Kyron Horman Discussion Thread 2020 - 2022

[FergusMcDuck]

Yes, it's impossible to know what exactly transpired with the gardener and TH in this scenario. If the gardener was an undocumented citizen, perhaps that was leveraged to "encourage" him to assist. I'm sure the poor guy was a nervous wreck, and likely so given the outcome of the failed mission.

I've learned over the years and threads that what appears to be so, can often not be accurate. In this particular case, TH does not show well. Is she guilty of participating in KH's disappearance? I have no way of knowing. I think her friend D-d S could have provided additional information that could have cleared a lot up, but unfortunately she opted to take the fifth. Perhaps she was just following lawyer instructions, but when it comes to a missing child, that silence is so hard to understand. But maybe she had good reason to stay silent; I have no way of knowing.

I still think it would be worthy to revisit anyone who would have been "hiding in plain sight" at the school. Who worked there that now doesn't? Have they had trouble with the law since, or had notable difficulties? Same with those visiting the school that day.
I know that represents a huge study, but now we have the benefit of time to see where life has taken people, especially those who raise an eyebrow. TH's life after K's disappearance has been well documented in the news, but I'd like to see the study extend to others to insure thoroughness, and perhaps identify additional pieces of info that could help advance the case.

All just my amateur opinion and speculation

According to DeDe she did speak to the grand jury, taking the fifth was at Desiree's dubious civil suit.

One thing Terri said that has been kind of dismissed was at the Dr Phil interview, I believe. She said Kyron had acted weird the months before the disappearance, and suspected abuse. The doctor's appointment for Kyron was the 11th, but she notified the school the day before, in writing. If there was someone at or connected to the school that did that potential abuse, they might have become aware of the appointment and the potential reveal. They'd be in a prime position to remove Kyron from the school as soon as Terri left. After all, they were supposed to be there.

It's a theory, There's no real evidence for it, but there's no real evidence for Terri's culpability either and she has the tight timeline in her favor. I certainly agree with your idea, and would hope some fresh eyes look through the old evidence records and go over the people there again.

 

[Laughing]

Is there a more recent age progression for Kyron?

 

[osu]

Is there a more recent age progression for Kyron?

The most recent age progression photo of Kyron was released by the NCMEC on June 4, 2022. Today Kyron would be 19 years old.

New age-progressed Kyron Horman photo 12 years after his disappearance

PORTLAND, Ore. — Twelve years ago, Kyron Horman disappeared from his elementary school in Northwest Portland. Then seven years old, Kyron was last seen at Skyline Elementary on June 4, 2010. The last person to see him alive was his stepmother, Terri Moulton, also known as Terri Horman. She said...

nbc16.com

 

[rosesfromangels]

The most recent age progression photo of Kyron was released by the NCMEC on June 4, 2022. Today Kyron would be 19 years old.

New age-progressed Kyron Horman photo 12 years after his disappearance

PORTLAND, Ore. — Twelve years ago, Kyron Horman disappeared from his elementary school in Northwest Portland. Then seven years old, Kyron was last seen at Skyline Elementary on June 4, 2010. The last person to see him alive was his stepmother, Terri Moulton, also known as Terri Horman. She said...

nbc16.com

Thank you for posting this. Whoever is responsible for his disappearance has evaded justice long enough. It's time to revisit this case with fresh determination. This poor child.

Amateur opinion and speculation

 

[gitana1]

You're kind of arguing two different things here. One is that parents will do anything for their kids. The other is that parents will do anything to keep custody of their kids. The two are not the same. Giving your child up to give her a normal semblance of a life while you're being left in legal limbo by the police and constantly harassed by family and strangers alike is doing anything for your kid. Can you give your child a good life while yours is in shambles?

It's weird, people keep arguing that she's selfish, but all I see is that she's castigated for not being selfish enough. She's putting her child's wants and needs over her own.

See, I don't believe that they have any extra evidence (since the grand jury, famously trigger-happy, failed to indict), but that's not why I believe Terri is innocent. I believe she is innocent because of the evidence that has been released. The timeline doesn't have any room for a murder, and so far Terri (despite the early comments from Desiree that she couldn't account for her day properly) has been proven correct in everything she stated. None of the scenarios posited for the supposed murder/abduction of Kyron by Terri make sense with regards to the evidence.

