Invisible Chains: Shawn Hornbeck And The Kidnapping Case That Shook The Nation [Paperback]

In January 2007, two boys were found in the home of Michael J. Devlin, a “nice enough guy” who managed a pizza parlor in Kirkwood, Missouri. One boy had been kidnapped four days earlier. The other, Shawn Hornbeck, had been missing for four years. How and why did this fifteen-year old, whose face appeared on thousands of milk cartons and “Have You Seen Me?” posters, stay with his abductor in plain view for four years, only an hour from his family home?

From award-winning journalist Kristina Sauerwein comes this riveting story of the American kidnapping that startled the nation and catapulted the chilling reality of Stockholm Syndrome into the spotlight. Shawn had many opportunities to ask for help: he was left alone in his kidnapper’s apartment many times, and had phone and Internet access. But he never tried to escape. This is the first time the full story has been told, complete with interviews with law enforcement, and top psychological experts; and a real-life happy ending.Kristina Sauerweinis a former reporter for theSt. Louis Post-Dispatchand for theLos Angeles Times, where she shared a 2004 Pulitzer prize for her reporting on California wildfires. She is now a freelance journalist who lives in Kirkwood, Missouri, the same town as the kidnap victims.“An impeccable, on-target true crime narration, this book of loss, perversity and redemption illuminates not only the desperate pangs of a predator’s sexual hunger but the steadfast love of two families for their missing children.”
—Publishers Weekly

 

“No stone has been unturned.  This is a must read.”
—Jerald Barnes, a lieutenant with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department
    and one of the nation’s most respected hostage negotiators

“Invisible Chains is a tribute to the courage, persistence, and resilience of these boys and their fal