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Missing Missouri Boys Reunited with Families

Aired January 13, 2007 - 10:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Keeping an eye here on the press conference we are expecting out of Missouri. We are expecting to hear from the sheriff's officials, the Franklin County sheriff's department, after -- like we've been saying today got good news. Two missing boys -- one of them been missing for four years -- found together, the other boy missing for four days.
We saw them earlier, heard from the family of Shawn Hornbeck. The 15-year-old had been missing for four years, emotional reunion with his family. You are seeing some of that press conference we showed earlier there on the left, but there he is in the middle.

But on the right, what you're seeing, sheriff's department officials at the top of the hour. It does looks like they're about to start, said they were going to start this about 11:00. We're expecting the family of the other boy found -- and expecting at 11:00.

But Ben Hornby -- excuse me, Ownby, the other boy, Ownby, Ben Ownby, been missing for four days, expecting his family to speak at this press conference as well. We are looking at the sheriff of Franklin County, Gary Toelke, but it looks like they are going to start this thing and maybe just a couple minutes early. So we will stick around here and see what happens with it. But hoping to get a lot of information here.

Sounds like he's getting going, so we'll listen in.

SHERIFF GARY TOELKE, FRANKLIN COUNTY, MISSOURI: The family is with us today. They brought Ben along, and I'm sure you've probably heard from the other news conference with the Akers family with Shawn Hornbeck. We would rather that you not ask any questions of the family about the investigation itself.

Obviously, you know, if you want to know how they're feeling and they're emotions, that sort of thing, there's no problem, but anything that basically happened after the arrest is part of the judicial process from now on, and we would rather that you didn't get into that area. In fact, we won't be able to answer it for you, so I'm going to kind of apologize ahead of time, I guess, here.

But I'm going to start off, I guess, and say a few things, and I have some gentlemen with me this morning that we're honored to have: Bob -- Robert Parks, Franklin County prosecuting attorney; Roland Covington, the special agent in charge of the FBI office in St. Louis. Lee Manning (ph) and Joe Bergun (ph), they're from the Missing and Exploited Children's network, or Team Adam (ph), I guess you can it. Yes? (CROSSTALK)

TOELKE: And Colonel Jim Keefly (ph), superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

So to get started, you know, one of the important things in this investigation has been participation of the public, and obviously, the media. And we could probably talk for the rest of the afternoon or spend the rest of the afternoon thanking people that have helped us with this. If you go out of our office and go in the lobby, it looks like a grocery store, all the food that people have brought up.

And I was talking to the Ownbys the other day, and they said, hey, we've got some extra food. Can we bring it out to you guys? Like I said, they've probably got a stack out by their house too, but the public has been outstanding with this as far as helping us through this, giving us information, handing out flyers, and, again, you know, I just can't thank them enough.

The gentlemen behind us, all their people have been involved in this investigation. You know, this has been a team effort, and like I've said before, I'm the spokesman up here talking for these folks and for the ground troops that were out there doing all the work. They deserve all the credit in making this thing a success, and there was a tremendous amount of work that went into this.

You know, I know a lot of you at times want to come in and look at the war room or the command center just to see what's going on. I wish we could do that because I know you would appreciate it, but, you know, obviously we can't because of the information we have posted on the walls, ceilings of wherever we can hang it. But, you know, it's just like taking a bag of confetti and throwing it up in the air and holding the bag out and everything comes back in. You know, it's quite an operation.

Like I said, I appreciate all the help of every -- that everybody gave us and I'll go ahead and answer a few questions. I'll turn it over to Prosecutor Parks and then if you have any questions of any of the gentlemen behind us here, I'm sure they'll be happy to answer them for you.

As soon as that's over, then we'll have the Ownby family come out and they can answer some questions for you, so.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) what are the emotions today? I mean (INAUDIBLE) you were talking about last night (INAUDIBLE) didn't get much sleep.

What's going through your mind today, after this amazing resolution to not only this case, but to the Hornbeck?

TOELKE: Well, when I woke up this morning, after I did finally fall asleep, you know, I'm sitting here thinking I hope when I wake up this is still here or still going on. It's just, you know, you can't really express it. You don't go through something like this, you know, but once in a lifetime, thank heavens. But there's just really nothing to describe it. It's just one heck of a feeling, a good feeling.

QUESTION: Sheriff, who's the real hero here? Is it a young boy, a friend of Ben's, who was so precise on his description of that vehicle that (INAUDIBLE)?

TOELKE: There's a lot of heroes here. Mitchell being one, the police officers that found the vehicle and we got a tip from a citizen on this vehicle, too, that, you know, we -- actually we had already found out about it. But, you know, they would have been very beneficial. Just the public giving us information is just a -- it's been a group effort, a team effort.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Sheriff, I heard a resident in Buford say that you're batting three for two. You have over a 1,000 percent batting average going and ...

TOELKE: Well, you know, it's like I said, there -- it's a Super Bowl team that worked on this thing. And, you know, if -- and I've mentioned this before, if this was a member of my family, I'd want these people working on it.

QUESTION: What do you know about Mr. Devlin that we can (INAUDIBLE)?

TOELKE: We've still got quite a bit of work to do on Mr. Devlin. Obviously, we need to know a lot more about this background. We'll probably start doing it, along with the Bureau, next week. So there's a lot of leg work that needs to be done. You know, the case, as far as we're concerned, is at a successful conclusion. But there's still a lot of groundwork that needs to be done, a lot of leg work.

QUESTION: Sheriff, could you discuss a little bit about, since you had so little information, how you kept repeating and repeating that description of the vehicle? Do you (INAUDIBLE) information you had and how the strategy is to just keep getting that out there?

TOELKE: Yes, basically that's all we had, you know? But it was an important piece. And it's -- like we mentioned in the Woods case, you know, somebody knew where Abby Woods was and, you know, somebody was hesitant to call and finally did.

