The Disappearance of Kyron Horman
He disappeared from Skyline Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, on June 4, 2010, after attending a science fair. Here is the story of Kyron...
Local and state police, along with the FBI conducted an exhaustive search and launched a criminal investigation, but have not uncovered any significant information regarding what happened to Kyron.
Horman's disappearance sparked the largest criminal investigation in Oregon history.
To this day, his whereabouts remain unknown
Background of Kyron
Kyron Richard Horman was born September 9, 2002 in Portland to Desiree Young and Kaine Horman.
The couple divorced eight months into Young's pregnancy with Kyron, with Young citing irreconcilable differences.
The two had been granted shared custody of Kyron until 2004, but when Young was diagnosed with kidney failure that required extensive medical intervention, Kaine took over full custody.
Young still remained an active part of the child's upbringing.
In 2007 Kaine married Terri Moulton a substitute teacher.
Kaine became romantically involved with Moulton around 2001 when he and Young were in the midst of divorcing.
Meanwhile Kyron was a student at Skyline Elementary School.
His Disappearance
On June 4, 2010 Kyron was taken to Skyline Elementary School by his stepmother Terri Horman who then stayed with him while he attended a science fair.
Terri Horman stated that she left the school at around 8:45 a.m. and that she last remembered seeing Kyron walking down the hall to his class.
Kyron was never seen in his first class and was instead marked as absent that day.
Terri's statements to the police indicate that, after leaving the school at 8:45 a.m., she ran errands at two different grocery stores until about 10:10 a.m.
Between then and 11:39 a.m. she stated that she was driving her daughter around town in an attempt to use the motion of the vehicle to soothe the toddler's earache.
Terri said that she then went to a local gym and exercised until about 12:40 p.m. By 1:21 p.m. she had arrived home and posted photos of Kyron at the science fair on Facebook.
At 3:30 p.m. Terri and her husband, Kaine, walked with their daughter to the bus stop to meet Kyron.
The bus driver told them that the boy had not boarded the bus, and to call the school to ask his whereabouts.
Terri did so only to be informed by the school secretary that Kyron had not been at school since early that day and that he had accordingly been marked absent. Realizing then that the boy was missing, the secretary called 9-1-1.
An age-progressed picture of Kyron:
Search efforts for Kyron were extensive and primarily focused on a 2-mile radius around Skyline Elementary and on Sauvie Island, approximately 6 miles away.
Law enforcement did not disclose their reasons for searching the area where they did, which included a search of the Sauvie Island Bridge.
On June 12 around 300 trained rescuers were on the ground searching wooded areas near the school.
The search for Kyron, which spanned ten days, was the largest in Oregon history and included over 1,300 searchers from Oregon, Washington and California.
A reward posted for information leading to the discovery of Kyron, which was initially $25,000, was upped to $50,000 in late July 2010.
Theory #1: Kyron ran away from the class and ended up in the woods behind the school where he got lost and may have succumbed to the elements.
Theory #2: Kyron is somewhere still in the school
The school was searched through every nook and corner and there's no way he could have ended up in an air duct or something without decomposition by now. This is not plausible. There are no industrial scale refrigerators in a school to stop the putrid smell that would come from the place.
Theory #3: The Stepmother (Terri) killed him
Ah the most widely attributed evil stepmom theory. This was extensively detailed in almost every post by now and seems to be the popular narrative. But it just doesn't hold up to scrutiny for a few reasons.
No known motive that's clearly been established.
Many people have speculated that she did it for monetary reasons (inheritance etc) or she was a jilted lover or that she wanted more of Kaine's affection. Or that she had another child who needed more attention. None of these have been proven to even a limited degree. Why would she take care of a kid for 7 years and suddenly do this? For what gain? What did she get out of this. It's a tremendous risk to take for absolutely 0 reward. For all her faults, she's not that dumb.No pattern of violence
The "hired a hitman" to kill her husband is a ridiculous theory that doesn't hold up to scrutiny. People don't generally go up to landscapers and reveal their deepest darkest desires right away. She seems articulate in general and aware of how law enforcement works. So someone who has no experience in this suddenly one day can't just wake up and plan the perfect murder... it's very out of character.Timings were generally accounted for
From Skyline, she went to the Fred Meyer in Hillsboro (on Imbrie drive), then to the Fred Meyer on Walker Road, then to Michaels and then to the gym near Waterhouse where the old Sweet Tomatoes restaurant used to be. All of these locations have her on CCTV and her whereabouts are accounted for. Every road she could have taken to go from one place to another is under surveillance.Even brief stretches of unaccounted for time, the driving time alone and the roads which are well trafficked give me pause to think she could have gotten away with it.So basically... there's no way she killed him in the car and didn't leave any DNA traces, and if she did it after, the radius of her disposal spots goes down significantly.
Sauvie Island is impossible as there's only one bridge into the island which is also under CCTV.Kyron was never in the car after she dropped him off at school. End of story. If he was there, we would have seen him on footage somewhere or there would have been trace evidence that would have been picked up by the forensics team.
Theory #4 (The most likely scenario): Stranger abduction
In terms of sheer probability in the general population this is the least likely scenario. But everything else is even more implausible.
Here we have a non-standard school event in a school with no cameras where anyone can walk in without scrutiny.
Someone would have seen a kid walk away with a stranger, so it may be that the abduction took place inside the school.
Either one of two things must have happened. Kyron wandered off into the woods and ran into a predator (human or otherwise) or the abduction took place within school grounds and the body was later carried off...
What is your theory on what happened to Kyron?
I don't have a theory, since I'm not close enough to the case, but I do find it strange/interesting that the school was so apparently so lax with security during the science fair. It may not have been a true stranger who took him, if it happened on school grounds, but someone he knew/recognized (or thought he did) and went with willingly. Such a sad story. I feel bad for the family.