Odd Duck (No Knitting Content Whatsoever)

The more news that comes out about Michael Devlin, the odder this story seems.

Even as a child, Devlin often kept to himself. A former neighbor, Sarah Sullivan, described him as a quiet child — the fifth of six kids in an otherwise outgoing Webster Groves family.

His parents adopted him, as they did his three brothers, "because they felt strongly about helping kids," Sullivan said.

Growing up on Oakwood Avenue, he was big for his age, avoided sports, had a temper and spent a lot of time in his room, she said.

From all reports, this guy seems to have had a normal childhood. There have been no reports of prior lawbreaking other than two traffic tickets. Earlier reports that he had been arrested for child molestation in Utah proved false -- that was another guy & Micheal Devlin apparently never lived anywhere other than St. Louis.

Devlin developed diabetes and, in 2002, had to have his toe amputated. That's about the time he moved into his apartment on South Holmes Avenue in Kirkwood.

"He went from being such a teaser to a much quieter person. I felt like he had been humbled by all of his health problems," said Nanos, who visited Devlin in 2002. "Years of downing Mountain Dew and smoking menthol cigarettes probably caught up with him."

When Shawn Hornbeck went missing, I thought it very odd that the bike he was riding was gone too. To me, that made me wonder if Shawn had willingly gotten into a vehicle & loaded his bike in himself.

It's beginning to look like what we have here is a Pied Piper, but not necessarily a child abuser or molester. Michael Devlin sounds like kind of a lonely guy, but one who came from a big family, where the boys were brought into the family by adoption. It seems he was "adopting" boys of his own in an illegal manner.

It says something about our x-rated, sex obsessed society that the immediate assumption that molestation & other sexual abuse is the first thing people think of in this case. Sadly, that is all too often the case, but not always. There have been cases of children snatched who were given to adoption agencies & adopted by completely unsuspecting people, with no abuse involved. Perhaps that is what Michael Devlin was doing. Except that unlike adoptive parents who have no idea the child is snatched, Michael Devlin knew the boys' history & knew what he did was wrong. Kidnapping is still kidnapping, even if no abuse is involved in it.

For the boys' sake, I hope the tale does turn out to be just that strange -- to be just a "grand adventure" of seeing what life is like in the big city & not knowing how to stop the "lark" once it's started. Being denied family & education is bad enough without adding anything else to it. Skipping school may seem like fun at first, but it's clear from Shawn's internet trail that education in normal things, like spelling & writing English, has been sorely lacking & he will have some catching up to do in that area.