a handgun to control Shawn, then 11 years old.

Shawn told Oprah Winfrey during an interview aired yesterday that he did not try to flee from Devlin because he was "terrified," even though he would regularly ride his bike alone and had access to a cellphone and a computer. He confirmed that he posted a message signed "Shawn Devlin" on the Web site that his parents, Pam and Craig Akers, set up to search for him and other missing children. The post, which asked how long the Akerses planned to look for their son, was an effort to send a signal, he told Winfrey.

The Akerses told Winfrey they thought Shawn had been sexually abused during his time with Devlin, though they said they had not asked him directly.

Hornbeck and Ownby were found last week after police recognized Devlin's white pickup truck while serving a warrant to another resident at the apartment complex where he lived.

Sharon Cooper, a forensic pediatrician at the University of North Carolina and a consultant for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said it would not be hard for someone such as Devlin to make an 11-year-old afraid to leave.

"At that age, it's very easy to convince them of anything once you have removed them from their support system," she said. "He was in such isolation, deprived of his family, deprived of school and normal social contact, he was in a circumstance without other outlets to help him make a decision. He's totally helpless and having to rely almost totally on an offender for his basic needs -- food, clothing, shelter. He is dependent on that individual for his own survival."

Devlin's relatives, locally well known, did not know until the arrest that he had children living with him. For security reasons, he made his not-guilty plea via closed-circuit television, and he declined to make a statement.

The Franklin County prosecutor's office, which would not comment further, said Devlin's first hearing will be March 15. His attorneys are asking for a change of venue for the trial. Devlin is being held in isolation in the Franklin County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail, and his bail is set at $3 million in Washington County.

The U.S. attorney's office in St. Louis has been working with local prosecutors, but no federal charges have been filed, said local Justice spokeswoman Jan Diltz. An FBI spokesman in St. Louis said federal charges will be considered.

Detectives in Lincoln County, Mo., an hour's drive from St. Louis, are looking for clues that might link Devlin to the disappearance of Charles Arlin Henderson, who was 11 when he vanished while riding his bike in 1991, or to the case of Bianca Piper, who disappeared from a rural road in March 2005, when she was 13. Police in nearby St. Charles are also investigating whether Devlin could be linked to the disappearance 19 years ago of Scott Kleeschulte, then 9.

"When you look at Ben, Shawn and Arlin, there are some striking similarities, both physically and in the way they disappeared," said Lt. Rick Harrell, spokesman for the Lincoln County sheriff's department. "Like Shawn, Arlin was on his bike in a rural area. And Bianca is female, but we can't automatically discount her case either. When you have Ben and Shawn found alive, you have a glimmer of hope that we'll find our missing kids and get them back in their parents' arms."