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Details on Miracle in Missouri; Severe Weather Hits Midwest Again

Aired January 14, 2007 - 19:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His attitude changed. It was like a 180 degree difference. It threw a lot of red flags up to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: It's the case of the kidnapped Missouri boys. New details on the suspect and the teen's rescue. We now know one of the boys had chances to escape. He didn't. But experts say it's really not that simple.

Also ice in the Midwest. Now another wintry wave expected to hit the region. It is 7:00 p.m. in Atlanta. I'm Rick Sanchez, and you're in the NEWSROOM. Let's catch you up now, first of all, on some of the headlines.

Missouri investigators are trying to learn more about the man suspected of abducting two boys. Michael Devlin Remains in jail, with bond set at a million dollars. Police found 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck and 13-year-old Ben Ownby in Devlin's apartment Friday.

Authorities are investigating the possibility of arson after a pair of church fires in North Carolina last night. The churches were both in the town of Greenville, about half a mile apart. The blazes caused about a million dollars in damages.

A warning in Jordan today for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. King Abdullah said Middle East violence could get worse unless Israeli-Palestinian peace talks get back on track and quickly. Rice returns to Jerusalem tomorrow to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in London today to brief Prime Minister Tony Blair on the new U.S. plan for Iraq. Gates called Britain America's most important international partner in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

It's been an icy snowy weekend across the country's middle. A crippling winter storm is blamed for power outages and travel delays. Earlier today, seven people were killed in a collision on an icy highway near Elk City, Oklahoma.

Here's the latest now on what we and so many others are calling the miracle in Missouri. Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck have spent the day with their families and have not been seen in public. Alleged abductor, there he is, Michael Devlin is still being held on a million dollars bond on a single kidnapping charge. Today, Devlin's long-time employer said he never had a problem with the suspect, never knew much. But a co-worker says after Devlin developed some health problems, he became more introverted, is the word he uses.

Well, after a day of jubilation and wonder, some quiet time at home today for Ownby and Hornbeck, as we mentioned. As for the boys' alleged abductor, new details, new questions, new concerns. Live for us now, CNN's Jonathan Freed in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood. Jonathan, what you got?

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rick, I can tell you that earlier today a man named Mike Prosperi (ph), who owns the pizza parlor where Mike Devlin has been working 25 years, came out to talk to the media, because he says he has been receiving so much pressure to do so that he felt he had to get out there, even though he felt a little bit awkward about doing so.

He says that for a quarter century he has known this man. He said that he started working for him as a pizza cook and now he is managing. He has been managing his pizza parlor. He said he has trusted him implicitly, trusted with his money, and that he had no reason whatsoever to suspect that this alleged double life was going on. Rick?

SANCHEZ: So it seems from everything that you're finding out that this man was very secretive about his personal life, was he not? And certainly secretive about this boy that was living in his house.

FREED: Well, Prosperi, the owner of the pizza parlor, of the restaurant, says that he didn't even know that the suspect was acting as a father, or had any child under his charge at all. And he said not even to the point, Rick, where he never saw him, say, taking an extra pizza home because he wanted to feed his son. Nothing like that at all. Never saw him with the child.

SANCHEZ: But you know what Jonathan, interestingly enough, what conflicts with that is the fact that the boy was seen in the neighborhood, riding bicycles and playing with other kids, right?

FREED: That's right, that's right, and these are the things that are very interesting. Because it seems that different people, depending on how they connect with the suspect, have a different take on things. It seems that some people saw him as a father, saw him with the child. And others had absolutely no idea that this was going on at all.

So I think it depended on your relationship to the suspect, at least that's what it appears at this point, about what you knew about him and the extent to which you were aware that he allegedly had these things going on.

SANCHEZ: Speaking of relationships, let me ask you this, which is obviously at the forefront of a lot of people's thoughts as they examine this story, do we know anything more about the relationship between this man and this child that was living in his house for four years? Was it a friendship, a father and son relationship, or do we have any details at this point that would lead us to believe it was something much more sinister than that?

FREED: I'll tell you what is being consumed here locally, because of things that have been reported, that some people who live in the same apartment complex say that he seemed to have a father-son relationship with this person, and that -- and that Hornbeck was allowed to interact with other kids. But we have not spoken directly to the people who have said that, at this point. That's what is being consumed here, as far as the media goes, here in St. Louis, and that's what has a lot of people scratching their heads, and all of us trying chasing after it, trying to figure out, OK, exactly who knew what and how was it being perceived.

