Missing Kyron Horman, 7, Was Absent From School... Still Missing

[Dakota]

Police are looking for a second grader from Skyline Elementary who did not come home from school Friday.

Late Friday night the search for 7-year-old Kyron Horman was upgraded to a major crimes team investigation which brings in the FBI. Officials said the search was upgraded because the FBI has more resources.

Portland Public Schools spokesman Matt Shelby said Horman was at school Friday and Portland Public Schools sent out an automated phone call to all Skyline parents alerting them to the missing boy.
[...]

His stepmother took Horman to a science fair at the school Friday morning. They walked through a number of classrooms and his stepmother left at 8:45.

According to the sheriff’s office, the stepmother saw the boy walking toward his classroom as she left the building but officials with Portland Public Schools said Horman’s teacher never saw him in class which started at 10 a.m. The teacher marked him absent.

When Horman didn’t get off the bus in the afternoon, his parents called police.

Shelby said Horman’s parents weren’t notified when he was marked absent because Skyline doesn’t use an auto-dialer which calls parents to report the student is absent. Shelby said the school doesn’t use such a system because it doesn’t have problems with attendance.

http://www.katu.com/news/95669809.html

He is 3 foot 8 and 50 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair. He was wearing black cargo pants, white socks, worn black Skecher tennis shoes with orange trim and dark-colored t-shirt with the "CSI" show logo.
[...]

In most cases, missing children are often at the homes of a friend or a favorite hangout, he said, but those leads were quickly eliminated and police realized a major search needed to be launched.

The Horman family has been very cooperative, he said, and are doing the best they can under traumatic circumstances.
[...]

Parents of the 300 children will be asked to come to the school on Sunday on a staggered basis to interview with detectives to glean more information about Kyron's interests and school activities. They will be notified via a Portland Public Schools messaging system, he said.
[...]

She last saw Kyron in the morning, when he posed in a classroom in front of his "red-eyed tree frog" science project. He was posing for a picture taken by his mother, whom he loves, Zimmerman said.
[...]

She also said Kyron would not have gone off with a stranger, only with his mother, whom he loves.

Portland Public Schools spokesman Matt Shelby said two teachers saw Kyron with his mother and thought the two left school together. He said it was not uncommon for parents to pick up kids this way, so no suspicions were raised.
[...]

http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Second-grade-student-missing-from-Skyline-Elementary-95670454.html

I'm not sure if they are referring to the woman he left the school with as the mom or step-mom.

 

[Valasca]

Crap.
Be safe little man.

 

[totallytoddler]

Was he with his mother or stepmother? Im confused. Its says both.

Edit....I just saw you said the same thing DV....so maybe one of them DID leave with him if they are talking about 2 different people?

 

[ScribbleMuse]

The mom vs stepmom issue is confusing me too. It also is stated twice above "... with his mom, whom he loves." That wording is a little strange but it could just be me. Almost all children love their parents at that age, even when abused. However, the wording could have been chosen to emphasize a close relationship with the stepmother, regardless of labeling her as step or apparently bio.

The whole case is distressing. usually we hear of missing kids where the last known whereabouts are not as well known or documented--in this case it seems that up until the very last (and most important) moment, he was witnessed in a very public place where he was supposed to be. Also the time of day is odd, and combined with the audacity of the public area, an abduction would have to have been very specific I'd think.

I hope that he is safe and will be found and returned home soon. :dong:

 

[Dark Star]

PLEASE....let there be a happy ending to this story. :argh:

 

[akika666]

this is so weird. i can't picture the scenario because i'm confused by the wording like the posters above me. i also can't figure out if the teachers SAW him leave with the woman, or just THOUGHT he left, because they didn't see him afterwards. this frustrates me with helplessness because he didn't just vanish into thin air. wtf.

what a little cutie pie... his science poster is making me sad. my kid just did a seahorse diorama last week. i really hope this is some bad mix-up or even just some custody hijinx and he's ok.

 

[Valasca]

I am just wondering why they haven't called it Amber Alert yet.
Seems to fit criteria, he;s been gone far too long for it to be a case of mom or stepmom taking him.

 

[OMalley]

The thought of a child being abducted from inside a school really freaks me out. This is a pretty small school, too. Could be there's a sicko in the neighborhood...

 

[akika666]

The thought of a child being abducted from inside a school really freaks me out. This is a pretty small school, too. Could be there's a sicko in the neighborhood...

that's my nightmare too... our school is tiny (200 kids grades PK - 8) in a safe, rural community, but all the doors except the front entrance get locked at 8:30. i'll never bitch about the inconvenience again.

