Why Didn't Missing Boy Shawn Hornbeck Try to Escape His Captor?

Many are asking why Shawn Hornbeck did not just walk away from his captor and some are wondering if he really was kidnapped at all or was he a run away that took refuge with Michael Devlin. In light of some new information that includes a messages posted to a website that had been set up by the parents of Shawn Hornbeck it is beginning to appear as if the teen might not have been held against his will.

Several times Shawn Hornbeck had the chance to tell someone he was being held by Michael Devlin and instead each time he made the choice to behave as if he was any other teenage boy going home to a single father. A neighbor reports finding a cell phone and calling a number that was in the phone, Shawn Hornbeck came down and retrieved the phone and thanked the man for returning it but never gave the man any indication that something might have been amiss. The most shocking of all is that on three different occasions Shawn Hornbeck was picked up by the local police for being out after curfew and each time they returned him to what they believed to his home.

Victims often bond with their captors and children who are reliant on adults for their well being can be even more likely to do so. Elizabeth Smart upon being recovered denied being who she was and tried to protect her captors while the world look on with horror at what must have happened to the young girl with the innocent face.