The Disappearance of Kyron Horman

This is a difficult case to get truly accurate information from. This mostly stems from the fact that it is unsolved, hence no one has ever been charged in a court of law in this case. That does not mean there is not a suspect however, so that makes things more difficult I feel because the court of public opinion has spoken and is often touted throughout the media. This makes finding facts on the case more difficult. That being said I will do my best to show all that I can in this case.

On June 4, 2010 in Portland Oregon authorities were called when seven year old Kyron Horman did not return home after school on his bus. His father, Kaine and stepmother, Terri, had gone to the bus stop to retrieve him but was told that he was not on the bus. A call to the school indicated that he had been marked absent for the day and the authorities were called. Kyron has never been found.

Here is what we do know: June 4^th was the day of the elementary school Science Fair. The projects had been set up the evening before and the school opened early for presentations apparently. Terri had taken Kyron to school that day around 8:00 and took pictures of him with his project. Reports were that class did not officially begin until 10 am. Terri would claim that she left the school, alone, about 8:45 and that she watched as Kyron was headed to his classroom. At some point roll was taken, but again remember that classes were not to start until more than an hour later, and Kyron was reported as absent. There were reports made that from the angle in which Terri stated she was when she claimed to see Kyron walking to his room was impossible but, I have seen those proved to be not true. But of course to be fair, just because she said she was there does not mean she was.

Already there are several things that a court hearing would hopefully clear up. First, when was roll taken? Secondly, are or were there cameras in the school? Did they show Terri leaving the building alone? Did they show Kyron at any other time after Terri left?

As is generally the case the family is looked at first and since Terri was the last person that at least initially reported seeing Kyron the investigation highly focused in on her. Some claim that the focus on Terri was too much, while others claim it was not enough.

Terri would say that after leaving the school she had gone to the grocery store until a little after 10 am. She would then claim that for close to an hour and a half she had driven around with her infant daughter trying to soothe her to sleep as she was suffering from an ear infection. She would then claim that for the next hour she was at the gym. A little after 1 pm Terri would post pictures of Kyron from earlier that morning on her Facebook. Then at 3:30, Terri, Kaine and their daughter would go to meet the school bus.

Now, I want to stop here for a moment and go over all of that. First there are reports in the media that Terri's cell phone did not show her as being at the places in which she stated. Reportedly one of the places was approximately five miles from the school and was searched early on. However, I want to point out that there have been cases in which cell phone activity or “pinging” as they call it have not been completely accurate. With that said, I find her claim of driving around for nearly an hour and a half with her daughter a bit odd. To me that seems like an excessive amount of time. To add to this I question where her daughter, Kiara, was up to this point. Reports indicate that Kaine was at home in the afternoon working but seemed to imply that he was outside the home working in the morning. I have never heard any reports that Kiara was with Terri at the school or the grocery, and it is unlikely she was at the gym with her, so where was she at those times and who was she with? Was she actually with Terri at the school? I think this is important to know because if we are to believe, as some do, that Terri was involved in Kyron's disappearance then we should know if while she was supposedly committing this crime if she had another young child with her.

The other thing that I found interesting about that day was that while the Science Fair had been in the morning it was reported that at 1 pm there was a talent show at the school that Kyron was to participate in. Considering that he was not at school he obviously did not attend the talent show, but where were his parents and stepparents? To be fair here Kyron lived full time with his father and stepmother and I am unsure where his mother Desiree Young lived at the time in comparison to the school or quite honestly if she had been made aware of the talent show. Either way it seems that no one attended the talent show for the seven year old and I find this a bit odd. Obviously had someone gone to the show they would have discovered much earlier that he was not there. If we compare the time of the talent show with Terri's day as she told it, she was at home at that time, as was his father, Kaine. And, was an afternoon working at home a normal thing for him? Why of all days was he home that afternoon and it indicated that he was not on others.

I want to be clear in saying that I am have no real plans to implicate any one person in this crime. I am simply asking questions, out loud, that at least for me I would need answers to before making a judgment of guilt. I am not accusing anyone of doing anything at this point. Innocent people do things every day that may seem odd or even out of the ordinary from their routine and while I agree that sometimes these things can be because the person is guilty of something else, we cannot be a lynch mob and assume all behavior that is different than routine or what we expect means someone is guilty.