SANCHEZ: Jonathan, stay there if you could. We have, I understand, some of that interview that was done by this Mike Prosperi -- you referred to him earlier -- he's the owner of the pizza parlor. Essentially he's his boss, Devlin's boss. Here's what he had to say earlier. Let's listen to it and then maybe you and I will come out on the other side. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PROSPERI, DEVLIN'S EMPLOYER: Up until the time they showed him being arrested and taken away in the orange jump suit, I was convinced they had the wrong guy. I said there's just no way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he ever talk about his personal life?

PROSPERI: Oh yes. I'm sorry --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he ever talk about his personal life?

PROSPERI: Not -- I mean, other than saying he was going to go over and help paint his mom's house or wallpaper his house or go over and visit his brother Jamie, something like that, nothing --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never children?

PROSPERI: Never any mention of any children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you ever go to he apartment? You knew where he lived?

PROSPERI: Oh yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you ever been there?

PROSPERI: Had I been to his house? I drove by just to check on the truck. That's the only time I've ever been to his house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that was this week?

PROSPERI: That was on Tuesday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you guys have any social relationship at all?

PROSPERI: We hunted several years, like 15 years ago, something like that. That was it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever been to his house?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he ever make any reference to his children? (INAUDIBLE)

PROSPERI: No, I knew him well enough that I knew he would never have-- I mean, I knew him 25 years. Unless he got married or something along, and nobody knew about it, there was never any mention of any children at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you did not know about Shawn?

PROSPERI: No, not at all. I thought he lived alone. Everybody that worked for us thought he lived alone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've never seen him with the teenager or anything like that?

PROSPERI: He would come to work, do his job, leave, and that was it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was no rushing home?

PROSPERI: Never even took a pizza home, like a 16-inch pizza to feed two people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Interesting conversation. It makes you really get a sense that there was something he didn't want his co-workers to know and these were trusted co-workers. This is not a place he just started working recently, right. He had a relationship with these people, Jonathan.

FREED: He did, Rick, for a quarter century, for 25 years. He started out working for Mike Prosperi, he said as a pizza cook, and worked his way up to the point where he was managing this location, this restaurant, and Prosperi was saying, look, I trusted him with my money. I trusted him with my business. I had no idea that this was going on. That's what he's saying.

SANCHEZ: Jonathan Freed, job well done. Thanks so much for bringing us all this information over the last couple of days. We'll be talking to you again.

The entire ordeal played without a 60 mile radius. Think about that. Within an hours drive of the boys' home towns, both of them. The FBI was involved in the search, but the case was cracked, actually, by locals. Fifteen-year-old Michael Halts -- pardon me, Mitchell Halts, there he his. He provided the crucial tip. He noticed that there was a white pickup that sped from the scene on Ben Ownby's abduction Monday and then he reported exactly what he saw, with detail, to police.

It was the detail that was important in this case. It was the big break that came Thursday then, when two Kirkwood police officers spotted that same white truck, with the specific markings he had talked about and confronted the owner. That would be Michael Devlin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER CHRIS NELSON, KIRKWOOD POLICE: So we started talking to him, and I had actually once -- one time in the past, arrested him for an unrelated traffic warrant, or something like that. So I had kind of a rapport with him. So we started out, just a casual conversation, Officer Wagster (ph) did, and when we started getting more into the investigation a little bit, his whole demeanor changed, went from a casual conversation, 180 degrees from that. And we both started talking to him and weren't getting anywhere with him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you guys ask him if you could search his apartment at that point?

NELSON: The specifics of the conversation we can't really get into, but common sense, you know, that would be along those lines of the questions that we would ask him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When did you make the connection, hey look -- did you ever see Ben and Shawn, by the way?

NELSON: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell me about that, when you first saw those boys.

