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I saw a crime documentary last week that reminded me of the George Hutchinson controversy.
It involved the kidnapping of Ben Ownby, a youth who was abducted in a rural area outside of St. Louis, MO.
In the hours following Ownby’s disappearance, a teenager named Mitchell Hults came forward, claiming that he caught a glimpse of a pickup truck speeding away from the school bus stop where Ownby was last seen. He had notice this truck before there was any hint of a crime.
The F.B.I. interviewed Hults, and the agents later admitted rolling their eyes and looking at each other in disbelief when the young man began giving his description of the speeding pickup. In their words, it was “too detailed to be true.” For one thing, Hults had no reason whatsoever to have taken any interest in the truck, yet he was not only able to give the color and 'make' of the vehicle, he was able to describe the canopy, the shape of the rust stains around the wheel wells, and even the 2” x 2” square trailer hitch on the back tailgate. The only thing he couldn’t describe was the license plate number. Some called Hults a liar; to which the young man blurted out “I’ve never told a lie in my life!!” Others dismissed him as the typical publicity-hound witness that often comes forward in many major criminal investigations.
Despite their doubts, the police circulated Hults’ description of the pickup truck. The owner of a restaurant in St. Louis noticed the description, and thought it was very similar to a vehicle owned by one of his employees..a man who just happened to have went home sick on the day the Ownby boy went missing. Curious, the man drove out to his employees’ apartment complex, where he noticed red dust on the tires of the man’s white pickup...which meant it must have been out driving on rural roads. To make a long story short, he then contacted the police who eventually discovered the kidnapped Ownby boy alive in the suspect’s apartment, along with Shawn Hornbeck, who had been abducted four years earlier.
Hults’ “too good to be true” description was, in reality, accurate & truthful, while the FBI agents who doubted it had to later eat their words. The city of St. Louis later rewarded Hults by buying him a new pickup of his own.
It involved the kidnapping of Ben Ownby, a youth who was abducted in a rural area outside of St. Louis, MO.
In the hours following Ownby’s disappearance, a teenager named Mitchell Hults came forward, claiming that he caught a glimpse of a pickup truck speeding away from the school bus stop where Ownby was last seen. He had notice this truck before there was any hint of a crime.
The F.B.I. interviewed Hults, and the agents later admitted rolling their eyes and looking at each other in disbelief when the young man began giving his description of the speeding pickup. In their words, it was “too detailed to be true.” For one thing, Hults had no reason whatsoever to have taken any interest in the truck, yet he was not only able to give the color and 'make' of the vehicle, he was able to describe the canopy, the shape of the rust stains around the wheel wells, and even the 2” x 2” square trailer hitch on the back tailgate. The only thing he couldn’t describe was the license plate number. Some called Hults a liar; to which the young man blurted out “I’ve never told a lie in my life!!” Others dismissed him as the typical publicity-hound witness that often comes forward in many major criminal investigations.
Despite their doubts, the police circulated Hults’ description of the pickup truck. The owner of a restaurant in St. Louis noticed the description, and thought it was very similar to a vehicle owned by one of his employees..a man who just happened to have went home sick on the day the Ownby boy went missing. Curious, the man drove out to his employees’ apartment complex, where he noticed red dust on the tires of the man’s white pickup...which meant it must have been out driving on rural roads. To make a long story short, he then contacted the police who eventually discovered the kidnapped Ownby boy alive in the suspect’s apartment, along with Shawn Hornbeck, who had been abducted four years earlier.
Hults’ “too good to be true” description was, in reality, accurate & truthful, while the FBI agents who doubted it had to later eat their words. The city of St. Louis later rewarded Hults by buying him a new pickup of his own.
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