If every LE organization involved in this agree that Terri is the main suspect (and I doubt they do), well, I think that has proven fruitless and someone should try looking at some different angles. They've achieved a grand total of nothing over twelve years - what do they have to lose?

No. I don’t argue that she gave up her child because she’s selfish. I argue she gave up her child because she could not keep custody and refrain from incriminating herself. So juxtaposed against people who do anything for their kids, and/or juxtaposed against people who selfishly fight for custody despite it not being in their child’s best interest, her behavior is telling.

But what you are missing is that she did not have to totally abandon her child in order to ensure her child had a normal life. She could have and IMO would have fought for supervised visits, phone calls, any sort of contact, to make sure her child didn’t feel abandoned and discarded, if she didn’t fear self-incrimination. Again, as a family law attorney with two decades of experience, her behavior is beyond abnormal and inexplicable under any circumstance that applies to her. It convinces me she did something to Kyron.

As to the failure to indict, I have explained that without forensics, it would be super hard. That does not mean they don’t have a mountain of evidence. Anyone who thinks they don’t have a mountain of evidence we do not know about, has not been on Websleuths for long. But again, without biological forensics there is apparently not enough to indict- the absence of evidence does not equal innocence.

Finally, the timeline was not tight. She had plenty of time to murder Kyron and dispose of his body along the meandering, forested roads she was driving on. All she had to do was park the car, say, “Kyron, come with me. I want to show you something.”, walk him a few yards from the road into the underbrush, “Look over there!” Shoot him or club him in the back of the head, drag his body to an embankment and roll it off a hill. Or just cover it with leaves. The environment there would do the rest.
Run back to the truck, hop in, and continue on her way to more errands, making sure everyone saw her and remembered she was there with her baby and Kyron was at school that day. (Showing people his picture and chatting him up in the market, despite never having done so or talked that much to them in the past).

He’s a needle in a haystack.

She’s luckier than many criminals. And possibly a bit smarter too. But that doesn’t mean she’s innocent. The guilty walking among us.

 

[gitana1]

Thank you for posting this. Whoever is responsible for his disappearance has evaded justice long enough. It's time to revisit this case with fresh determination. This poor child.

Amateur opinion and speculation

They have revisited this case with fresh determination over and over again. IMO this is only solved by Kyron’s body being found. It’s similar to the Sky Metalwala case in that the child disappeared without a trace in an area with tons of dense forest and waterways. Without a body, I don’t see charges being brought. Neither of these women will ever confess.

But I can see TH committing other crimes and being arrested for something else. Someone who can kill their stepchild out of revenge or retribution doesn’t always stop committing crimes.

 

[gitana1]

It is indeed in the details, and that's why I believe she's innocent. She proved her timeline with evidence, receipts, cctv footage and witness testimonies.

The idea that police can't make mistakes, get tunnel vision and focus on the wrong person to the detriment of the case is a popular one, but also one with tons of experience against it. Brittanee Drexel, Jacob Wetterling, Meredith Kercher, Madeline McCann, the list goes on. Innocence has never been a defense against this. I suspect Terri was disabused of it quickly. She sat with them, answered their questions repeatedly and gave them the evidence, and they still didn't believe her (and if it turns out that they cite the polygraph as a reason for not believing her, I'll just despair. Honestly wish we could just dismantle those idiotic toys altogether). Again, what can she do? Tell them the truth a tenth time and hope that's the charm?

The police may say they have a standing invitation to her, but they haven't actually contacted her about it, so they must not want it that bad.

Police can make mistakes. But again, MULTIPLE agencies, including the FBI, and multiple, different, fresh lead investigators have looked hard at this case. TH remains the focus.

There’s a reason for that.

 

[FergusMcDuck]

No. I don’t argue that she gave up her child because she’s selfish. I argue she gave up her child because she could not keep custody and refrain from incriminating herself. So juxtaposed against people who do anything for their kids, and/or juxtaposed against people who selfishly fight for custody despite it not being in their child’s best interest, her behavior is telling.

I mean, being afraid of incrimination does not mean you're guilty. Amanda Knox openly helped the investigation of Meredith Kercher without a thought of getting a lawyer, while the police tapped her phone and read her emails. Her words were then twisted into incriminating evidence used to charge her with murder. She ended up spending four years in prison for a crime she didn't commit. Stephen Houze certainly would have known all this, and Kaine was open about connecting custody and divorce proceedings with getting incriminating evidence out of Terri.

