Detectives investigating the June 4 disappearance of a Portland boy from his school are focusing on the child’s stepmother by distributing a flier Friday showing her picture and asking if anyone saw her at the school that day.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office also wants to hear from anyone who saw Terri Moulton Horman’s pickup near Skyline School. The woman is not a fugitive and last week appeared at a news conference with the boy’s father to appeal for help in finding the 7-year-old.
Kyron Horman disappeared after a morning science fair he attended with Terri Horman, who reportedly raised him since he was an infant. His absence was reported that afternoon when he failed to return home on a school bus and his stepmother contacted the school.
Terri Horman told authorities she last saw Kyron at about 8:45 a.m., when she watched him walk toward his classroom. Another witness, who has not been identified, reported seeing the boy around 9 a.m.
Classes began an hour later and Kyron was not there.
The boy lived with his father and stepmother about 2 miles from the school.
Searchers spent 10 days checking the area near the school and the family’s home before the sheriff’s office scaled back the search effort and reclassified the disappearance as a criminal investigation.
Police have released little information about the criminal investigation, but searchers have been combing Sauvie Island, 10 miles northwest of downtown Portland.
Willamette Week alternative newspaper, citing anonymous police sources, reported that cell phone records show Terri Horman was on the island June 4.
Though she not been labeled a person of interest by police, Terri Horman has been the subject of public scrutiny since the investigation began, mostly because she was among the last to see the boy. Her Facebook activity has also been deemed suspicious by a bevy of armchair detectives wondering why she was “hitting the gym” a few days after her stepson disappeared or why she failed to quickly change her profile picture from her biological daughter to Kyron.
The flier distributed Friday includes two questionnaires — a 10-question form directed at adults and an eight-question survey for children. Adults and children are both asked if they saw Kyron or the stepmother at or near the elementary school, or if they noticed a pickup matching the description of Terri Horman’s white Ford F250 pickup.
The sheriff’s office scheduled a Friday afternoon news conference to discuss the flier.
