Respect My Privacy After I Go On Oprah

Shawn Hornbeck's parents have been overwhelmed with media inquiries into interviews and reports say that they want to try to keep things private. Yet, we also learn that Shawn Hornbeck and his parents have agreed to appear on Oprah.

Officials haven’t yet asked Shawn about the time he spent with Devlin and don’t know why he never notified authorities, Schroeder said.

“We’re trying to be sympathetic to Shawn, give him the time he needs to digest everything that’s happened,” he said. “We don’t know specifically what the boy went through. We don’t know what techniques the suspect used to gain compliance. There are just a lot of unknowns, but we want to be very careful approaching that too soon.”

Shawn and his family have been besieged by media since Friday, and his parents said he had not talked to them about his experience, said Trina Davis, who works at the Bardenheier Wine Cellars restaurant in Richwoods, Mo. The restaurant has become a gathering place for the community to discuss the case.

Shawn’s stepfather, Craig Akers, and his mother, Pam Akers, plan to film an interview Wednesday for “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Davis said.

Can you reconcile the two stances (wanting to maintain privacy and going on Oprah)? There's only one way I can see this as making sense. Going on Oprah will raise the profile for other kidnapping cases and raising awareness in a way that other media outlets can't and if they received an appearance fee for being booked on the show, it would help Hornbeck's parent's recoup some of the money spent on trying to find Shawn over the past four years. His parents spent their life savings on trying to find him, and only recently returned to work when their money ran out.

Ben Owenby, who was held for only four days, is looking to get back to school, and made an appearance on the Today Show.

I wish the both of them the best and hope that they and their families get the needed support and counseling to help them readjust to life.

One thing that will remain private for now is what actually happened during the boys' captivity. Law enforcement asked them not to talk about their ordeals in the media - to help preserve the case against Michael Devlin.

Technorati: shawn hornbeck, ben+ownby, michael devlin, missouri, oprah, kidnapping, abduction.

[fixed typo]