But what you are missing is that she did not have to totally abandon her child in order to ensure her child had a normal life. She could have and IMO would have fought for supervised visits, phone calls, any sort of contact, to make sure her child didn’t feel abandoned and discarded, if she didn’t fear self-incrimination. Again, as a family law attorney with two decades of experience, her behavior is beyond abnormal and inexplicable under any circumstance that applies to her. It convinces me she did something to Kyron.

I don't put much stock in behavioral analysis, and I don't think LE should either. Situations and people vary wildly. But I am curious, in your career have you encountered an innocent woman in a custody battle over one child, that was accused both by family and police for being a suspect in the murder and/or abduction of another of her children?

As to the failure to indict, I have explained that without forensics, it would be super hard. That does not mean they don’t have a mountain of evidence. Anyone who thinks they don’t have a mountain of evidence we do not know about, has not been on Websleuths for long. But again, without biological forensics there is apparently not enough to indict- the absence of evidence does not equal innocence.

If they had a mountain of evidence they would indict. But I suspect that the evidence they have is thin and contradictory. We had two witnesses early in the case that said they saw Kyron at the school after Terri had left. Were those testimonies retracted, or just dismissed?

I do think they have a mountain of evidence, I just don't think it's a mountain of evidence against Terri.

Finally, the timeline was not tight. She had plenty of time to murder Kyron and dispose of his body along the meandering, forested roads she was driving on. All she had to do was park the car, say, “Kyron, come with me. I want to show you something.”, walk him a few yards from the road into the underbrush, “Look over there!” Shoot him or club him in the back of the head, drag his body to an embankment and roll it off a hill. Or just cover it with leaves. The environment there would do the rest.
Run back to the truck, hop in, and continue on her way to more errands, making sure everyone saw her and remembered she was there with her baby and Kyron was at school that day. (Showing people his picture and chatting him up in the market, despite never having done so or talked that much to them in the past).

She left the school at 8:45. To make it to the first Fred Meyer, where she was done at 9:12, she would have to drive straight down Highway 127, not exactly a low-traffic, meandering rural road. It is also surrounded mostly by open fields, with residenses never more than a few hundred meters away. There simply isn't a time or place for her to do the deed before her 9-10 am errands unless she can teleport.

And if she did if after, that means she kept Kyron in the truck at three public places, store parking lots with a constant flow of people, alone while she and the baby went inside for shopping and chatting.

He’s a needle in a haystack.

Well, that is one thing we can agree on, 100%.

 

[FergusMcDuck]

Police can make mistakes. But again, MULTIPLE agencies, including the FBI, and multiple, different, fresh lead investigators have looked hard at this case. TH remains the focus.

There’s a reason for that.

It's funny, I just finished the Rebecca Morris book about Kyron (verdict: not a very good book), and in it Desiree says that the MCSO and the FBI disagreed on the case. The FBI's profile of the abductor was apparently a solitary stranger, a man aged 35-45.

As far as I know, the MCSO have always been in charge of the case, and while they switch out leads (sometimes even rotate them), it's still within the same agency.

 

[Truth Prevails]

Finally, the timeline was not tight. She had plenty of time to murder Kyron and dispose of his body along the meandering, forested roads she was driving on. All she had to do was park the car, say, “Kyron, come with me. I want to show you something.”, walk him a few yards from the road into the underbrush, “Look over there!” Shoot him or club him in the back of the head, drag his body to an embankment and roll it off a hill. Or just cover it with leaves. The environment there would do the rest.
Run back to the truck, hop in, and continue on her way to more errands, making sure everyone saw her and remembered she was there with her baby and Kyron was at school that day. (Showing people his picture and chatting him up in the market, despite never having done so or talked that much to them in the past).

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely--her timeline is not tight. Anything but, actually. And that's been a big problem for her. She has never been able to clear it up satisfactorily, and it was not from lack of trying.