And we knew in this case somebody other than the owner would know where that truck was. Somebody had to have seen that truck, as distinctful as it was. And that's all we needed was that person to call and let us know where that truck was at and we felt confident that we could definitely make some progress once that happened.

And that's the way it worked out. And getting that word out there was what did the trick, just to keep pounding it.

QUESTION: And had Mr. Devlin made any attempts to change the look of the vehicle?

TOELKE: I don't think so. Not that we could tell, at least at this point. So -- Randy?

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) described the moments when you learned that this family had also (INAUDIBLE)?

TOELKE: Mr. Covington informed me, so I'll let him -- I'll let him pass it on to you.

ROLAND COVINGTON, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: I can only say that as a result of the interview with Mr. Devlin, we went back to the apartment and located both children in the apartment. And one interesting point I wanted to make is when our agents entered the apartment, young Ben, as he was sitting there, he looked up at one of our agents and said, "Are you going to take me home?"

And the agent looked over at Shawn Hornbeck and asked Shawn to identify himself, to which Shawn said, "Yes, I am Shawn Hornbeck."

So after that, it was quite euphoric, obviously, and we're very pleased at the outcome.

And I want to thank the media. I want to thank all the departments that we worked with so cooperatively in making this happen. We're very fortune that this happened in this fashion. As you all know, these situations do not often end up with recoveries. In fact, the last recovery I could think of was Elizabeth Smart, that occurred in Salt Lake City. And she was held for about a year.

But thank you very much.

QUESTION: Agent, could you explain that process between the first interview. You said that they interviewed Mr. Devlin and then they went into the apartment?

That's the first I've heard of it.

COVINGTON: No ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They might have -- exactly.

COVINGTON: ...in light of what is going on here, I'm not going to comment any more.

QUESTION: Do you know if Mr. Devlin was a complete stranger to both of these boys? Had there been any contact with him and either of these boys before?

TOELKE: We still don't know that yet. That's part of the investigation. We really haven't, you know, we'll let the boys spend some time with their families and there'll be interviews in the future. And, you know, those are all things to be determined yet.

And even if they are, I don't know that we'll be able to release that until the case is over.

QUESTION: Isn't it harder to solve a stranger abduction?

TOELKE: Yes, ma'am.

QUESTION: How much?

TOELKE: A lot.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) is there a reason to believe that Devlin has taken other children?

For example, you know, (INAUDIBLE) other children (INAUDIBLE) from rural areas such as most of these cases? Do you have any that leads you to believe there might be something else out there with regards to this guy?

TOELKE: Those are all things that we'll be looking into in the future. Obviously, that's a possibility and, you know, we'll be checking into that.

Bob, do you want to say a few words?

ROBERT PARKS, FRANKLIN COUNTY, MISSOURI PROSECUTOR: Again, I want to thank the media. Without your cooperation in this, this happy ending for everybody would not have been made possible.

We will not be able to go into the details of the investigation. Missouri rules of ethics do not allow us to talk about a lot of the things that I know that you would like us to be talking about.

We have charged Mr. Devlin with one count of the Class A felony of kidnapping. We will be reviewing this case to see if there will be more charges.

The prosecutor from Washington County, John Ruff, is here. They will be looking at this case, also. I have also been in contact with Bob McCullah's office in St. Louis County. They will be looking to see if there will be any charges filed against Mr. Devlin out of St. Louis.

But the fortune thing is, is that we have him. He is behind bars. He's not going anyplace. And now we have a little bit of the luxury of time to really pull this case together.

So what we are looking for is a successful prosecution of Mr. Devlin and we ask for your cooperation now in letting us get on with that.

And I'm -- does anyone have any questions ...

QUESTION: Well, (INAUDIBLE) when you guys went in the house, (INAUDIBLE) it's not really a (INAUDIBLE) but who was it? Was it (INAUDIBLE) police, FBI? Who went in? Who was it that made the contact with Sean and Ben? Do you know ...

PARKS: I am not exactly sure who was on the scene at that time.

QUESTION: Does anybody else know who went in there or what?

PARKS: No. No.

QUESTION: Did Devlin readily admit? Did he readily admit to abducting ...

PARKS: I'm not going to get into any of the details of the investigation.

Yes, ma'am.

QUESTION: Do you know if Devlin was (INAUDIBLE)?

COVINGTON:

PARKS: At this time, no. But it's Saturday and the courts are closed. So it's kind of hard for anybody to enter for him. I'm sure that there will be, at the beginning, at least, an attorney appointed for him, unless he hires his own. At this point, we know nothing about that.

He will be arraigned next week in Franklin County on the one count in Associate Circuit Court. But I do not know exactly what day that will be.

QUESTION: Do we know anything about Mr. Devlin's pedigree, his background and prior record?

PARKS: No, nothing at this time.

QUESTION: How was his demeanor?

PARKS: I really don't k. I haven't seen him in the jail or anything.

QUESTION: Can you talk about ...

TOELKE: There's another gentleman here I missed a while ago, a Sheriff Schraeder (ph) from Washington County. He's from the county where Shawn Hornbeck lives. I'd appreciate him coming up then and, you know, all his help in this, too.

There's two gentlemen behind me that had worked with us in the Abby Woods case and also in this case, Lee Manning and Joe Bergun.

They're with the Missing and Exploited Children's Network.

That's an outstanding organization as far as resources and help in investigating these cases.

I don't know if you want to talk, maybe, Joe or Lee, about some of the things that you do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead. You've been doing it a lot longer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the National Center provides a host of networking and resources for law enforcement. For example, one of them being ChoicePoint. I think within the first 24 hours, we distributed 8,100 posters via ChoicePoint to targeted faxes within a 99-mile radius of where the boy went missing.

We also provided assistance through family advocacy with the families of missing children.

But there are quite a few resources that we have available to assist local law enforcement.

