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BOY MISSING-Rebecca Morris

Jun 19, 20201 hr 9 minEp. 515
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Episode description

It's one of the most shocking unsolved missing-child cases in the world. Where is Kyron Horman? Why hasn't the woman who police suspect is responsible for his 2010 disappearance-Kyron's stepmother-been charged? That the seven-year-old disappeared from his grade school got the attention of parents around the world. The twists of the case -adultery, sexting, murder-for-hire-keep the story in the media spotlight. New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Morris tells the minute-by-minute, day-by-day story of the long investigation, the search for Kyron, and his family's heartache. Based on years of research and interviews with Kyron's family, "Boy Missing" also examines what recourse families have as they wait for a loved one to be found and challenges a common assumption in no-body cases: that prosecutors must wait until there is a confession or remains are found. No-body cases can be prosecuted successfully. BOY MISSING: The Search for Kyron Horman-Rebecca Morris
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Transcript

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You are now listening to True Murder, the most shocking killers in true crime history and the authors that have written about them. Gacy Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker, dck every Week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host, journalist and author Dan Zufanski, Good Evening. It's one of the most shocking unsolved missing child cases in the world.

Where is Kiren Horman? Why hasn't the woman who police suspect is responsible for him twenty ten disappearance, Kyen's stepmother been charged that the seven year old disappeared from his grade school got the attention of parents around the world. The twists of the case adultery, sexting, murder for hire,

keep the story in the media spotlight. New York Times best selling author Rebecca Morris tells the minute by minute, day by day story of the long investigation the search for Kyen in his family's heartache, based on years of

research and interviews with Chyen's family. Boy Missing also examines what recourse families have as they wait for a loved one to be found, and challenges a common assumption in no body cases that prosecutors must wait until there is a confession or remains are found, no body cases can be prosecuted successfully. The book that we're featuring this evening is Boy Missing, The Search for Kyne Horman, with my

special guest, journalist and author Rebecca Moore. Welcome back to the program, and thank you very much for this interview. Rebecca Morris.

Speaker 6

Yeah, hi, Dan, it's great to be back with you again.

Speaker 7

Great to have you back. Thank you very much. You talk about June fourth, twenty ten, and that's the day you and others began following this case of Tyen Horman's disappearance, as you do in the book. Let's not waste any time. Let's get right to June fourth, twenty ten. Set the stage where this is this school, the Skyline Elementary tell us about this school and what were the situation that presented itself at that school that day with all these

extra people not a normal day at this school. Tell us about this, Yeah, no it wasn't.

Speaker 6

Excuse me. Skyline Elementary School is in Portland, Oregon, but is not in the city limits. It's in Lullemick and it's about sixteen miles northwest Seat near the city of Portland. And that was a very busy day at the school. There was one week left of school. Kien was seven years old in second grade and it was the day of the school science fare. All the students in the sixth grades plus kindergarten had done science exhibits. Chyen had done his on the Red Eyed True Fraud and had

a diorama. Worked very hard on this. So there were four hundred extra people in this small rural school on June tenth because they were you know, parents' grandparents, siblings who'd come on that Friday to see the science exhibits. Kiren lived with his father and his step mother. That's the long story we'll get into. I'm sure about why he was only part time with his birth mother, who is uh a couple hundred miles south in Oregon. But

his l stepmother said that they walked around school. She took a picture of him in front of his red eyed tree frog exhibit, and then she said she waved to him as he went into his classroom and she and her nineteen month old Uh, baby girl. UH left for for several hours. When uh Cain Horman, Karen's father and his stepmother, Terry Hormon, went to meet the bus in the afternoon, Uh Uh Kyron wasn't on the bus

and they immediately rushed to the school. Uh. One of the the fattest parts of this is he'd been missing six hours before anybody knew he was missing. That's a lot. That's a lot of time when uh, after a child is is abducted or or missing a long time.

Speaker 7

Let's talk about the situation. We just did a brief outline of what happens that day. There's a sign and Sarah set up and there was all these people and unlike schools today, I guess some people would be familiar with, there was no name tags. The school was unlocked. There were seven doors in and out of the school that were unlocked, so kind of different sense of security. I

think that we might understand today president at schools. Yeah, but tell us about right no cameras as well, and very important tell us about the living situation that Kyen was in with his father Kine, the stepmother Terry, and his real mother Desiree and her new husband Tony tell us about the situation and why Desirie was not Kyen was not principally living with Desiree.

Speaker 6

Yeah, and this is something that immediately people left to some assumption, Well, there must your reason he wasn't living with his birth mother. Well, the reason was that she had been had had now had shared custody. I d so Desiree Young, who's Karen's UH birth mother, and she had uh remarried and was married to Tony Young, who's a a detective in the Midford, Oregon Police Department. And UH.

