So often when reporting on stories like the Missouri kidnapping, I encounter neighbors and co-workers of someone who has become the focus of an investigation and am told how that suspect was quiet and stayed to himself.
But according to Michael Devlin's neighbors, he fits only part of that description.
Late last summer, neighbor Rob Bushelle says he got into a loud argument with Devlin over a parking space. It ended when Devlin called the police, according to Bushelle. In hindsight, this move appears baffling, given that the abducted boy Shawn Hornbeck was living in Devlin's apartment at the time.
Another neighbor complained of shouting and loud noises from inside Devlin's apartment.
But beyond these negative encounters, no neighbor we found could say they really knew him at all. Devlin worked two jobs and never socialized around his apartment complex or was known to engage anyone in conversation.
People who worked with Devlin also now wonder if they really knew him either. Devlin worked at one pizzeria for 20 years. He became a manager and was known to be dependable and friendly with the customers, including the occasional police officer.
There was nothing to suggest to those around him that he might be an abductor of children.
