Disappearance of Kyron Horman

Kyron Richard Horman, a seven-year-old student, disappeared on June 4, 2010, after attending a science fair at Skyline Elementary School in Portland, Oregon. His stepmother, who had stayed with him at the event, told investigators she left the school at about 8:45 a.m. and last saw him walking toward his classroom. When Kyron did not arrive home on the school bus at 3:30 p.m., she learned from the school that his teacher had marked him absent, and she reported him missing to police at 3:45 p.m.; searchers reached the school and the family's home by 4:33 p.m. She said that morning she ran errands at two grocery stores until about 10:10 a.m., drove her daughter around to soothe an earache until 11:39 a.m., exercised at a gym until about 12:40 p.m., then returned home and, around 1:21 p.m., posted photographs of Kyron at the science fair online.

Kyron was born September 9, 2002, in Portland. His parents separated before his birth and initially shared custody; after his mother's kidney failure in 2004 required extensive treatment, his father took over full custody while she remained involved in his life. His father remarried in 2007, and the couple had a daughter in December 2008. At the time he disappeared, Kyron attended Skyline Elementary School near Forest Park.

Searchers focused on a two-mile radius around the school and on Sauvie Island six miles away, including its bridge, though officials did not explain why. On June 9, the family publicly asked residents to search properties, vehicles, and outbuildings. By June 12, about 300 trained rescuers were searching nearby woods; over ten days the effort drew more than 1,300 searchers from Oregon, Washington, and California, becoming the largest search in Oregon history. A reward for information rose from $25,000 to $50,000 by late July 2010.

During the search, investigators were told the stepmother had offered the family's landscaper money to kill her husband; he later testified she approached him in January 2010, which she denied under oath. Investigators had him wear a recording device to confront her but obtained no usable evidence, and no arrest followed. On June 28, 2010, Kyron's father filed for divorce and obtained a restraining order against her; she later failed two polygraph examinations about the case. In August 2010, authorities said they sought an unidentified person two witnesses reported seeing inside her truck outside the school that day. That July, a grand jury subpoenaed several of her friends; one was reportedly unaccounted for part of the morning while gardening nearby, though she maintained she never left the property. By late November 2010, the search had cost an estimated $1.4 million and drawn 4,257 tips, and a December report said the grand jury had not yet produced evidence for an indictment. In May 2017, a Portland station reported a secret grand jury was still hearing evidence and the case remained active; further searches along Skyline Boulevard that July found nothing new.

In June 2012, Kyron's mother filed a $10 million civil lawsuit against the stepmother, alleging she was responsible for Kyron's disappearance and had kidnapped him; a federal judge denied a motion to delay the case that August. In July 2013, Kyron's mother dropped the lawsuit so as not to interfere with the ongoing police investigation.

In a 2016 televised interview, the stepmother denied any involvement in Kyron's disappearance, said she believed he had been abducted, and described a man reportedly seen pacing near a convenience store off Highway 30. A nonfiction book about the case was published in 2020. Kyron has never been found.