Kirkwood, Mo. ? On the day before kidnapping victims Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck were rescued from Michael Devlin’s apartment, an FBI task force dropped Devlin from suspicion.

Kirkwood police did not.

An FBI misunderstanding about the brand of tires on Devlin’s pickup subjected Ben, 13, and Shawn, 16, to an extra night of captivity.

The steps leading to the boys’ rescue Jan. 12 from Devlin’s apartment in Kirkwood have never been fully detailed. And the previous day’s misstep was never acknowledged.

But good police work was covered up, too.

Lost to the record was that the boys may owe their lives to Kirkwood officers who kept the heat on Devlin while the task force moved on to other leads.

The FBI refused to comment this week on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch findings. Kirkwood Police Chief Jack Plummer would discuss only his department’s actions, and praise his officers.

‘Bungled’ investigation

Critics have questioned almost from the beginning why authorities were not more aggressive in their investigation of Devlin. Even Devlin’s mother derided investigators as early as February, accusing investigators of having “bungled” the investigation, according to police reports obtained by the newspaper under a freedom-of-information request.

On Thursday, the chief confirmed that his officers kept Devlin’s apartment under near-constant surveillance throughout that night, even after the FBI had turned to other suspects.

“A supervisor permitted them to do it because they said, ‘We still think this is probably the right guy,”‘ Plummer said. “It was a gut feeling.

“You play hunches in this business. This was more than a hunch, as it turns out.”

The action could have saved Ben and Shawn from further harm, said Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI agent and behavioral profiler. Knowing police still were outside would have limited Devlin’s options for hiding his victims.

“He’s got to make a decision,” Van Zandt said. “What is he going to do with one, if not both, boys? Do something with them? Transport them?”

Truck tip led to arrest

Michael Prosperi, owner of the Imo’s Pizza restaurant in Kirkwood where Devlin worked for years, had alerted Kirkwood police Jan. 11 that the employee’s white Nissan pickup matched the description of the vehicle believed to have been used by Ben’s kidnapper.

Prosperi told them he doubted Devlin did it, but his suspicion increased when he checked time cards and found that Devlin had gone home sick Jan. 8, in time to have grabbed Ben near a school bus stop in Franklin County.

Kirkwood detectives checked and photographed Devlin’s truck and sent information to the task force, the reports show.

Kirkwood’s Lt. Bob Kosyan talked to two different task force investigators and asked them to call back if they wanted Kirkwood to approach Devlin. They never called.

That night, two Kirkwood officers, Gary Wagster and Chris Nelson, were sent to arrest Devlin’s upstairs neighbor on an unrelated harassment charge.

They said they noticed the truck as well as a few details they found worrisome – a dark splatter on the floorboard that looked like blood, and small fingerprints smeared on the windows.

Wagster and Nelson encountered Devlin outside the apartment. He acknowledged he had a child inside but refused to tell them his name or how he was related.

Devlin finally told the officers the boy was his godson, but refused to let them in.

The reports show that through a window the officers could see a teen, at a computer, who obviously was not Ben. They did not realize he was Shawn, then missing for more than four years from Washington County.

The two officers alerted the task force about Devlin’s truck and behavior.

FBI Special Agent Dion Cantu and Missouri state trooper Jeffrey Paul arrived in 30 minutes to talk with Devlin, although details of their interaction were unclear. Devlin did not let them inside, either. Cantu and Paul could not be reached for comment.

According to an FBI report, they moved on to track down other leads after determining the tires on Devlin’s truck were not the brand sought based on tread marks where Ben was taken.

Meanwhile, Ben was inside. He would tell investigators later that Devlin sexually assaulted him repeatedly, including Thursday.

Van Zandt, the profiler, who was not involved in this case, said investigators would have two priorities, in this order: Save Ben’s life. Collect enough evidence to prosecute the kidnapper.

He noted that the task force officers believed at the time that the tires didn’t match, and that the Kirkwood officers had seen a teen inside who wasn’t Ben and didn’t seem to be in distress.

While the Kirkwood officers might have believed Devlin’s demeanor was suspicious, Van Zandt said, it isn’t clear what the task force officers saw. Without reason to think that anyone was in danger, they would not have had a legal right to enter the apartment.

“All I can believe is (the FBI agent) put so much value in the identity of the brand of tire and that they had exhausted so many pickups of a similar description and ruled them out because of tires, that he was just quickly moving on to the next lead in the case,” Van Zandt said. “You’ve got to move on to the next lead.”