- A happy kid attended to school’s science fair but has never been seen again.
- Stepmother Terri Horman has been under a cloud of suspicion ever since when she says she dropped Kyron off at his elementary school in Portland, Oregon.
Kyron Horman (born September 9, 2002), a happy, cute kid with a bright smile, lived in Portland, Oregon, with his father Kaine Horman, half-sister Kiara and stepmother Terri Horman. 7-year-old Kyron attended Skyline Elementary School near Forest Park.
On the morning of June 4, 2010, Terri brought Kyron to school early because a science fair and talent show were being held that day. They attended the science fair together. Terri says at 8.45am she left Kyron to attend his first class of the day, and watched him walk down the hallway toward the classroom. Kyron never made it to class or the talent show, instead pulling a disappearing act and never being seen again.
A widely circulated photograph shows Kyron proudly displaying his Red-Eyed Tree Frog poster booth and diorama, as well as his prize-winning smile, whilst wearing his CSI shirt and eyeglasses. Chillingly, the boy would vanish less than an hour after this photograph was taken.
Even though Kyron was absent for his math class, the school did not follow this up at the time. Terri states she went shopping until 10.10am, before driving toddler Kiara around town to soothe her earache until 11.39am. She then visited a gym, working out until 12.40pm and next went home, where at 1.21pm she accessed Facebook from her home computer and posted photographs of Kyron from the science fair including the now famous image.
At 3.30pm Terri, Kaine and Kiara walked to Kyron’s bus stop to pick him up. When they discovered he was not aboard the bus, the driver phoned the school to see if Kyron had missed the bus. After reporting that Kyron had not attended class at all that day and his parents were unaware of this, the school secretary called 911. The operator informed police of the situation.
At 4.33pm police and Multnomah County Sheriff’s officers attended the school and Horman residence. A Portland Public Schools alert regarding Kyron was dispatched to parents in the district at 5.30pm. By 8.09pm search parties had mobilised at the school. By this stage the FBI had been called in. Moments later the media were made aware of the situation to circulate Kyron’s photograph. Ninety minutes later a search of the school and Horman home concluded.
Stepmother under a Cloud of Suspicion
The following day was marked by more thorough but fruitless searching and three media conferences held by police officials regarding the case. That afternoon the National Guard joined the search effort. The next morning (Sunday) 300 students, their parents and Skyline staff were summoned to the school. Fifty detectives talked to everybody that had been near the school on Friday in interviews that lasted all day. Ten days after Kyron vanished, the large-scale search ended as the case was upgraded to a criminal investigation. A female friend of Terri’s underwent several lie-detector tests.
On the evening of Saturday, June 26, a 911 threat call was received from the Horman residence. Later that night a second call was received. That same night Kaine moved out, taking Kiara with him. Two days later Terri’s father told the media he thought there was a 50% chance Terri would be arrested. She looked the prime suspect. Police were focusing on her, questioning her repeatedly for long stretches, searching her vehicle multiple times. It seemed her arrest was imminent, but it never came. That afternoon Terri lied to the media, telling them that Kaine and Kiara had not moved out. In actuality, she had been slapped with a restraining order and served divorce papers. Two days later Terri hired prominent criminal defence attorney Stephen Houze to represent her.
On Sunday, July 4, it emerged that Terri’s gardener, one Rodolfo Sanchez, accused her of offering him a substantial cash sum and sexual favours to murder Kaine before Kyron vanished. Sanchez agreed to wear a wire in an attempt to trap Terri into admitting the murder plot on tape for investigators, but she clammed up when the subject was raised.
At this point Terri began sexting Kaine’s friend Michael Cook. They took up together and police found home porn they created together on Cook’s phone. The pair also failed in an attempt to kidnap Kiara back into Terri’s custody. In mid-November Desiree Young (Kyron’s birth mother) appeared on NBC’s Today Show and revealed that Terri had a severe hatred of Kyron. Eventually Desiree brought a civil suit against Terri blaming her for Kyron’s disappearance. A year later she reluctantly dropped the case on the grounds that she felt it may hamper the police investigation.
Kyron has been missing for over 6 years, that’s nearly as old as he was when he vanished. A $50,000 reward stands for information leading to the resolution of the sad, haunting disappearance.
