Word: shawne
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Shawn hasn't told them yet what happened with Devlin to leave him so scared, but both said they suspect he may have been abused, a gut feeling they first shared in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired yesterday. But Craig Akers said yesterday his suspicion was not based on anything Shawn has said or done since he has been back home. "There was nothing to make me think that other than statistics," he told TIME. "Since Shawn disappeared, we have been helping out other families with missing kids. We've been involved in more than 40 missing persons...
...also said that the mere fact that Shawn stayed away so long, despite apparent freedom to use the phone and ride his bike, was proof to him that something "awful" had happened to him during those years. In addition, both parents said yesterday that they fear the reason Devlin may have taken Ownby was because he may have had an unhealthy obsession with younger boys. "That is what keeps crossing my mind," Craig Akers said. "We're just grateful that they found them so soon after Ben got there...
...nearly six-foot, and with a voice his mother says is much deeper than she remembers, Shawn has grown far beyond the little boy whose picture was broadcast relentlessly during the early months of his disappearance. But while he has grown up, he hasn't kept up with other kids his age - at least not academically, given that he did not attend school of any type while living with Devlin. Fixing that, his mother said, will be one of the family's first priorities as their life slowly returns to normal. "Shawn really wants to go back to school...
...Just how to make up more than four years of missed schooling has not yet been decided. But Superintendent John Westerman of the Richwoods elementary school district, which Shawn attended before 2002 said the school board is committed to doing whatever it takes - including hiring a private teacher - to help Ben catch up academically with his classmates. Though his former classmates are now in the 9th grade, Westerman said that with a private tutors, summer sessions and hard work, Shawn could expect to graduate with his friends on time...
...meantime, both parents said they expect a bumpy transition as Shawn gets used to living in a home with rules and boundaries he may never have faced while living with Devlin. "He's tested the boundaries, pushed a little here and there," said Craig Akers. "But that's okay. Since he has been back, he and a girl he knew very well before he was taken have struck up a casual relationship. We've had to have a talk with him, and tell him that she can't come over to the house unless someone else is there with them...