The Sad Disappearance of Kyron Horman— Everything We Know

The search for 7-year-old Kyron Horman is recognized as the most extensive criminal investigation in the history of Oregon with about 1300 searchers involved and a whopping $1.4 million spent on search effort.

Despite these extensive investigations, what happened to Kyron Horman on June 4, 2010, remains a mystery.

The Beginning

Kyron Richard Horman was born on September 9, 2002, in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. His parents were Desiree Young and Kaine Horman. When Desiree was eight months pregnant with Kyron, the couple divorced. Before this period, Kaine was already seeing another woman, Terri Moulton.

Following the birth of Kyron, both parents were granted shared custody until 2004 when Young came down with kidney failure.

While Young suffered and struggled to stay alive, the romantic relationship between Terri and Kaine seemed to blossom, and by 2007 the pair were married.

Kyron Mysteriously Disappears

Kyron was a pupil at the Skyline Elementary School in Portland, Oregon. On June 4, 2010, the school had a science fair, and it was Terri who took him to the fair.

When it was time for Kyron to come home at around 3:30 pm, the couple went to the bus stop with the hopes of picking him up. But they never saw him. They learned from the bus driver that Kyron never boarded the bus. When they contacted the school, they were told that there was no record to show that Kyron came to school that day as he was marked absent from his class.

Terri recounted how she had dropped him off and watched him until he made his way to his class.

Extensive search efforts were conducted for Kyron, with the primary focus being on a 2-mile (3.2 km) radius around Skyline Elementary School and Sauvie Island, which is located approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) away. This search yielded no positive results.

Eight days later on June 12, close to 300 trained rescuers were deployed to search the wooded areas close to the school area for any sign of Kyron.

Spanning ten days, the search for Kyron was the most extensive in Oregon's history, involving more than 1,300 searchers from Oregon, Washington, and California.

Fingers Pointed at Kyron's Stepmother, Terri

The last person to see Kyron alive was Terri Moulton, Kyron's stepmother. Investigators focused their attention on her, but they did not come up with enough evidence to have her arrested and prosecuted.

Towards the end of June 2010, Kaine learned through a private investigator that Terri had planned to have him murdered by offering their landscaper a large sum of money. She made this attempt in January of 2010, five months before Kyron went missing.

Secondly, Terri failed to pass two separate polygraph tests that were organized by investigators concerning Kyron's disappearance.

Two witnesses reported seeing an individual sitting in Terri's truck outside Skyline Elementary on the day of the disappearance. Law enforcement announced in August 2010 that they were looking for this person. Sadly, he was never seen.

It was also discovered that a friend had helped Terri to buy an untraceable cell phone. What she did with the cell phone was not revealed.

The extensive search yielded no positive outcome as Kyron's disappearance is still a mystery that is yet to be solved. The evidence that may support that Terri was responsible for the disappearance is not enough according to the investigators to warrant an arrest.

In 2016, Terri was a guest on Dr. Phil and she said to Phil McGraw:

"I was advised from the beginning by law enforcement, by my husband at the time, by attorneys in the beginning, not to say anything. I've always wanted to. I've asked multiple times to speak out and have not been allowed."

She claimed that she had nothing to do with Kyron's vanishing, and expressed her conviction that he was abducted.