QUESTION: Well, the sheriff said last night that you were (INAUDIBLE) on the Abby Woods case and she (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Mr. Luck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's coincidence. That's all it is.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it is. It's great. It's great.

QUESTION: Could you talk about how you maybe heard from other parents of missing children, whether this has given them hope?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Part of the National Center program is a group -- a project called Project Team Hope. And these are parents that have been through the experience or they still have children out there that we haven't found. And they -- they're support people. They call up and they'll talk to the families and tell them don't give up hope.

So there's always hope out there. You just never k. You just -- Lee mentioned the Elizabeth Smart case, the same way with that one. Those parents didn't give up. Shawn's family, they've been strong for this not giving up hope, this, you know, all the years that he's been gone. They've been out there doing search and rescues and talking to people and they have, you know, given a lot of help to families.

So never give up hope. We don't give up hope. The law enforcement doesn't give up hope. The good guys win once in a while. And god is with us, that's the main thing.

TOELKE: Mr. Covington, do you want to say a few words? (INAUDIBLE).

COVINGTON: I just wanted to add that due to the results of the search of Devlin's apartment, we are going to explore the feasibility of filing federal charges against Mr. Devlin, in cooperation with the county prosecutors, as well as the office of the United States Attorney.

And the second point I wanted to make is that the FBI views these types of abductions as a priority investigative matter and we will continue to pursue the resolution of such matters aggressively and we will bring all the resources that we can to bear on the individuals that do such things.

Thank you.

QUESTION: Could you tell us the type of charges?

(CROSSTALK)

COVINGTON: No.

QUESTION: Could you tell us the type of charges, when you say federal?

COVINGTON: I won't comment on the type of charges at the same time, no.

TOELKE: Colonel Pollihan do you want to say a few words?

COL. STEPHEN POLLIHAN, ST. LOUIS CITY POLICE: I don't really have a whole lot to say other than what the sheriff has already said. But we -- our prayers have been answered. We've been praying for this for quite some time. And, you know, four years is a long time to pray. And it's just a great day.

Yesterday was the greatest day of my life, to see this come to an end. I've been in law enforcement for 29 years and never seen anything like this.

But a lot of this is a credit to the team, as the sheriff mentioned earlier. This was a great team. The sheriff activates the team early on. He looks for state and federal resources when available and maximizes his opportunity to solve crimes. And that's the reason we have such great success in this county.

It seems like this county has had its share of heartache recently, with the deputy shot, what, just a couple of weeks ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

POLLIHAN: And I hear he's doing well. And it seems like that constantly we're having issues come up in Franklin County, but they seem to all have really good outcomes. And I don't know if it's luck or what, but I have to say that it's the actions of the sheriff in getting everybody involved that needs to be involved and maximizing the resources that are out there available is the reason that this has the outcomes that they do. And I'd like to congratulate you for that.

TOELKE: Thank you.

Appreciate it.

POLLIHAN: Thank you.

QUESTION: Shawn's ...

TOELKE: Just so you know, as Colonel Pollihan said, the deputy that was shot a couple of weeks ago is home now. He came home Wednesday while all this was going on and he's actually been up in the office to visit us. It looks like he's doing fine and going to make a good recovery. So I'll just pass that on to you.

One more question, then we'll bring the family out.

QUESTION: Shawn's parents have said that they would like to see Devlin behind bars, at least behind bars for a lifetime.

Is that possible with these charges?

TOELKE: I'm going to let Bob answer that.

PARKS: It's my hope that this guy never sees the outside of a jail cell in his natural life. And we're going to do everything here in this county to make sure that that happens.

TOELKE: You want to go ahead and bring the family out or?

PARKS: Yes, let's -- we will -- just one caveat. Ben is not going to be answering any questions. There is a spokesperson for the family. You can direct your comments to him. He will answer any questions that he can.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: So we are now waiting for the family of 13 -year-old Ben Ownby to arrive and speak to the media today. And what we just heard there is we might even see Ben Ownby himself, as his family starts to come into the room here.

We heard a little bit -- there's Ben right there, a 13-year-old who was missing a little bit earlier this week and was found yesterday.

While we won't hear from him, it is good to be able to see him alive and well today, after being missing for some four days. He was found, as you know, with Shawn Hornbeck, 15 years old. Love to see that smile. No telling what he's been through, but hopefully we'll learn more as we hear from his family in just a few moments from now.

HOLMES: Yes, they put him up front and on display there. He got a little -- he got a little shy there with this -- with this attention. But everybody's been looking for you there, Ben. Everybody is glad to see you. A four day ordeal for him. And, of course, as we heard, a much longer ordeal for the boy he was found with, Shawn Hornbeck, 15 years old. He's been missing for some four years.

It looks like there's a spokesperson speaking now.

We'll listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- about the emotion. And it was just a roller coaster all weekend. I was (INAUDIBLE) trying to come to fruition yesterday of what were the emotions, you know, like having him back home.

DORIS OWNBY, MOTHER OF BEN OWNBY: We were just ecstatic. We don't want to let him go or out of our sight. He -- he doesn't want us to hold onto him, but we have. Just -- we're just excited and happy to have him at home.

QUESTION: Where were you when you heard the news?

How did they contact you and when you first (INAUDIBLE) what was going through your mind?

D. OWNBY: Oh, we were in the middle of an interview. And Officer Copeland came in and we went in and talked to him. And then we come to this -- the sheriff's department and Ben came in and we grabbed him and didn't let him go.

QUESTION: What did he tell you? I mean obviously you went (INAUDIBLE), we were talking, you went in (INAUDIBLE) abandon Shawn (INAUDIBLE)?

D. OWNBY: Pretty much like that. We -- we have him and that's, you know, that's it. That was enough. You know, what else did we need to hear? We have Ben, you know?

QUESTION: And what about when you heard (INAUDIBLE)?

D. OWNBY: Oh, man, that was just -- just as exciting as having Ben back. You know, we live -- you know, we watch the news and we prayed for Shawn, also, when it's just great to have both of them back home.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) you look great, obviously. And (INAUDIBLE).

