Kyron Horman

On June 4th, 2010, a 7-year-old disappeared after attending a science fair at his school. Over the next several years, a dramatic saga would begin to play out with the spotlight aimed at the child’s stepmother, who was the last known person to have seen him. Nearly a decade later, the lives of Kyron's loved ones remain affected by the events of that fateful morning...

On June 11th, 2010 - a Friday - the family of a missing child spoke to the press for the very first time; almost exactly one week after the child in-question, 7-year-old Kyron Horman had originally gone missing. They had released a brief, paragraph-long statement a couple of days earlier, but this was the first time that they were stepping in front of the cameras to address the public... presenting themselves as a unified front.

First to speak was the missing child's stepfather, a police officer named Tony Young. He would be followed by Kyron's father, Kaine Horman, who spoke briefly and succinctly. Meanwhile, the missing boy's mother and stepmother, Desiree Young and Terri Horman stood in the background, teary-eyed and with arms wrapped around one another.

This is the story of Kyron Horman.

Kyron Richard Horman was born on September 9th, 2002, in Portland, Oregon's St. Vincent Hospital, to Kaine and Desiree Horman... a couple that was already on the outs by the time Kyron was born.

Kaine and Desiree had originally married back in 2000 but started to drift apart at around the same time that Kyron was conceived. They had planned to separate before they learned that they had a baby boy on the way, and would eventually end up separating roughly 8 months into the pregnancy; this time, for good, with Desiree filing for divorce (citing irreconcilable differences).

Following the birth of Kyron, the parents would split custody of the infant, with their divorce being finalized the following year (2003). Kyron would spend the majority of his first two years with his mother, Desiree, who had another child from her first marriage.

In 2004, however, things would take a drastic turn. Desiree began to experience kidney failure, brought on by an adverse reaction to a medication she had started to take. She decided to seek medical treatment in Canada and was forced to forfeit custody of her two children to their fathers. This meant that Kyron - who was approaching two years old - would begin to live with his father full-time.

Kaine Horman lived in Hillsboro, Oregon; right on the outskirts of the Portland metro area. There, he worked as an engineer for Intel, the industry-leading computer chip manufacturer. Because of Kaine's long hours at work, he would have a hard time taking care of Kyron full-time, so both he and Desiree knew that he needed some kind of compromise to take care of Kyron while earning a living.

To help out Kaine, Desiree reached out to a longtime friend of hers, named Terri Moulton, who agreed to move into Kaine's home to provide full-time child care for Kyron. In exchange, she would have a place to live for both herself and her son, James, who was just entering double digits at the time.

Terri was a teacher and former-competitive bodybuilder that had been married twice before, but at the time, was single and struggling to find work as a substitute teacher. You see, in 2005, Terri had been arrested for drunk driving along Interstate 5 in Marion County, which she later pleaded guilty to. While it was just a stain on her record, it left Terri reeling, and she was desperate for work when this unusual offer was floated to her by her old friend, Desiree. She agreed to move into Kaine's home and watch Kyron daily.

While their relationship supposedly started as a platonic one, Terri and Kaine were not exactly romantic strangers. The two had carried on an affair years prior when Kaine's marriage to Desiree had started to crumble, and Terri moving into his home seemed to rekindle that romance. Living under the same roof brought Terri and Kaine back together, and before long, the two were an item.

In April of 2007, the two married, and Terri Moulton became Terri Horman. Because Kaine was earning a good living at Intel, he paid for the two to have a picturesque ceremony in Hawaii and was even able to purchase a brand-new Mustang for Terri as a Mother's Day gift. If things couldn't get any more perfect for them, the two spent 2008 preparing for the birth of their first child together: a baby girl named Kiara, who was born that December.

Meanwhile, Desiree - Kyron's mom - had struggled over the past few years to sort her own life out. After suffering from kidney failure, Desiree had managed to recover but was now left with tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Over the next few years, she would struggle to get back onto her own two feet; at first, moving in with her parents in Medford, Oregon, and then - ultimately - meeting and marrying a police officer from that area, a detective named Tony Young. She would take his surname, becoming Desiree Young, but would never regain custody of her two children. Thankfully, she was still able to be a part of Kyron's life and was able to see him regularly.

Heading into 2010, Kyron was a second-grader at Skyline Elementary School in Portland, which was located right next to the large, wooded Forest Park. Skyline was a K-8 school, meaning that it was basically an elementary school and a middle school combined, which was attended by over 300 kids.

Kyron seemed to be excelling in class, having been put into advanced-placement math earlier that year. He had even been picking up sign language, which he seemed to be a natural at. However, he was known for being a bit aloof at times; occasionally heading to the bathroom without telling anyone, or spacing out while in the middle of a conversation.

As far as anyone knew, Kyron had a good relationship with his father, Kaine, as well as his stepmother, Terri, who was constantly volunteering at Kyron's school. Together, the entire family made constant trips to aquariums and zoos throughout the Pacific Northwest, and Kyron enjoyed the family's vacations out to the coast; in particular, he loved going to the beach, places like Ocean Shores and Seaside. He attended his first Mariners game up in Seattle as an infant and enjoyed attending Seahawks practice at PGE Park in Portland during the summer. In 2008, the family had even made a trip out to Disney World, which would remain one of their fondest memories over the next couple of years.