NELSON: You could see in the apartment. We didn't see both of them. You could see in the apartment, through the blinds. There was an older teenaged child, you know, with dark hair, wearing a hat, sitting at a computer in the kitchen playing a game. Based on the information we had gotten during the canvas, it wasn't out of the ordinary, because somebody told us that the owner of the house right there, Mr. Devlin, had either a teenage son or a teenage relative living with him. So that didn't set off any red flags.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So when you -- let's move ahead. I'm beating the clock here. When did you actually say, hey, look --

OFFICER GARY WAGSTER, KIRKWOOD POLICE: As we were talking to Mr. Devlin, it was very happy go lucky, hi how are you doing, it's good to see. I respect you guys and what you're doing. As the questions began to get more specific, that's when the attitude changed, and as the attitude changed, it was like a 180-degree difference. It threw a lot of red flags up for us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you call your superiors, they get the task force, Franklin County, all of -- everybody gets over there. At that point did you know that it was Ben and Shawn, or did they have to take over the investigation, tell me about that. NELSON: Yes, they took over the investigation. After we talked to Mr. Devlin, we got as far as we could with him, based on the information we had. So we had to turn it over to somebody else that had more information and more knowledge of the case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you have a hunch that this could be the suspect, this could be the two missing boys?

NELSON: It was enough for us to want to call the FBI.

WAGSTER: We had a definite hunch that something was not right. We had an uneasy feeling. For one of us to have that, that's one thing, but for both of us to have it, as much as we work together, we knew that there was something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Fascinating conversation, seen for the first time today. We're going to continue to follow this developing story, with more on suspect Michael Devlin. Who is he and how did he live?

Also, hidden in plain sight, what are Devlin's neighbors saying now about the relationship between him and Shawn Hornbeck. And our other top story, iced in the Midwest. Live reports on that wicked weather, pretty to look at but not fun to drive through. This is CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We welcome you back to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rick Sanchez. St. Louis newspapers saying that kidnapping suspect Michael Devlin moved into his ground floor apartment in 2002. His neighbors say he pretty much kept to himself. CNN's Fredricka Whitfield got this information from Devlin's landlord.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Did you ever observe within the past four years that, wait a minute, there's someone else living in that apartment unit?

BILL ROMER, DEVLIN'S LANDLORD: Well, I was in there about a year and a half ago, working on a plumbing problem in another unit, and I did notice a teenage boy sleeping on the couch. He had his back to me. I didn't think anything of it at the time and, in fact, I think Mike told me that it was his son.

In fact, on a recent lease that he renewed with me, he wrote in Shawn Devlin as another occupant in the unit.

WHITFIELD: So that wasn't strange to you or you never took it to the next step and had a conversation about, oh, you know, what is this son that I never knew about, or tell me a little more about your son?

ROMER: No, not really. I don't know what more I would have done in light of everything that the neighbors and friends are saying either. That they actually said you look exactly like Shawn Hornbeck and Shawn just blew it out and said well, whatever. It's all really strange. I don't know what I would have or could have done differently.

(END VIDEO CLIP

SANCHEZ: Those who know Michael Devlin are dumb struck at Friday's turn of events. A neighbor of his is quoted as saying, Shawn was always riding his bike and stuff. He had friends in the neighborhood. We just thought it was his son or something.

Also this quote from one of Devlin's co-workers, there was no inkling that something like this would ever be linked with him. How could this have gone on for so long when the older boy, Shawn Hornbeck, was routinely seen out in public? When He apparently had chances to escape? When he could have gotten himself rescued?

Joining us now with some analysis on this is child psychologist Susan Bartell. It's the question so many people, Susan, are asking themselves, why didn't this young man go to a neighbor, or go to someone and say, please help me, I have been kidnapped?

SUSAN BARTELL, CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST: It is an understandable question, certainly, Rick. But people need to understand that when children have been kidnapped, everything changes in their life. Possibly he was being held hostage and being threatened, or had been told that his family would be hurt if he did anything at all to try and have himself rescued. And we know, in the case of Elizabeth Smart, that she also gave up many opportunities to be rescued when she could have, during the nine months that she was held hostage.

SANCHEZ: Is there any way you can, at this point, given what we know, have a sense of what their relationship was about? Anything perhaps you can draw out of other cases that you've studied? Because the people want to know was he acting as his father, did he take him in, was he a friend, or was it perhaps much more sinister going on here?

BARTELL: He definitely wasn't a friend. Nobody that kidnaps a child could ever be considered a friend. He might have fantasized, in a sort of warped, sick kind of way that he was Shawn's friend. But no one should ever, ever imagine that that was the truth. And he perhaps tried to convince Shawn that he was his friend and over the duration of the four years, might even have brainwashed Shawn into thinking that he was his friend and convinced Shawn that perhaps his family didn't want him anymore and that he was Shawn's friend and perhaps even someone who could take care of him. But there is no way possible that that was the truth, absolutely not.