D. OWNBY: He's Ben. He's Ben. The first thing we asked him what he wanted to do when he got home and he said he wanted to play computer games so, you know -- so when we got home, he got him something to eat and then he was sitting there next to me knowing that I probably didn't want him to leave. And I looked at him and I said, "Do you want to go to your room?"

And he said, "Yes."

So ...

QUESTION: When you see all the signs and fliers (INAUDIBLE) put out, do you have a reaction to that?

D. OWNBY: Yes, he did. He was -- yes, he did. It was a little overwhelming for him.

QUESTION: Can you talk about the -- that when you saw him for the first time?

D. OWNBY: Oh, I just was just ecstatic, you know?

QUESTION: What were your first words?

D. OWNBY: I didn't say anything. I grabbed him and held him. That was it.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Were they watching the TV coverage (INAUDIBLE)? Do we know?

D. OWNBY: We ...

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) as a dad, I mean you guys were obviously, you were stuffing fliers, getting ready for the weekend.

WILLIAM OWNBY, BEN OWNBY'S FATHER: Right.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) yesterday at this time. And could you talk to us a little bit about just the emotional roller coaster of these past few days?

W. OWNBY: The emotions are up, down. But, you know, the support we got from this community, law enforcement, people we didn't know, out of state. I had a Boy Scout leader from West Virginia call me. It was just overwhelming. I'm just speechless.

The favors I owe now to people.

QUESTION: Is that the kind of thing that helped get you through this? I mean how did you guys deal with this, get through some (INAUDIBLE)?

W. OWNBY: Yes, it was the support from the community and friends and family.

QUESTION: Have you been able to talk to the (INAUDIBLE) and Craig Akers at all throughout this?

D. OWNBY: We talked to him last night. We congratulated them and gave -- we both gave each other hugs and just -- yes.

QUESTION: I know it's very early, but what do you plan to do for the weekend and then school, I guess, starts up again next week.

What are you plans? How do you deal with that?

D. OWNBY: We haven't made any plans yet. We're still working on it.

W. OWNBY: We're still overwhelmed right now.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE), what did you all do last night after (INAUDIBLE)?

W. OWNBY: That was 1:30 in the morning. We were ready to go to sleep.

QUESTION: Were you able to sleep last night? D. OWNBY: Oh, yes.

W. OWNBY: Of course. We were just so relieved we could finally relax.

D. OWNBY: I just told him when I went to bed, just don't stay up too late and then ...

QUESTION: What was your first thought when you woke up this morning?

D. OWNBY: I went and checked on him.

QUESTION: What do you think your message would be, at this point, (INAUDIBLE) to other families who, you know, are in similar situations and haven't had the resolution that you guys have had? What do you think that a situation like yours or Shawn's, what's the message (INAUDIBLE)?

W. OWNBY: Well, it's -- it really seems bleak, but you can't quit trying. You've got to do go forward and do what you can. And I just -- and hopefully anyone else in this situation, the community will step forward and support them like this community supported us.

QUESTION: Now you're trying to put your life back together and move forward, right?

W. OWNBY: Right.

QUESTION: I mean (INAUDIBLE) just a day by day process.

But how do you do that?

D. OWNBY: We don't know. We haven't gone through it.

QUESTION: A 41 -year-old man just put this family through hell.

Do you have a message for him right now, because a lot of people ...

W. OWNBY: Our focus is just, now that we've got our son back, we're not going to think about him.

QUESTION: What are Amanda's thoughts (INAUDIBLE)?

AMANDA OWNBY: I'm just really glad to have Ben back.

QUESTION: How grateful are you to Mitchell?

D. OWNBY: Oh, old man. What a great kid. We haven't had a chance to talk to him or anything yet, so, yes. He's owed a great big hug from all of us -- so.

W. OWNBY: Mitchell's been in our thoughts ever since we found out they had Ben. D. OWNBY: Yes. Well, even before we knew that he was probably pretty close. He's a bright kid and he -- he's been a -- they've all been a pretty good friend through all this. So.

QUESTION: And he had to take a polygraph.

Did you ever for a second doubt that he was telling the truth?

D. OWNBY: No.

W. OWNBY: Oh, Mitchell is a good kid. We've known him for years.

D. OWNBY: No.

QUESTION: could you tell us what your days were like for those four days? How much sleep were you getting? How would your day begin and how would it end?

D. OWNBY: Well, we'd get up and get ready and just get ready to do whatever we had to do for that day, you know, mostly just, you know, organize flier passing out and searching the roads and just whatever.

QUESTION: How much sleep were you able to get then?

W. OWNBY: The first night, none. Maybe two hours, three hours after that, on and off.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) obviously then you were (INAUDIBLE) what does Ben want (INAUDIBLE)?

D. OWNBY: That he's happy to be home. He is happy to be home, happy to be here.

W. OWNBY: All right. Appreciate your attention. And like I said, we appreciate ...

(CROSSTALK)

W. OWNBY: We've kind of laid the family to rest for a couple of days and thanks (INAUDIBLE) privacy.

NGUYEN: You've been listening to the family of Ben Ownby, a 13 - year-old who went missing on Monday, found on Friday, with Shawn Hornbeck.

As you heard from his family, they are just elated that he is finally back home. One of the interesting things that we'll talk about in just a moment from his mom, but right now I believe the sheriff is speaking.

Let's get another listen to what he has to say.

Well, he just finished.

HOLMES: He had to say bye, is what he had to say.

NGUYEN: Back to what the mother, Doris Ownby, had to say. Not only was she just excited to see her son, but when she was asked what about the fact that this was a two for one, the fact that they found two boys, and her son being included?

She said she was just as excited to see Shawn as she was about seeing her own son. And, you know, it's funny that these -- these are just children, just young boys, teenagers, and one of the first things that Ben wanted to do when he got home was play computer games. And we hope to learn more in the coming days about exactly what he went through, that ordeal.