As a quick refresher, law enforcement said while at the Walker Road Fred Meyer, she parked the F250 so far back in the parking lot and at just the right angle that they could only see her in the driver's side and the baby in her car seat. Kyron's booster seat could not be seen nor the passenger seat. So it doesn't seem that law enforcement knows for a certainty who was in the vehicle at that time. (Around 10:10 AM on June 4th).

Beginning then, there are 90 missing minutes, at least. Desiree thinks there is more. However, if we go by what was reported in the media, she left the 2nd Fred Meyer (Walker Road) at approximately 10:10 AM. She arrived at the gym at 11:39 AM. Unfortunately, the media used her as their "source" at least for the gym arrival time.

That was her next "certifiable" appearance. At the gym at 11:39 AM.

Now, as with most of her talking points, she has given several different explanations as to her whereabouts during these 90 missing minutes. I think she even changed the baby's "earache" to baby's "diarrhea". Both Kaine and Desiree say the baby wasn't sick, but she counters that by saying they were both so indifferent that they wouldn't know. Blah, blah, blah--that's how her spin works. (My opinion only, of course).

Getting back to her actual physical location during those 90 missing minutes--in no particular order, she has said she was driving the baby around:
→For a few minutes (This was early on before the missing 90 minutes was pinned down).
→Down HWY 30 (This is interesting because of the location of the possible 10:39 AM ping. Possibly just passed the Sauvie Island Bridge, on the land side across from the Sauvie Island Boat Ramp).
→On back roads of NW Multnomah Co for approximately 90 minutes (NW Springville Road and close vicinity may have been mentioned. About 6 miles from the possible ping locations with lots of cell towers in between).
→Stopping for approximately 30 of 90 minutes to change a diarrhea diaper (This was a story she told years later to justify some of the missing time).

Working through the media, law enforcement put forth a big effort asking the public to turn in any private surveillance video they had for a huge number of locations. (It covered all the places she said she could have been and then some).

Nothing helped--the 90 minutes remain unaccounted for until this day.

Now, here is a woman who can account for every second until 10:10 AM. Seriously, she has receipts, she had herself captured on video, even flagging down a woman she hardly knew to show her Kyron's photo. The effort she put into making her alibi "ironclad" is overkill to the point of ridiculous.

Then for the next 90 minutes, she can seemingly only offer the flimsy excuse of driving a "sick" baby around on roads she can't identify. (She probably didn't dare offer a street or road name because she knew LE was busy reviewing surveillance videos hoping to confirm her whereabouts).

Alas, at 11:39 AM she enters her regular gym with baby in tow. She places the baby in daycare--works out or doesn't work out--but makes her visit memorable to the staff and even conjures an alibi for a fresh gash in her leg. She leaves at 12:40 PM according to her own statements and is home at 1:21 PM uploading photos she took earlier that day.

And there we have her back to the "ironclad" stuff. Maybe she thought no one would notice if she tucked the missing 90 minutes in the middle? It seems to work for some people.

Explaining those 90 minutes to law enforcement is huge, and she can't do it.

BTW--I appreciate your comments much more so than the "Like" button can convey. Thank you so much for your time and effort.

 

[FergusMcDuck]

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely--her timeline is not tight. Anything but, actually. And that's been a big problem for her. She has never been able to clear it up satisfactorily, and it was not from lack of trying.

As a quick refresher, law enforcement said while at the Walker Road Fred Meyer, she parked the F250 so far back in the parking lot and at just the right angle that they could only see her in the driver's side and the baby in her car seat. Kyron's booster seat could not be seen nor the passenger seat. So it doesn't seem that law enforcement knows for a certainty who was in the vehicle at that time. (Around 10:10 AM on June 4th).

How would she know the exact angles the CCTV would show? She parked in the lots of two large stores, in bright daylight, and supposedly left Kyron sitting in the car while going inside, twice. Four times if we count the dry cleaners and the craft store. What's the point of establishing an alibi if your victim is sitting in your car right outside, for the world to see?

Beginning then, there are 90 missing minutes, at least. Desiree thinks there is more. However, if we go by what was reported in the media, she left the 2nd Fred Meyer (Walker Road) at approximately 10:10 AM. She arrived at the gym at 11:39 AM. Unfortunately, the media used her as their "source" at least for the gym arrival time.

Desiree is wrong. Terri's claimed time was ca 11:20, the time provided by the gym was 11:39, which is a trivial difference. For some reason, Desiree seems to think the arrival time was 12:20, but she seems to be confused.