When Desiree was had divorced her second husband came somebody somebody said, you need a scorecard to keep track of all the marriages, And that's that's the v That's very possible. But she also had a a son by an earlier UH marriage. And you know, Desiree never had good health. She went to UH Canada UH one summer to to seek some medical treatment, and when she came back, the two men who were the fathers of her sons would

not give the children back. She's fat fought a long court battle, and a judge finally decided and poor one that the boys should stay where they'd been living for a couple of years and it was just kind of heartbreaking. So, uh, Desiree did have you know, partial custody and both boys uh when when Kyne was seven, uh her other son was fifteen at the time, I believe, And so they

spent you know, a lot. Half half their lives were in Medford with with the Tony and Desiree, but but half their lives were with their father respective fathers and stepmothers and step siblings in the Portland area. It was that weekend, June tenth, was I'm sorry, June fourth was uh,

Desiree's weekend to get the boys. So she was driving, she would have been driving to Portland anyway to pick up the boys, but she got a phone call from the school's secretary around four o'clock, you know, notifying her that Kyne was missing. And course she you know, really rushed up to Portland. Then everybody kind of assumed it was probably you know, he was taken from the school, or he went wandering outside during the confusion and was

lost or something. But it was you know, actually a much darker kind of you know, missing child story.

Speaker 7

The idea that tell us more about this science fair itself in terms of what Terry said in terms of the timeline, she said, she went there, they went to some of the exhibits and then of course classes started after that. So explain this science fair and how it was conducted. But then the kids went into their classrooms. Why was why was he not reported missing? Tell us about that earlier arrangement that Terry had made and may have added to the confusion that day.

Speaker 6

Sure, well, the Terry Horn and the stepmother. It was also her third third marriage. She uh, you know was Uh. The police have never used the word suspect because there are all kinds of legal legal ramifications with that. They haven't been able to charge her. But she definitely was, you know, the suspect from that first weekend, and very much with uh, with police and in course with Desiray and her family. Uh. They just I immediately thought Terry had a hand in this, and in fact, it looks

like it was planned because she picked today. Uh if she is responsible for Comment's disappearance, and we think so she picked today when there'd be a lot of confusion at the school. And she said that she'd parked in the school parking lot and she didn't and and was actually caught later in in several lives. But as you mentioned, the doors were open, there were no security cameras, no name takes nothing. She they walked around looking at the

science exhibits. The the reason that he that nobody knew kyron was gone was that, uh his second grade teacher knew he was because Terry, the stepmother, had sent her an email a couple of days before that she'd be taking Kyroen to a doctor's appointment, and so the teacher marked him absent, but it was called an excused absence.

And because there, you know, in the corner of the room was Kyrone's jacket and backpack where they had left it, and that he was going to the doctor, well Terry said she left him at school, and in fact, the doctor's appointment was uh reportedly for a week later. So just you know, the confusion, that simple, the that that

confusion just just caused a a lot more confusion. So it wasn't until the uh a m until he didn't get off the school us six hours later that the school knew he was really missing and hadn't come back

after some doctor's appointment. And there are other really significant lives that Terry Hormon was caught in I report for the first time in the book that she was seen leaving the school with him and with her infant daughter, that there were there were a couple of adults and classmates of cards who saw her leave the school with him. So that's that's pretty powerful, you know, circumstantial evidence.

Speaker 7

But we don't see that right away, and everybody doesn't find this out. And it's a very interesting dynamic in that right away Desiree and her husband Tony now tell

our audience who Tony is. And also this is quite a drive before they get to the house, before they get to Terry and their ex husband Kine's how and again the surprising, the surprises once they get there, the things that don't seem right to them, tell us about who Tony is, and a little bit about their visit and their impression when they got to the home of Terry.

Speaker 6

So Tony Young, Desiree's husband is, and Kyron's stepfather. He was just an amazing, amazing part of this book because he was a he's just retired in the last month, but he was a you know, twenty year veteran detective in Medford, Oregon. Basically his whole adult life, he'd been a detective, and he and his friends fellow detectives were there in Portland observing everything, you know, for months, for years,

really for ten years. And so they were told and Tony was told, you know, don't go near the command center, don't talk, don't talk to cops up here. And you know, he knew there was a good reason for that, but they were there observing, and you know, you can, you can dim the switch a little, but she can't turn it off. And so their impressions were, you know, terribly important to the book. The book was pretty difficult to do because it's an open case and that means there's

no case file to look at. Detectives aren't gonna talk to you you know, there's no there's been no charging, there's no you know, trial transcript, none of that. So the people that were there, uh, observing and watching uh

were very important to this. But what you're l what you're referring to, is when Tony and Desiree finally arrive at at to Kane's house where Kiren lived, you know, the stepmother, Terry Horman, throws open the door and welcomes them and greets them and says there's lots of food that's been dropped off and they said it's literally it was so weird. It was like she was hosting a party. There was nothing said about gush. I'm sorry, uh there.

You know, she hadn't been crying. Everybody else was crying, but she just acted like, you know, shoes kind of host to sing a party.

Speaker 7

It's very interesting too when you talk about the reaction from Terry, but also that police wanted the parents to be in the same house. So they tell us about this, tell us about this in a very unique request in light of what had happened, and to keep these witnesses and this crime scenes secure. What did the detectives request these four parents do.