By all accounts, things seemed to be well for the Horman family. From the outside looking in, things seemed to be picturesque, and everyone believed that Kyron had a loving family that would support each other through thick and thin.

June 4th, 2010 was the second-to-last Friday of the school year, which started unlike most other mornings for the Horman family. 7-year-old Kyron, who was quickly approaching the end of his 2nd-grade year, normally took the bus to school. But on this day, his stepmom Terri was driving him to school so that Kyron could participate in his school's science fair. He had prepared a project (including a large tri-fold project board) about red-eyed tree frogs and was excited to show off his project to his stepmom that morning. However, for her to view it, they would have to arrive at Skyline Elementary before school hours.

So, that morning, Terri was going to be driving Kyron to school in the family's truck, which Kaine usually drove. Terri was hoping to bring back Kyron's project home that morning but didn't know that the science fair would be going on throughout the rest of the school day. When she arrived at school, she was surprised to learn that the reason she had driven the truck - to bring Kyron's project back home - was naught.

Nonetheless, the two arrived at Kyron's school at around 8:00 AM, and the two immediately dropped off Kyron's backpack and coat in his classroom, then headed to the school's gymnasium, where Kyron and hundreds of other students had set up their projects. Kyron excitedly showed off his project about frogs to his stepmom and friends and even snapped a picture in front of his project (a photo that would later become synonymous with this story). Terri and Kyron were seen by multiple witnesses during this time: by students and staff members, who would later recall seeing the two at around 8:15 that morning. This would become pertinent, so remember that time, 8:15. It's also important to note that Terri had her daughter Kiara with her throughout the entire day, so she was never truly alone.

Terri and Kiara hung around campus until about 8:45, which is when the morning science fair was concluding for parents and other outsiders that had wandered in to view the students' exhibits. Class was just about to start for the students of Skyline Elementary, and Terri started to head out. She would claim that this is when she last saw Kyron, who was walking down the hallway towards his classroom, where the two had dropped off his backpack and coat a short time earlier.

However, as we'll learn, Kyron never made it to his first class, math, as verified by his teacher, Kristina Porter, who would mark him as absent that morning…

For the next hour-and-a-half, Terri Horman would run some errands throughout the area.

First, she headed to a Fred Meyer location nearby: a Pacific Northwest grocery and retail chain, which is kind of like a larger version of Target or Kroger. She first headed to a Fred Meyer in Hillsboro, along NW Imbrie Drive, which was where she believed she was supposed to pick up a prescription for Kiara, who was suffering from an ear infection. Even though this was the wrong Fred Meyer, Terri would have a receipt from this location timed at 9:12 AM.

Terri then drove to the Fred Meyer in Beaverton, along SW Walker Road, which is where the prescription for Kiara had actually been sent.

After departing the second Fred Meyer, Terri dropped by Magic Dry Cleaners in Beaverton, where she was dropping off some of Kaine's work clothes. The owner later recalled that Terri came in by herself, implying that she had left Kiara in the car momentarily while she popped in, but she was gone in just a minute or two. From there, she would stop into a Michael's craft store in Beaverton, leaving a short time after 10:00.

Surveillance footage from these locations would later confirm Terri's timeline, giving her known whereabouts until roughly 10:10 AM. The next hour-and-a-half or so remains a bit murkier.

Like I've said, Terri had 18-month-old Kiara with her throughout the morning, who had been suffering from an earache over the past few days. Terri had picked up a prescription that morning, which was supposed to help out. But until it could take effect, Terri decided to drive around the area, since the motion of a moving vehicle seemed to help ease the child's discomfort. She would claim to do this for the next 90 or so minutes, driving primarily along rural roads in the PDX area.

It would later be reported that Terri made a phone call in the middle of this 90-minute gap, at around 10:39 AM, but that remains unconfirmed all of these years later.

It wasn't until 11:39 that Terri arrived at her next known location, a 24-Hour Fitness in Beaverton, where she regularly worked out alongside friends and acquaintances that knew her. She would check in Kiara to the gym's daycare while she worked out for the better part of the next hour, eventually picking up Kiara a little after noon and chatting with her friends for 15 - 20 minutes.

Terri left the gym at around 12:40, and began the roughly 11-mile drive home to the Horman household, along Portland's Sheltered Nook Road. By official estimates, she arrived home a little bit before 1:00 PM. At 1:21, she began uploading photos onto Facebook, into a folder titled "JUNE 2010," which included photos of Kiara and Kyron. This is when the photo of Kyron at the science fair that morning was uploaded online, which showed Kyron - wearing a black CSI t-shirt - beaming in front of his project about red-eyed tree frogs. This is the photo that many have come to associate with this story and has become almost infamous over the past few years.

At around the same time that these photos were uploaded to Facebook from Terri's computer, she sent an email to Kyron's teacher, asking when she could come and pick up his science project. That was supposedly the entire reason she had driven Kyron to school that morning in the family's truck, but she hadn't known that students were going to be viewing the science fair throughout the day.