But we did learn a little bit in this news conference about the man accused of kidnapping these two young boys, I should say, Shawn Hornbeck, 15; Ben Ownby, 13.

And we learned from the FBI that when agents entered the apartment of Mr. Michael J. Devlin, 41 years old, Ben just walked right up and said, "Are you going to take me home?"

And at that point, agents looked around and saw Shawn and asked what his name was. And then he learned that -- or those agents did -- that that, indeed, was Shawn Hornbeck, who had been missing for four years. So what a lucky find when these agents walked into that apartment.

HOLMES: And they, in fact, we're trying to get more information. They're, of course, being pretty tight-lipped. They want a successful prosecution, as they say. But certainly they were interviewing Michael Devlin, the suspect. And that's what made them go back to the apartment, according to the officials there, and check the apartment out. And that's when they found the two boys.

Right now, Devlin, the suspect, has been charged with one count of a Class A felony of kidnapping. But, according to the FBI official who was in that press conference, he may be charged with federal charges as well.

We don't know what those charges could possibly be, but more charges certainly could be coming, federal charges, as well.

We do want to bring in Ed Smart, who has been talking to us throughout the day as we've been watching this amazing story, remarkable story and happy story.

Glad to see this one. You've got a smile on your face this morning, as well, sir.

Good to see you here.

Thank you for being with us.

Give us an idea from your perspective -- we've got two kids here. One was gone for four days, the other one gone for four years.

How different, really, will their -- will their transitions be, since one was gone for that much longer?

How different experiences now do the two kids, do you think, have to go through?

ED SMART, FATHER OF ELIZABETH SMART: You know, hopefully the one will just come right back in and resume. And hopefully that'll be the case in both of them. But, you know, certainly there was trauma and, you know, issues that developed over the four years. I can't help but think that that would be the case.

But hopefully that, you know, getting back together as a family, that's going to cement a feeling of safety and the ability to move forward.

And I think that that's the most important thing that can come.

As a parent, you know, I know we wanted Elizabeth to be able to resume her life and to not worry about going out. And she was able to pick up and move right along. And that's what we hope and pray happens for both of them.

NGUYEN: But, Ed, at the same time, you have two boys, one missing for four years, one for four days. and at some point, these parents are going to be talking with these children about what happened.

How do you draw that out of them? And is there an appropriate time?

SMART: Well, you know, I think that they have to do that on their own. I mean, Lois and I certainly were able to get some information from the investigators, law enforcement, about what happened and Elizabeth said, you know, you can tell my parents what happened.

And, you know, over time, she has told us different things. I haven't heard every detail, nor do I need to know every detail, because I know it was horrific. And the important thing is they're back home and they're with you and they're going to be able to be there and you're going to be whole as a family again, instead of this big gaping hole.

So I think that, you know, certainly there are going to be different issues with both families, when you think one was gone for four days and who knows what he went through.

But this other one has gone through so much more, certainly it's going to be more difficult for Shawn.

But our prayers and hope is that he's able to just pick up and move forward, realizing that it was not his fault and that, you know, he did what he thought was the best thing for him to do. And that's what they have to know and they have to receive support and not receive blame.

NGUYEN: Ed, you have so much good information. And we'll be speaking with you a little bit later today.

Ed Smart, the father of Elizabeth Smart. As you recall, she went missing in June of 2002 and was found in March of 2003, found alive, just like these two missing boys out in Missouri, found alive yesterday.

Such good news to their families. We have so much more on this story. We'll hear from both families and we'll get some insight from a child psychologist as to what is going through the minds of these children and how they get back on that road to recovery.

You're watching CNN, THE NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

W. OWNBY: That was 1:30 in the morning. We were ready to go to sleep.

QUESTION: Were you able to go to sleep last night.

D. OWNBY: Oh, yes.

W. OWNBY: We were just so relieved we could finally relax.

D. OWNBY: I just told him when I went to bed, just don't stay up too late.

QUESTION: What was your first thought when you woke up this morning?

D. OWNBY: I went and checked on him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Went and checked on him, she is not going to let her eyes off that young man any time soon. That is the family of Ben Ownby. You see them there, pulling up the rear, the young man 13 years old, been missing since Monday. He's been found safe and sound along with another young boy who has been missing actually for four years, Shawn Hornbeck. He's been returned to his family after four years.

But all smiles, great story, been called the miracle in Missouri this morning. But as happy as people are, certainly maybe a tough row for maybe so that young fellow that's been gone for four years, that's Shawn Hornbeck you're seeing there now, 15 years old now, 11 years old when he went missing. But a tough road back for both of them, a lot of things they need to go through to readjust, get back to their lives.

We're going to talk now with Dr. Bob Butterworth, who is a child psychologist and sir, tell us just how delicate of a time is this right now for both young men and I guess obviously maybe more so for Shawn Hornbeck who's been gone that much longer? VOICE OF DR. BOB BUTTERWORTH, CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST: Shawn's been gone four years. In a sense, he has to get reacquainted with his family. His family has to get reacquainted with him and what helps with these cases is getting back to normal as quickly as possible, going back to school, seeing friends and getting back to a routine so he can kind of try to begin to erase those last four years, the memories of being in captivity and being in control.

HOLMES: And that back to normal, does any of that right now include having to talk about what he's been through the past four years?

BUTTERWORTH: Well, that's the problem. Therapists generally say at their own pace and not to open up the wounds quickly, but you also have the demands of law enforcement who really need to know what happened, how many times it happened and all the facts and it's sometimes at odds with the therapists that say let things evolve.

HOLMES: So how do you find that balance? Who wins out there with the therapists saying hey, we need to take it slow and you got authorities that want a prosecution?