That was her next "certifiable" appearance. At the gym at 11:39 AM.

Now, as with most of her talking points, she has given several different explanations as to her whereabouts during these 90 missing minutes. I think she even changed the baby's "earache" to baby's "diarrhea". Both Kaine and Desiree say the baby wasn't sick, but she counters that by saying they were both so indifferent that they wouldn't know. Blah, blah, blah--that's how her spin works. (My opinion only, of course).

I haven't heard the diarrhea bit. The earache has been the constant one I've read.

Nothing helped--the 90 minutes remain unaccounted for until this day.

Now, here is a woman who can account for every second until 10:10 AM. Seriously, she has receipts, she had herself captured on video, even flagging down a woman she hardly knew to show her Kyron's photo. The effort she put into making her alibi "ironclad" is overkill to the point of ridiculous.

Then for the next 90 minutes, she can seemingly only offer the flimsy excuse of driving a "sick" baby around on roads she can't identify. (She probably didn't dare offer a street or road name because she knew LE was busy reviewing surveillance videos hoping to confirm her whereabouts).

So you're saying that in the hour she spent going to two large stores in a densely populated area, with plenty of CCTV cameras, with electronic confirmation of her purchases, she can confirm her timeline. But when she's driving up to the rural roads to soothe her child, sparsely populated roads with few to no CCTV cameras, she can't.

Well, yeah. That's true. But how is it suspicious? You could literally do this with any given person at any given day. She gave her timeline. Her account of the 90 minutes haven't been confirmed (and likely can't be confirmed), but they have also never been contradicted.

Alas, at 11:39 AM she enters her regular gym with baby in tow. She places the baby in daycare--works out or doesn't work out--but makes her visit memorable to the staff and even conjures an alibi for a fresh gash in her leg. She leaves at 12:40 PM according to her own statements and is home at 1:21 PM uploading photos she took earlier that day.

And there we have her back to the "ironclad" stuff. Maybe she thought no one would notice if she tucked the missing 90 minutes in the middle? It seems to work for some people.

I mean, it pretty much makes any proposed scenario where she takes and murders Kyron ridiculous. If the 90 minutes preceded her very public errand runs it might make sense, but they didn't.

 

[Alleykins]

I always park in/near the far reaches of a parking lot when shopping. As far away as I can from congested areas without having to walk a mile, even when my son was baby K's age and he was with me. It's easier to get in and out of the space, less chance for door dings, and overall less of a headache than squeezing in between cars. Especially if you have to back out of a space. So I don't find parking well away from the door and other cars suspicious at all myself.

 

[sketchyjen33]

Just heard this statistic.....Stranger involved abductions only make up 1% of Abductions according to NCMEC. Keep that in mind on this case.

The Truth About Child Abduction Statistics in 2022

Non-family Abductions & Attempts

A nonfamily abduction occurs when a child is taken by someone known, but not related, to the child, such as a neighbor or an online acquaintance, or by someone unknown to the child. Nonfamily abductions are the rarest type of case and make up only 1% of the missing children cases reported to NCMEC.

www.missingkids.org

 

[sketchyjen33]

Wait, so earlier you said she took him to school to make people think he was there, now she fabricated an appointment so they'd think he wasn't? What was the point of bringing Kyron to school and making sure he was seen, then? If she gave them a fake appointment they'll just tell the police Kyron was taken to the doctor by his step-mom - pointing the finger directly at her.

The point of the "misunderstanding" about the appointment was to draw attention away from him being absent from class. Of course the teacher would have immediately noticed he was missing after the fair and began making phone calls/getting principals and others involved. By saying that he had an appointment, she was able to make it seem that he was out of class for a reason. The teacher understood him to have an appointment that day. His backpack and coat were still in the classroom. But at some point....after lunch maybe, she should have started emailing TH to see if he was coming back (since she was so involved in his class, I assume they had a good relationship and communicated well.

 

[SuziQ]

If you’re hoping for something like DNA evidence, there won’t be any. Maybe Terri is completely innocent, but she acts the way a guilty person would.

I think this case is another instance where the simplest explanation is the correct one. Statistically, Terri (a step-parent) is the most likely to be the perpetrator.

