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CNN Newsroom
Special Edition: Miracle in Missouri
Aired January 13, 2007 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Missing for four days, another missing four years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I still feel like I'm in a dream, only this time it's a good dream. It's not my nightmare that I've lived for four and a half years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One last seen getting off a school bus. Another teen last seen riding his bike. The search for one leads to two. Hidden in plain sight. And a young hero. The alert teenager who led police to the apartment where they were held captive. Prompt, well mannered and efficient, descriptions for the accused kidnapper. Did he pull the wool over the eyes of an entire community?
Tonight, we dig for answers in a special edition of CNN NEWSROOM: Miracle in Missouri.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, I'm Rick Sanchez. We have a lot to bring you in this special edition tonight. And it starts right now.
We're calling it a miracle in Missouri. Two families are complete tonight. Yesterday, they were not. How it happened. The unlikely events that fell into place and the pure, overflowing joy of the reunion makes the use of the word 'miracle' somehow still not strong enough.
You are about to get the whole story, but you're also seeing something very important on your screen right now. For one entire hour, it's a reminder that there are less fortunate families in our country tonight. Thousands of them with boys and girls who are not where they're supposed to be.
They're missing, they're exploited. And we want you to look at some of these faces, and read some of these names, and know that someone who loves these children misses them very much. These two boys, they're the subject of our special program tonight. One was missing for four days. One was missing for four years. Four years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably the best day of our lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Understatement of the day right there. You're going to be hearing plenty more from that man tonight. He's Craig Akers, the stepfather of Shawn Hornbeck. Talk about undying hope, talk about perseverance. Talk about a stubborn refusal to accept a worst case scenario.
In our second half hour, we're going to replay much of his news conference as well. It is pure emotion. And if you stick around for it, you'll likely be glad that you did.
But we - before we tell you about this extraordinary rescue, there's one more person that's central to this story. He is this man. See him right there. Michael Devlin. He's in jail tonight. He's accused of kidnapping those two boys and keeping them captive in his apartment. We don't know much about him yet, just his name, his age, his job. That's about it.
Local, state, and possibly federal authorities are working on that end of the miracle in Missouri. Let's bring now CNN's Jonathan Freed from Kirkwood, Missouri for an update.
Jonathan, what do we know? What have you learned thus far?
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Rick. I can tell you that it was just yesterday that police entered that apartment in that building right over there, expecting to perhaps finding one boy. And instead to their surprise, discovering two.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREED (voiceover): While the families of Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck hold their sons close, police and prosecutors are digging into the background of the suspect, 41-year old Michael Devlin.
ROBERT PARKS, FRANKLIN COUNTY PROSECUTOR: 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.
FREED: What is public at this point about Devlin's life would not paint him as an obvious suspect, someone allegedly capable of holding 15-year-old Hornbeck captive for four years and of abducting 13-year-old Ownby on Monday.
Devlin worked at a pizza parlor and a funeral home here in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood. He's described by people in this community as a private man, who never attracted much attention. The funeral home, Bopp Chapel, released a statement saying Devlin was an overnight telephone attendant and was "very prompt, well-mannered and efficient."
GARY TOELKE, SHERIFF, FRANKLIN COUNTY, MISSOURI: 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.
FREED: Devlin's modest apartment building is across the tracks from a more affluent section of Kirkwood. Police confirm they were trying to find this man, Harry Richard, on Thursday regarding an unrelated case when they spotted what turned out to be Devlin's truck in the parking lot.
Reichard tells CNN he's lived upstairs from Devlin for a year and says he never spotted Shawn Hornbeck alone. He apparently was at his side.
HARRY REICHARD, DEVLIN'S NEIGHBOR: They were always together. It was always a quiet walk out, quiet come in. They never conversed outside of the doors.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Bring Jonathan back in. And as we do, Jonathan, there's something we want to share with our viewers. It's really a map that we've put together that gives them a geographical sense of where all of this happened. Because I think people want to know now well, who is this Devlin character and what has he possibly done in the past? I don't know if we're able to put that up now. Perhaps we'll be able to put it up while you're talking. Go ahead, Jonathan.
