Biological parents of missing Ore. boy urge stepmother to ‘cooperate fully’ with investigation

Parents urge Ore. stepmother to ‘cooperate fully’

PORTLAND, Ore. — The biological parents of a missing Oregon boy pleaded Thursday for his stepmother to cooperate with investigators.

“We implore Terri Horman to fully cooperate with the investigators to bring Kyron home,” Desiree Young said in a joint statement with the boy’s father, Kaine Horman.

Terri Moulton Horman is the last person known to have seen 7-year-old Kyron Horman before he vanished on June 4. Investigators have not named her as a suspect or a person of interest in Kyron’s disappearance.

The statement from Kyron’s mother and father also said they’re hopeful that 7-year-old Kyron Horman is still alive.

“Keep his face out there, keep looking for him,” Young said. “We’re optimistic Kyron will be found, and we can’t comment beyond that.”

She added that Kyron is allergic to bees and has a red birthmark on his forehead.

It was the family’s first public statement asking Terri Horman to cooperate following a string of incidents that have appeared to isolate her from the family. Kaine Horman filed for divorce on Monday, citing “irreconcilable differences,” and a judge granted his request barring Terri Horman from contact with her children and access to firearms.

Terri Horman and her estranged husband also have a 19-month-old daughter, and she has a teenage son from a previous marriage.

Court documents showed Kaine Horman moved out of the family home last week. Terri Horman has retained Stephen Houze, a prominent Portland defense attorney.

Kyron disappeared after a science fair at Skyline Elementary School, which did not have an automatic notification system at the time. Terri Horman, who has raised Kyron since he was an infant, contacted the school when the boy didn’t come home on his school bus on June 4. The sheriff’s office declared the case a criminal investigation on June 14.

Search teams spent 10 days combing the hills and ravines near the school in one of the largest search operations in state history. The sheriff’s office issued a flier to everyone who was in Skyline Elementary on June 4 that included two questionnaires — one directed at adults and another for children. Both asked if anyone saw Kyron or the stepmother at or near the elementary school, or if they witnessed a pickup matching the description of the family’s white Ford F250 pickup.

The stepmother last appeared publicly at a news conference in early June with the boy’s father, appealing for help in finding Kyron.