SANCHEZ: So then what is the motivation for characters like this?

BARTELL You know, they are sick people and we don't know what the motivation is. Possibly some kind of abuse, possibly some kind of sense of loneliness, possibly wanting to have a child. Until the police and the family let us know and until he talks about it, there's no way of knowing this particular person's motive. But certainly it was something sinister, absolutely, without a question.

SANCHEZ: We often think of these abuse cases as someone in an alley with a knife. But in many cases, abusers actually befriend their victims, don't they? Make them almost dependent on them.

BARTELL: Very often abusers do that because that's the way to lure the child into the situation where they can start abusing them. Most often, in fact, that's what happens. They start befriending the child in a gradual way and make the child feel that they are their friends, that they're someone is going to care for them, they're someone who wants to give them things, really show interest in them.

And really take care of them and then only gradually do they start abusing them. And it's possible that that's what happened in this situation.

SANCHEZ: Yes, I was just going to say, do you fear that that may have been the M.O. in this particular case?

BARTELL: It's very possible. We really have no way of knowing, but clearly, because he stayed there for so long, without being rescued, and because he did make friends in the neighborhood, he rode his bike in the neighborhood, this is not a situation of a child who was kept locked in a basement, that there were some very, very, very serious and scary mental games that were being played with him, that allowed him to remain captive.

And people need to understand that, that escaping isn't something that happens, you know, when you are being held captive only by locks and chains. But if you were being mentally held captive, that could be just as terrifying for a child.

SANCHEZ: Wow, that's powerful. Psychologist Susan Bartell, we thank you for sharing your insight on this with us.

BARTELL: Thank you very much.

SANCHEZ: Ahead in the NEWSROOM, more on the Miracle in Missouri from a local reporter covering the kidnapping case on the ground. This is CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROSPERI: He's worked for me for 25 years. So, I mean, there's not too many people that stay with the same job for 25 years. I never had any problem with him at all. I mean, he was my manager. He counted my money. You know, and you just don't do that with somebody that you don't trust.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: There's no doubt that he trusted him. That's his boss, talking about suspect Michael Devlin at the pizza place where they both worked, or where he was hired, I should say. Here's a little more on what we know about Devlin, 41-years-old, no arrest record to speak of. He lived in a two bedroom apartment in Kirkwood, where his neighbors described him as a bit of a loner, worked two jobs as a manager at the pizza parlor, as we have heard, and he was also an overnight phone attendant at a funeral department.

Now the teens were found in a non-descript apartment in a complex with no name in Kirkwood, Missouri. What did the people who lived there know about suspect Michael Devlin? After all, they had seen him. They had seen the child on a bicycle on the street, as we told you earlier. Kordell Whitlock (ph), from CNN affiliate KSDK, went there to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KORDELL WHITLOCK, KSDK TV: Michael Devlin lived in these non- descript apartments on South Holmes in Kirkwood, near Oakland. Residents we spoke with say they never saw Ben Ownby, but there were frequent sightings of Shawn Hornbeck. Shawn's stepfather, Craig Akers (ph), said Shawn saw this aged enhanced picture of himself on a bench at the Kirkwood (INAUDIBLE) on Manchester, indicating he was, at times, out in public.

Harry Richard lives above Devlin.

HARRY RICHARD, LIVES IN DEVLIN'S APARTMENT COMPLEX: I was told that he was Devlin's son and, you know, the first obvious thought, I believed him.

RICK BUTLER, LIVES IN DEVLIN'S APARTMENT COMPLEX: And I picked up the phone --

WHITLOCK: Last year, Rick Butler says he found a cell phone in front of his apartment, and when he called a stored number, Devlin picked up.

BUTLER: Michael picked the phone up, and then put Hornbeck on the phone.

WHITLOCK: Rick says the phone belonged to Shawn.

BUTLER: And I gave him directions to my apartment and he said, I live across the street. It will only take me just a few minutes. So he came over and picked up his phone. He seemed a little bit nervous, but didn't act like there was anything out of the ordinary.