Speaker 6

Well, that was one of the most interesting things. And you know, I don't think it's unusual for police to kind of lock down a house. And remember Kane's house was considered one of two possible crime scenes. There was the school and there was Kane's house. But usually when they're locking down, you know and keeping f it might be one, you know, one family and they stay with the family to answer the phone calls and kind of

had a base of operations there. But here you have you know, uh, a blended family, a family that had not blended very well mm and who didn't really like each other very much. And uh uh although Tony and and Desiree you know got along uh fairly well with k with Kane, especially that that first year that Kyerne was missing, but it was just strange. They they had to all sleep there and stay there, and if they were eating, they ate meals there, and that lasted lasted

several days. And it's so I think the police were really smart about, you know that observing, uh, the interactions and having people observe Terry Horman who you know, were not married to her, who were i you know, in her life, but but who were you know, could be somewhat maybe a little bit have er observations that her husband might have. They did kind of align themselves with Cain Terry's husband early on and had him wearing a

wire nobody else knew about it. But that lasted several days, and then eventually Desiree and Tony were allowed to move to a motel, but they had to spend their days still back at the house, and there was a command center nearby for you know, all law enforcement, just you know, like forty agencies. But Bill the House was kind of ground zero for those.

Speaker 7

The people that don't know how big a case was this for the media and how big and what was the magnitude of the search that was that they'd underway.

Speaker 6

Well, it was. It's a huge story. It still is, and not just you know, I grew up in Oregons kind of you know, defend a little bit of the fact that it, yes, it's an Oregon story, but it was as as national and international as anything you can name, as you know, as as Madeline mechan and missing in Portugal or or uh uh you know, uh uh just you know Natalie Holloway, you know, uh Casey Anthony, John

Beney ram See. It was, it was huge, and it was you know, uh, the the the parents, just Cane and as Ray, they were on uh doctor Phil, they were on Oprah datelined, I mean, and and not only in that in that at that time, but national media continues to cover this, including uh the tenth anniversary, which was uh just two two weeks ago, as you know, So it's it's a big story locally, a big story nationally and the fact that you know that a child like you said in the lead that a child miss

missing from their school is pretty unusual, and Ernie Allen, who's the retired now head of nick NICK, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in both this country and in Europe, has said that you know where, where a child goes missing from the situation has a lot to do with how the story is covered by the media and what catches. You know, what catches.

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Speaker 6

The media's interest in this case, You know, this story just kept it just kept paying off and paying off and paying off. Because it turns out that the stepmother, Terry Horman, was you know, a real, real piece of something, and all kinds of things materialized and in the next few weeks with regard to her, and you know, it just was a story that that never well, it didn't end, but not just because Kiren hasn't been found. It just continues to play out to this day.

Speaker 7

Right. This really is also, of course, Desiree's personal story, and you do talk about Desiree's problem problem background her childhood, but also that Desiree does everything and I know that this is a common story with these mothers, but she goes over and beyond to try to do everything in her power to try to get who she thinks is a suspect, is the suspect Kiren's stepmother, and find out why to pressure everybody she possibly could, to reach out

to the media, to do everything she possibly could, and then still did more. Lay became an advocate and dedicated her life to the cause, and still held out hope for that her boy was still alive, remarkably after all these years. Tell us a little bit more about Desiree and the efforts and the extent that she did to keep this story alive, to have other people involved and everything she did. Tell us a little bit more.

Speaker 6

Yeah, well, I will correct one thing you said. As early as I believe it was the first or second week, and he was missing. She had a moment where she felt Kiren came to her and was telling her that he was gone. So she early on she didn't tell anybody for her husband, but she believed by the second week that Kiren was dead. It's Paine who continues to believe that Kiren is somewhere. Maybe he was handed off or he was sold or something. So she really accepted

early on he's dead, but she wants him back. She will do anything that she can, and it's really I think what Uh. One of the things that's really unique about her is that she, you know, is a CoP's wife, she's a detective's wife, so she knew there were parameters to what she could do and that sometimes the most effective thing is to let the person who's the suspect,

you know, ramp talk, uh, look bad, paint themselves. You know, Uh they're let them, let them do damage to themselves, as as Terry Horman did with this, and kind of in a way, you're doing everything you can for your son, but you're also respectful of things have to play out. And I think she was, you know, is terribly wise

in a way that that most parents wouldn't be. That the woman who did this most likely is going to be her own worst enemies, and uh that that eventually, you know, uh, she'll get tripped up, and she has been. She has been tripped up several times. But uh, Desiree has uh done some things that that I don't know, uh,

that most parents maybe wouldn't do. She after the first couple of years of searching, which was extensive, and and I'll mention that, but she's organized some private searches and you know, she she does it and then she tells the police who are still investigating, you know that, oh tomorrow, I've got some you know, trained searchers coming in and we were volunteering to to go over some places. So she was, you know, pretty savvy in that way. And she admits the very first time they did that, they

didn't know what they were doing. But she and her sister, who is at her side all the time, they they figured out how to do this. But the search was extensive. It was hundreds of thousands of acres. And what complicated it is that it wasn't you know, they don't live in a city like you know, Elizabeth Smart was taken in Utah from from the home. It was in the middle of a city, and then you know, kept for a while up in back on this wooded hillside. This is a rural area. So they had the the roads