 

[Silvahalo]

So sad. I can't imagine this shit, well yes, i could but i don't want to.

be found safe and sound Kyron Horman.

 

[Dakota]

Missing: Kyron Horman
Dad: Kaine Horman
Step Mom: Terri Moulton Horman
Bio Mom: Desiree Horman
Grandma (stepmom's mother): Carol Moulton

Friday began as a special day for 7-year-old Kyron Horman. His school in Northwest Portland was having a science fair and he was keen to show off his project to his stepmother.

So, instead of taking the bus near his home off Cornelius Pass Road as usual, he hopped into the car with his stepmother, Terri Moulton Horman, who drove him to Skyline Elementary School.

They arrived sometime after the school opened about 8 a.m., went to his classroom, dropped off his coat and backpack and he showed his stepmother his exhibit, "The Red-Eyed Tree Frog."

Horman, who has raised Kyron since he was an infant, snapped a picture of him standing in front of it that she later posted on her Facebook page.
[...]

Terri often volunteers at the school, working closely with Kyron's teacher, Kristina Porter. Shelby said that Porter saw Kyron in her classroom with his stepmom before 8:45 a.m. and another instructor reported seeing him in another classroom at some point.

At 8:45 a.m. when the bell rang, Terri walked her stepson down the hall close to his class.

"He told her, 'I'm going back to the classroom, Mom,' and she waves to him and left," Carol Moulton said. "She thought he was safely at school just like he is everyday."

What happened to the boy who went missing is unclear.
[...]

Kyron's biological mother, Desiree Horman, and his father were officially divorced in February 2003, according to Washington County Circuit Court records.

Carol Moulton said that Kaine, 36, and Terri, 40, have been together for seven or eight years and that they have been married for four or five years. The couple have an 18-month-old girl.

"Terri has raised Kyron," her mother said. "She's been with him since he was an infant. She's as much of a mom as the mom is because the parents had separated about the time that Kyron was born."

She said he visits his biological mother in Medford every couple of weeks and that Desiree, 38, came to Portland as soon as she heard about his disappearance.

Kyron was supposed to take the bus home Friday, so Terri went to the bus stop at 3:30 p.m. to pick him up.

But the bus driver told her he wasn't there.

Panicked, she ran home and called the school to discover that he had been marked absent for the day.

She called 9-1-1, setting off a search that's drawn in a swarm of officers and several law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.

Officers, working with sniffer dogs, have combed the hilly, wooded area around Skyline Elementary.

Moulton doubts Kyron wandered off on his own. It's just not in his character, she said.

"He's a little bit dreamy. He's a sweet kid. He gets distracted. He's your typical second-grader," she said.

But he's no Huckleberry Finn.

"He's not real adventurous," she said. "He's a little timid. But if a friend wanted to go outside and look at something, he would follow the friend. He has a friend who he regularly gets in trouble with in the classroom because he talks too much."

Moulton said Kyron will not even venture far from his home in a wooded area.

"He won't get out of sight of the house," she said. "He's pretty insecure about that. So I can't see him wandering off."
[...]

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/06/details_emerge_about_the_day_k.html

Jaded also has this going on the FP: http://www.dreamindemon.com/2010/06/06/kyron-horman-7-disappeared-from-elementary-school/

 

[ScribbleMuse]

I bet this school is feeling heat right now because they did not call after marking him absent. I also bet they're kicking themselves pretty hard over it. My daughter attended a tiny little school too--we have our own elementary and high school for a population of just 700 people total, so her school roll was always relatively small. We don't have problems with crime or with poor attendance either, but still every time she was absent, if I did not call to leave a message before school started or immediately after to talk to the secretary, I'd receive a personal phone call by 9 a.m. After a few high profile cases such as Justina Morales, who was missing for a couple years before investigation began b/c no one reported her missing (murdered by mom and stepdad), schools all over the country began revising their attendance policies. In Justina's case, she had been enrolled to the local school district and did attend a while. However, after her death, she was of course absent. The school just marked her absent again and again until finally deleting her. If they had contacted someone or insisted on a reason from the parents, the crime may have been found long before it did. Then of course there are the high profile kidnapping cases from schools, especially by family b/c the school just allowed someone to walk in and say they were the family member and take the kid.

I don't blame the school for the disappearancee, but if they had reasonable procedures in place, the time would not have been lost. Almost 8 hours between his last known sighting and the parents/police being notified is just another tragedy in this case and that time could have meant literally life and death, though of course I hope not.