WHITLOCK: Butler says he assumed Hornbeck was Devlin's son. Several months ago, he says, the two were pitching a tent on the grass.

BUTLER: He was just a single father with his boy, you know, getting ready for a camping trip. So I didn't think anything unusual about it.

WHITLOCK: We, of course, now know Ben and Shawn's stay at Devlin's apartment was anything but. However, not one resident we spoke with sensed something was wrong. HARRY REICHARD, DEVLIN'S NEIGHBOR: He just seemed to me just like an average euphoric child, as young kids are, just going back and forth with their, you know, guardian or parent or relative or whoever, and he didn't seem to display any type of social dysfunctions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: We also know something else about Devlin. We know that he has a family and that they seem to care for him. This is a statement put out by his family today. This is Devlin's family. They say, quote, "Just as we are relieved that both Ben and Shawn are now safe, we hope that Michael will be safe as the facts of his case are revealed."

Well, whenever a child is missing for a long stretch of time, police come up with a sketch of what the child might look like now. Certainly if time has passed, children age, their faces change. How did that work in this case? You're going to find out next in the NEWSROOM.

Also, it's treacherous out there, especially if you're living along the Midwest and it could get even worse in some places. Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider has been watching that for us. She tells us how much longer this deep freeze is going to last and where it's going to be affecting.

REGGIE AQUI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Reggie Aqui in Oklahoma City. About that deep freeze, we've gone through three rounds of this ice storm. It has some people reaching for a higher power. We'll explain, coming up when CNN continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: These are the big headlines today, Missouri boys Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck are spending more private time with their families today. We're getting conflicting images about their alleged abductor though. That's Michael Devlin. You see him right there in the middle. His employer calls him a well mannered worker. Neighbors describe him as a loner with a quick temper.

Separate incidents in Iraq claim the lives of two more U.S. soldiers this weekend. One soldier was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Baghdad. Another was killed in an explosion in northern Iraq.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on a tour of Latin America and may be trying to line up a few new friends. He visited Nicaragua today, next he'll be heading to Ecuador.

Freeze warnings were posted in southern California again tonight. Agriculture officials are worried the lingering cold snap will cause wide spread damage to the state's one billion dollar citrus industry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELSON: So we started out with just a casual conversation, Officer Wagster did, and when we started getting more into the investigation a little bit, his whole demeanor changed, went from a casual conversation, 180 degrees from that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That's an interview conducted earlier today with one of those police officers who actually confronted Michael Devlin shortly before they found Shawn Hornbeck and then Ben Ownby as well. For the parents, every second those boys were missing must have seemed like an eternity. As prosecutors put their case together against Devlin, the parents of the boys are expressing their relief at finally having their sons home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): October 6, 2002, 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck disappears while riding his bike to a friend's house in a rural are an hour south of St. Louis, Missouri.

PAM AKERS, MOTHER OF SHAWN HORNBECK: This is totally out of the ordinary for him. He's never been late. He's scared of the dark. That's why when he didn't come home last night, I knew it wasn't right.

SANCHEZ: In the months that follow, Shawn's stepfather quits his job to devote himself full-time to a foundation set up in Shawn's name, seeking to help other parents of missing children. Craig Akers and his wife, Shawn's mother Pam, never stopped hoping they will find Shawn alive.

CRAIG AKERS, STEPFATHER OF SHAWN HORNBECK: Hope keeps you going. Hope keeps you alive. Hope gets you up in the morning. I've always thought that once you lose hope, it's over.

SANCHEZ: Four and a half years later and 60 miles away, another rural Missouri community frantically searches for another young boy gone missing.

DORIS OWNBY, MOTHER OF BEN OWNBY: We want people to know that we just want Ben back.

SANCHEZ: Last Monday, Ben Ownby, a seventh grader from Bowford, Missouri, vanishes after getting off a school bus near his home. But with his kidnapping, there was a clue. A fellow student describes a beat-up White Nissan truck. Two days after Ben's disappearance, police visit an apartment complex in a St. Louis suburb to serve a warrant in an unrelated case. They notice the vehicle matching the truck's description. They believe it belongs to 41-year-old Michael Devlin, an employee at a local pizza parlor and a funeral home.

Authorities interview Devlin and when they search his apartment, they make two amazing discoveries.