and I've driven them many times in that area. Are you know it's it's it's you know, old forest. It's very steep terrain on one side and then ravines on the other side. The areas they had to search were

just extremely dense. We're talking you know, chest high ferns and bushes and woods, and they which part of the geography that may also play a part of the story is that just to the east is where two rivers, the Columbia the Willamite meet, and there's an island saw the island there, and there are you know, ponds, lakes, marshes, And there's this story that may be an urban myth, or may not be an urban myth, that fisherman, you know,

went overboard one day and was never seen again. Because the current will take you to the Pacific Ocean, which is just one hundred miles away. So the current very fast and there's all this water. Terry Horman, one of the most important things is she's off the grid for two and a half hours that morning after she supposedly left Chylan at school. She said she was driving around trying to quiet her infant daughter, that she had a earache, and uh, she stopped at two stores looking for motron.

You can't see by the angles of the camera if there's anybody in the you know, on the floor of the h a truck or back feet or anything. But she does buy some stuff and then she's, you know, nowhere to be seen for two and a half hours. Her cell phone ping's on a tower that's right in the middle between the island and the rivers I told you about. And then right where the where the school is. And she just said she was driving back roads trying to keep her daughter uh asleep, and it's po you

know there there's some sightings of her truck. Uh. She said she pulled over and you know, changed the diaper or something. Then she uh stopped at her gym. Uh she lied about how long she was there, and and then she's back home and you know on Facebook and post the fix the picture if she took of Kiren at school and touching base with Desiree about the picture, and then she and her little girl and Kyen's father walked to meet the bus and and he's not on

the bus. So Uh. There's also a friend of uh of Terry Hormon's, we find out a couple of weeks later who's missing from her job during that same two hours, that's right. And they've never been able to you know, decide if she was you know, if Terry picked her up and she helped her or what she what she knew. Uh, they're pretty close mouths about all this. And then eventually in the first couple of weeks so Terry Rmon fails to light detect her tests and walks away on the.

Speaker 7

Third right, what do police do in terms of uh grand jury? In terms of them compelling her dancing or questions? They realized her timeline is fraught with uh problems, and that and their chi timeline changes and their story changes to accommodate the last story and the changes. How do police proceed with those polygraphs? And what's their option uh to deal with her in this case?

Speaker 6

Well, of course, you know, she was never named a suspect, and people have you know, people have rights. They she never uh was called before the grand jury. She you know, had the right to walk out of a third polygraph. Uh. Things happened very quickly uh after the first to in about the three week mark, and uh which you know, she suddenly found herself on her own and she hired the most expensive, the best known criminal defense lawyer in and she didn't have to talk anymore to the police

or or appeared before a grand jury. So they didn't they didn't you know, have uh uh uh uh uh much much p place to go. The law enforcement didn't uh after that except trying to pick apart her timeline which you know, the parents were all asked that first evening, you know, get into a timeline, tell us exactly where you were.

Speaker 7

Uh.

Speaker 6

Desiree and Tony were, of course, uh, you know, very quickly ruled out because they were three hundred miles away in southern Oregon and it was easy to tell that. But they did timelines anyway. Carrie was the only one who had trouble doing a timeline and kept changing it.

So even after her first one where she talks about topping stopping at the two UH stores looking promotron, then she cooked up other places that she said she stopped, but there was no for any proof that she stopped at the dry cleaners or stopped at the arts and craft store. But it just got very muddy very quickly, and all the parents, you know, were pretty suspicious of her very quickly.

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use code murder at fabfitfun dot com. Now, Rebecca, we were talking about the everyone looking at the only suspect it's seemed in this case was Terry Horman. But Desiree and Tony are privy to some things from the investigators that are in this task force and are trying to solve this case, and they're finding more and more about Terry's personal life, the relationship with Cain, but also a possible motive for why she would want to harm Kiren.

Tell us about a little bit of the information she finds out in this investigation.

Speaker 6

Well, especially in the first few months, Desiree comes to believe that Terry has been manipulating, manipulating Karen and scaring him and hiding his favorite toys and books, and she apparently cooked up a scheme where it is classroom, I mean, she told Desiree and she told Cain that Kyron was being you know, he'd get a red card for the day in his second grade, and that Mandy should be disciplined, and you know, other parents in the classroom I talked

to said this this color coding, you know, uh, disciplined system just didn't exist. It simply didn't exist. And so Doesiray realized that that you know when when, and she wishes she'd she thought Kyro, she thought King I'm sorry she thought Kyron as far as you know, crying when he was in Medford and saying he didn't wanna go

back to Portland. You know, everybody thought it was just kind of a normal, you know, a step family kind of situation that is not unneat, but she uh Doesirey found out a couple of months uh into this, that Terry had been uh emailing friends talking about how much she hated Kyron and uh how much she didn't wanna be, you know, a stepmother and his stepmother, and that in fact,

Cain and Terry been having uh marriage problems. She found out that they had fought uh til three a m. On the night that in the morning that that Kyron went missing, and uh Terry thought King was having an affair, and uh uh she you know, the motive seemed to be that she wanted Terry wanted to get out of this marriage and have custody of her daughter, the nineteen month old girl, and whatever she had to do to

get rid of both Cain and Karen. And the the only good thing I can say about Terry Horman is that uh uh the year before, in two thousand nine, she tried to get Cain to let Kyra and go live with Desiree in Medford, and the you know, Terry, the stepmother, tried to do that and Kane wouldn't allow it. Yeah, and so then it became how does she get rid of both of them? Maybe get you know, really get

rid of Kane and have his life insurance. Send Chiren back to Desiree and then she and her daughter would you know, have the life insurance and start a new life. It sounds crazy, I mean it was, it is sure, but that appeared to be her motive, whatever it would take to be rid of both her husband and her stepson, and that's what she you know, undertook.

