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Report: Missing teen helped hide younger boy

By TIMES WIRES
Published February 2, 2007

Abducted teen Shawn Hornbeck was ordered to guard fellow captive Ben Ownby and hide him from police when they were repeatedly left alone in their captor's apartment, the Associated Press reported Thursday, citing an unnamed source. Shawn's cooperation stemmed from the isolation and abuse he experienced in the first 30 days after he was kidnapped in 2002, according to the report.

Shawn, then 11 years old, was so traumatized after that first month that he began to see Michael Devlin, accused of kidnapping both boys, as his protector and surrogate parent, the official said, adding that such a reaction is common among abuse victims. Devlin, a 41-year-old pizzeria manager, faces kidnapping charges involving both boys. Shawn, now 15, was kidnapped in 2002 from near his home in Richwoods. Ben was abducted in Beaufort on Jan. 8, and a white pickup seen speeding away led police to Devlin.

Death sought in fetus case

A prosecutor said Thursday he will seek the death penalty against a woman accused of cutting a fetus from a friend's womb, killing both. Authorities say Tiffany Hall, 24, also confessed to killing her friend's three children, and St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida said he is preparing a case on those deaths for a grand jury.

Hall faces a charge of first-degree murder in the September death of 23-year-old Jimella Tunstall and of intentional homicide of an unborn child. Hall has pleaded not guilty. Tunstall's children - ages 7, 2 and 1 - were drowned and their bodies found at their family's apartment in East St. Louis. Hall has not been charged in those deaths

Mom gets 10 years in kids' deaths

A woman convicted of letting her three young children drown in a car that sank in a lake was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison. Amanda Hamm, 30, was convicted in December in the deaths of Christopher Hamm, 6, Austin Brown, 3, and Kyleigh Hamm, 1, who were trapped in the car in Clinton Lake in 2003. Prosecutors say Hamm and then-boyfriend Maurice LaGrone Jr. planned the deaths because the children were in the way. Hamm and LaGrone say it was an accident.

[Last modified February 2, 2007, 01:53:58]