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by MandyMurphey from St. Louis

Last Post 3 days, 19 hours Ago


Devlin confession
Apr 24, 2008 | 3:45 PM
Category: News
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I have done many interviews over my 17 years in St. Louis but the one airing tonight on the Fox Files stands out as one I will always remember.  FBI agent Lynn Willett agreed to sit down with me to talk about what happened the day Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck were found.  Agent Willett got the call to follow up on a lead that came into the FBI.  Ben Ownby had been kidnapped on four days earlier while walking home from school in Bufort.  Willett went to check out a report of a man who owned a white truck like the one seen in the area at the time of Ben's disappearance.  She allowed Devlin to finish the lunch hour rush at Imos in Kirkwood.  There was no indication that this lead was any stronger than the many others that had come into the FBI headquarters.  Willett and her partner Tina Kinney talked to Devlin in their car.  This was not what you think of in a typical interrogation.  Willett had to gain Devlin's trust. She asked him non threatening questions. When she asked about Ben's disappearance, she saw his heart rate increase.  He talked about his Godson Shawn.  Willett began to realize they had something.  Suddenly she realized the Shawn he talked about was Shawn Hornbeck. Willett and Kinney knew they were going to stick with this interview as long as it took to find out if he took Ben too.  Finally, the breaking point.  Devlin saw his truck had been towed away to be searched for evidence.  They had his tire tracks matching the ones from the crime scene.  He admitted Ben and Shawn were in his apartment.  Willett described the emotions of seeing the boys when she walked through the door.  This interview gives a rare look into what really happens in a child kidnapping case.  The key to solving these crimes are in the tactics used to get information from the suspect.  Willett used patience, her down to earth personality and her many years of FBI skills to reunite two boys with their families.

 

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Member Comments Total Comments: 36
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mr_wildflower read my blog view my photos
Apr 24, 2008 | 4:58 PM

I'm sure it will be a cool interview Mandy and I'll watch some of it but I would rather not hear the Pond Scums name ever mentioned anymore.... I wish he was locked up in a hole and his name erased from every record book that exists.....
jeanette read my blog view my photos
Apr 24, 2008 | 6:23 PM

I will be watching. I get shiver's everytime I hear that devil's name. But the story need's to be told in a different angle.
harp read my blog view my photos
Apr 24, 2008 | 7:37 PM

I can't watch it I have to be in bed by 8:30 that my bed time..But dad said he will listen to it why he gets ready for work tonight..
Chickenkiller read my blog
Apr 24, 2008 | 10:19 PM

Sandy, don't you remember how it was actually reported on Fox2 when the story broke?

At the time the story broke, some kid in Devlin's apartment complex pointed out to a couple of Kirkwood PD officers that were in the complex on another call that there was a truck matching the description of the perpetrator's truck in the complex. On investigation they discovered Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Owenby inside the apartment.

What this sounds like is the FBI trying to expand the public perception of their relevance to this case.
LillyJ
Apr 25, 2008 | 1:20 AM

CK- That was the illustrious Mr. Hadler. The guy who said "I would have called the police, but I didn't have my cell phone on me." Please. He's a BS artist, which is the reason he's been forgotten in this story.

Mandy- While the interview itself was wonderful, what you did with it is not. She's telling a fascinating story of investigation and intuition (with as much built-in human drama as any story could hold), and you chop it into bit sized pieces and bookend them with your own salacious crap comments. Everyone should do themselves a favor and just watch the straight video feed of her talking.
Kudos to Agent Willetts for a damn fine job.
lionsgate
Apr 25, 2008 | 3:08 AM

I agree with "Chickenkiller," and I'd like some answers. I actually know one of the Kirkwood officers who found the boys. I watched them both on "Oprah," and watched on the news as they were heralded for their bravery and good police work.
Now, some 15 months later, this lady comes out of nowhere, and the whole story is not just different, it's 100% changed??? To people that really followed this story, I found the entire interview perplexing. It makes no sense. I distintly remember one of the police officers talking to Devlin, at the apartment complex, and saying that he was acting, "squirrely." That's when they knew something was wrong. They peeked in a window and saw a boy playing a video game. Now, in a car outside of Imo's, he confessed to the FBI agent??? Which is it? We viewers don't just forget things. I thought this report left quite a bit out.