FREED: OK, Rick. Well, we're talking about an area. It sort of forms a triangle. And I'm at one point of the triangle here where at this point the case, according to the sheriff, they feel that they have done the critical work necessary. The boys are home and the suspect is in custody.
But what the prosecutor of Franklin County is telling us today is that he and the other supporting staff are going to be withdrawing from public view this weekend and really spending their time putting together this case. They say at this point, they feel they have what they need to really get going, move towards the arraignment next week and to really push this case through.
SANCHEZ: Are they going to be investigating to see if this guy's done something like this in the past?
FREED: They're going to be looking at a wide range of things, including the geographic area that you've been talking about to see exactly where might he have been operating. How many people might have involved? We're aware of two children. Could there possibly be more? These are the obvious types of questions that investigators want to get at. We know of two. What else might there be?
SANCHEZ: Wow, what a story. Jonathan Freed, following it from Kirkwood. We thank you, Jonathan. And we wouldn't even be talking about this tonight, those two boys might still be missing tonight, if it weren't for one top notch amateur police work enthusiast and the sharp eye of another young man.
Only one person came even close to witnessing last week's abduction of Ben Ownby. And that's what brings us to this. Ben's classmate and a neighbor, Mitchell Holts, described this pickup truck to police. Not just the pickup truck, but the specifics of it. And that tip led to the abducted boys and the arrest of Michael Devlin.
We're proud have Mitchell on the phone right now from Union, Missouri, to talk to us about this.
You know, Mitchell, people are saying that you are a hero because if they didn't have your specific information about that truck, they never would have found these boys. What specifically did you tell police?
MITCHELL HOLTS, TIPSTER: I told them what kind of truck and what color and that it was.
SANCHEZ: But it was more than just, you know, a lot of times we do stories like this. And you hear police say well, we're looking for a white vehicle.
It was more than just a white vehicle. You gave them some specifics about this white vehicle. What were those things that you told them?
HOLTS: I told them it was a Nissan truck. And it had a two-inch receiver hitch on it. And it had a camper shell on it.
SANCHEZ: A two inch receiver hitch. That's what people use to tow boats and the like, right?
HOLTS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: And you said it had what on it?
HOLTS: A camper shell.
SANCHEZ: A camper shell. That's what basically turns a pickup truck into like an SUV, right?
HOLTS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Now when you told this to police, did they seem incredulous that you would have such detailed information for them?
HOLTS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: What did they do to verify, if anything? Are you there?
HOLTS: Yes, I'm here. SANCHEZ: What did they do? Because I'm getting some reports that they took you in and kind of quizzed you. Even -- is it true they gave you a lie detector test?
HOLTS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Why did they tell you they were doing that?
HOLTS: They didn't.
SANCHEZ: They just did it.
HOLTS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: So they basically wanted to make sure that you were telling the truth?
HOLTS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Did you have any problem with that?
HOLTS: No.
SANCHEZ: You were happy to they them.
Now explain to us where your circumstances were. Were you still in the school bus when you saw your classmate get into that white vehicle?
HOLTS: I didn't see him get in the white vehicle.
SANCHEZ: You just saw the vehicle drive away?
HOLTS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Did you assume he might be in there?
HOLTS: No.
SANCHEZ: So you basically just told them that the vehicle had driven away. Where were you at the time that you saw the vehicle drive away, by the way?
HOLTS: I was coming down the hill. I was coming down the hill in my truck.
SANCHEZ: And you had gotten out of school bus yourself?
HOLTS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Interesting. Mitchell Holts. Thanks so much for bringing us that information that you probably -- didn't know at that time would be so incredibly important. Thanks again, young man. Take good care of yourself.
You might be wondering why Shawn Hornbeck didn't make a break for it and find his parents during those four, long years. Well, I posed that very same question to child psychologist Susan Bartell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN BARTELL, DR., CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST: There are different things that can happen that can cause a child to stay with a captive -- as a captive when he doesn't appear to be in a captive situation. But one thing, he could have been told that his family was going to be hurt if he left. He could have been threatened. In which case, he would stay if he was told that someone was going to hurt his parents.