BUTTERWORTH: Well, sadly authorities a lot of the times win out, but what you try to do is just get the facts and not dwell on them and just kind of establish a time line without dwelling on all the gruesome details, but you know, this kid is going to have a hard time. Because unlike Elizabeth Smart who had a difficult time who was only away from her family nine months, Shawn has been away four years. His childhood has turned into adolescence. And with it, he's changed. He has to deal with a family who really don't know who this kid is that's living if their house.

HOLMES: They talked about I guess asking him some questions, hey, Shawn, do you remember this? Do you remember that? From growing up and back in the day and whatnot, do you think he really feels -- I mean he looks comfortable. We're just seeing these pictures initially, but certainly he feels like a stranger and he doesn't know these people anymore.

BUTTERWORTH: I don't think he feels like a stranger, but a lot of those old memories are kind of far back distant. And I think what they need to do today is sit back with the old family album, start going through pictures, let him know he's safe and also start getting him acquainted back with the life he left four years ago.

HOLMES: Is there ever a -- I guess you can't put a real time stamp on it, but after how long for a kid like this, will it start to creep in there and I guess he'll start to have a little resentment, where there will start to be some effects, I guess, you can see some real emotional effects of what he went through?

BUTTERWORTH: When he starts getting better, that'll be -- he'll start becoming angry. He'll start getting angry at the fact that a lot of his friends have had a normal last four years and he hasn't. And he may have to start reliving some of the problems and some of the traumas that might have happened in the last four years under captivity that we know nothing about.

HOLMES: And hit on this again for us, you talked about it a little earlier, but a lot of people probably have this in their heads. The question of these two boys were found in there. They seemed to be all right. They seemed to be held and they were aware that people were looking for them. Why, what happens that they didn't reach out, try to get away, try to even make a phone call? Explain to people again how this happens sometimes in these cases?

BUTTERWORTH: We know in Elizabeth Smart's case that she could have gone but the problem was that the captor would say things like, well, I got you in your bedroom and I can come back and hurt your sister. A lot of those times the captors come up with threats. They say if you do leave, something bad may happen to your family.

Sometimes they may hurt a pet or they can threaten to hurt other children. So in the sense, you don't have the physical bonds that keep them in captivity a lot of times, but after a while you have those emotional bonds that in many cases as we know from the Stockholm syndrome, can be actually stronger

HOLMES: All right, well, certainly happy that the story had a happy ending, but no doubt a tough road back for those young men but certainly all smiles today, glad this one had a happy ending, but Dr. Bob Butterworth, child psychologist, we appreciate your expertise today.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Just want to take a moment now to put all of this into perspective, especially when it comes to Shawn Hornbeck, missing when he was 11 years old, now 15. He's been missing for almost a third of his life.

I want to take you now to CNN's Gary Nurenberg because he's standing by at the Center for Missing and Exploited Children where families are still waiting for children who may have been missing even longer Gary. Is this a sign of hope for them?

GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The director of the center says it is absolutely that. At the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there's a massive database where the experts here can find out about missing kids. Shawn Hornbeck was in that database.

Ernie Allen is the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. You've got a tip line that people can call, 1-800-THE-LOST. What kind of information is available to members of the public who are calling with perhaps information about kids they think may be missing or information they would like to seek?

ERNIE ALLEN, NATL CTR FOR MISSING, EXPLOITED CHILDREN: Well, certainly what members of the public can do is go to our Web site, missingkids.com. They can pull up our entire database of missing kids with photos, key descriptive information about the child's disappearance, the local police department with primary jurisdiction in the case. It's a huge source of data and we hope the public will use it.

NURENBERG: Shawn was in your data base. Veronica James is going to pull him up for us. This is what anyone could have seen.

ALLEN: Yes. This is a poster with Shawn that gives height, weight, description. And Veronica, if you'll scroll down, it also indicates the circumstances of his disappearance, talks about his abduction off of the bicycle. And as you'll see, we're very pleased that it now says recovered.

NURENBERG: And if someone phones in with information, is that data then added to the database that others can see?

ALLEN: Yes, we have a database that only goes to law enforcement and that information, that lead information is provided to the investigative agency so they can follow up on all these leads and we received 319 leads on Shawn Hornbeck.

NURENBERG: Let's ask veronica to call up Ben's information. I understand that although he was only missing for three days, you received 20 phone calls from tipsters here.

ALLEN: Yeah. People care. And if they think they have information, if they think they have seen something, we want them to call us. And again here with Ben, you'll see his photo. You'll see descriptive information and you'll see the circumstances of his disappearance.

NURENBERG: A lot of information on this page about a white truck that was seen in the vicinity when Ben disappeared. Why is that information there? What good does that do anybody?

ALLEN: That information about the white truck led to Ben's recovery. We want people who think they have information to provide it to us and to law enforcement. Those leads, that lead led to the identification of the owner of the truck who turned out to be the abductor of the boys.

NURENBERG: Now I understand that this is information that's available to the public. One more time give us the address for anyone who is interested in checking it out personally.

ALLEN: We would like them to go to missingkids.com and you can pull up the data by state, by sex, by age. You can target the data to see the kids who are missing in your area.

NURENBERG: Not just in the United States, there's some international attention being paid now I understand.

ALLEN: There is great movement international because this is a serious issue. The first lady of France is hosting a meeting this Wednesday that will be attended by Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Putin, Mrs. Mubarek of Egypt, the queen of Sweden with our center to try to create an international response to this problem.

NURENBERG: I know that you have to rush to catch a plane for that conference. Thanks very much for helping us out and sticking around.

ALLEN: Thank you, Gary.

NURENBERG: Betty, back to you in Atlanta.

NGUYEN: Gary, we thank you for that. We also want to remind you the viewer that coming up at 12:30, you have to stay tuned for this remarkable news conference from the Hornbeck family. And they really talked about what it's like to have their son back. Also talked about how he's changed and the importance of talking to families about keeping hope alive and keeping that search going no matter how long it's been because as you know, Shawn Hornbeck had been missing for four years before he was found yesterday.