Speaker 7

There was also a resentment for her son from a previous married named John, that was forced to go live with the grandparents, and she resented Kin for that. Could you explain that? Well?

Speaker 6

Yes, so her son who was a teenager, uh, her son by her first marriage to and Terry's second husband, had adopted him. But uh, he was a teenager, as was Desiree's other son, and he lived with Kine and Terry and Kyroen. And he does ray believe that he that John was uh, you know, a partner in kind of uh manipulating Kyron and giving him a hard time.

And uh this is you know, we're a little bit unclear about exactly what happened, but John was sent to Roseberg, where where Terry's parents lived, so he lived with his grandparents, and uh Caine said it happened when he was out of town. But uh Terry blamed Kane and blamed Kyroen for that, that that her son was sent away, but that you know, Kyen could still live there. So all of this was building up, uh Cain said. Later admitted wh when a in a in divor both divorce and

uh custody battle. Also that uh Terry was drinking a lot. He'd found her passed out at night with you know, with the two young children, uh kind of you know, on their own there. And uh years before before she married, uh came, she'd had uh a not uh quite a number of speeding tickets and and tickets, but she'd also had a ady with her son in the car, which is pretty serious business. That's in you know, y you lose your license for a year and you have to

go to alcohol counseling and everything. If you have a minor in in the car when you're stopped. So things were kind of you know, coming to light over time. But but to find out, as desiree found out that that Terry really hated kyn and you know, wanted something to happen to him, that was you know, that was that was pretty disturbing.

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Speaker 7

Now let's get back to what the police are trying to do here. I mean, they've assembled a lot of detective they spent a lot of money. You talk about this search and this investigation one point four million, So there was a lot of dedication to this incredible amount of money spent in the search. But they was a quest to be able to convict this woman. So they tried a few ploys. This case of course of sex

and that we talk about sexting and adultery. So that's what really gets people's attention, even more so than than a boy kidnapped from a school. But this is really gets people interested. So there wasn't an opportunity by the prosecutors to try to attempt to do something to pressure Terry.

Speaker 6

What was that Well, shortly after Kyron went missing, probably I think about the three or four week marks a they find of course, they're reading Terry's emails and her you know, her computer and her cell phone, and they find out that she had hired a landscaper at some point, and somehow they find out she'd never told her husband about it. So they decided, gosh, why would you hire a landscaper and keep it secret? So they found him and he said that she had tried to hire him well,

to find somebody that would kill her husband. So could his name's Rodolpho Sanchez. Would he help her find somebody who could you know, who'd be a hit man? And she offered him ten thousand dollars and you know, he didn't say much and turned her down apparently, But eventually the police find him and she had also as early as the fall of two thousand and nine, several months before talked to somebody else about could could they help

her find a hitman? And so they send Rodolpho the landscaper with an undercover cop wearing a wire to the house and to talk to Terry and basically to tell her to ask her, are you still interested? You know, are you still interested in finding somebody to kill your husband? And she was suspicious and didn't fall for it and called the police in fact, uh uh not realizing they were the police. And uh so she that she couldn't wasn't really implicated uh in that, but but they believed that.

Uh when she said that, uh, the uh landscape her had you know, come on to her, and he was getting back at her because she turned her down. But he he he initially said that she had you know, she'd also propositioned him sexually. So it just got really messy. Uh. Within also a week or two of that, they well, when they told me before I moved forward, when they told kin about you know, she tried to hire somebody

to kill you. So he and and the y daughter flee the house and she finds herself, you know, all alone there. But also within a couple of weeks they

uh they offer her a deal. They have all kinds of you know, she's been uh sexting a uh guy who is a class high school classmate of Knes and who's hanging around a lot, and they've got new pictures of her that she sent and uh sexting, and and they said, uh, you know, she'll tell them where where Kyne is, they'll they'll make a deal with her and not reveal all this, and she she turned it down, so they they let all that information come out, which

is something you know, doctor Phil really uh dug into and you know loved to blow up on the on the screen when she was on the show with him. She did her own two hour interview with doctor Phil a few years later. So she's offered a deal. Meanwhile, her friend and from who was also off the grid that day, missing from her job, moves into house with

her for eleven days or something. Yeah, and uh uh there are people that think that dedes By sher knows exactly what happened and what happened to kyn She was she said she talked to the grand jury eventually, Uh Desiree's not sure of that. She was deposed in uh uh later in a civil lawsuit that that Desiree brought against Terry Hormon, and uh she just you know, she

played the the Fifth Amendments. I think it's a hundred and forty nine times during her d deposition, so uh not much information from there this I I will say it's it was really interesting the because the police didn't want the parents to speak, uh initially M and you know, you see you s see everything you see uh people like you know, like Elizabeth Smart's parents who who uh spoke about her and and Susan Cox Powell's parents, and and then the parents who you know are lying about

their missing children, like like Susan Smith and uh Casey Anthony and but the police, as we were talking about, kept kept uh very a very low profile with the parents on this. So the media, you know, all they could do is get into the juicy stuff, which which very much upset Desiree that m you know, they'd be folke.