He could also, as with the case of Steven Staynor (ph) many years ago in the 1970s, have been convinced that his family didn't want him anymore, that they were done with him and they weren't interested in him. In which case, he would begin to think that this was a situation where he was wanted and he would stay -- feeling relieved that this was a situation where he would now be loved. This is a complicated case. And until we know the facts, we cannot know for sure why he stayed.
SANCHEZ: Could you tell us - can you can give us a sense, and pardon the interruption, but can you give us a sense of what it's going to take to make him well again?
BARTELL: It's going to take an enormous amount of counseling from someone who really specializes in this type of disorder that occurs, post traumatic stress disorder. Perhaps he is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, which is when children or adults who have been held captive for a long time start to identify with their kidnapper.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
BARTELL: Which is another thing that could have kept him captive for so long. Starting to really feel that he cared for the captor, which also would have kept him staying there as a -- with his kidnapper.
SANCHEZ: At the very least, he has to be extremely confused, right?
BARTELL: Extremely confused, really feeling like he doesn't know his parents anymore. His parents probably don't know how to deal with him. As much as they are thrilled that he's back, I can't even imagine their elation, they must not know him. They have four years of really very, you know, complicated developmental years of early adolescence of not knowing their child's growing up. And he must feel the same way of having developed and not done it in front of the eyes of the people who love him the most.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Child psychologist Susan Bartell.
Hugs, tears, and kisses.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're just ecstatic. Don't want to let him go or out of our sight. He doesn't want us to hold on to him, but we have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: An amazing story. Two families with reason to celebrate tonight, but hundreds more can only dream of a reunion. We're going to tell you how you can make their dreams come true. Next.
Plus, more about this remarkable man. Craig Akers, a stepfather, he lost his leg while searching for another child, but he never gave up hope of finding his own boy. His unbelievable story as our miracle in Missouri continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Moved into the control room now because I want to show you something. We've got some unbelievable pictures to show you. We're going to line them up along this wall right here.
And we're going to begin right here. This is a car chase, by the way. It's just outside of Detroit. And it starts with a vehicle that's being chased on the video.
But you're going to see in a moment why they're chasing it. Police were tailing these guys. They thought they were stealing some water craft. You know, like the wave runners and the skidoos.
Turns out the second man who got away, he had be chased by police for almost a full hour until they finally caught him. You want to see how it ends? We've got that one right here on this piece of video. There it is.
You're looking at a shot of the tire here. They used one of those spike strips to finally tear off the tire and get him to stop.
Let's go to the next story now. This one's taking place in Portland, Oregon. And as a result, a firefighter, we understand, has now been suspended from the fire department.
It starts when police or firefighters are at the scene. They're trying to help somebody there who's needing assistance. But all of a sudden, a man comes at him. He starts screaming obscenities at those firefighters.
They seem to be getting the situation under control until one of their own, this firefighter walking up right there kicks once, kicks twice, kicks him three times. And for that reason, he's now suspended from the Portland Fire Department.
Let's take you now all the way over here. This is another story we're following. This is in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Here, it's a subway station that they were trying to build. But something happened, something terribly wrong, and the outer wall of it apparently collapsed. As a result, several vehicles went in, including a mini van. It had six passengers on board. A driver and another person, eight in total. It still hasn't been found.
And families are begging the government to try and do everything they can to try and find them. Unbelievable pictures that we'll continue to share with you.
Another big story when we come back. A man that has not seen his stepson for four years now and the toll it's taken on him. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: We welcome you back to this special edition of the CNN NEWSROOM: Miracle in Missouri.
Two families are celebrating the return of their children tonight, but many others can only hope for such a happy ending. Take a look now on the side of your screen. We're going to be putting these up. Those are just some of the nation's missing kids. Their fate still unknown.
But it's the job of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to see that they are not forgotten, that they are somehow found, rescued. Here is CNN's Gary Nurenberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The National Missing Children's Hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST , got 319 tips about Shawn Hornbeck, who was in its database for more than four years. The age progression images of him, testament to the conviction here you never give up.
ERNIE ALLEN, CTR. FOR MISSING AND EXPLOTED CHILDREN: The key message for Missouri is hope. So many people assume that because you don't recover a child in the first hours or days, that you're looking for a body. It's gloom and doom.