 

[akika666]

this is starting to really sound bad. where is he?

 

[Valasca]

it's looking like he never even left the school.
how many janitors? how many had background checks?

 

[akika666]

have they had dogs inside the school at all...? i can't find much in the way of updates about this... what Amazon just said made me flashback to Annie Le at Yale.

 

[ScribbleMuse]

it's looking like he never even left the school.
how many janitors? how many had background checks?

Good point. What other positions are going to have access to the school and yet not be expected to be in any one particular place, as a teacher would presumably be expected to be in the classroom to teach at particular times. The maintenance, some office staff, and perhaps some part time faculty like phys ed staff or coaches who may have considerable free time in their days.

Also, if this science fair was going on, it is obviously a source of new suspects. Any other parent or relative would have attended without suspicion. Perhaps there were other visitors from the community, depending on how widely advertised it was, or if it was tied into a larger school event such as a local festival or something. With it being the last or near to last week(s) of school and the seasons turning, there could have been some sort of local event days happening.

 

[ScribbleMuse]

There are about 300 students at Skyline Elementary, and all of them were invited to contribute to the fair.

Although the school usually opens at 8:35 a.m. and the final bell rings 10 minutes later, the school opened as early as 8 Friday for the science fair, said Matt Shelby, spokesman for Portland Public Schools.

Other students and parents showed up early as well to check out the fair, and Terri and Kyron saw people they knew while looking at the exhibits, Carol Moulton said.
Source

Seems like the science fair was a pretty big deal here. Still, with it being so early in the day, I think that it would have been either someone required to be at the school (I.e. staff) or someone having a reason to be at school that early, like relatives of other students. Also, the time and place still suggests someone that Kyron knew. In another article somewhere, I read a blurb from someone saying he "knew about stranger danger." I don't think that he would have easily been lured away by a total stranger without some sort of incentive or angle.

Now searchers look through tall grass, from the air and on foot, for any sign of the little boy. The FBI has now joined the search, as has the National Guard. Using an infrared system, heat detection and a search pattern grid to not miss an inch, searchers have completely searched an area of about two miles surrounding the school. Source

Not good. Still hoping though.


http://www.katu.com/news/95702034.html

 

[Valasca]

Please please please let him be off with aunt fifi... or someone with memory problems.

 

[ScribbleMuse]

have they had dogs inside the school at all...? i can't find much in the way of updates about this... what Amazon just said made me flashback to Annie Le at Yale.

From what I can understand they have done a pretty thorough search of the school and grounds, up to a 2-mile radius. That includes infrared searching (which surprised me).

Actually the quick and extreme response by police on this one is a good thing and yet also points to a possibility that there is something the public does not know, which makes the case much different. I also critisize the decision not to make an Amber alert in this one, but it makes me wonder even more if perhaps the details not publically released in this one actually give an answer?

 

[akika666]

From what I can understand they have done a pretty thorough search of the school and grounds, up to a 2-mile radius. That includes infrared searching (which surprised me).

Actually the quick and extreme response by police on this one is a good thing and yet also points to a possibility that there is something the public does not know, which makes the case much different. I also critisize the decision not to make an Amber alert in this one, but it makes me wonder even more if perhaps the details not publically released in this one actually give an answer?

great point. i agree, i get the feeling that there are probably some holes in the publicly distributed info. i'm guess they know what they're doing, since the FBI involved.

 

[Dakota]

Parents of the 300 children will be asked to come to the school on Sunday on a staggered basis to interview with detectives to glean more information about Kyron's interests and school activities.

If they are interviewing parents at the school, they must be fairly confident that he's not in the school or that it's scene of a crime and have processed it all they could.

 

[lisaznola]

http://www.childseeknetwork.com/horman.htm

also

http://www.helpfindmychild.net/kyron-horman

 

[akika666]

If they are interviewing parents at the school, they must be fairly confident that he's not in the school or that it's scene of a crime and have processed it all they could.

i would hope so. the Yale thing is on my mind, though. they were searching landfills for her by the time they finally found her in the wall, and the building itself wasn't even declared a crime scene till 3 days after she disappeared.

but again, that was not the FBI.

 

[Dakota]

Interviews with those who were at Friday's science fair at Skyline Elementary School – where a 7-year-old student is believed to have disappeared – may have turned up at least one new piece of information.