AND, am I the only person who finds it terribly offensive when an FBI agent is called a "soccer mom," or a grandmother, or anything else that relates to her gender? I'd bet money that Chief Joe Mokwa has grandchildren, but we don't hear about that, because he's a man. I wish news organizations would quit being SO shocked that a woman can be in law eforcement AND a mother. It's insulting.
USFemail-retired read my blog view my photos
Apr 25, 2008 | 6:55 AM

Lionsgate....yeah, that's the way I remember it too. What happened to the first story? I'm confused now. Which is the REAL story?
stlgirl read my blog view my photos
Apr 25, 2008 | 9:09 AM

Yeah I remember it the way Lionsgate said too, Im also confused.
Athenamamaof3 read my blog view my photos
Apr 25, 2008 | 9:57 AM

I was also wondering about this. What happen to the first story? I am very confused on this as well.
AMOM read my blog
Apr 25, 2008 | 10:14 AM

I think it's a shame that Devlin wasn't caught before. He had Shawn for so long.

THe police were eating at the place where he worked.

I bet he was a dirty, stinking person.
LillyJ
Apr 25, 2008 | 10:36 AM

Lionsgate- You couldn't have followed the story or else you wouldn't have made that post.
We've known since day one it was the FBI who arrested Devlin. The regional head of the FBI, Roland Corvington, stood right next to Sheriff Toelke and talked about how the FBI entered the apartment that Friday afternoon, and how Ben said "Are you going to take me home?" Well, it was this lady he said it to. Sheesh.
Athenamamaof3 read my blog view my photos
Apr 25, 2008 | 10:54 AM

LillyJ- She might have been the lady that Ben said "Are you taking me home" to but from the when the story broke we heard that a young man saw the truck matching Delvin was at the apartment complex not the Imos. Two officers that were on Oprah were the ones who found Delvin apartment.
Athenamamaof3 read my blog view my photos
Apr 25, 2008 | 10:56 AM

sorry hit post before i was done. At least thats what I thought was to be the story. I agree with Lionsgate that the story we heard is nothing like the fisrt story.
MIKE-FROM-IL read my blog view my photos
Apr 25, 2008 | 11:09 AM

Why don't people leave this story alone? It's over. I hope he gets what he has coming in prison. Thats the story I want to hear. I want to hear how afraid he is to come out of his cell. This was a sick man!! With a sick story. Everytime the media brings this fool up those kids relive it.JMO.
cardsgirl75 read my blog
Apr 25, 2008 | 12:19 PM

I remember that night a guy who lived in the apartment complex was the one who called police to the scene after he recognized the truck and called it in. It was freezing cold, and he stood there shivering as he told his story. Hw come the kid from Beaufort got a new truck and that guy got the shaft? He's the one who busted the whole thing open, they should be kissing his backside, but they're all sweeping it under the rug now, and it sounds like they're trying to make it sound like some nifty piece of police work. I should clarify that: FBI work. The police who actually did the job were Kirkwood officers.
VoicentheValley
Apr 25, 2008 | 12:44 PM

That kid from Beaufort gave the Police the one detail that broke this case. If he hadn't described that truck in great detail, that doofus who lived next door to Shawn Hornbeck for several years never would have gotten a clue. If there had been one kid watching when Shawn got kidnapped maybe Ben would have been safe.

Think about our society where adults don't speak to kids. When I was a kid we moved a lot, and people would ask me questions, where ya from, what's your dad do? Now we just ignore the kids around us and wonder why they don't give a crap.

What's with all the "who gets the credit"? Police Departments and the FBI work together every single day of the year to solve crimes. They don't get up and whine about who gets credit.

This is a TV news story, it's "short attention span theatre". If you want the real story then it will require you to do research. Go down to St. Louis County Courts and read the file. Instead of setting on your BOOGEDY waiting for Fox2 to spoon feed you the "truth".
TheDigitalMan
Apr 25, 2008 | 12:47 PM

I agree with all those people who are saying the police were at the apartment complex for another reason when they spotted Devlins truck. The police officers later appeared on Oprah. Maybe Devlin confessed to the FBI lady, but it was the police who found Devlins truck. It must be sweeps month so they have to take an old story and embellish it a bit.
Cuteypops read my blog view my photos
Apr 25, 2008 | 1:14 PM

It was first reported that the neighbor turned in the truck. Then he was swept under the carpet and it was said the police found it. Since the beginning this story has not been told correctly, but when it comes down to it and what is important is that the two boys are home and hopefully getting past this.
lbuxx read my blog view my photos
Apr 25, 2008 | 1:22 PM

I remember once they decided to enter the apartment that they were surprised to find TWO boys there and there was talk that this MIGHT be the missing Shawn Hornbeck. It wasn't released til after they brought the boys out that it actually was Shawn.

Anybody else remember that part?
VoicentheValley
Apr 25, 2008 | 2:23 PM

lbuxx,

That is how it was reported.
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MandyMurphey

I'm the anchor for Fox 2 News at 5 and 9. I've been with KTVI for 17 years starting as the Contact 2 reporter. I am the mother of two daughters ages 8 and 2.

Member Since: 9/13/2006


 

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