The reality is children are recoverable. Most of America's missing children come home safely. And we've got to keep hope alive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The poster that we have Ben...
NURENBERG: Like Shawn's, William Ben Ownby's missing poster was also online at missingkids.com, where the public can see the details surrounding each case. In Ben's, that included the description of the white pickup truck a friend of Ben's saw in the area where he disappeared, a vital clue in this case.
JOANN DONNELLAN, CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN: That sort of information is critical when you're trying to find a missing child, because the general public then has information to go on.
So when they're driving down the street, they can look for that truck that has all of those critical descriptors.
NURENBERG (on camera): Although there is celebration here about Shawn and Ben, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children adds new cases every day.
DONNELLAN: Take the time. Take a few minutes. Go to our website. And look, Erica's still missing. Avery's still missing. Tristan's still missing. There are thousands of children still missing, but the public has the power to help bring them home.
NURENBERG (voice-over): Especially with this weekend's energizing reminder that happy endings do happen.
Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Alexandria, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE0
SANCHEZ: It's important to point out tonight that even those children have been returned to their parents, their nightmare and that of their parents is not necessarily over. Why? Well, here's CNN's Peter Viles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like those boys in Missouri, Elizabeth Smart turned up close to home, but for nine months she was gone.
ED SMART, ELIZABETH SMART'S FATHER: We know that whoever this person is out there that has her is going to soften his heart and see that he needs to let her come home.
VILES: She was kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City on June 5th, 2002. Her parents, and at times thousands of others, searched tirelessly.
LOIS SMART, ELIZABETH SMART'S MOTHER: Elizabeth, if you can hear us, we love you, Elizabeth. We haven't forgotten. And everybody wants you back. And we won't stop until you're home.
VILES: She was found in nearby Sandy, Utah, disguised in a wig, sunglasses and a veil. She'd allegedly been kidnapped, assaulted, and held captive by a street preacher named Brian Mitchell, who had once worked at the Smart home.
ELIZABETH SMART, ABDUCTED FROM HOME: I just hope no child or anybody would ever have to go through what I went through, because nobody deserves to go through that. And it's just so - it's horrible for people.
VILES: Mitchell has twice been ruled unfit to stand trial, most recently last month.
500 miles away in Idaho in the summer of 2005, another kidnapped girl was found alive. The story of then eight-year-old Shasta Groene is heartbreaking. It began May 16th, when her mother, her mother's boyfriend, and her 13-year old brother were all killed. Shasta and her nine-year old brother Dylan were missing.
STEVE GROENE, SHASTA AND DYLAN GROENE'S FATHER: I would like to address my children's abductors or abductor. Please release my children safely. They had nothing to do with any of this.
VILES: Six weeks later, she was found in a Denny's restaurant at 2:00 in the morning with a sex offender named Joseph Duncan III. Her brother Dylan was nowhere to be found. And authorities later discovered his remains at a remote campsite in Montana.
She told authorities she had been sexually assaulted. She has not told her story in public. And CNN shields her face to protect her privacy.
In a plea agreement in October, Duncan plead guilty to three counts of murder, was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. He still faces federal charges.
Peter Viles for CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: The miracle doesn't change his mission.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRAIG AKERS: This is kind of the start of a new chapter, I guess. Shawn's home, but that definitely doesn't mean that the Shawn Hornbeck's Foundation work is done. Hopefully, we have another member of the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation now that can help us look for other missing children. That's something that's not going to go away. That's something that we devoted our lives to four years ago. And just because we've recovered our own son doesn't mean that our work is done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Craig Akers. In 15 minutes, more about this amazing step dad and a never ending search he undertook.
First, storms, ice, snow, severe weather hitting many parts of the country. Is it possibly headed your way? A big part of the United States, you are almost bound to be included one way or another. Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider working in the CNN severe weather center for us. She is going to bring us the latest and do so in about six minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: From the Midwest to the West coast, the wild weather keeps on coming. For starters, Southern California, shivering, icicles on citrus trees. Definitely not what nature intended.