Terri didn’t want Kyron. She told Desiree to come get him at one point but Desiree was stopped by Kaine. Kyron lived with Kaine because Kaine and the dad of Desiree’s other son banded together to figure out how they could avoid paying child support to Desiree. It’s a long story so I’m not going to write it out.

Terri was the last one to see him.
She took the photo of him with his science project. Innocent? Maybe. But also something she would do if she was guilty, because it ensured there was solid proof he had been in school. She took him around to see his kindergarten teacher. Another witness that he was at school that day before the morning bell rang.

She didn’t see him go inside his classroom (because he didn’t), but she “has a vision of his head near the door”. This is a bizarre statement. Why not “I dropped him off and saw him walk down the hall to his classroom”? Because it didn’t happen. Who else could’ve grabbed Kyron before he went inside his classroom? He was timid and had poor eyesight *even with his glasses* (this makes me enraged as a parent; the glasses should’ve given him 20/20 vision. That’s what they’re for). And if I understand correctly, his classroom was on the second floor, not the ground floor.

He wasn’t lured away. He went with someone he knew. And someone he knew was right there, and had told teachers he would miss school on Friday because he had a Dr appointment.

Terri went to two drug stores to find whatever it was she was shopping for. It could be innocent, but it’s also exactly what a guilty person would do to establish an alibi. Whatever she bought was never found by police.

Terri drove around for 90 minutes to “soothe her daughter’s ear ache”. First of all, if it’s an ear infection, driving around won’t make that pain go away. If she’s going to drive around for an hour and a half, she should’ve been driving to an urgent care for abx. Kaine worked as an engineer at Intel so it’s basically impossible they didn’t have insurance. In other words, there was no reason not to get an ear infection treated immediately. If she gave her cold medicine, it takes a NSAID 20 minutes to start reducing pain. A better place for baby K to rest would be in bed, not a car seat.

Then, with a sick baby, she goes to the gym. The clerk or whatever at the gym said Terri didn’t exercise while she was there. This is bizarre. She was a gym rat (pro body builder at some point). But she spent the time chatting to a woman. Could be innocent. But it’s out of character and also what a guilty person would do: make sure she was seen there and would be remembered. And she was remembered: the woman she spoke to remembered she had asked Terri about a fresh gash on Terri’s leg. Terri said she dropped a weight on it.

Terri came home and posted the science picture on FB, and emailed Desiree that there was a new picture on FB. Desiree was at work and didn’t see either.

That evening, while the police were setting up a base at the school and getting search set up, Terri washed Kyron’s jacket and backpack. In fact, it turned out that by the time the canine unit got there there was *nothing* with Kyron’s scent on it that they could use.

But no, there’s no DNA evidence. There wouldn’t be unless the murder was bloody, and I don’t think it was. I think she brought Kyron out of school after she made sure he was seen and gave him Benadryl and drove around until he was very drowsy and then put him in a body of water. She even told a friend once that’s where she would hide a body.

JMO

Welcome to WS. Great first post!

 

[ReadySet]

How would she know the exact angles the CCTV would show? She parked in the lots of two large stores, in bright daylight, and supposedly left Kyron sitting in the car while going inside, twice. Four times if we count the dry cleaners and the craft store. What's the point of establishing an alibi if your victim is sitting in your car right outside, for the world to see?

Desiree is wrong. Terri's claimed time was ca 11:20, the time provided by the gym was 11:39, which is a trivial difference. For some reason, Desiree seems to think the arrival time was 12:20, but she seems to be confused.

I haven't heard the diarrhea bit. The earache has been the constant one I've read.

So you're saying that in the hour she spent going to two large stores in a densely populated area, with plenty of CCTV cameras, with electronic confirmation of her purchases, she can confirm her timeline. But when she's driving up to the rural roads to soothe her child, sparsely populated roads with few to no CCTV cameras, she can't.

Well, yeah. That's true. But how is it suspicious? You could literally do this with any given person at any given day. She gave her timeline. Her account of the 90 minutes haven't been confirmed (and likely can't be confirmed), but they have also never been contradicted.

I mean, it pretty much makes any proposed scenario where she takes and murders Kyron ridiculous. If the 90 minutes preceded her very public errand runs it might make sense, but they didn't.

