Two missing US boys, one of them missing since 2002, have been found alive in a Missouri apartment belonging to a 41 year-old man following an intensive police search.
The development was hailed as a miracle in two rural Missouri communities - Richwoods, from which Shawn Hornbeck disappeared at the age of 11 in October, 2002 - and Beaufort 40 miles to the north, where Ben Ownby, 13, disappeared this week.
A tip about a white pickup truck seen in the vicinity of Monday's suspected kidnapping of Ben Ownby led authorities to the suburban St. Louis apartment of Michael Devlin, 41, where both boys were discovered apparently unharmed.
"Both appear to be in good health," said a relieved Gary Toelke, the Franklin County Sheriff.
Shawn Hornbeck, 15, was last seen on October 6, 2002, riding his bicycle in the St. Louis suburb of Richwoods. Toelke said his discovery was a shock to investigators who stormed Devlin's Kirkwood, Missouri, apartment.
A neighbor of Devlin's told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch she had seen Hornbeck for years playing with friends in the neighborhood, and assumed he was Devlin's son.
Devlin was charged with a single count of kidnapping and ordered held on $1 million bond, with more charges likely, authorities said.
A search was launched when Ownby, a straight-A student and Boy Scout, disappeared after getting off a school bus near his Beaufort, Missouri, home.