In Texas, heavy rains and dangerous winds up to six inches fell near Austin, turning streets into rivers and turning rivers into white water rapids. Outside Austin, winds tore into rooftops and almost ripped the door right off this house. At least 10 homes damaged by what could have been a tornado.
What's interesting is those stories in those states that we just mentioned, they're only part of the story. Biggest problems are in the heartland, where snow, sleet, and freezing rain have coated the nation's midsection with a lay of ice. That's right. Ice. And trees are down because just too heavy for them. Roads are impassable because well, you can't drive on ice. Thousands of people are spending the night with no power.
CNN's Sumi Das is tracking the story for us in St. Louis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUMI DAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rick, perhaps the most visible effect of the ice storm is on the trees. We arrived in St. Louis this morning. And from the airplane as we were landing at the St. Louis Airport, we could see these frozen trees stretching out into the distance.
It's real quite a beautiful sight from the air. But here on the ground, these trees weighed down by ice. See these icicles dripping off here? They really pose quite a danger.
It's these trees that are becoming so heavy that they are snapping, cracking, breaking and sometimes taking power lines down along with them.
We've spoken to some residents in the St. Louis area to ask them how they're preparing for this ice storm.
JAMES REAGAN: It's bad. This is the third time it's happened since the summer. Back in November, we had trees come down with the first ice storm. And we were out power for about three or four days.
DAS: James Reagan told us that a power line actually fell on his house. But at this time, he does have power.
However, there are about 105,000 customers in the metropolitan St. Louis area that are without power, according to Ameren, the local power company. They have hundreds of crews trying to restore power. They are expected to work through the night. They have some much needed help from crews that have come from neighboring states. Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, even as far away as Tennessee.
But Ameren is not predicting when they're going to have the lights on back in all the homes, because they know that this problem could get worse. They know that another system is expected to come through this area.
Travel has been affected. At the major Missouri airports in St. Louis, Springfield, and Kansas City, flights have been cancelled. Also, Amtrak has told us that the trains which run between St. Louis and Kansas City were cancelled today. They may be up and running tomorrow. They're going to make that decision in the morning, depending on whether or not there is still debris that prevents railroad travel from happening on the railroad tracks.
Now the ice storm warnings, which is currently in effect will remain in effect until Monday. And the system that comes through here on Sunday is expected to be stronger. It's also expected to be bring gusty northwest winds. That's likely to cause some additional damage to the trees and to the power lines.
Travel on the roads is very difficult at this time as well. The icy conditions make it extremely difficult. In some cases, even impossible. Rick?
SANCHEZ: Reporting to us there.
And let's go over to Bonnie now. Bonnie Schneider's been following this. She's our resident severe weather expert and meteorologist.
Did you see those pictures she was showing us with that thick crust of ice, almost like a half inch on some of those trees? That's a lot of ice, isn't it?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. And we're expecting more ice to come through the St. Louis area. And that will really weigh down the trees that are kind of weighing and blowing in the breeze right now. And the winds will pick up as well.
This ice storm really has gotten started due to our blast of cold, arctic air. It's dropped down from Canada. And really, this is just one element that's making this into such a major storm.
As we take a closer look at why we're seeing the freezing rain in St. Louis, for example, we have temperatures about 2,000 feet above the earth's surface that are above freezing into the 30s, into the 40s. But the temperatures, due to the shallow layer of the arctic air right at the surface, well, that's below freezing. So any time this rain that looks like rain hits anything outside, you're looking at some live pictures right now, it's a coat of ice that really takes hold of roads.
Even if it's a thin layer of ice, it makes for some very treacherous travel conditions. So that's what we're looking at.
Now looking ahead towards Sunday, let's take a closer look at this storm. Sumi mentioned the winds will pick up. And there's a reason for that. This ridge of high pressure that's dropping down from Canada is getting closer and closer to an area of intensified low pressure right here over Arkansas. The two come together. We get more of a pressured radiant. So strong winds will come out of the northwest.
On top of the frigid conditions, and on top of the ice that's expected to accumulate, one to four inches possible across Missouri.
Now further to the north, another factor in this storm will be snow. Now as we take a look at some of the winter weather advisories, what you'll find is we actually have winter weather advisories now as far north as Chicago.