On top of that though, we're going to set a timeline for you. We talked so much about the fact that these children were found, but I think it's very important to note how they were found, quite an amazing story of circumstances there. So stay tuned for that. We have much more coming up on this breaking news story.

HOLMES: And of course, another big story today we will be following for quite some time. We're just getting started with a big ice storm that is affecting the entire midsection of the United States. The Midwest is going through it right now and will be going through it for a little while longer. We'll have the latest on that. Stay here with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: We are continuing to follow two major stories, one, of course, the winter storm that is just socking the middle of the nation with ice, crippling a lot of it, a the lot of people out of power today. But the other story that we're following that you've been watching is such a good story about two missing boys in St. Louis.

We want to get some more now from Alex Fees of CNN affiliate KSDK and Alex, the one thing that I want you to walk us through as we talk so much about these two boys that we see on the screen is how they were found because those circumstances are truly remarkable.

ALEX FEES, KSDK: Yes, they are very much so and it is important to point out that help from the public -- information, tips, regarding the description of this pickup is the only thing that brought this about. Now the initial description of the pickup truck around the time that Ben Ownby was abducted came from one of his classmates, 15- year-old Mitchell Holtz.

That description being a white Nissan pickup truck. Then at least two people, Michael Devlin's -- that's the suspect's boss and also fellow residents of the apartment complex where these boys were found pointed out to officers who were in that apartment complex hey isn't that that Nissan pickup truck that's been on the news lately.

That is what brought this about. Investigators certainly from the FBI and Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke point that out, that this could not have happened without some of the hundreds of leads they received from the public, mind you, many of which went nowhere, but others which certainly led to the solving of this case. NGUYEN: Because Alex for such a very long time, what did people, investigators think about what had happened to Shawn?

FEES: I've been a reporter here in the St. Louis area for eight years now and I can tell you that it was anybody's guess. Honestly, there was a lot of methamphetamine activity here in the rural areas west of St. Louis, Missouri and St. Louis County. A lot of people feared that perhaps Shawn had just stumbled upon something that he should not have seen.

There was also another theory tossed about, that being that he disappeared while he was riding his bike and perhaps somebody had hit him with their car and then panicked and buried his body. But beyond that, again, it was anybody's best guess, anybody's best guess. There was no evidence. There was no bicycle ever recovered. People certainly, they simply did not know which direction to turn and we did not actually hear from --

NGUYEN: I was going to mention there is a lot of guessing still going on right now about Michael J. Devlin, the man accused of kidnapping these boys. What do you know about him?

FEES: Well, he has a clean record. He doesn't have any significant priors with law enforcement. He was able to hold down two jobs. He worked -- he managed in fact for the past 10 years, a pizza parlor in Kirkwood, the town, the suburb of St. Louis where these two boys were located. He also had a job answering telephones in a funeral parlor at night, so beyond that --

NGUYEN: All right, I think we may have lost Alex Fees there. But joining us from our affiliate, KSDK, really setting the stage as to how indeed these boys were found yesterday afternoon. Alex, are you back with us?

FEES: Yes, am.

NGUYEN: All right. There you are. So tell me, we don't have a lot of information about Mr. Devlin, but we do know today that charges could be increasing against him dealing with Federal charges indeed.

FEES: Yes, certainly and one count of kidnapping so far, that of course in the Ownby case. He is likely to face kidnapping and more perhaps in the Shawn Hornbeck case, but prior to that, Devlin doesn't have any significant priors, any significant criminal history with law enforcement. In fact, he was able to hold down two jobs. He had one job.

He worked for a pizza parlor in Kirkwood where he lived where his apartment was for 20 years, managing that pizza parlor for the past 10 years. His manager actually spoke highly of him as an employee. In addition to that, he answered telephones at a funeral parlor late at night as a part time job. So we didn't really hear much about...

NGUYEN: ... clear, but let me ask you this, to be absolutely clear before we move on, there is no criminal record here. He is not on the sex offender list or anything like that? FEES: No, no, in fact there is a Michael Devlin who is on a sex offender list. It is not this Michael Devlin.

NGUYEN: That's important to point out. And you're standing there in the elementary school where the press conference was held a little bit earlier today. It was quite an emotional press conference by Shawn Hornbeck's family. They have a long road ahead of them, but today it was really important for them to speak to the public, wasn't it?

FEES: Yes, it certainly was. In reality, we didn't hear much from Shawn Hornbeck today. We certainly had a chance to observe his body language. He appeared very quiet, very shy, very reserved, affectionate towards his parents, but today we really don't know much more than we did yesterday about what his life has been like over the course of the past four years. There's a couple of different reasons for that.

First of all, his parents, Pam and Craig Akers, say over the course of the past 16 or 18 hours, they have not yet had a chance to talk to Shawn about that. They've just been getting reacquainted with their son. Beyond that, Craig Akers, Shawn's step dad says if Shawn doesn't want to talk about it, he doesn't have to. Of course investigators may have a different take on that situation.

NGUYEN: Exactly. And as we learn more, just run down the list of some of the main things that we learned from that. One of them being that during his time in captivity, those four years, he never went to school.

FEES: That's right. He never went to school. There was some speculation that he may have been enrolled in a local school district in Kirkwood or Webster Groves under a different name, but in fact, Craig Akers said today that Shawn did not go to school during that time.

We also learned that he pretty much spent most of his time right there, in Kirkwood, around the area of the apartment where they were located yesterday. Now also Craig said Shawn was aware over the course of his captivity of some of the efforts to rescue him, to locate him, to keep his name in the public eye. He was aware of some of the anniversaries and the vigils and certainly the age progressed photograph.

In fact, Craig told us that Shawn told him that Shawn saw his image on a park bench outside of a grocery store around the area where he lived. Now speaking of images, Pam Akers, Shawn's mother looks physically very different than she has over the course of the past four years. As you can imagine, she has figuratively had a ton of bricks lifted from her shoulder and she sat next to her long-lost son this morning absolutely beaming.