SHERIFF GARY TOELKE, FRANLIN COUNTY: We did locate Ben this afternoon in the city of Kirkwood and we've also located Shawn Hornbeck, who was at the same residence. SANCHEZ: Police arrest Devlin and charge him with one count of first degree kidnapping. Prosecutors say more charges are likely. The boy's families are overjoyed at the return of their sons, and express gratitude for those who had helped in the search. Pam and Craig Akers vow to continue their work, now for other missing children.

C. AKERS: Just because we've recovered our own son doesn't mean our work is done. And I don't think that work will ever be done. But once again, just -- we're just so thankful for everyone, for everything that's been done.

SANCHEZ: Rick Sanchez, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Yep, that would be me. As a matter of fact, there's -- this story draws so many people into it, especially if you're a parent. So many questions left unanswered. So let's do this now, Jake Wagman is on the phone. He's a reporter with the "St. Louis Post Dispatch." He's good enough to join us to talk about what he's learned. As a newspaper reporter, I imagine, you guys have been burning up a lot of shoe leather on this. What have you learned from people who knew this Devlin character, his neighbors perhaps, what can you share with us, where is the insight here?

JAKE WAGMAN, "ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH": It's incredibly bizarre. First, the profile that emerged of Devlin was, sort of, as this average guy. But as the story moves on and you peel back the layers, a sort of very compelling story, incident we reported today was that he apparently got into a fight in his -- or something close to an altercation in his apartment complex over a parking space.

Somebody parked in his parking space, and he called the police. So here he has the poster boy for missing children in Missouri, quite literally, and he had an altercation over a parking space and he calls the police and you sort of wonder, I mean, he at least felt very confident that Shawn was not going to go to the police or seek to run away or anything like that.

SANCHEZ: Well didn't he have almost a casual relationship with the local police officers? Because he worked at a pizza joint?

WAGMAN: You know, I don't know about that. But I know that what's interesting is that one of -- the people in the apartment tried to steer clear of him because they said this is the guy who will call 911 on you. To think of the irony --

SANCHEZ: I'm kind of putting two and two together here, somewhat deductively, listening to what you're saying and also listening to those two police officers who were interviewed earlier, who said yes, when we came to him, and we saw the truck, we know who he is. We know him from the pizza place. We deal with him there all the time. We always stop by and get pizza from him. It sounds like they almost had developed a friendship.

So he kind of was comfortable with those police officers. Interesting, isn't it?

WAGMAN: And what's even more incredible is that the police officers were not even there for him. They were serving a warrant on somebody else, some sort of mundane violation. And there's -- I mean, as you -- as I heard when I was on hold and you reported in the -- years ago about Hornbeck and how he has emerged and the family has emerged as these, sort of, advocates for missing children, the region has known about Shawn for years now and to find him here and to find him in Kirkwood, which is a very standard bedroom community for St. Louis, it just boggles the imagination.

And as sort of captivated as your national audience is by this, in St. Louis, it's just, you know, you can't go anywhere without hearing people talking about it.

SANCHEZ: You know why? Because it's every hometown. Every single one of us lives in a neighborhood where something like this could happen or could be happening and we're now starting to ask ourselves, is it possible that maybe I wouldn't have noticed? No, I would have picked up on it right away, which leads me to the next question. I'm figuring this is what people are thinking. What was it that he was able to do that was able to allay any fears, any doubts from any of those people who lived in this community? How was he able to seemingly almost Buffalo so many people?

WAGMAN: Well, you're talking about -- what's interesting is there's a lot of sort of psychology going on now. Everyone is talking about Stockholm Syndrome, which is, of course, where the captive bonding with their captor. But also nobody ever asked. And so there's a certain thing, I guess, it's called diffusion of responsibility. People knew this guy. Who is this kid with him? And I think that -- and one of our other reporters, Todd Franklin (ph), had this great piece in today's paper about how does it speak to sort of a larger societal problem that people could just mind their business without even realizing what's going on.

And you know, and as the reason it's so captivating, this story, is because it tells different things about sort of who we are. Would we do something, or even if we were 11-years-old and kidnapped, would we have the guts to run away? It's all sorts of strange nuances and twists.

SANCHEZ: Interesting term, diffusion of responsibility, in a society where many of us often times don't talk to our neighbors, in a society where we don't have the type of conversations that we used to have in, I suppose, the good old days. Interesting stuff. Jake Wagman with the "St. Louis Post Dispatch," I've been going to your website every day since this thing happened. You guys have really been doing a fabulous job on this story. Thanks so much.

