Oregon : Kyron Horman
This week’s unsolved missing person case is pretty well known. However, I knew the basics, but that was about it, so researching this one was interesting but heartbreaking at the same time. We will be diving into the case of Kyron Horman.
But first, Portland, Oregon, is where Kyron went missing, and it is the largest city in Oregon. I expected the crime to be worse in 2010, which is when our case took place. But in that year, it wasn't too bad. They had 22 that year. However, today Portland is 94% more dangerous than other US cities. Murder rates increased dramatically between 2011 and 2021, jumping 46% in one decade. Murder rates also increased by 8% between 2020 and 2021.
I went to Portland years ago for a wedding, and it is beautiful. Definitely, a great place if you are an outdoorsy type and something I found strange, or maybe not strange but different, was regular people are not allowed to pump their own gas. They have attendants for that. It took some getting used to, but not gonna lie I liked having it done for me. Kyron and his family lived on the outskirts of Portland in a quiet suburb.
Kyron Richard Horman was born on September 9th, 2002, to parents Caine Homran and Desiree Young. The couple was not together very long and actually divorced while Desiree was still pregnant with Kyron. Caine, a software engineer at the Intel company, was apparently cheating on his pregnant wife. Desiree found out because Caine’s best friend called her and told her about what her husband had been up to. She tried to stay for a while to make it work, considering she was pregnant with his child, but at the end of the day, she had to do what was best for her. Once Kyron was born, the couple shared custody of their little boy but Desiree ended up getting sick with kidney failure, and because of her ongoing medical issues, Caine would end up keeping Kyron fulltime. By this time Caine was already seeing another woman named Terry. The two had met at a restaurant and had a lot in common. Desiree believes they met and started seeing each other while she and Caine were still married so she never liked Terry. For timeline sake, Kyron was born in September of 2002, and Caine and Terry met in 2001 but wouldn't get officially married until 2007. Terry was very much the person raising Kyron day in and day out since he was an infant while Caine worked and Desiree dealt with her medical issues. Terry had a son James from a previous marriage, and Terry and Caine would have a daughter Kiara in 2008. So three children in this blended family. That is just a quick background on all of the family dynamics before we get into the day Kyron vanished. The investigation was deemed the largest criminal investigation in Oregon history.
Terry, by all accounts, was a good stepmother to Kyron. She taught him sign language while he was just a baby, she went to school to be a teach and apparently loved kids, she was the one that realized Kyron could not see well, and she was an advocate for him getting glasses. As I said before, she was Kyron’s primary caregiver.
On June 4th, 2010, Terry loaded Kyron and Kiara in her husband’s truck to drive Kyron to school at Skyline Elementary near Forest Park, Oregon. They took the truck on this particular day because Kyron had a science fair project that wouldn't fit in Terry’s smaller vehicle. The school was open to all parents and visitors that morning because of the Science Fair. The family walked in together to see Kyron’s display along with the others students. Terry would state she left the school around 8:45 am when Kyron was walking to his classroom. She then went to a Fred Myers grocery store to find some Tylenol for Kiera because she had an earache. The first store did not have any, so she went to a second store where she could get what she needed. Terry then ran a few other errands like dry cleaning and the craft store. She then stated she drove around with Kiara for a while so she could sleep and let the Tylenol do its job to make this little girl feel better. At 1140 the mother-daughter duo would stop off at the gym so Terry could work out. Kiara would go to the daycare area while Terry worked out and chatted with friends until 12:40. She then got home around 1:20 that day and started to post photos of Kyron’s science fair on social media. This whole time they think nothing is amiss, and at 330, Caine is now home, so the couple and Kiara make their way to the bus stop to get Kyron and hear all about the rest of his day at school.
Only Kyron didn't get off the bus. The bus driver told the family that Kyron had not boarded the bus at the school. Of course, Terry calls the school right away to see if Kyron was left behind, but the school secretary tells her that Kyron was absent that day. I could only imagine the heart-wrenching uncertainty as this information was relayed. As a parent, my heart sinks for this family. Usually, you believe school is one of the safest places for your child well, it used to be anyways, but knowing that you dropped him off and the school doesn't have any record of it is downright terrifying.
