An Oregon sheriff and a prosecutor are seeking an additional $438,643 to help pay for the investigation of a 7-year-old boy missing for more than six weeks.
The Oregonian reported Monday that Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton and District Attorney Michael Schrunk will ask the county board of commissioners this week for the extra money to help find Kyron Horman. Included in the request is $242,609 for the salary of an investigative technician for one year and four months of overtime.
Kyron was last seen at Skyline School in Portland on June 4, when his stepmother took him to a science fair.
More than $412,000 has been spent on the investigation. The sheriff’s office said it has generated more than 3,000 leads filling 38 four-inch binders, leading to the subpoena of 200 sets of records.
The newspaper said a lead investigator, two detectives and an investigative technician are assigned to examine the records generated by the case, including phone, e-mail, computer, financial and school records likely to be among the material subpoenaed.
The sheriff’s office is seeking funds to cover overtime for these four positions for four months. But if the case concludes during that time, the investigative technician’s position would end, officials said.
In October, the sheriff’s office expects to return to the board of commissioners to discuss progress on the case and any additional resources that might be necessary, the request said.
Christian Elkin, the county’s principal budget analyst, said in a memo to county commissioners the money would come from the general fund contingency and “will be used solely for the costs associated with the search for Kyron.”
Any unused balance will be returned to the general fund, the memo said.
The district attorney’s office is seeking $196,034 to support a deputy district attorney and one investigator through the remainder of this fiscal year to help other senior prosecutors and investigators dedicated to the Horman investigation.
Through June 23, the district attorney’s office spent about $62,616, representing 1,212 hours worked by two chief deputy prosecutors, three senior deputy prosecutors, three investigators and an administrative secretary.
“With a dozen staff and well over 1,200 man-hours through July 9th, the office is in it for the long haul,” the district attorney’s office wrote.
It noted, however, that the case was taking “much needed resources away from working other cases that routinely come into the DA’s office. If and when an arrest is made, the (work) continues for the DA office through the trial and penalty phases and will also require resources to coordinate the thousands of documents associated with the case.”
In the past few days, the stepmother, Terri Horman, moved to her parents’ house in Roseburg, while Kyron’s dad, Kaine Horman, and their 20-month-old daughter, Kiara, returned to the family’s Portland-area home.
The father and daughter left the house June 26 after investigators informed him that his wife had tried to a hire a landscaper to kill him six to seven months before Kyron disappeared. Kaine Horman has filed for divorce and obtained a restraining order against Terri Horman, restricting her from parenting time with Kiara.
Terri Horman has not been charged with a crime nor named as a suspect by investigators.
More than 42 agencies have been involved in the search and investigation for Kyron, the sheriff’s office said in its request.