At about the same time, Kaine was returning home from work, hoping to spend the rest of the afternoon with his family while he worked from his home office. However, he took a small break at around 3:30, when he walked down to Kyron's bus stop alongside Terri and Kiara. The three waited for a few minutes until Kyron's school bus finally came to a stop. They waited patiently for Kyron to step out and begin his weekend, but he never did.

Kaine and Terri spoke with the bus driver and discovered that Kyron had never boarded after school. The driver recommended that they phone Skyline Elementary, while he called the school's secretary, informing her that Kyron wasn't on the afternoon bus and wasn't at home with his parents, either. Terri was already in the process of dialing 911, as she and Kaine began driving to Kyron's school to figure out where he was.

Unfortunately, nobody at the school had seen Kyron since that morning, when he had been seen at the science fair alongside Terri. Despite having dropped off his backpack and jacket in his math class, he had been marked absent throughout the day, and at 3:46 PM, Skyline Elementary secretary Susan Hall would place a second call to 911, reporting the child missing. This was right around the time that Terri and Kaine arrived at the school, hoping to find Kyron waiting for them.

It was now clear that 7-year-old Kyron Horman was missing, and a desperate search to find him would begin that Friday afternoon... hours after he had last been seen.

The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office arrived at Skyline Elementary at about 4:00 that afternoon and quickly made the realization that they had already lost valuable time in the search to find the missing second-grader. The sheriff's spokeswoman, Lt. Mary Lindstrand, told the press:

"We definitely got a late start here. The family didn't know that he wasn't at school, his teacher didn't see him so we are feeling like we are behind the eight-ball here."

Nonetheless, a search began immediately from Kyron's last known location: Skyline Elementary, which was located right next to a large forested area and surrounded by tall grasses and rolling hills, which were sure to impede searchers and obscure what they could see from afar. Unfortunately, the school did not have any security cameras, so police had to base the search off of what witnesses they could conjure up at this late hour.

What would complicate matters even further was the knowledge that the school's campus that morning had essentially been open to the public. Because the science fair was going on, the school's doors had been unlocked that morning to allow students, staff, and parents easy access to the gymnasium. However, this meant that no one had been required to check-in at the front office to get into the school. So trying to find a record of who, exactly, had been there that morning would prove to be fruitless.

Multnomah County Sheriff's officials were able to confirm that Kyron had last been seen at around 8:45 that morning, which is when his stepmom Terri had seen him walking down a hallway, headed to his first class. Teachers and other school staff members had seen him minutes earlier, but this was his last known sighting, and pretty much where police had to base their search from. A student would later claim to have seen Kyron closer to 9:00, but police would later backtrack on this claim, believing that the student - one of Kyron's friends - was less-than-certain.

After this, though, there seemed to be no trace of the 7-year-old. It was almost as if he had vanished into thin air, as he had not shown up for his first class that morning, and would be marked as absent by his teachers throughout the day.

Miscommunication seems to have played a significant part in this story, and it is believed that a simple misunderstanding may have contributed to nobody making a big deal out of Kyron being missing. That morning, Kyron's stepmom Terri had told Kyron's teachers that he had a doctor's appointment, with his teachers believing that it was for that Friday (June 4th). However, it would later be confirmed that Terri had scheduled a doctor's appointment for Kyron the following Friday (June 11th), and had miscommunicated that to his teachers. So Kyron's teachers marked him absent but believed that he would be coming back to school later that day. When that didn't happen, nobody raised the alarm because the school staff just assumed that he was with Terri throughout the day.

At around 5:30 PM, a text message was sent out to all parents in the area, whose children attended schools in the Portland School District. Using the district's rapid broadcast message system, the text message read "Kyron Horman did not arrive at home today," and encouraged anyone with information about Kyron's whereabouts that day to contact authorities.

Police would begin trying to arrange interviews with students, staff, and parents, but the weekend itself would prove to be a major impediment. The sheriff's office began making arrangements for students and parents to show up that weekend to speak to them, but obviously, most students had already gone home for the weekend, and with the sun quickly setting, time was of the essence.

A physical search would begin to unfold that Friday evening, as officers set up signs alongside local roads that read "missing boy." Officers began conducting a grid-patterned search around the school, but the weather itself would also work against them, as the rain impeded and slowed down search efforts that weekend. Because police had not been notified of Kyron's disappearance until nearly 4:00 PM, a search-and-rescue effort wasn't able to mobilize until that evening but would continue scouring the area around Skyline Elementary well into Saturday, with the final transmission from the search team being received at 3:23 AM.

About an hour-and-a-half after the initial search efforts subsided, police officials gathered once again. Investigators with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office continued searching for Kyron, while volunteers and other officials continued the search around Skyline Elementary at about 5:00 AM. Tracking dogs would be brought out, scouring every inch of the school's campus and expanding outwards into Forest Park throughout the day.

Police focused most of their efforts on a 2-mile radius around Skyline Elementary, but would also dedicate resources to nearby Sauvie Island, which was about 6 miles away from the school. In particular, they focused on the area around the Sauvie Island Bridge, which crossed the Columbia River, but would never publicly state why they were so interested in this area following Kyron's disappearance.