We can show you a live picture of Chicago tonight. Getting ready for the big game tomorrow. Go bears. You can see it there.
Now tomorrow afternoon, I think the weather will be fine. It's more towards tomorrow night. We could see three to five inches of snow develop for the Chicago area. So keep that in mind.
So as we're looking ahead towards the forecast for St. Louis, we're going to keep the ice in the forecast straight through the weekend as that ice advisory continues until Monday morning.
The problem is for the many people that have already lost power, and are likely to lose power due to the blustery conditions, is the temperatures will stay very, very cold, even on Tuesday, getting down to 25 degrees. 32 on Wednesday.
Chicago's forecast calls for snow only, because the cold air will be in place at the surface and in the mid levels of the atmosphere. So no time for freezing rain. Maybe a little tonight, but really on Sunday afternoon, you'll be seeing that snow carrying over into Monday. And bitterly cold temperatures as well.
We've been getting some incredible pictures from around the country on our i-reports. Bobby Burger of Rolla, Missouri was driving and saw this car with a fallen tree branch. He stopped to take this picture. Incidentally, you know, many parts of Rolla have no power at all. And some don't have any. And he also said he doesn't even know whose car this is. Wow.
Marcia Goswick of Springfield, Missouri says there's approximately half an inch of ice on trees and power lines there. Huge portions of the city are without power. And this photo was taken this morning to the west of her house. Lots of trees have taken the hit. Incredible pictures there.
And we encourage you to send in your i-reports throughout the weekend and straight through Monday. We want to see these pictures so we can get a perspective of what's happening across the country.
Just go to CNN.com. Click on i-report. and you can submit your report that way. Rick?
SANCHEZ: Hey, Bonnie, thanks so much. Appreciate the information.
Right before the snowstorm hit Missouri, there was a miracle that happened there. And it had nothing to do with the weather in this case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRAIG AKERS: There's always hope. Hope is what gets you through. And sometimes this is what happens when you have that hope. You know, this is just one of those rare, rare things. I mean, you know, to have one missing child found is just extraordinary. To have two found at the same time is just one of those things that I don't even know if you ever even read about things like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: We're reading about it tonight. And in many ways, we are all finding this man remarkable in the way he was able to tell his story this morning. Wait until you hear more from Craig Akers. He never gave up hope looking for his son. Lost his leg while looking for other people's children. His inspiring message is just four minutes away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: I'm Rick Sanchez. Welcome back to this special report "The Miracle in Missouri." It's a story inspiring our coverage this hour.
Two teenage boys back home tonight, unexpectedly. The whole story played out just within a 60 mile radius in Missouri. That's why we put this map together so you can see just how close everything happened.
Take a look. This is where Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby were each last seen and where their alleged kidnapper, Michael Devlin, lives.
It seems the kids were right under everybody's nose the whole time. Two children out of 2,000 missing on any given day in the United States. And we're showing you some of them tonight on the right of your screen.
We'll be doing this throughout the course of the evening, so possibly you, too, can help some parents.
Now to CNN's Fredricka Whitfield on the stepfather who gave up everything except of course, hope, and love, and determination.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): When Craig Akers learned that his missing stepson had been found, he said he felt his heart in his throat.
AKERS: The next words were "we think we found Shawn. We're 95 percent sure that we found Shawn and that he's alive." And those were the sweetest words I ever heard in my life.
WHITFIELD: When Shawn Hornbeck went missing in 2002, Akers became obsessed with finding him. He set up a foundation bearing his son's name, meant to aid in the search for Shawn and eventually other missing people. Akers quit his job as a software engineer so that he could devote more time to the foundation.
AKERS: You can't lose hope. You know, there's been many times where we've investigated leads that took us down a road that we didn't want to go, but that's a road we had to go down just because you have to find out. That doesn't mean that we lost hope.
WHITFIELD: Akers has spent countless hours over the years trudging through caves and woods in rural areas of Missouri, chasing any information he thought might lead him to his son. He depleted his family savings, borrowed against his 401(K), and listened to tipsters' rumored accounts of Shawn's murder.