WAGMAN: Well the paper's been working real hard. Thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: I appreciate it. My best to you and your colleagues as well. The families of both boys are ecstatic over the homecoming, as you would expect, right. Shawn Hornbeck was gone the longest, four years. Little has been said about how he and Ben Ownby were treated during the time that they were there. But apparently Hornbeck does have some thoughts about the age progression photos of him, released to the public just recently. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

C. AKERS: About the only comment that I've heard so far was that the first age progressed photo was an insult. We agreed. That was one of the ones that we didn't like either. So we reached a consensus that that first one just really wasn't any good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Interesting enough. No details have been released about what was discover in the apartment where the boys were found.

Yep, we're switching gears. A weekend of wicked weather in the nation's midsection, ice, sleet, snow, driving rain, pretty much you name it, they had it. CNN's reporters are covering the winter brutal storm in new of the hardest hit states. That would be Missouri and Oklahoma. Let's begin with Reggie Aqui. He is in Oklahoma City. You heard from him a little bit earlier. Let's find out now what's going on. Still icy there, Reggie?

AQUI: It is still icy and because the temperatures continue to drop, Rick, it's getting worse. Tomorrow, there's going to be a big problem and that is shoveling out of this stuff. Take a look at it. It's pretty hard to get through it.

There's actually a couple ways to measure how bad it was there on the sidewalks and roads. Of course, the couple inches of frozen precipitation we have on the ground. Taking a look at the trees, they're actually not frozen, which is a good sign. But the third way to really measure how seriously folks took all of this, well, when they tried to make it to the house of God today, they found that for the most part that house was closed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AQUI (voice-over): It's what you won't see around Oklahoma that perhaps says the most about this weekend's ice storm, a storm that's already taken at least a dozen people's lives. In the so-called Buckle of the Bible Belt, on a Sunday, the church bells still ring. But there are not the usual congregations and choirs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We chose just to come to breakfast, which, God forgive me.

AQUI: At an Oklahoma city restaurant, usually buzzing Sunday morning, the Leftman's were some of the only customers who showed up in the sleet.

TOM LEFTMAN, OKLAHOMA CITY RESIDENT: I got cabin fever. You get tired of watching TV all day long.

AQUI: Most churches closed because they didn't want their members in trouble on the roads. This is an area of the country where cities aren't equipped to handle prolonged icy conditions.

MARY ANN LEFTMAN, OKLAHOMA CITY RESIDENT: In Oklahoma, if God puts it here, then God takes it away.

AQUI: So most people stayed off the streets. Jonathan Cook doesn't have that luxury.

JONATHAN COOK, HEATING REPAIR: I worked 12 hours Friday and Saturday. I'll probably do the same today.

AQUI: He works for a heating company and can barely keep up with the number of repair calls. Freezing temperatures, power outages and dangerous highways, on this one unusual Sunday, there are few churches open to pray it away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AQUI: So the worst thing here in Oklahoma City tonight is mainly cabin fever. They are lucky, in comparison to the folks who are just southeast of here, in that portion of the state. They, over there, are experiencing something completely different. Those trees are covered in ice, unlike Oklahoma City, which means that about 90,000 people tonight, Rick, are once again for the second night, going to bed without any power.

SANCHEZ: Reggie, thanks so much for that report. Now let's check in with CNN's Jeff Block. He is braving some brutal conditions in a place called O'Fallon, Missouri. And I would imagine on a day like this anybody who goes out might be O'Fallon because of the slippery conditions. Jeff, I couldn't help myself.

JEFF BLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I tell you, if I hang around here too much longer, I might just fall down in the ice. We wanted to give you some sense of what people who are doing in this blackout zone. And that's kind of where we are right now. Maybe you see the lights from the car. That's one of the sources for light from us. No lights in this house, but we actually, so you know, the reason you're seeing us in some degree of light is that's the camera light that we brought along, just so that you can see the folks that we want to talk to tonight.

Rich lives in this house. First of all, what has this been like for you, to be plunged into darkness?

RICH BATCHELDER, O'FALLON RESIDENT: It's been strange, I tell you what. We've been through a lot of storms but nothing like this. A lot of ice, a lot of devastation, trees cracking and breaking all the time and just without power for so long.