I know I have been talking about Terry, the stepmother, whereabout thats day quite a bit, but I also want to make it known of her past. She was really into fitness at one point, so much so that she actually competed in a body-building competition. She apparently lost about 60 pounds in two months. Caine would state she was short-tempered and not acting herself during this time. Terry would also receive a DUI for being drunk while driving. To make it even worse, she had her oldest son in the vehicle, and I believe she received some type of child endangerment charge. It was reported that she did stop drinking after this incident. Terry and Caine were having issues, and Terry even suspected Caine of cheating on her. To say they were having issues might be an understatement
Back to what happened after they found out Kyron was not on the school bus. Caine and Terry race to Skyline Elementary and speak to the front office, where they tell them again that Kyron was marked absent from school that day. Terry wants to know why no one called them. There is typically an automated call that goes out to let parents know when their child is out of school. Well, apparently this system was not working that day. Not only was this system not working, but the system they have in place for parents to sign in and out was not enforced that day either. This was the perfect storm for a child to go missing. Of course, police were called right away, and the search began. Since this was a Friday afternoon, police could not speak with classmates of Kyron’s or all of the school personnel. That didn't stop them from searching the area surrounding the school. This is Oregon, and this school was on the outskirts of Portland in a pretty dense forest area. Right around the school, there were hundreds of acres of treacherous terrain.
Police start interviewing who they are able to, and Kyron’s teacher has something weird to say. She told authorities that Terry told her she was taking Kyron to the doctor, so he wouldn't be there that day. Terry says she never said that, and the doctor's appointment was the next week, not that day. Police confirmed with the doctor that the appointment was, in fact, a week later. Did the teacher misunderstand? Was she thinking of another kid? Terry was very involved with the school. The teachers, staff, and other parents knew Terry, so I don't know if Terry would be mixed up with a parent that was not known. The PTA president saw Terry and Kyron in front of his science project that morning. She spoke with the two and told the police they were both there and at what time.
Terry had taken photos of Kyron in front of his science project about red tree frogs that morning, so authorities knew exactly what he was wearing black cargo pants and a black CSI t-shirt, and then the wire-framed glasses that he always wore. Another parent told the local news station that she knew Kyron and that he was a very timid little boy that would never walk away on his own. However, to contradict that completely is the fact that the school lost track of Kyron twice since he started attending back in Kindergarten. Once they found him on the school soccer field, the other he stayed in the bathroom for a long period of time.
You will begin to see for every solid witness statement, and there is another one to go against it completely. When they couldn't locate Kyron anywhere around the school, and they knew he wasn't hiding anywhere, a mass text went out to the entire school alerting them that Kyron was missing and that if they had seen him, please contact authorities immediately. This seven-year-old boy seemed to vanish in thin air, and police had zero leads to where he might be, so the FBI got involved very quickly. That weekend they had 1300 searchers and dogs out scouring the dense woods behind the school for any sign of little sweet Kyron. If anything turned up, authorities have kept a tight lid on it, but I do not believe anything was found that could be linked back to Kyron. Desiree was married to a police officer in the Medford, Oregon area, so he told the family to get ready for their lives to be an open book, he continued to say they will be interviewed and scrutinized, and nothing would be private any longer. He would go on record and state that most of the family got on board and said anything to help find their little boy except Terry. She didn't want to be interviewed, and she didn't want her life to be aired out, and she made a few disgruntled statements about the whole thing. Take it from a mother that actually had a child go missing. Even for a short period of time, I would have done anything, given anything, and made anything and everything available to the police in the hope of finding my son. One day I will do a storytime about that. Still, it is strange that this was reported about Terry considering Terry supposably was more of a mother, parent, and caregiver than any of the other three parents. Now, is this just hearsay, someone already suspecting this woman without concrete evidence and examining s everything she did or said was taken out of context? We will never truly know.
Of course, the family was the first to be looked at. Remember, there are four parents. This is a blended family with a biological mom and dad and then a stepmom and stepdad. All of them went through interviews and polygraph tests. Caine, Desiree, and her husband all had air-tight alibies and passed the polygraph tests; however, Terry had about an hour when she was driving around with her daughter that she was unaccounted for, and she failed the polygraph test twice. Now remember I also I said for every bit of evidence, there is another side that slightly contradicts or explains it away, well, Terry had hearing issues, and I believe she couldn't hear out of one ear at all. This is why she taught Kyron sign language when he was a baby. apparently, having hearing disabilities could make a person fail the test at a higher rate, and she will say that the person administering the test was behind her, so she couldn't read his lips like she would normally, which is why she failed it. Suspicion quickly was put on Terry for obviously many reasons, but then something out of a movie happened. Police asked Terry if she was in contact with anyone that was strange or possibly had a vendetta against her or the family, and she said she recently hired a lawn guy. She kept this a secret from Caine because he wouldn't want her to spend the money on it when she should be doing the work herself. She went on to say that this man made advances toward her, and she turned him down. He was not happy about her rejection, but again she didn't want to bring up his rude behavior to Caine because she obviously lied about having a landscaper, and she didn't want him to be upset. Of course, police followed up on this lead and tracked down this man, and what he had to say was insane. He said he did not hit on Terry, but Terry asked him to murder Caine about seven months prior to Kyron going missing. He would state that Terry told him Caine was abusing her and that she needed to get away, and the only way she could was if he was dead.