Since 2002, the foundation he started has helped find missing children and adults across the Midwest. Two years ago, Akers searched for a missing girl for six weeks. He ignored his own pain from a vascular disease affecting his leg. And by the time he finally sought medical attention, it had to be amputated below the knee.
Despite the hurdles, Akers never gave up his search for his son.
AKERS: A few months before Shawn disappeared, we had gotten the paperwork to -- for me to adopt Shawn and legally have his last name changed to Akers. I still have that paperwork. And that was one of the things Shawn mentioned last night is he wants us to go ahead and finish what we started.
WHITFIELD: Picking up where the family left off more than four years ago.
Fredricka Whitfield, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Hope, every family with a missing child clings to and dreams of a happy ending. But now it's time for Shawn Hornbeck's family to pick up the pieces with a four-year chunk missing, gone.
At a news conference today, this stepfather issued a very direct message for all of us who are parents.
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AKERS: It seems like when things like this happen, when Ben disappeared, that these kind of situations come to the forefront of all parents' minds again.
And once again, they watch out where their children are going and make sure that their children aren't alone. But I've watched it happen so many times. Seems like just weeks later that everyone falls back into the old routine. That urgency goes away. You fall back into the same patterns that you had before.
And I'm here to try to get you to not do that. It's not the same world that I grew up in. It's not the same world that a lot of us grew up in. The days of sending your child out the door in the morning to go play and not seeing them again until that evening, unfortunately, are gone.
It's very unfortunate that our kids can't be kids the way that we were kids anymore. It's a different society. It's a changed world. Unfortunately, not for the better.
We have to do everything in our power. It's our responsibility to do everything in our power to keep our children safe.
And that can be very simple things. Know where your child is. Don't let your child go places alone. If they can even stay in pairs to where, you know, your child's always with a buddy, that in itself will go a long way towards preventing the kinds of things like this happening.
And I know that a few weeks from now, this will all be in the back of everyone's mind. And they're going to forget. I've watched it happen too many times over the last four years. And everyone will fall back into those old patterns.
I just want to urge you to not fall back into those patterns, to try to keep this at the forefront of your mind, and do everything in your power to keep your children safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Some good advice.
Coming up, the very latest on this story and the break. One small detail, that's all it took to crack a missing persons case. Why? What you see matters. Stay with us.
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SANCHEZ: We're calling it a "Miracle in Missouri". A 15-year- old boy saw something out of ordinary and pointed it out. That's it.
That's all the police needed to bring two kidnapped Missouri teens home. But what about all the people who saw something and did nothing?
On the right hand of the screen, other children. You'll be seeing them throughout the evening. Still missing, there are thousands of them, which is why this is message from rescued teen Shawn Hornbeck's stepfather is so very important.
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AKERS: In Ben's case here, we were very, very fortunate that someone was paying attention. And we had one little lead to follow up on. And that was the white truck. Without that, this -- we might not be here today.
So, you know, once again, it goes to show that what you think is important and not important may not necessarily be what is or isn't important.
If you see something suspicious like that, it's your obligation to tell someone about it. It might not mean anything to you. But in the bigger picture, it could mean a lot to someone else. So you know, it's another one of those situations where in today's society, no one wants to get involved. No one wants to stick their nose in anybody else's business. They just put on blinders and go forward and, oh, I don't want to get involved. You know, that's none of my business.
Well, if everybody felt that way, we wouldn't be here today. So you know, you have to, when you see something that's out of the ordinary, you have to do something about it.
We have talked just a little bit about that. And there have been some instances where he has been aware of the efforts going on to find him. He did mention that he saw one of the benches that we've put out in some of the area grocery stores.
And about the only comment that I've heard so far was that the first age progressed photo was an insult. We agree. That was one of the ones that we didn't like either. And so we reached a consensus that that first one just really wasn't any good.
But you know, once again, we really haven't had any time at all to sit down and just talk, you know. It's still just a whirlwind, as you can imagine. You know, and that will come when it comes.
It's just mind boggling that it was that easy to hide someone in plain sight. You know, by this time, you know, if you don't know Shawn and looked at him now, you might not know that it was him.
Sheriff Toelke in Franklin County made the comment that if he had just run into him on the street, he would have never known that it was him. And that's probably the case for most people.