The the lot of the stories at that time focused on you know, the sexting, the marriages, the you know, their Desiree and family wouldn't talk to the media, but Terrrie Horman's friends would tell the media, well, Terry's really the boy his mother Terry raised and you know, he thinks of Terry as mother, and so it was very very hurtful news coverage for Desiree.

Speaker 7

And also they also questioned initially too, why would the mother not be living with the son, and so they questioned her and they.

Speaker 6

Make assumptions that there must be something wrong with the birth letter, and you know there and there wasn't. It was just that her two ex husbands when she wanted to take the boys to Canada with her when she was going to have treatment for kidney disease, and they wouldn't give her, you know, the letters, the paperwork to

take her children across the border to Canada. And then when she finally said, okay, well they can stay with you a couple of months, and Tane got it writing not that they would you know, it also said they would be returned to her. And then when she came back after her medical treatment, they wouldn't. They wouldn't give

her the boys. And she fought for two years long and hard, and finally a judge rule they should be they should continue to live where they were living, that they were young enough that it would make a difference to keep living where they were living and she would have, you know, half custody. It was a pretty you know, it was a dirty deal.

Speaker 7

Now the police are trying to do with all they can, and eventually this group of detectives, of the two hundred detectives assigned to this, it's all scaled back and there's a task force and ends up with just one detective. They've tried everything with the grand jury. But she won't that DD won't say anything. Terry has got a great lawyer, so she doesn't say anything. There's civil lawsuits, but they're also worried about the kind of information that could come

up in these civil lawsuits other than criminal proceedings. Tell us a little bit more about the danger the hazard of raising certain things at these hearings.

Speaker 6

Well, I believe a civil suit when there hasn't been a murdered charge, I think you have just two or three years to actually bring a civil suit. So Desiree Uh found a good attorney and just about at the two year mark, so that'd be June of the twenty twelve, she filed a civil suit against Terry Ormon Uh for you know, millions of dollars. But that isn't what interested uh. Desiree but Desiree, I mean, I'm sorry, Terry would have

been compelled to say, you know where Kiren is. And the what's very tricky here is that Desiree in her attorney would really need the police case file such as it was at that point. They would need that for their civil lawsuit. And Desiree says that the the it's the county Sheriff's office actually their detectives you know, grudgingly said okay, we'll share it with you when you need it.

But then the next year when the time came, uh, they wouldn't share it with him, and Desiree reluctantly you know, uh understood because the only person who knows what the police know is Terry Horman, and they don't wanna tip their hand and let her know what they know. The the sheriff at one point said at a news conference, uh, choking up. He said, we know things we wish we didn't know. Mm and that that, you know, implies some

some pretty nasty things. And also at about that time, Desiree was told that they'd found Kirne's DNA in the ded of his father's pickup truck, which uh was considered you know, unusual there's really no reason his DNA should be in.

Speaker 7

The rent of the truck.

Speaker 6

And she wasn't told if it was blood or hair or urine or what, but but it was DNA. So uh when when they couldn't get the police filed to continue the civil suit, then they then she had to drop had to draw the civil suit. Uh. So it's it's very tricky because do you wanna tip you know, you wanna I uh explain what the police do know or as I get into in the book, and you were referring to no body cases, Uh, prosecutors are uh you know most of the time reluctant to bring uh

murder charges when there's no body. Uh it it can be done, It can be done successfully. It could be prosecuted successfully. But uh, jury's you know, every every potential jur in America is watching TV crime shows and forensic shows, and there are police who think that that that actually hampers cases. Jurors think there should be DNA. Jurors think that this can be wrapped up really, you know, quickly,

and uh it's just not like that. You have to go on on you know, uh circumstantial evidence, and I I talk to experts who saying, who say, Well, you know those eyewitnesses who saw Terry uh leave the school with Kiren. That's that's pretty strong circumstantial evidences eyewitnesses. M But but to date there's there there been no arrests.

Speaker 7

It's interesting and heartbreaking to see that Desiree every effort she makes to try to find her son, to find justice for her son. But one of the common things that she does is simply just tries to implore Terry to speak. Uh. Just tell us a little bit more about some of the she reaches out in public through the media.

