Shawn Hornbeck

Shawn Hornbeck

Shawn Hornbeck was returned to his family, four and a half years after being kidnapped. His parents believe this latest case proves families of missing kids should never give up hope. It really gives you a big boost because it vindicates everything that we’ve been saying,” said Craig Akers, Hornbeck’s stepfather. That you shouldn’t give up hope, that it’s possible those kids are out there. Like Jaycee Dugard, Shawn Hornbeck was also 11-years-old when he was kidnapped. His parents searched, and hoped and prayed for his safe return. Then four and a half years later, he and another boy were found in the home of Michael Devlin. Hornbeck’s parents said the child’s return is not the end of the ordeal. It’s the beginning of the healing process. The first year Shawn was home was almost as hard as the four and a half years of him being gone,” said Hornbeck’s mother, Pam Akers. “For me as a mother, all the nightmares that I had the whole time he was gone, I finally found out they were true. So you have to live with that. And you have to live with, how do you heal?

Almost 2,000-miles away from where Jacyee Dugard disappeared, another family knows what it's like to have a child disappear and the feeling to hold them in their arms again. It was the miracle in Missouri. Shawn Hornbeck was returned to his family, four and a half years after being kidnapped. His parents believe this latest case proves families of missing kids should never give up hope. "It really gives you a big boost because it vindicates everything that we've been saying," said Craig Akers, Hornbeck's stepfather. "That you shouldn't give up hope, that it's possible those kids are out there." Like Jaycee Dugard, Shawn Hornbeck was also 11-years-old when he was kidnapped. His parents searched, and hoped and prayed for his safe return. Then four and a half years later, he and another boy were found in the home of Michael Devlin. Hornbeck's parents said the child's return is not the end of the ordeal. It's the beginning of the healing process.