Once the missing person's report was filed there were massive searches conducted. In fact, the school was searched thoroughly late that night. It was said that crawlspaces, storage areas and out buildings were searched. Over the next several days other searches were made that included areas around the school, the Horman home, and Terri's vehicle. Kyron had disappeared on Friday and on Sunday the police had students and parents come into the school to be interviewed about what they may have seen or knew.

It has been reported that Terri was given two lie detector tests and that she failed them. I could not find when the original test was given but found information that the second was conducted on June 19^th. I will only say that there are reports that she failed them, but nothing specific nor could I find anything official pertaining to them. Still keep in mind that no one has ever been charged in this case so not all of the things reported through the newspaper or through word of mouth is necessarily fact.

A few days after her supposed second failed lie detector test authorities were talking to Kaine Horman again They would tell him that they had spoken to a man named Rodolfo Sanchez. Sanchez was a landscaper who had done work on the Horman home and would reportedly tell authorities that approximately five months before Kyron disappeared Terri had approached him and offered him “a lot of money” to kill Kaine. Sanchez had agreed to wear a wire and talk to Terri to get a confession but she did not say anything incriminating. To be fair Terri has never been charged for this crime either. However, whatever authorities said to Kaine convinced him that his wife did in fact no only attempt to have him killed but was involved in the disappearance of his son. It appears that it has never been revealed what in fact the authorities told Kaine Horman about this to verify if in fact he was given accurate information. I am not going to sit her and accuse the police officers of lying without knowing what information they had and what information they told Kaine. However, it is not unusual for police officers to at the very least exaggerate, if not lie, about information to a suspect or a witness in attempts to get them to tell them more information.

Upon having the meeting with authorities Kaine would move out of the family home, taking his daughter with him and a few days later file for divorce from Terri. Kaine has publicly stated that he believes Terri was involved in Kyron's disappearance based on what law enforcement relayed to him. He would use this information in attempts to keep not just custody of his daughter but visitation from Terri. Throughout their divorce and custody hearings there were attempts by her attorney's to find out what that information was but as far as I can tell they were unsuccessful.

Sometime in 2010 a grand jury heard the case but failed to indict anyone in the case. In 2012 Kyron's mother, Desiree Young filed a lawsuit against Terri claiming that she was responsible for his disappearance. The lawsuit asked for $10M in damages and “required” her to state what she had done and where his body could be found. In 2013 Desiree dropped the lawsuit citing that she could not obtain the information needed through law enforcement in order to make the claim because it was an ongoing investigation and she in turn did not want to jeopardize the case.

After filing for divorce from Terri, Kaine filed a restraining order against Terri as well as for custody of their daughter. Kaine asked that he be allowed to live in the house and force Terri to move. She wold move in with her parents in Roseburg Oregon. Kaine would eventually retain custody of their daughter with Terri receiving supervised visitation but it is unclear what sort of relationship Terri has with her daughter at this time.

Before I go into what has gone on with Terri and her life since this time I want to go through a few more things that has been reported as being discovered in the investigation. Now, some of these things have come in the course of the divorce and custody lawsuit that Terri and Kaine were engaged while the other has come from media reports.

It has been widely reported and publicized that Terri was the last person to see Kyron. As we recall she claims to have left the school alone at 8:45 as he was walking to his classroom. Also, as stated earlier, classes were reportedly not set to start until 10 am. According to Terri's lawyer, and in fairness many reports, a student, and friend of Kyron's claims he saw Kyron around 9 am near the south entrance of the school. Her attorney's claim that in the beginning law enforcement claimed that this was the last sighting of Kyron but have since backed away from that and returning to the idea that it was Terri who last saw him. I cannot say if this was done because law enforcement did not believe the child, if the child was mistaken or if there is another reason for this.

