Michael J. Devlin
| Michael J. Devlin | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Michael John Devlin November 19, 1965 St. Louis County, Missouri, U.S. |
| Occupation | Pizza shop manager, funeral home worker |
| Criminal penalty | 74 life sentences |
| Criminal status | Incarcerated at Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri |
| Conviction(s) | Kidnapping, child molestation, production of child pornography |
Michael John Devlin (born November 19, 1965) is an American criminal convicted of kidnapping and child sexual abuse. He is currently serving seventy-four life sentences at Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri.
As a child, Devlin was adopted into a large family, where he had three brothers (also adopted) and two sisters. He grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri. His parents and siblings all live in Missouri. Before his arrest, Devlin worked as a manager for Imo's Pizza and as a part-time funeral home worker at Bopp Chapel in Kirkwood, Missouri. He was living in Kirkwood at the time of his arrest. According to a friend, Devlin had once been outgoing. He had changed "to a much quieter person" after he developed diabetes and had two toes amputated in 2002.
On January 12, 2007, Devlin was taken into custody and charged with the abduction four days earlier of 13-year-old Ben Ownby, whom police found that day. At the time of his discovery, law enforcement officials found another missing boy, Shawn Hornbeck. He had disappeared on October 6, 2002, at age 11 while riding his bike to a friend's house in Richwoods, Missouri. No-one had heard from him until he was discovered in Devlin's apartment.
The two boys were discovered after police noticed Devlin's white pickup truck, which matched the description of a vehicle in the vicinity of the 2002 abduction, in the parking lot of his apartment complex. They happened to be there to serve an unrelated arrest warrant. Hornbeck lived with Devlin, who presented the boy as his son. He was separated from his family for a total of four years, three months and six days, during which time the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation and Search and Rescue Team were established. Both boys were reunited with their families after their discovery.
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