Investigators conducted interviews with all of Kyron's close friends and family that Saturday, trying to determine if any of them had seen Kyron after his last known sighting the prior morning. Unfortunately, many of his family members lived a significant distance away from Portland, with his birth mother and her husband living several hours south, in Medford, Oregon. Kaine had family scattered throughout the Pacific Northwest, but none of them lived close enough to be of any concern. Regardless, almost everyone that knew Kyron had an alibi, having been at work or in class.

It was speculated briefly that Kyron might have run away, as he had a reputation for being somewhat aloof at times, and for being headstrong. On a handful of occasions, he had walked out of class to go to the bathroom without asking permission, and Terri would later claim that she had made the doctor's appointment the following Friday due to the boy's absentmindedness. But none of this seemed to jive with the notion that Kyron might have run away from school since he normally acted pretty timid and was a well-behaved child. If he had run away, he had given no inclination to his friends or family.

While searchers continued to look for Kyron in the heavily-forested region around his school, the families of more than 200 students showed up at Skyline Elementary that Sunday, June 6th. This was more than 2/3 of the Skyline student population, who had shown up at the school to make voluntary statements to police, hoping to help out however they could. These students and parents met with more than 50 investigators, who wanted to gather as many statements as they could, to help cement a timeline of the morning that Kyron had gone missing. While it has never been confirmed what information was given to police this Sunday, students and parents were asked what they knew about Kyron (his friends, interests, hobbies, etc.) and whether or not they had seen him that Friday.

That same day, June 6th, volunteers helped Kyron's family distribute fliers with information about the missing 2nd grader. These fliers included pictures of Kyron and displayed his physical attributes: he was 7 years old, stood about 3'8", weighed about 50 pounds, wore glasses, had blue eyes, and had short brown hair. The fliers also described the clothing he had been wearing when he disappeared: a black "CSI" t-shirt, black cargo pants, and black-and-orange Sketchers.

The next day - Monday, June 7th - class resumed at Skyline Elementary, and the normally festive cheer that accompanied the final full week of classes was gone. Police returned to Skyline Elementary that morning, posting up along the roads near the school, questioning drivers throughout the day and making note of those that regularly drove through the area on their way to school or work. They also interviewed the students and parents that had been unable to speak to them the day prior.

At this point, police were not willing to label Kyron as a kidnapped child, but it was becoming clear that something had happened to him. He would be described in press releases as a "missing endangered child," and it later would be reported that the FBI had been assisting in the investigation; having not only dispatched their Behavioral Analysis Unit to help create a profile for the missing 7-year-old but deploying their Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team that weekend to help out.

For the first week after Kyron disappeared, his family would remain in the background of the investigation, assisting with searches and attempting to distribute fliers throughout the area, but refusing to comment directly to the press. They would release a brief statement to the media on June 9th (Wednesday), but would finally break their silence on June 11th, exactly one week after Kyron had disappeared, in that press conference you heard at the top of the episode.

Notably silent in that press conference were Kyron's two mothers: Desiree Young, his birth mother, who lived in Medford, Oregon, but was now staying in the Portland area to help out however she could. Also silent was Kyron's stepmom, Terri Horman, who was equally teary-eyed, clutching both Desiree and Kaine throughout the press conference.

The search to try and find Kyron Horman would carry on for over 10 days, having involved more than 1300 searchers; both police officials and volunteers, who came from all across the west coast (not only from Oregon but from neighboring states Washington and California). By all indications, it was the largest and most comprehensive search in state history. However, on June 13th, officials with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office would announce that they were officially ending their search efforts, and were now prepared to transition to a full-scale criminal investigation.

On June 15th, 2010, while students throughout the Portland School District attended their final day of class until that Fall, those that knew Kyron Horman continued to hold out hope that the 7-year-old would return home. They had been searching for him for the better part of two weeks now, and - with no end in sight - they were not ready to call off search efforts.

A $25,000 reward that had been established for information leading to the child's whereabouts - which had been doubled to $50,000 by month's end - had done very little to move the needle. The case had widespread public support, but it just seemed like no one knew what had happened to Kyron Horman.

At this point, however, investigators had already begun to narrow in on someone that they believe knew more than they had indicated so far, who was also the last known person to have seen Kyron alive: his stepmother, Terri.

From the beginning of this entire saga, police had viewed Terri Horman with suspicion, believing that her series-of-events from the day of Kyron's disappearance had several unexplained gaps.

All of Kyron's family members and loved ones were subjected to lengthy interviews with authorities, and all agreed to take polygraph tests. However, Terri seemed to be the only one that had an issue passing one, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office. Between the 4th and 25th of June, Terri would take two separate polygraph tests, failing the first one and walking out of another in frustration (apparently upset at the verbiage of certain questions). Even though polygraph tests are notoriously unreliable - so much so that they're not allowed in court proceedings - this was viewed by police as a major indicator of guilt, so they continued digging into Terri's story and her personal life.

