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'The Best of the Worst'
As Shawn Hornbeck is returned to his family after four years, the father of Elizabeth Smart, who was abducted for nine months in 2002-03, describes how to best reintegrate rescued children with the community.
 Tom Gannam / AP Shawn Hornbeck watched as his parents spoke to the media on Saturday |
Jan. 13, 2007 - There was joy and unfathomable relief in Missouri as 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, who went missing four years ago, was found Friday in an apartment near St. Louis. William “Ben” Ownby, a 13-year-old who had been missing since Monday, was found with Hornbeck and also returned to his family. A suspect, 41-year-old Michael J. Devlin, was arrested Friday and has been charged with one count of first-degree kidnapping, according to wire reports.
Most of us will never know what it’s like to have a healthy, happy child suddenly vanish. We can’t imagine starting every day uncertain of our kids’ whereabouts or wellbeing. Nor will we ever experience the intensity of relief that must have washed over Pam Akers, Shawn’s mother, when she finally got to hold her boy again. One person who has been a member of that elite and terrible club is Ed Smart. His daughter, Elizabeth, was famously kidnapped at the age of 14 from her bedroom on June 5, 2002. She was found alive nine months later just a few miles from her Utah home accompanied by two homeless practitioners of Mormon fundamentalism.
Smart spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Brian Braiker about how he felt watching Hornbeck and Ownby be reunited with their families, how to make the best of reintegrating children with the community after a long abduction, and what parents can do to help keep their kids safe. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: What are you going through as you watch this happen?
Ed Smart:
I’m just thrilled to see another miracle. It just reaffirms that people
care. People are out there watching for these missing children—there
are other children out there that have been missing. Because people
care and are keeping their eyes peeled, it makes a difference in so
many lives.
Elizabeth
was missing for nine months. Shawn was gone for four years. What is
reintegrating with the family going to be like? Is that a difficult
transition?
For us it wasn’t. If I could have expected
anything, it was the best of the worst. Elizabeth basically came back
into the family and picked up and moved forward in a way that I would
never have been able to imagine. I hope that will be the case with
Shawn. Having been gone for four years, heaven only knows what he’s
gone through, what he’s had to deal with. It’s important he knows that
it wasn’t his fault, that nobody has the right to [take him from his
family], that he feels safe and that he isn’t going to be judged as if
he did something wrong. Some people will ask, “Why didn’t you scream
out?” or “ why didn’t you just take off?” But the manipulations that
these perpetrators pull on children is unbelievable.
