Invisible Chains: Shawn Hornbeck and the Kidnapping Case That Shook the World by Kristina Sauerwein

From the Publisher

In January 2007, two boys were found in the Kirkwood, Missouri, home of Michael Devlin, a 41-year-old pizza parlor manager who was described by those around him as a “nice enough” guy. One of the boys, Ben Ownby, had been
kidnapped just four days earlier; the other was Shawn Hornbeck.  At the age of eleven, Shawn Hornbeck abruptly vanished from his rural hometown in Richwoods, Missouri, while riding his mountain bike. For the next four years the young boy lived with his abductor in plain view of others and only an hour’s drive from where he went missing. Shawn assumed his abductor’s last name, made several friends, played video games, and used the Internet freely—yet he didn’t attempt to escape. Invisible Chains explores the psychological factors involved in the kidnappings that startled a nation—from Michael Devlin’s criminal profile
to the reality behind Stockholm Syndrome—and recounts the riveting story of the abduction and miraculous rescue of Ben Ownby, who was held captive by Michael Devlin for four days, and Shawn Hornbeck, who was held captive by Michael Devlin for four years.

Publishers Weekly

Sauerwein, a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the L.A. Times, delves into a puzzling kidnapping case with penetrating true crime reporting. She describes 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck's disappearance from his rural Missouri hometown, while riding his bike in 2002. He was abducted by Michael Devlin, an innocuous-seeming pizza-shop manager who repeatedly sexually abused and tortured Shawn for four years. In a strange twist, Devlin also assumed a fatherly role and Hornbeck became his "son"; even given freedom to go out alone, Hornbeck never tried to escape. Shawn was joined by another kidnapped boy, Ben Ownby, four days before the police nabbed Devlin in January 2007. The unusual psychological aspects of Hornbeck's captivity and his failure to attempt to escape are explained, according to Sauerwein, by the Stockholm syndrome, which leads a captive to bond with his captor. An impeccable, on-target true crime narration, this book of loss, perversity and redemption illuminates not only the desperate pangs of a predator's sexual hunger but the steadfast love of two families for their missing children. (May)

Product Details