Investigators were incredibly skeptical about a particular chunk of Terri's story: the time that she claimed to have been driving around Kiara to help ease her ear infection, between 10:10 and 11:40 AM. Terri claimed that she had been driving around the Portland area on rural roads for upwards of an hour, but it was impossible to verify where she had been during this 90-minute gap of time. Police had even started to distribute fliers with Terri's vehicle information, hoping for witnesses that had seen her that morning to come forward.

That 90-minute gap would remain a point of contention moving forward, as police were unable to verify Terri's whereabouts throughout it, but it has been theorized in the years since that her cell phone might have pinged off of a tower near Sauvie Island - which would explain why police had been searching out there in the days after Kyron's disappearance. That is just a local rumor, though, and has never been confirmed.

Once the media became aware that police were investigating Terri, several details about her life began to be dug up by journalists, who quickly discovered the DUI incident from the mid-2000s, which had derailed her teaching career and even inspired a case file to be opened by Child Protective Services. Her son, James, had been in the car with her at the time of the arrest, hence the interest from CPS.

Reporters also discovered that James, Terri's now-teenaged son, had just recently moved out of the Horman household. While I can only guess at the reasoning for this to have happened, it ultimately resulted in James moving in with his grandparents, where he was doing well. Journalists did find the timing rather odd, though, as James had moved out just months before Kyron had gone missing, which would ultimately inspire a lot of baseless theories regarding Terri's state-of-mind.

As you can imagine, all of this information - paired with Terri's past as a competitive bodybuilder - made her an incredibly salacious target for the media, as they struggled to find out what had happened to the missing 7-year-old. That would only continue to escalate in the coming weeks, as a scandalous saga began to play out with Terri at the very center...

On June 26th, 2010 - more than three weeks after Kyron's disappearance - his father, Kaine, was contacted by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office. He was asked to come in and speak to them alone (without Terri) and was told that it had something to with Kyron's case. Of course, he was happy to oblige and ended up meeting with sheriff's officials that afternoon, while an undercover sting operation was taking place at the Horman household.

Days beforehand, a landscaper that occasionally worked on the house, named Rodolfo Sanchez ("Rudy" for short) had come forward. The gardener, whom Terri had secretly hired in 2008 to work on the yard from time to time, had told police that Terri had offered him "a lot of money" to kill Kaine Horman. According to Rudy, Terri had invited him out to a restaurant in the early months of 2010, and there, she asked him to murder Kaine while making it look like a mugging.

According to police filings, Terri told Rudy that Kaine often carried around an excess of cash, so any attack on him would look like a mugging. Terri then allegedly told Rudy that he could keep any money that Kaine would have on him, which was estimated to be around $10,000, as well as the laptop he constantly hauled around. According to Rudy, the reasoning for this murder-for-hire plot was that Kaine had been abusive, and was planning to divorce Terri while assuming custody of Kiara... unless Terri acted preemptively.

Kaine was eventually told all of this by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, while an undercover sting was taking place at his home. Rudy Sanchez and an undercover police officer, acting as a hitman, were arriving at the Horman household, and there, they attempted to barter an agreement with Terri. They proposed to carry out the hit on Kaine while wearing a wire, and Rudy kept referring back to this supposed conversation that Terri and he had months prior.

While the exact details of this operation have never been released, we do know that it ended rather poorly. Terri, possibly fearing that this was a trap (or a scheme of some other kind), actually called police that afternoon on the pair. Because she had refused to cooperate with the undercover operation, she would not be charged with any crimes. For that reason, the belief that she attempted to arrange a hit on her husband remains an unfounded accusation to this day.

It would later be learned that Rudy Sanchez was not a native English speaker, and his involvement would become a cryptic piece of this puzzle. It is unknown if he had approached police first or vice/versa, but it has become publicly speculated that police had threatened his family with deportation if he did not cooperate with their sting (and agree to wear a wire for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office). Like I said just a moment ago, it would never be proven that Terri had attempted to hire him to kill Kaine, but her relationship with Sanchez has never really been cleared up. Some theorize that the two had carried on an affair in the months before this undercover operation - hence her wanting to keep his hiring a secret from her husband - while others believe that he was just a simple gardener caught up in a situation that was far beyond him.

Unfortunately, so much information about Rudy Sanchez (and his involvement in this case) remains closely-guarded by law enforcement. But this entire saga would lead to an increase in the drama, as the lives of both Kaine and Terri were irreparably changed by the events of this day.

The backstory of Kaine and Terri Horman was already mired in controversy at the time this scandal hit the news media, as journalists had been learning about the two in the preceding weeks.

It was believed that the two had struck up a relationship several years before they started officially dating, when Kaine was still married to Kyron's mother, Desiree. Kaine and Desiree had already separated from one another, but this wasn't anything new for Terri, who it turned out had a history of infidelity with her prior husbands.

While the undercover operation - hoping to catch Terri on tape soliciting the death of her husband - failed miserably, that did not stop authorities from informing Kaine about the alleged threat to his life. As you can imagine, this upset Kaine tremendously, even though the accusations against Terri would never be proven. He returned home that evening, and ultimately ended up in a contentious argument with his wife, which resulted in him leaving with the couple's one-year-old daughter, Kiara.

Terri would end up calling 911 a second time that day, at approximately 11:39 PM, in what police would only describe as a "custody matter."