Reality of it is that aside from the fact that Terri Horman may or may not have been the last person to see Kyron alive the only other possible “evidence” against her comes from cell phone “pinging” tower records that have not always proven to be accurate. To be fair the areas in which authorities say the pinging came from had been widely searched. But again, they are not always completely accurate and it appears that while they may not have been in the exact area in which the pinging indicated, they were within a few miles. I found no evidence that indicated that anything was found in her vehicle or her home pointing to her as the perpetrator. Terri was seen on the morning of the disappearance by adults at the school and one could assume that her clothing from that morning was identified and examined but to be truthful I found nothing indicting this for certain.

After the divorce Terri went back to her maiden name of Moulton and apparently tried to move on with her life. In November of 2013 Desiree Young and a group of her supporters picketed the home of Terri's parents where she was living. It has been reported that Desiree has attempted to keep tabs, as well as pressure on Terri throughout the years. I have to say there is a part of me that does not blame her for wanting answers to the disappearance of her son but I does appear that she has a large support group who are happy to do her bidding in harassing Terri. In December of 2014 Terri began working as a Mental Health Support Specialist. It was said that the employer was well aware of the cloud that hangs over Terri. Whether this information was given to them through Terri or by other means is unclear. However by February of 2015 Terri had gone to court asking for a restraining order against a woman who had been posting missing persons posters of Kyron all around the area in which she worked. The judge denied Terri's request and the following day Terri quit her job.

In order to give full disclosure I want to point out that in 2015 a friend of Terri's who she had apparently lived with in California at some point reported a missing gun from his safe and accused Terri of taking it. A warrant was issued and she was eventually arrested and charged with stealing the gun. I am unsure of any outcome this case may have had.

In 2016 The Dr. Phil show did an episode on this case. The main guest was Terri, who had not spoken publicly in many years. Both Desiree Young and Kaine Horman were also interviewed for the show. Terri received a lot of slack on this show for her perceived behavior or attitude. In the same respect Terri Horman was convicted by the media and public opinion a long time ago. The one thing that I can give Terri both in this interview as well as statements to the media early on is that I never saw a statement in which she referred to Kyron in the past tense. She always spoke of him in the present tense. Many people who commit murders speak of their victims in the past tense very early on. Terri had been Kyron's primary care giver since he was two years old. Kaine and Desiree had separated in August of 2002, one month prior to Kyron's birth. A few years later Desiree was sick with kidney issues and went to Canada for treatment. She had turned custody over to Kaine.

There were some rumors that Desiree and Terri had been friends prior to her moving into Kaine's home to care for Kyron and that she had suggested Terri as a live in babysitter but some have argued this was not true. Others claim that Kaine and Terri were having an affair prior to Kaine and Desiree splitting up but I found nothing that substantiates this. In my opinion if that was the case Terri would have moved into Kaine's home long before he gained custody of Kyron some two years later. Kaine and Terri would marry in 2007.

Desiree claims that Terri either killed or was involved in the disappearance of her son because her marriage was failing and she blamed Kyron for this. To be honest, I am unsure what substantiates this claim. There is the issue involving Rodolfo Sanchez but there are issues with that also. First, it is widely believed that may have been a false claim and there were never charges filed. And secondly, even if that claim is true the threat was against Kaine, not his son. The school year was just days away from ending. In fact, there were reports that some parents indicated they wished it was not ending so soon because the children relied on each other for support through what they felt was a scary time. Whether Desiree Young lived near or far from Kaine and Terri is unknown, but either way her visitation would have likely been extended in some way throughout the next few months. If Terri was having an issue with Kyron it is likely he would have been out “of her hair” pretty soon.

Regardless, I personally do not believe that this case will ever be truly solved. It appears that investigators did adequate searches for Kyron as well as evidence but some argue that tunnel vision was used and that the investigation did not go any further than his step mother, Terri. It is unlikely that short of a proven confession from Terri, which probably is not going to happen, that she'll ever be charged due to the lack of other evidence and any other perpetrator has likely long since gotten rid of any evidence. Even at this point if a body is found it will be decomposed and it is likely that the only DNA found will belong only to him.

Citizens are divided on Terri's guilt although admittedly there seems to be a larger proportion that believes in her guilt. I am unsure. I need more answers and more evidence. I do agree that there are a few questionable things but without knowing the full facts and the evidence I will not make a judgment as to what may or may not have happened on that day in 2010.