The Mysterious Disappearance Of Kyron Horman
Karl Cox/Shutterstock
By Sarah January/Updated: May 27, 2022 12:25 pm EST
The disappearance of a child is always a tragic event and happens far too often in the United States. There are many organizations like the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as both local and federal law enforcement agencies, that search for missing children every day. However, despite their valiant efforts, sometimes there are children that are never found, for whatever reason. One case of a missing child that took the nation by storm in 2010 was the disappearance of Kyron Horman.
Kyron Richard Horman was an adorable little boy from Portland, Oregon who was really excited to go to school on June 4, 2010, according to Unsolved Magazine. It was science fair day. The second grader had his picture taken next to his project by his step-mother, Terri Horman, who dropped him off at Skyline Elementary School that day. It was not discovered that he was missing until he did not get off the bus after school to meet his parents. When they examined the timeline, Horman had been marked absent from all of his classes that day, and he had disappeared within an hour of being dropped off. According to KATU, his step-mother was the last one to see him that day.
Teri Horman becomes a suspect
KOIN6
When news of Kyron Horman's disappearance hit the media in Portland, it almost immediately became a national story. According to Unsolved Magazine, the community mobilized and met at a local church to begin searching for the boy. This search for Kyron would eventually become the largest investigation in state history. While this massive search was taking place, suspicion fell on the boy's stepmother, Terri Horman.
According to the timeline in The Oregonian, Terri Horman watched her stepson, last seen wearing a "CSI" t-shirt, walk toward his classroom. She then left the school at 8:45 a.m. on the day he disappeared. Kyron was reportedly seen by one more student around 9 a.m., and then was marked absent from his first class at 10 a.m. Terri Horman posted a picture of Kyron, taken at the science fair, on Facebook around 1:30 p.m., before she and his father went to pick him up at the bus stop a couple of hours later. It was then they discovered that he was missing.
His stepmother failed a polygraph test twice
Additionally on that timeline, Terri Horman was reportedly at two different grocery stores until a little after 10 that morning, but from then until 11:39 a.m. she doesn't have an alibi, per All That's Interesting. She claims that in the hour before she checked in to her gym and that she took her infant daughter on a drive on some back roads in an attempt to soothe an ear infection.
Oregon police apparently did not buy her explanation of things, and focused their attention on her. They asked Terri Horman and Kyron's biological parents to take a polygraph test as part of the investigation. The police then requested that Terri take a second polygraph after that. When she appeared on an episode of "Dr. Phil," it was revealed that Terri Horman failed both polygraph tests, and walked out on a third. Her explanation? She's essentially deaf in one ear, and the way the test was administered caused her to take longer to answer the questions.
Additional accusations
Krasula/Shutterstock
As if failing multiple polygraph tests was not enough, a bombshell accusation came out about a month after Kyron Horman disappeared. According to The Oregonian, a witness came forward with a claim that Terri Horman offered to pay him if he killed her husband, Kyron's father, Kaine Horman, about 6 months before her stepson disappeared. This unidentified person reportedly worked as a landscaper for the Hormans.
The police followed up on this claim and informed Kaine Horman of the alleged plot. Upon learning this information, Kaine then left the home that he shared with Terri, and took their young daughter with him. Investigators first attempted to get Terri Horman to speak about the incident by sending the landscaper and an undercover police officer to discuss it with her while they recorded the conversation. When that didn't work, they confronted her directly about the allegations, which she has denied.
After a few months of being separated, Kaine Horman attempted to block his estranged wife from seeing their daughter. In his petition to the court, he claimed that Terri Horman was an "emotionally disturbed individual" and that she was putting her personal needs ahead of their daughter and finding Kyron. He also believes that she is responsible for the disappearance of his son, due to her changing stories, failed polygraph tests, and lack of emotional responses. Kaine then revealed text messages between Terri and his high school friend, Michael Cook, that contained sexually explicit texts and images, in Kaine's pursuit of obtaining full custody of the couple's daughter.
Kryon's mother believes that his step-mother hated him
While the police and Kyron's father are highly suspicious of Terri Horman and her whereabouts the day that Kyron Horman disappeared, her biggest critic is arguably Kyron's biological mother, Desiree Young. Though they divorced when Kyron was very young, Kaine Horman and Desiree Young shared custody of their son until illness forced Young to give full custody to the boy's father, per All That's Interesting. Kaine Horman then married Terri, and together they had a daughter.
Following the disappearance of her son, Desiree Young has spoken to the media about the case, oftentimes alongside her ex-husband. However, in one of her solo interviews on the "Today Show," she was very blunt and open about her thoughts on Terri Horman. Young alleges that Terri had a drinking problem, to the point of visible impairment and losing consciousness (per The Oregonian). She goes on to talk about how she was attempting to get custody of her son, and that Terri Horman wanted her to take him, despite objections from the boy's father.
Investigators also showed Young some emails that were sent from Terri Horman and her friends. These emails referred to marital problems between Terri and Kaine Horman, where she placed a lot of the blame on her stepson. Young believes that these emails show that Terri Horman harbored a "severe hatred for Kyron." It was these emails that have really convinced Desiree Young that Kyron's stepmother is completely capable of hurting her son, and that she "could have hurt him in the worst way possible."
Kyron's mother wants his case re-examined
It has been almost 12 years since Kyron Horman disappeared, and unfortunately, no trace of him has ever been found. Despite proof he was dropped off at school that day, there have really been no clues as to what happened to him in that hour after that last photograph was taken of him. Unfortunately, aside from his stepmother, there have been no suspects named in the case and no one has ever been charged.
The community has continued to search for him over the last decade and his mother has vowed to "never stop fighting for her son" (per KATU). In February of 2022, Desiree Young renewed her pleas to authorities, begging the district attorney to form a new task force to look at her son's case. According to KGW, she wants the DA to "know that Kyron is important."
Kyron Horman would be 19 years old as of 2022, and his case is still active. According to The Kyron Horman Foundation, there is also currently a $50,000 reward being offered for information that leads to the location of Kyron Horman.