Missouri kidnap boy had own blog

The mystery surrounding the kidnapping of two teenage boys in Missouri deepened yesterday with indications that one of the boys, who was held prisoner for more than four years, had a website - raising new questions about why he did not try to get help earlier.

Abducted in October 2002, Shawn Hornbeck was found last Friday along with a 13-year-old boy in the flat of 41-year-old Michael Devlin in Kirkwood, Missouri. Mr Devlin is now facing kidnapping charges.

A Yahoo user homepage belonging to "xxdevildevlinxx" - created in April 2004 - shows a picture of a boy who strongly resembles Shawn. Another profile using the picture is registered to an "mdevlin". A separate profile was taken out in November 2005.

Mr Devlin's only criminal record apparently consists of two traffic fines.