BLOCK: Exactly, now what you've done is you've gotten a sort of generator, somebody has given you a line off their generator, so you have a light in there, at least a light, and you know, I'm going to ask -- Tim, if you can, can you go through the window? Because your daughter is in there, looking none the worse for wear. That's Brianna, is it?

And you wanted to get the blower for your gas heater going, so you've taken that generator line and run that?

BATCHELDER: Yes, just ran a temp line to the furnace. So that way we've got heat for the night.

BLOCK: Because the gas is still on, so you've got the gas heat, but you wouldn't typically have a blower without the electricity.

BATCHELDER: Exactly.

BLOCK: Now all the neighbors are hanging out here. Some folks that we talked to earlier in the night. Is everybody coming together to work this out in some way?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody is helping out so far. We got the wire coming from our house over here, for the furnace blower. He's got his generator going to his lights and refrigerator. So it's all coming together.

BLOCK: What would this be like if people weren't pitching in?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a perfect example. This is how a community should be. You should pull together and we're meant to be together. That's how God wants us to be, wants us to be a community and wants us to caring for one another and this is how you do it.

BLOCK: He doesn't want us to be standing out here on the porch in the cold. All right, well we're going to leave you. Maybe Tim, let's leave our viewers there, and Rick, with a shot of Brianna, who is surviving. How warm is it in there, before we get away Rich?

BATCHELDER: It's 70 degrees in there.

BLOCK: Because you have that heater blowing.

BATCHELDER: Yes, just like it had never gotten shut off.

BLOCK: That's how they're coping, Rick, here in the town of O'Fallon. Nobody has fallen. And if the temperature gets really cold tonight, we'll see where that all goes, because there's a lot of water out there.

SANCHEZ: Good stuff, interesting show and tell there, Jeff Block, as usual, bringing it to us that way. We thank you, my friend

Meanwhile, more on the ice storms in just a couple of minutes. Also this, a look at how the Center For Missing and Exploited Children is looking into some other cases across the country. Are there other cases like this one? You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rick Sanchez. The safe return of Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby is giving new hope to many families of missing children in this country. Gary Nurenberg has more now. He is joining us from Alexandria, Virginia. GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well good evening Rick. As we spent this weekend at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there has been a lot of celebration over the recovery of Shawn and Ben, but also the sober reminder that there's still thousands of kids out there missing. Joann Donnellan is one of the people who spends her life working on projects like this. Joann, give us just one more example of one more child you're trying to find.

JOANN DONNELLAN, CT. FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN: Gary, one case that really breaks my heart is Karen Grajeda. She disappeared ten years ago from Tucson, Arizona. She was eight-yeas-old at the time. Today she would be 18 years old. She disappeared while she was playing outside her apartment building. You know, the public can help try to find Karen.

NURENBERG: What makes you think after all this time you have a chance?

DONNELLAN: Because of Ben and Shawn we have a chance.

NURENBERG: Joann Donnellan, thank you very much. If you're interested in helping out, MissingKids.com has her story and the story of other children who are missing. And the people here at the National Center urge the public to go to MissingKids.com to see what they can do. Rick, back to you.

SANCHEZ: All right, Gary Nurenberg, following that story for us, that angle of the story. Don't forget, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children operates 24-7, meaning you can call them at any time. To report a sighting of a missing child, just call 1-800-THE-LOST, 1-800-THE-LOST. That's 800-843-5678, 843-5678, or just go to MissingKids.com.

Mother nature is not being all too kind in the Midwest and even parts of the southwest.

(WEATHER REPORT)

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SANCHEZ: We have got you covered tonight and to do that, let us target right into our weather specialist. That would be Bonnie Schneider. There she is right in the middle of the screen. Bonnie, boy, there has been a lot of stuff going on out there. Could you pick this one up for us and tell us who's being affected?

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: That's it for the CNN NEWSROOM but tonight at 10:00, tough questions in the case of the teenage boy missing for years. Why didn't the neighbors know that something was wrong and why did the boy not try and get some help? What kind of relationship did he have?

Also, a Dr. Sanjay Gupta special, Saving Your Life, cancer survivor Lance Armstrong joins Dr. Gupta for a frank and forthright discussion about cancer. It's coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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