KIRKWOOD, Missouri (AP) -- For more than four years, Shawn Hornbeck seemed to have had every chance to escape, left alone for hours to ride his bike, play video games and walk past missing-child posters showing his own age-progressed image.
But mental health experts say this troubling case is hardly so simple, and that Hornbeck was likely kept mentally shackled by terror and domination from the man accused of kidnapping him, 41-year-old Michael Devlin.
"I think it's a real mistake to judge this child. Whatever he did to this point to stay alive is to his credit," said Terri Weaver, an associate psychology professor at Saint Louis University. (Watch officers who knew suspect, found boys )
Weaver, an expert on post traumatic stress disorder, said children in such situations kick into survival mode, "doing what needs to be done to keep yourself going day-to-day."
Devlin, a 300-pound pizza parlor manager, is accused of abducting Hornbeck four years ago when the slight boy, taken as he was riding his bike, was just 11.
Now a gangly 15-year-old with floppy hair and a pierced lip, he was found by surprise Friday when police acting on a tip went to Devlin's modest-two-bedroom apartment in this St. Louis suburb to rescue 13-year-old Ben Ownby, who had been snatched four days earlier on his way home from school. (Read full story)
Devlin was being held Sunday in the Franklin County jail in lieu of $1 million bail and is charged with first-degree kidnapping.
Now investigators are piecing together the details of Shawn's captivity and Ben's abduction, trying to figure out how Devlin kept them captive in an apartment where neighbors often heard banging, shouting and arguing. (Watch how computer helps 'age' missing children )
Internet profiles posted as far back as two years ago that were created using pictures of Hornbeck emerged over the weekend when a blog mentioned them.
A Kirkwood detective said Sunday that he had heard about the profiles but didn't know what role they might be playing in the investigation.
A Yahoo user homepage belonging to "xxdevildevlinxx" was created in April 2004 and shows a partial picture of a boy, strongly resembling recent photos of Hornbeck, with an eyebrow piercing. On Saturday, the boy had a lip ring and three ear piercings.
Another Yahoo profile using the same picture is registered to an "mdevlin" in Kirkwood, Missouri.