A year after their son and another kidnapped boy were rescued from a pedophile, Don and Doris Ownby are working hard to give him as normal a childhood as they can, given what he went through and the intense media coverage of the case.
“We try to put things back to normal as much as possible,” Doris Ownby told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira in New York. “Just let him do what a normal teenage boy does. We got him a cell phone right after he got back, and now we call him up and find out where he’s at and what’s going on.”
Her husband admitted that it’s not easy.
“You try not to worry,” Don Ownby said. “You want him to be as mainstream as possible. You don’t want him to have to worry about what’s going on. It’s just in the back of your mind all the time — ‘Where is he? Is he safe?’ ”
Tuesday marked one year since Ben Ownby disappeared at the age of 13 while coming home from school in Beaufort, a town in rural Franklin County 60 miles southwest of St. Louis, Mo.
The highly publicized case was solved four days later when Ben was found along with Shawn Hornbeck, who had been missing for more than four years, in the apartment of a 41-year-old pizzeria manager, Michael Devlin.
Hornbeck, of Richwoods, Mo., had disappeared on Oct. 6, 2002, while riding his bike to a friend’s home.
Tortured and threatened with death, Hornbeck had allowed Devlin to present him as his son for more than four years. When conventional searches failed to find him, psychics were called in, some of whom reported that Hornbeck, who was 11 at the time of his disappearance, was dead.
Last October, Devlin pleaded guilty to kidnapping Ben. In December, Devlin, who had been charged in both state and federal courts, was in court for the last time, having been sentenced after guilty pleas to numerous charges, including sexual assault and kidnapping, to 74 life sentences plus 170 years in prison.
Parents giving Ben time, space
On the advice of psychologists who worked with them and their son, the Ownbys have not spoken with Ben about what happened to him during his four days with Devlin.
“That will come when he wants it to come,” Doris Ownby told Vieira.
They also have not had contact with the Hornbecks or their son.
“There was a lot going on that wouldn’t let that happen,” Don Ownby said.
The U.S. Justice Department reports an average of 2,185 children are reported missing each day — nearly 800,000 over the course of the year. Of those, just over 260,000 are the victims of abductions. Most — 204,000 — are abducted by members of their own families, usually in custody battles. Another 58,000 are the victims of nonfamily abductions, but just 115 are the victims of what law enforcement officials call “stereotypical” kidnappings in which the child is abducted either by someone they don’t know or a slight acquaintance, are held overnight, transported more than 50 miles and are either held for ransom, kept permanently or killed.
The Ownbys have become involved with organizations that offer support to others whose children have been abducted.
“We just felt it was important for our benefit as well as somebody else’s that we get involved and just try to help people as much we can,” Doris Ownby said. “We wanted to give back what they had given to us. It’s unbelievable the number of children who are still missing and they don’t have the happy outcome that we had.”
Ben Ownby was in the TODAY studio while his parents spoke with Vieira, but did not take part in the interview. He’s grown half a foot taller in the year since he’s been home, and he did come on camera to accept an Air Force backpack from the TODAY Show. His had been kept as evidence in the case by the FBI and has not been returned.