Raising the odds for missing children

There is much we can learn from the successful return of 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, of Kirkwood, Mo., four years after his kidnapping. The first lesson is that, when it comes to missing children, we should risk being wrong or looking foolish to take whatever steps we need to make sure kids are safe.

Shawn's friends, and even their adult family members, regularly commented on how much Shawn looked like the boy they saw on missing posters. Yet none of them, apparently, picked up the phone and called police. Had someone snapped a digital photo of him -- when he stayed at their children's homes for sleepovers, which Shawn sometimes did -- and emailed it to his parents, who had a foundation and a web site, perhaps his captivity would have ended much more quickly.

Some press accounts say Shawn was not attending school, another red flag for neighbors and families of his friends. Someone -- anyone -- simply following up with authorities might have resulted in a rescue from his captor.

The speculation on why he stayed with Michael Devlin, who thus far has been charged with kidnapping, should be the last of our concerns. Shawn is alive, which means he did everything right. Our concern should be what we can do better.

One simple step: Always look at missing child posters -- not just thinking you'll memorize a face in case you come across it, but to see if there's a face there you already know. For more tips on how to help find missing kids, go to missingkids.com, the web site of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.