Speaker 6

Yeah, I don't think I don't think there's been one time, uh, you know, once within within a couple of months after Kiren disappeared, Cain and Desiree and Tony were free to stop, to begin to speak. And of course Terry was by then, you know, either hunkered down in the house or then when she had to leave Kane's South, she you know, fled to her parents in southern Oregon, and she would appear in Portland for uh you know, various legal uh meetings,

but she was gone. But they used every opportunity uh to you know, to implore her to speak. And I think I think to this day, including the tant anniversary a couple of weeks ago, that there is no time when Desiree talks about Kyen that she doesn't call on Terry. So, you know, the the good part of how that is it keeps it keeps her focus on Terry. It puts

it keeps the pressure on her. And I also write in the book about you know this amazing community that uh you know, adopted Kyen if you will, after he went missing. And who the the people who run the Facebook pages. You know, they have a half a million people that follow this on on Facebook. The people who live in California where Terry Horman lives now and kind of keep an eye on her. You know, we've been told where she works. Uh, she got married for the

fourth time, you know, about two years ago. You know, sometimes we know what job she has, uh, you know, all kinds of things, when she buys a house, when she changes cars. You know, people and then the beliefs I'm sure are watching her. So you know, some people couldn't stand that kind of constant examination. For some reason, Terry Horman's able to stand up to that and ignore it. Basically,

she you know, ignores it. She does not issue statements at all, not not since I don't think since maybe twenty sixteen, uh when she was on Doctor phil and uh for two hours and basically you know, stuck to her story.

Speaker 7

There is a lot of just like you said, you became obsessed with this case in me imediately after that, and so many people online and you just touched on that. But you do mention some people and provide their websites. Maybe you can tell us a couple of people, including web sluts, that you just offer up as really good sources of people that we're looking into this case and look into all kinds of other unsolved cases.

Speaker 6

Well, I think I think those kinds of citizen bloggers are important. That doesn't mean I think they're going to find anything or solve anything, but as far as keeping the word out there. And on the other hand, you know, there are examples in the book of when you know when it goes too far, or you know when.

Speaker 4

You know.

Speaker 6

I've worked, I've written books about other missing people and families who wanted to know what psychics have to say, and I think people speculating. I'm not sure what that adds or how it helps. Kiren you know how it helps define Kiren. I think I think it's good to keep the interest if it helps keep the interest on Kirn and keeps pressure on Terry. But I don't think speculation. I've never seen it lead to some kind of breakthrough. I have it maybe.

Speaker 7

Other people have right now with this as well. Desiree, inadvertently or as a result of this, becomes an advocate for change and does a lot of public speaking, where she originally was a pretty shy person, and so she has changed and become a real fighter. In this tell us a little bit more about some of the advocacy and some of the outreach that she does, some of the things public speaking that she does.

Speaker 6

I never met the shy as Rae Young because by the time I met her in two thousand seventeen, I I wrote to her uh expressing interest in in writing uh her story in in Kyroen's Story in the The Story of the Search. But according to Tony, her husband, you know, she's she and she describes herself as you know, a very shy, timid person. But she she's really found her voice and I just really uh admire how she's taken her own experience and uh reached out to others

and reached out to help others. She's spoken to uh amber conventions, uh Amber Alert conventions. Of course, an Amber alert wasn't pertinent to Karen because you have to have a car and a license plate and and all of that, and that wasn't the case here. But she speaks to Amberler conventions. She speaks to the training of police departments called kart training, and a training of police departments and sheriff's departments so that they will be prepared in a

missing child case. And there's still a lot of places around the country that wouldn't know what to do, but what Loma County had had this training, so they knew. You know, you keep the family in the house, you designate a police spokesperson. You know, you don't have the family making police right off the bat, and you you know,

you get their cell phones, you get their computers. You you know, just what has to be done very quickly, because remember they lost you know, six hours and some talking heads, because when the police weren't talking to the media, the media would go to talking heads, you know, like retired cops or other people who would somebody said, well,

they really lost twelve hours that day. Now I'm not yeah, I'm not sure how they lost twelve hours, but but you know, they are all kinds of uh people that say things, so cart training is very important and desiree when other uh you know, municipality UMI, municipalities in Oregon

uh are having police training. She'll go and talk and obviously she's speaking as a parent, you know, and she talks about what Monoma County did, write what they did right that she thinks really made a difference, even though they didn't find carent yet. But you know, and course she's the wife of a retired cop and she's she's pro police. But but she also then you know, organizes her own searches and she'll uh, you know, she's candid with the police, and she'll ask them, you know, she

asks them a lot of questions. She stays in touch. Uh but uh, she you know, is out there. And uh.

One thing she did is, uh there's a a group of volunteers who were parents who've been parent her are parents of missing children or at one time missing children, and she did some work with them and then it just you know, it was kind of too soon and too close, and she i think had a little trouble separating herself from you know, y, She's supposed to be anonymous with the parents that she's reaching out to, and that worked for a while and then I and then

it didn't work so well. But she speaks selling National Missing Children Day, uh Children's Day and Oregon's Missing Children's Day and and uh, you know, all of it is

about wanting to bring Kyron home. Yeah, so she did stop speaking to Kyen's father, Kine after several months when she realized that and came to feel when she found out more about h their troubled marriage and Terry drinking and passing out and Terry manipulating Kyn, she realized that she really came to believe that Kyen had been at risk and his father should have known that that boy was at risk, that the the stepmother posed a risk. And so they they don't work opposite each other. They

but they don't do events together anymore. And Kane does his things and uh does Ray does hers.