Over the next several days, this story began to play out in the press. Reporters caught wind of the failed undercover sting and reported heavily on Terri attempting to solicit the death of her husband. This was only exacerbated by the reports that Kaine had fled from the home in the dead of night, along with the couple's 18-month old, and he would begin to make public comments indicated that Terri was withholding information about Kyron's disappearance. In some statements, both he and Desiree (Kyron's birth mother) urged Terri to "do the right thing" and fully cooperate with the police investigation.

Just two days later, Kaine would file for a divorce as well as a restraining order for both him and Kiara. The restraining orders were immediately granted (pending the police investigation), but the divorce itself would take years to come to fruition. In the meantime, though, Kyron began to separate himself from his wife entirely, even stating in his initial divorce filing that he believed Terri:

"... is involved in the disappearance of my son Kyron."

Meanwhile, it would later come to light that while all of this was unfolding, Terri had started a sexual relationship with 37-year-old Michael Cook, a former-classmate of Kaine's who had participated in the search for Kyron. Just days after Kaine left with Kiara, Terri started sending Michael sexually explicit text messages, which made her seem pretty eager to start a new sexual relationship with Cook, whom she had met just weeks - if not days - prior.

If it hadn't already, public opinion had now swung heavily against Terri Horman, who would be vilified in the press over the next several months. This perception would influence a lot of the reporting in this case, especially through the summer months, as police continued trying to find out what had happened to Kyron Horman. Not only were local reporters eager to cover the case, but national outlets began to report on the more salacious details, which seemed like they were straight out of a soap opera.

In the final days of June, Terri would obtain the services of high-powered criminal defense attorney Stephen Houze, preparing herself for not only a legal defense but a bout in the court of public opinion.

From the end of June on, Terri Horman's life became a public spectacle. Journalists hounded her day and night, and she was now unable to simply go to the gym without being swarmed by reporters asking her guided questions.

Rumors of a grand jury began to swirl, which was supposedly weighing whether or not to file charges against Terri. For the better part of a month, these rumors would proliferate a lot of the reporting, before more specific information started to be leaked.

In July of 2010, one of Terri's friends - named DeDe Spicher - became ensnared in this scandal. DeDe had been subpoenaed by a Multnomah County grand jury as just one of several witnesses that were close to Terri, having been a longtime gym buddy that grew closer to her in the weeks after Kyron's disappearance. She was one of the few that had been in active conversation with Terri since June and had actually gone and stayed with her for roughly 11 days after Kaine had filed for divorce.

In short, DeDe had been one of the few people that supported Terri during this period of time, and for that reason, would become a valuable witness for the investigation. However, to some, this implied that DeDe possibly knew something about Kyron's disappearance, since police were still investigating Terri for potential involvement.

According to a statement later released by Kaine Horman and Desiree Young, DeDe Spicher:

"... has been in close communication with Terri [and] has been providing Terri with support and advice that is not in the best interests of our son."

Many people would theorize about what this meant, but the media began to run amok with rumors about DeDe and her involvement with Terri. According to the Oregonian, DeDe had been doing some gardening work for a Portland homeowner on the day that Kyron disappeared (June 4th, 2010), but according to that homeowner, DeDe had "abruptly left [at] about 11:30 a.m." She was then reportedly unavailable for the next 90 or so minutes, not even by telephone, and would not return until 1:00 that afternoon.

This information, paired with her friendship to Terri, made her a primary interest for investigations, who later described DeDe Spicher as "extremely cooperative," allowing police to search her property and vehicle, and enduring hours of questioning.

DeDe, on the other hand, believes that police were trying to pressure her to implicate Terri in Kyron's disappearance, telling People Magazine in August of 2010:

"They wanted me to tell them that Terri did it or that Terri knew something. I told them everything that I knew, over and over again. But I didn't tell them what they wanted to hear."

It would later come to light that DeDe Spicher, in addition to supporting and even living with Terri throughout this ordeal, had become aware of investigators monitoring both her and Terri's cell phones. Because of that, she ended up purchasing burner phones for both of them, so that they could communicate with one another without their calls or texts being monitored by law enforcement. This would do nothing but cement the general idea that Terri was attempting to withhold information from law enforcement, and would make both of the women appear guilty of something in the court of public opinion.

In addition to the news about her friend DeDe Spicher, it would come to light in November of 2010 that in the months leading up to Kyron's disappearance, his stepmother Terri Horman had been sending emails to friends that seemed to blame Kyron for her failing marriage. In these emails, Terri also seemed to blame her husband Kaine for her teenage son James being sent to live with his grandparents, saying on at least one occasion that James' grades and overall demeanor had improved since moving out.

In several emails, Terri also described her husband as being overbearing and described an overall toxic household that was quickly becoming unstable. It is unknown how much of this was true - or had been exaggerated by a woman going through some serious issues - but these emails seemed to contain some language that concerned those with access to them. Among those people was Desiree Young, Kyron's birth mom, who later said about these emails:

"It's very clear from Terri's horrible words that she had a severe hatred for Kyron and that she blamed a lot of the marital problems on Kyron."