NGUYEN: She is so relieved today. Another thing that I think we should point out which is really a wonderful aspect of this whole ordeal, this whole story is that this family, Shawn Hornbeck's family, Pam Akers and his step father Craig Akers are going to finalize the paperwork to adopt him and Shawn's name will soon be Akers.

FEES: That's right. That's something they said actually at the end of the news conference. Craig Akers said that is a process they began before Shawn's abduction which Shawn has now requested that they continue and conclude in fact so that Shawn Hornbeck's last name will be Akers, that of his stepfather, Craig Akers along with Pam, with Shawn's mother, headed up this process four years ago and they've kept it going. Now yesterday, honestly, amongst local reporters here, there was some concern that we didn't recognize this kid.

We all knew he was four years older, but there was some concern that hey, is there some terrible mistake here? Is this the right kid, but today, having a chance to look at him face on, it's obvious that this is simply an older, more mature version of Shawn Hornbeck. In fact, that left earring, that earring in his left ear is there this morning as it was in his missing photograph four years ago. So this is the same kid.

NGUYEN: Same kid, just four years later, a lot of growing in between. Who knows what has happened to him during that time, of course? We'll learn more as the days go on. In the meantime, Alex Fees with KSDK, we really appreciate your information. You've been following this story for the past four years.

FEES: Thank you.

HOLMES: The other major, major story today is a major ice storm. We're talking icy roads, ice coated trees, power lines causing problems in Oklahoma this morning. The first wave of the winter storm pushed across the state yesterday, causing at least two traffic- related deaths.

The storm also stranded passengers at airports and bus stations and this weekend, things could get a whole lot worse. Reggi Aqui is keeping track of what is happening right now in Oklahoma City. Reggie, we talked to you on the phone earlier. Good to see you. I guess you all got the ice off that satellite dish. Tell us what's going on.

REGGI AQUI, OKLAHOMA CITY: We made it to work somehow, T.J. I'll tell you, yesterday, they really got slammed here in Oklahoma City, in this entire region really, with all sorts of precipitation. The good thing yesterday was that is it was actually warmer in the upper levels of the atmosphere and that caused this to freeze overnight but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

The meteorologists here are just kind of breathing a sigh of relief, because they know that had it been a little colder, high up there. Then there would have been probably a disaster when it came to freezing on the power lines. So today, the power companies, while they are certainly seeing some power loss throughout Oklahoma and about 100,000 people in the St. Louis area, it's not nearly as bad as it could have been.

So basically the problem today is those roads. It's folks who are spinning out, people who are on the roads and maybe shouldn't have been on the roads. I'll tell you though, last night, we were driving, my producer and I were driving here from Texas.

We actually their had to come into Dallas-Ft. Worth because there were no flights into the airports here in Oklahoma and so we drove all-night long and we noticed that for the most part, people were heeding the caution that all the folks, emergency folks and the governor here gave out.

He declared a state of emergency yesterday for all the counties in Oklahoma and he basically said look, stay inside your house. There is no reason to go on those roads. And we found that people had been listening to that advice. In fact, around here today as we've been going around the streets, it's been pretty much silent in Oklahoma City. It looks like people are just staying at home, and hopefully just watching the TV, watching the storm from that point of view.

I do want to show you what the Oklahoman paper says today and this is a little ominous. It says worst of arctic storm is yet to come and what they're talking about there is another wave that's expected to hit the area today and then possibly throughout the evening. So T.J., they're not out of the woods yet. It is very possible that there could be a lot of outages coming in the next few hours. So we'll keep tabs on that. We are hearing that some of the airports are now saying that a lot of the flights are starting to be cancelled into the area.

HOLMES: All right Reggi. We appreciate you all's efforts getting there and getting on the air. We do appreciate you. You all take care there.

NGUYEN: We are continuing to follow this storm which is really hitting right through the center of the U.S. And as it goes south, Reynolds, I'm going to look to your expertise here. It is bringing rain to Texas and that is causing some major problems.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: All right, Reynolds. We appreciate it. Thank you so much.

NGUYEN: A lot going on in the weather department. Also the big story today, the two missing boys found alive in Missouri. We have much more on that. Don't go anywhere. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: As we've been talking about, the two missing boys in Missouri who have been found alive, it's a wonderful story. But it really does highlight the fact that there are thousands of missing children around the nation. And we have Josh Levs with us to talk about exactly how many are kidnapped each year.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It always makes big news. But sometimes people get the impression it's more frequent than it actually is. So what we want to do here is show you some figures, these are Federal statistics. This is from the U.S. Department of Justice and we have a graphic that will walk you through it here. What the Federal Department of Justice did was they looked at one year, 1999, 800,000 children were reported missing, but most, the vast majority, were not kidnapped. Let's show you the next number.

All right. Remember, most of these kids, their parents were worried about them, turned out to be fine. 200,000 though were abducted by relatives and 58,000 abducted by non-relatives. Then there's the traditional stereotypical kidnapping, what's thought of as being a kidnapping. That was 115 kids total in one year. So that doesn't mean that it's rare.

NGUYEN: Slow down. Just 115 in the total year for children who were kidnapped.

LEVS: Well, by strangers. This is where it gets interesting to break down. The stories that make news a lot of the times are the ones where you have kids kidnapped by strangers. When the U.S. Department of Justice looked into this, very rare. They found 115 for the entire year.

However if you include the abductions by relatives and by people the kids know, you're working your way back up to about a quarter million. It was like 250,000 in that sense. So in that way, much, much more common.

NGUYEN: Good way to break it down for us so we can understand the scope here. Josh Levs, we appreciate it.

LEVS: Thank you.

HOLMES: We appreciate you all being with us today. Stick with CNN for continuing coverage of this major story, a happy story, two boys found alive and of course the ice storm, a big story as well. Stay right here.

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