Speaker 7

When we talk about the science fare that uh Kiren was so pumped about with his tree frog exhibit, and so what did they do from this diorama? And tell us what changes have been made at the Skyline Elementary as a result.

Speaker 6

Mm. Yeah, well, somebody worked with PTA at the school got cameras donated that that summer, so that by the time uh school opened in the fall, there were some cameras. The they began a system of and I I've been to the school. You don't I don't think you get a name card, but you have to check in on a computer that you're visiting the school. So there's some

there's some new you know, some new routine there. And I believe the doors are locked during the day or all but the front door, which wasn't the case, and then uh, there's not you know, there have been some some talk about more security and the school district has said it just doesn't have the the money necessarily. But you know, a real uh, a newer, were old school, a big, you know, a big rural news school would

have more security than this rural rural school. And then some older schools in this in the city in Portland would don't necessarily have up to date security. So it's still something that's something that and that desiree feels strongly about that. If there had been you know, cameras in twenty ten or some kind of system. Maybe he wouldn't have walked out with his stepmother.

Speaker 7

Well that's one person commenting on this case said that approaching this like it's a missing person's case for two longs can be dangerous. Yeah.

Speaker 6

Well, and that maybe they should have very quickly, that that first evening decided much quicker than they did. But this is not The boy did not wander off, you know, he didn't go out and looking for a frog to bring back his exhibit. Cyn was not Kiren was trying timid like his mother. He wouldn't have done that, and that for too many hours, and maybe that's where the

twelve hours comes in. But for the first certainly the first several days, they thought he'd been abducted or wandered away, and then very quickly settled on you know, it was probably a family member.

Speaker 7

Yeah, yeah, I think if they would have had the cameras and it would have approached us a little bit differently than they would have been looking at her more seriously than this incredible search. Later they had the searches near like you mentioned, saw the island where the phone pings. But again, why what did they do this exhaustive search before they found out about where her telephone put her in, where she was in what area. So it's a lot to be learned from this case.

Speaker 6

I think, Yeah, it's just you know, terribly sad. I mean, there wasn't you know, n nobody except t you know, Karen's father thinks that that he's uh, at least least Kane says he still believes Kyroen is alive and somewhere. But uh, I I don't think any of the detectives believe that, and Desiree doesn't and and you know, but but what could you do with a boy in in

two and a half hours. They think maybe she was scouting locations the week before when she was driving her own sports car instead of there as a pick up, and maybe she did some scouting. Uh. Desiree also says that there's some things missing from Kane's house and that when Kyen is found, it'll l help tell them that she was responsible. But you know what, where where is he?

And we're talking about you know, a h We're not talking about you know, Utah I, Nevada, where Susan Coxpowell is missing somewhere where they're just you know, ten thousand abandoned minds. We're talking about you know, uh an area of northwest Portland.

Speaker 7

Yeah, but twenty thou six thousand acres.

Speaker 6

Yeah yeah. What I what I really uh like frankly about the about the book, besides telling their stories, is at the end of the book, I have everybody who's character in the book, you know, all twenty people or whatever, in their own words, say what they think happened, you know, including s Desrae and her husband and their other detective friends and the women that run the Facebook pages and the the PTA president and you know, what what happened

and and who is responsible. And some think she's you know, somewhere in the Martian, that he's somewhere in a Martian Sauve Island something. They that she buried him, and I don't know. I I'll just as an aside, I don't think I've been dreaming about this for the three years I've been working on it, but I had a dream

two nights ago about maybe I'm buried in sand. For the first time, I dreamt, Well, maybe he's in sand and there's a tide or something so it'll never be found because of the sand coming in and out or.

Speaker 7

Interesting, Okay, as good a guess as anyone I think at this point.

Speaker 6

Yeah, but I worked on this book with a picture of Kylin and and Desiree, the two of them, you know, buy my computer for three years just so I could look at them all the time.

Speaker 7

Yeah, well you've really brought this case to life. I mean, bad pun I would imagine, but uh, incredible story and again still an open investigation, and Desiree and others are hoping, hoping that someday there can be more information to find out the entire truth. They believe they know who did it, but they need more answers. I want to thank you very much for a coming.

Speaker 6

I'm sorry, I was just gonna say, please need a confession or a body.

Speaker 7

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well we'll hope for something to happen someday. You, Dan, I want to thank you. I want to thank you very much for coming on and talking about boy missing. It's been fascinating the search for Kiren Horman. Is there a website that people might take a look at? Do you have personal website? Facebook page?

Speaker 4

Sure?

Speaker 6

I do, it's Rebecca Morris TB. I'm sorry, my website is Rebecca T. Morris middle initial T and the book is available on Amazon, Powell's Bruns and Noble ebook and paperback, and the audiobook will be out in July.

Speaker 7

Sounds fantastic. Thank you so much, Rebecca Morris boy Missing search for Kiren Horman. It's been fascinating. Thank you and have a great evening. Good nights.

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