Photo from CNN.com
They brought this statement to Caine, and he freaked out, rightly so. He had no idea that Terry was angry at him at all. He immediately filed for divorce and then got a restraining order against her. Terry obviously says this is a complete lie, and this landscaper only says that because she turned him down. I have some serious thoughts about all of this. First, these people live a soap opera life, and poor little Kyron is in the middle. Second, it would be super dumb of Terry to essentially point out a man that could easily turn her in for this murder-for-hire job. If she was smart enough to hide Kyron and make him disappear, this seems absolutely insane that she would lead police right to a man she conspired with to commit murder. Caine would also file for full custody of Kiara and be granted it even without Terry being charged or convicted of crimes at this point.
Police actually had this landscaper get wired up and do an undercover mission type thing and speak with Terry about the money for the murder-for-hire job, but Terry did not take the bait. She was adamant she had no clue what he was talking about.
I do want to mention, Just so everyone is clear, Terry has never been officially named as a suspect by the police; however, Caine and Desiree have told the media many, many times that they believe without a shadow of a doubt that Terry knows what happened to Kyron and that she is responsible for his disappearance.. Police would search the house of one of Terry’s friends by the name of Deedee. This lady was a gym friend and actually was unaccounted for at work for a few hours on the day Kyron went missing. The hours she was missing were not the same hours Terry was unaccounted for, but they did put massive pressure on this woman to tell what she knew, but nothing at all came from that.
A man came forward a few weeks after Kyron went missing and informed police that Terry was sexting him. This man was an old friend of Caines. This sparked all new controversy over the fact that Terry, who should have been a mess, was trying to get laid by a man that was not her husband.
Here is what leads people off of Terry being the suspect. Terry and Kiara entered the first store just minutes after leaving the school. They are on surveillance video. It is just the two of them. So did she leave Kyron in the car while she went in? If he were alive, that would leave a wide open time for him to be seen by another person, which he wasn't. This is 830 am on a Friday at a huge grocery store chain. I can't imagine if there was a 7-year-old in a vehicle, no one would see him. Did she do something with him on the way to the store? It doesn't seem like there is enough time, but then again, who knows? Is this lady smart enough to get away with this type of crime, considering she has been scrutinized since day one and has not cracked? Remember, this is the largest investigation in Oregon history. We are talking about some very experienced people looking into every single aspect of literally everything.
So what could have happened? What are the other theories in the case? Well, there was a man that asked a member of Skyline Elementary staff if there was a student that could help him unload some stuff from his vehicle. Could the child that was selected to help be Kyron, and could this man have taken him? Considering the school was a free for all, anyone could be walking around scouring the place for the perfect child to abduct. Another theory was two men on the maintenance team of the school that eventually would be arrested for crimes against children. I am sure these two were questioned at length, considering they had direct access to Kryon at the time of his disappearance. FBI did their usual suspect profile, and it didn't line up with Terry. They said the person that took Kyron was most likely a male in his early 40s.
Since Kyron went missing, Terry has not had a clean record. She was arrested in California for driving a stolen vehicle. She had a gun charge against her and a domestic violence incident where a man stated she held him at knifepoint. This man, who identified himself as Terry’s ex-boyfriend, filed a restraining order against her. So Terry seems like she has some anger issues at the very least and is not concerned for others well being.
The Facebook page missing Kyron Horman has daily posts and updates about fundraisers and random pictures of this sweet little boy that would be a grown man now.
There is a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for Kyron’s disappearance. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office by calling (503) 823-3333.
Sources:
https://ktvl.com/news/local/terris-troubles-recent-arrests-give-kyron-hormans-mother-hope
https://ktvl.com/news/local/terris-troubles-recent-arrests-give-kyron-hormans-mother-hope
https://uncovered.com/cases/kyron-horman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Kyron_Horman
