PORTLAND — One of the saddest cases in recent Oregon history is explored once more in “Real Life Nightmare,” a true crime series on HLN that on Sunday will feature a look at the disappearance of Kyron Horman.
The episode, called “Vanished From School,” again tells the disturbing story of the June 4, 2010 disappearance of Kyron, who was 7 years old at the time. The news that Kyron never made it home from Northwest Portland’s Skyline School prompted a widespread outcry, and one of the largest search-and-rescue operations in state history.
More than 10 years later, the case remains unsolved. Law enforcement authorities have named no suspects or persons of interest in the disappearance.
Despite TV shows that revisit Kyron’s disappearance, such as an Investigation Discovery documentary, “Little Boy Lost: An ID Mystery,” that premiered in May, it seems as if the alarming details remain stuck in place.
Like the Investigation Discovery show, “Vanished From School” goes into what happened on June 4, 2010. Kyron’s stepmother, Terri Moulton Horman, took Kyron to school, where the day began with a science fair. She said she saw Kyron walking to class at about 8:45 a.m., and she has been called the last adult person believed to have seen Kyron.
Later that day, Kyron’s stepmother and her then-husband, Kaine Horman, Kyron’s father, arrived to meet the school bus to pick up Kyron. But the child wasn’t on the bus.
“Vanished From School” features interviews with, among others, Kaine Horman, and his first wife, Kyron’s mother, Desiree Young. Both recall how they first learned of Kyron’s disappearance. Young is often in tears as she talks about what it feels like to know her son is gone, but still have no information about whether her son is alive or dead, or know who was responsible for his disappearance.
As with much of the coverage of the case, “Vanished From School” spends considerable time exploring Kyron’s stepmother, Moulton Horman, and suspicions that she may have been involved in Kyron’s disappearance.
On June 28, 2010, Kaine Horman filed for divorce and a restraining order against his then-wife after, as The Oregonian/OregonLive reported, “authorities told him that a landscaper had said Terri Horman approached him in late 2009 and offered to pay him to kill her husband.”
Despite the attention that focused on Moulton Horman, she has denied having any involvement in Kyron’s disappearance. Authorities didn’t charge her on the murder-for-hire allegation. She has not been named a suspect of person of interest in Kyron’s disappearance.
As with the case involving Northwest skyjacker D.B. Cooper (the subject of another new documentary this week), the disappearance of Kyron Horman is a mystery that may never be solved. But “Vanished From School” makes it again painfully clear that for those who loved him, the loss of Kyron isn’t just a media story, but a personal tragedy.
It feels, Desiree Young, Kyron’s mother, says, like having “a hole in your soul.”
The “Vanished From School” episodes airs on “Real Life Nightmare” at 10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15 on the HLN channel.