Despite all of this information being released at Terri's expense, none of it was particularly incriminating. Don't get me wrong, this information that was released didn't make her look like a very good person, but it seemed like sources close to the investigation were leaking this info to sway public opinion. However, it was not enough to sway the grand jury assembled to hear all of the evidence, who felt that there was not enough evidence against her to warrant a criminal indictment.

In June of 2012, roughly two years after Kyron had disappeared, his birth mother (Desiree Young) would file a civil suit against his stepmother (Terri Moulton Horman) claiming that she was "responsible for the disappearance of Kyron." In addition to seeking approximately $10 million damages, the suit was aimed at proving - if not criminally, then through civil court - that Terri had kidnapped the still-missing 7-year-old.

Terri sought to delay the lawsuit, but that motion was denied by a federal court judge, who allowed the suit to move forward. As discovery began, those with involvement in the case were called to testify again and were eventually deposed. Among them was DeDe Spicher, Terri's friend, who had supported and lived with Terri for a couple of weeks following Kyron's disappearance.

While investigators had called DeDe cooperative in their criminal investigation, her involvement in the civil trial was quite different. During a deposition, DeDe would refuse to answer 142 questions, pleading the 5th to all of them. These included questions regarding her whereabouts on the day that Kyron had disappeared (June 4th, 2010) as well as her contact with Terri that day. This led to increased scrutiny regarding the two, who many believe had been rather withholding in this case as it was, for seemingly no reason at all.

It would later come to light that DeDe Spicher had taken a deal that gave her immunity in exchange for her testimony, and in a subsequent deposition, she admitted to widespread unemployment fraud. That was supposedly why she had been so evasive regarding certain questions, but seemed to kill a lot of momentum in the civil trial.

In July of 2013, Desiree Young would announce that she was dropping the lawsuit because she didn't want it to interfere with the ongoing police investigation. Police had now been investigating the case for upwards of three years but had not pressed charges or even officially named a suspect, despite them seeming to have a lot of continued interest in Kyron's stepmom.

That same year, 2013, Terri and Kaine Horman's divorce would be finalized, with him being granted full custody of their daughter, Kiara.

In 2016, Terri Moulton began to speak to the public for the first time since Kyron Horman's disappearance six years prior. She first granted an interview to People Magazine earlier that year, and then appeared on the "Dr. Phil" show that summer, where she defended herself against the accusations that had been leveled against her for more than half-a-decade.

Terri claimed that she had been unfairly portrayed in the media, and had even been forced out of Oregon state due to the stress and scrutiny that befell her. She had even attempted to change her name twice in recent years, but both attempts had been flat-out rejected, with judges thinking that it wasn't in the public's interest for that to happen.

When asked about why she had waited so long to speak out, Terri told Dr. Phil that:

"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."

When asked about what she thought had happened to Kyron, she seemed to offer up a mysterious alternate suspect:

"There was a man in a white pickup truck, Ford, parked on Highway 30 at the 7-Eleven near the school. He was acting very strangely and he was addressed by one of the employees because he had been pacing back and forth in front of the 7-Eleven for about an hour.

"The guy, I'm not sure what the entire conversation was about, but I do know from these witnesses that this man asked the employees where the nearest school was, and that employee told him Skyline (Elementary)."

While this seemed to be an enticing lead, the existence of this enigmatic suspect from 7-Eleven has not been confirmed in the years since. Police have neither confirmed nor denied whether this man had been reported by witnesses, but almost immediately, skeptics of Terry found it odd that she was placing the blame at this mysterious individual who just-so-happened to drive the same type and color of truck that she had been driving on the day that Kyron disappeared: a white Ford pickup truck.

After the two episodes of "Dr. Phil" featuring Terri were aired, she would begin to face several legal woes. Prior to the episodes being released, she had been arrested in California for driving a stolen car and had been booked in the Marin County Jail, later being released on bail. After the episodes aired, she would face charges for domestic abuse, having threatened her then-live-in-boyfriend with a knife. He would eventually file for a restraining order in the latter half of 2016, and Terri would even face charges for stealing a gun from her roommate.

According to Desiree Young, Kyron's birth mother, this was just a continuation of Terri's troubling behavior in the years since Kyron had gone missing. In an article released by KTVL, Desiree was quoted as saying:

"Everything that's been happening is just what we already know about her true nature. And that she's a criminal. And I think that when she goes out there and grants interviews with Dr. Phil and continues to lie and not give us anything of value it is somewhat frustrating because we're still here dealing with the aftermath. Everyday living without answers and living without Kyron."

Over the years, several searches have been arranged for Kyron Horman in the area around his last known location: Skyline Elementary, in Portland, Oregon. Unfortunately, none of them have been able to find any sign of the missing child, who would be quickly approaching adulthood, with his 18th birthday this September (2020).

The grand jury that was originally assembled to decide the fate of the criminal investigation continues to meet periodically, to evaluate new information and determine whether or not criminal charges are necessary. To date, no indictments have been handed down, and no one has been charged with any crimes related to Kyron's case. However, that does not stop the grand jury from convening and evaluating on a regular basis.

