Families Reunited

On October 6, 2002, Pam Akers's entire world was changed. While riding to a friend's house, Pam's son, Shawn Hornbeck, disappeared. At first, the family thought Shawn was simply late, but after 45 minutes, Pam says she had a gut feeling that something terrible had happened. Immediately, Pam and her husband, Craig, jumped in the car and scoured their neighborhood for a sign of their son.

"[We] went to different places where he might've been, went to where we thought he was supposed to have been earlier in the day," Craig says. "They said that they hadn't seen him. [So] we came back home and got out the phone list and start making phone calls."