Kidnapped boys found in same apartment

The boys’ parents clung to them and focused on their joy at the shocking outcome, saying little about the 41-year-old man charged in the case or how the teens were treated.

The boys ? 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, abducted more than four years ago, and 13-year-old Ben Ownby, taken after getting off his school bus Monday afternoon ? smiled shyly and appeared at ease.

“I still feel like I’m in a dream, only this time it’s a good dream, not the nightmare I’ve had four-and-a-half years,” Hornbeck’s mother, Pam Akers, said Saturday at an elementary school adorned with balloons and welcome-home signs.

Hornbeck’s stepfather, Craig Akers, said he and his wife were in disbelief when they were reunited with the boy.

“There was that split second of shock,” he said. “Once I saw the face, I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s my son.'”

Hornbeck smiled often, his mother’s arm draped around him, and seemed at ease. He was much bigger than pictures of the missing 11-year-old, his hair darker and longer.

Hornbeck and Ownby disappeared 4 1/2 years and 40 miles apart, though both were last seen in towns within 60 miles of St. Louis.