In a press conference Sunday afternoon, a Multnomah County Sheriff's Office spokesman now says Kyron Horman was last seen at "a late hour in the morning." This raises questions about the 8:45 a.m. time released by the Sheriff's Office in its press release about this case.

The press release reported the boy's stepmother walked through a number of classrooms with Kyron and last saw him around 8:45 a.m. Friday, walking down the hallway toward his Skyline second-grade classroom. The investigation has turned up that Kyron's teacher marked him absent when he never showed up.

School Superintendent Carol Smith spoke publicly for the first time since Kyron's disappearance at the scheduled 3:30 press conference Sunday...

"We're hoping for his safe return," said Superintendent Smith. She went on to say that "the reported disappearance from one of our schools is unprecedented and deeply troubling."

As such, changes are being made in how the school treats visitors.

Beginning Monday, everyone entering Skyline Elementary School will be asked to sign in. A team composed of school security services, members of the teacher's association and other related parties also will look into safety procedures for releasing children as they leave school.
[...]

Investigators are hoping to paint a very accurate picture of what happened Friday, knowing Monday this campus will be full of people struggling to come to terms with Kyron's disappearance. Classes at Skyline Elementary School are scheduled as normal for Monday.
[...]

http://www.katu.com/news/local/95734359.html

Hopefully more will come out about what they mean by "a late hour in the morning."

 

[Aslan]

Also, if this science fair was going on, it is obviously a source of new suspects.

Any school I went to that held a science fair did so in the gym.
Just tossing that out.
Don't they have push doors in the gym?

 

[akika666]

Any school I went to that held a science fair did so in the gym.
Just tossing that out.
Don't they have push doors in the gym?

i think he was reliably seen (by teachers) in the hallway outside classrooms after going to the fair.

at our school, all the doors are push doors. they get locked at 8:30 (you can leave, but you can't come in, except thru the main entrance).

this is really puzzling.

 

[mommyX3]

I was also wondering why there wasn't an Amber Alert for Kyron. I actually checked their official website to see what the requirement for an alert was. I guess without a definite abduction (although, by now it seems like that is the case), or a suspect description, an Amber Alert wouldn't be very effective.

God, I really hope they find this little guy safe and sound. Kyron, I'm praying for you little buddy, stay strong!

Summary of Department of Justice Recommended Criteria
•There is reasonable belief by law enforcement that an abduction has occurred.
•The law enforcement agency believes that the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death.
•There is enough descriptive information about the victim and the abduction for law enforcement to issue an AMBER Alert to assist in the recovery of the child.
•The abduction is of a child aged 17 years or younger.
•The child’s name and other critical data elements, including the Child Abduction flag, have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system.

 

[akika666]

I was also wondering why there wasn't an Amber Alert for Kyron. I actually checked their official website to see what the requirement for an alert was. I guess without a definite abduction (although, by now it seems like that is the case), or a suspect description, an Amber Alert wouldn't be very effective.

God, I really hope they find this little guy safe and sound. Kyron, I'm praying for you little buddy, stay strong!

Summary of Department of Justice Recommended Criteria
•There is reasonable belief by law enforcement that an abduction has occurred.
•The law enforcement agency believes that the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death.
•There is enough descriptive information about the victim and the abduction for law enforcement to issue an AMBER Alert to assist in the recovery of the child.
•The abduction is of a child aged 17 years or younger.
•The child’s name and other critical data elements, including the Child Abduction flag, have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system.

exactly. this morning i was idly wondering the same thing, and thought about it a second more, realizing it's only for an obvious abduction with descriptions. i have never really given it much thought till today, but Amber Alert has a very narrow application, and was designed only for that application.

 

[Dakota]

While the DOJ has criteria, every state sets it's own guidelines.

Oregon´s criteria is listed below:

• Law enforcement confirms a child has been abducted
• The child is 17 years or younger*
• The child may be in danger of serious bodily harm or death
• There is enough descriptive information about the child, abductor, and/or suspect´s vehicle to believe an immediate broadcast alert will help.
• The child's name and other critical data elements - including the child abduction (CA) and AMBER Alert (AA) flags will/have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system.

* This alert system is not to be used when a child runs away or involves a custodial situation.

http://www.oregon.gov/OSP/AMBERALERT/program_criteria.shtml

 

[Dakota]

Still no clarification on what the "later time" thing meant. Maybe in the morning papers...

The FBI has dispatched its Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team, but Sheriff Dan Staton says he's not prepared to call the boy's disappearance a kidnapping.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gKL6GAjhdPfMNB_5kfYTkjslF38QD9G65NR00