In 2017, the deputy district attorney for Clackamas County, Matt Semritc, wrote:

"The Multnomah County District Attorney's office continues to empanel and offer evidence before a grand jury for the Kyron Horman case, meaning both the criminal investigation and legal proceedings are underway. The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office has confirmed that the grand jury has been convened on multiple occasions regarding the Kyron Horman case."

In summation: the investigation, which is the largest in Oregon state history to date, is still ongoing, nearly a decade after it began.

As you've probably gathered from this episode, a lot of the story has been centered around Terri Moulton, Kyron's stepmother, who, admittedly, was the last known person to have seen him. She has been at the center of a lot of rumors and theories: some of which are based in truth, and some of which are either misinterpreted or taken out-of-context to make her look bad.

I try not to inject too much of my own opinions into the podcast, but I honestly don't know what to make of her story. There's a part of me that finds her actions since Kyron disappeared to be reprehensible, but at the same time, I think that she has been living her entire life under a microscope and has been portrayed in the media as an evil stepmother since day one. Many in the public sphere have labeled her guilty since June of 2010, and I think it's important to note that she has never been charged or even named a suspect by police. I think we should all try to remember that she is innocent until proven guilty, and should be treated as such.

The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office continues to oversee this case, and to this day, they've kept most of the details regarding their investigation concealed. This includes witness statements, which Terri claims could exonerate her if released.

Because this case has really been tried in the public sphere, it's hard to tell what is a fact or a half-truth, but it seems like police have suspected Terri of involvement since pretty early on. It's hard to tell what exactly set them down the path of investigating her so thoroughly, but I can only hope that I've done a good job of laying out this case without making too many judgments.

If Terri Moulton is innocent, that leads us to a rather difficult question: what else could have happened to Kyron Horman? For nearly an entire decade, attention in the case has been paid to one woman, who hasn't even been officially labeled a suspect, but it almost seems like too much time has expired for police to begin pursuing a separate suspect. Ten years, millions of dollars and thousands of tips from the public have led us to where we are now, and it seems like - barring a miracle - justice will never be found for Kyron Horman.

Is it too late for detectives to find out what happened to him? Have they spent too much time investigating Terri? Or is that just a sunk-cost fallacy? Could the investigators successfully reinvent the case without admitting that they were barking up the wrong tree for years? I think these are important questions that need to be asked if we're ever going to find out what happened to Kyron.

There were so many people inside Skyline Elementary on the morning that Kyron disappeared, that it seems almost impossible to try and figure out who, exactly, might have abducted him (if that is what happened). By all accounts, there were hundreds of kids and adults coming and going that morning, setting up the science fair before school hours, and it is possible that someone could have come onto campus with the intent of abducting a child. If so, that would make Terri perhaps the most unlucky stepmother in history, but stranger things have happened, and it seems like the day that Kyron disappeared was the perfect storm of misfortune.

Between the science fair being open to the public (and attracting dozens of visitors that morning); the miscommunication between Terri and Kyron's teacher (resulting in no one noticing that Kyron was missing for several hours); Terri having large, unexplained gaps in her timeline (made worse by the accusations levied against her and the confrontational attitude she seemed to take towards the press, whom she thought were attempting to vilify her); and the dramatic saga that would play out over the next decade (which featured Terri at the very middle); it seems like this entire situation played out to perfectly obfuscate the story and cloud the investigation into Kyron's disappearance. I know it wasn't intentional - by anyone - but everything seems to have played out to the detriment of Kyron himself. He seems to have become the setup for a soap opera and was tragically forgotten in the maelstrom that followed his disappearance.

To this day, Kyron Horman remains a missing person, and the story of who he was seems to have been forgotten about in the years since. Kyron was seven years old at the time of his disappearance, although he would be turning eighteen this year. He had blue eyes and brown hair and required glasses. Age progression photos have been released showing what he would look like today, and anyone with information is encouraged to call the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office tip line at 503-261-2847. The $50,000 reward for information leading to a resolution in this case still stands today.

The Kyron Horman Foundation was established in 2010 and hopes to help bring attention to not only cases of missing children, but adults that are missing under potentially-dangerous circumstances. The foundation has helped do so much for not only Kyron's case, but dozens of others that have gone missing in the Pacific Northwest, and I would encourage everyone to reach out and get involved. Even though I live on the other side of the country, I'll be making a donation to the foundation, and I'd encourage you all to do the same... if only so some good can come out of this case.

I wish that I could end this episode on a happier note, but until further notice, the story of Kyron Horman remains unresolved.

Episode Information

Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Published on on March 15th, 2020

Producers: Maggyjames, Ben Krokum, Roberta Janson, Quil Carter, Peggy Belarde, Laura Hannan, Damion Moore, Amy Hampton, Scott Meesey, Steven Wilson, Scott Patzold, Astrid Kneier, Marie Vanglund, Lori Rodriguez, Jessica Yount, Aimee McGregor, Danny Williams, Sue Kirk, Victoria Reid, Sara Moscaritolo, Thomas Ahearn, Marion Welsh, Seth Morgan, Sydney Scotton, Alyssa Lawton, Kelly Jo Hapgood, Patrick Laakso, Meadow Landry, Rebecca Miller, and Tatum Bautista