You know, we believe, if we would have run into him on the street, that would have been a different story. But, yes, it's just hard to believe that somebody could be that brazen. And I mean, it just -- it just boggles my mind that someone thinks they can get away with it, and obviously they do.
I mean, this has been going on for four years. And he's been right here under our nose the whole time. I just don't understand how that can happen. Obviously, it does.
Goes back to everybody minding their own business and not wanting to get involved, not paying attention, and putting their blinders on, and worrying about themselves and themselves only. We've lost a lot of our sense of community. We've lost a lot of our neighbor helping neighbor. It's a shame.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: And amazingly, somehow he doesn't seem angry at the alleged abductor.
So now that Shawn's home for the first time in four years, what's he going to do? Have you thought about that? Well one hint. The clothes in his dresser no longer fit. Our special "Miracle in Missouri" returns in less than three minutes.
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PAM AKERS, SHAWN HORNBECK'S MOTHER: We've got a lot of catching up to do. He's grown up on me, that's for sure. And I just really want to thank everybody. Everybody that's been out there to help search for Shawn. Everybody that's been out there to help us search for other missing kids. Everybody that's searched for other missing kids that were not involved in.
And most likely, I want to give that hope to their family that their kids can come home. It may be years later, it may be days later, it may be weeks later. But they can come home safe. And just always keep that faith and hope.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rick Sanchez.
Two kidnapped Missouri teens are back home. On the side of your screen, so many others who are still missing. So many parents who are still heartbroken.
In Shawn Hornbeck's family, a family that's been torn apart for four and a half years must now find a way to put it all back together again, try and make things normal. Tall order, though.
His stepfather says, for once, time is at least on the family's side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP
CRAIG AKERS: We haven't even gotten to that point yet. Like I said, we really haven't had any time alone. That'll come in its due time and when Shawn's ready to discuss that, we'll discuss it. If he, you know, if he doesn't want to discuss it, we won't.
We were getting phone calls on the way to the sheriff's department telling us that he had been found, and he was alive, and OK. And you know, so there's a lot of times where I felt that you guys had the scoop, that you knew more than I did. I was going to come and ask you questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Craig, he looks wonderful. How is he?
C. AKERS: I think excellent. Our -- my first clue was on the way home last night, his first request was to stop at McDonald's to get something to eat.
So that's a really good clue right there that things are slowly getting back to where they need to go. He's in good health. He's in good spirits. Obviously glad to be home. There's really, you know, at this point, not anything we need to be concerned about other than, you know, giving everyone time to let everything take its course and let all this sink in. And you know, we'll just take it one minute at a time. Used to be one day at a time. Right now it's one minute at a time. I don't know from one minute to the next what we're doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Maybe it's in large measure why we did this tonight, but it's, you know, not every day that we get to focus so much attention on something as good as a parent reuniting with a child that they thought they might never see again.
That, of course, is unfortunate that we don't get to do enough of that. The fact that we got to see this one, though, play out and share it with you is not unfortunate. We'll be right back.
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LARRY STEWART, "SECRET SANTA": God has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams. You know, if you're a poor kid growing up in Mississippi, you can't even dream this big.
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SANCHEZ: (INAUDIBLE), we certainly do. Tonight, sad news to report about this wonderful man. That's Larry Stewart who gave to so many at Christmas. Time, year after year, he finally has lost his battle with cancer. He was 58-years old, we learned this morning, when he died.
Since 1979, the Kansas City businessman had given away nearly $1.5 million to just random people in need. Didn't know them.
I spoke with Mr. Stewart just a couple of days ago. And remember the interview? It was just before Christmas when he held the last giving spree of his life. He told me he made a promise to God many years ago. He was homeless at the time, desperate for a meal, when someone offered him kindness. And he promised to return the favor.
Before he died, Stewart trained several Secret Santas to carry on random acts of kindness. And he set up a website. So you can do the same thing. So you go to www.secretsantausa.com. And somewhere in heaven, Larry's likely planning another giveaway.
A check of the hour's headlines is after the break. We'll be right back. This is CNN. We'll see you again.
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