Do you believe Kyron was taken from the school by someone he knew, or a stranger?

 

[FergusMcDuck]

The point of the "misunderstanding" about the appointment was to draw attention away from him being absent from class. Of course the teacher would have immediately noticed he was missing after the fair and began making phone calls/getting principals and others involved. By saying that he had an appointment, she was able to make it seem that he was out of class for a reason. The teacher understood him to have an appointment that day. His backpack and coat were still in the classroom. But at some point....after lunch maybe, she should have started emailing TH to see if he was coming back (since she was so involved in his class, I assume they had a good relationship and communicated well.

But that's the thing. If she said he had an appointment to draw attention away from his absence, she also nullified the whole idea of bringing him to school in the first place. Even if she deliberately said the wrong date that morning (and there are no testimonies or evidence that she did), she's still pointing a finger towards herself, the opposite of what she needed to do. Also, she had informed the school about the June 11th appointment the day before. The school had that info; if anything, giving the wrong date on the 4th would only increase the potential of being caught.

Now, if you look at what has actually been said about that morning, another scenario is far more likely, regardless of who you think took Kyron. Somewhere aroung 10:00 am, Kyron's teacher notices that Kyron is absent, and not just in the bathroom or something. At this point she should have called or notified someone, but she recalls seeing a Friday appointment involving Kyron. Rather than being thorough and checking, she just puts down the memory of the appointment as the reason for his absence. Lazy, sloppy, against procedure, but probably not that rare. Of course, most of those times, the child does not turn out to have been abducted from the school.

As I've said before, Skyline School really made it out of this by the skin of their teeth. They opened up the school to the public without proper security, they let a child vanish from right under their noses, they failed to note his absence until 10:00, and then were remiss in notifying his parents, instead putting down a half-remembered and wrong reason, thereby delaying the search by seven precious hours. If Terri hadn't become the suspect, they would have been (deservedly) raked across the coals, now they managed to come out as poor victims of the mastermind Terri.

 

[FergusMcDuck]

Do you believe Kyron was taken from the school by someone he knew, or a stranger?

I generally waver between two scenarios, not having enough evidence to lean more towards one or the other.

1. Someone connected to the school, an employee or volunteer, was abusing Kyron. When they found out about the appointment, they waited until Terri left and then lured Kyron out of the building.

2. A stranger found out about the public fair and snuck into the building looking for a timid child to take.

Either way I suspect the abduction happened in the same way. The person asked for Kyron's help in getting something from their truck, leading Kyron outside, getting him inside their vehicle (possibly a truck similar to Kaine's) and driving off. In scenario 1, they returned later after neutralizing Kyron (by either death or imprisonment). In scenario 2, they could have literally gone anywhere and never come back.

 

[rosesfromangels]

I generally waver between two scenarios, not having enough evidence to lean more towards one or the other.

1. Someone connected to the school, an employee or volunteer, was abusing Kyron. When they found out about the appointment, they waited until Terri left and then lured Kyron out of the building.

2. A stranger found out about the public fair and snuck into the building looking for a timid child to take.

Either way I suspect the abduction happened in the same way. The person asked for Kyron's help in getting something from their truck, leading Kyron outside, getting him inside their vehicle (possibly a truck similar to Kaine's) and driving off. In scenario 1, they returned later after neutralizing Kyron (by either death or imprisonment). In scenario 2, they could have literally gone anywhere and never come back.

Statistically, a stranger abduction is a 1% ish probability. Not impossible, but unlikely.
Child predators do seek occupations that give them easy access to kids, so I’m not taking that off the table.

In your thorough analysis it would seem you have completely eliminated the step mom. Why? No one is off the suspect list for me.

Amateur opinion and speculation

 

[FergusMcDuck]

Statistically, a stranger abduction is a 1% ish probability. Not impossible, but unlikely.

Yet it happened with Jacob Wetterling, and with Michaela Garecht. All statistics can do is (at best) establish a hierarchy of investigation. Start with the most probable, if the evidence isn't there move on. There's still 40-200 children a year (according to statistics) that are abducted by strangers.

Child predators do seek occupations that give them easy access to kids, so I’m not taking that off the table.

In your thorough analysis it would seem you have completely eliminated the step mom. Why? No one is off the suspect list for me.

By virtue of her having been looked at the most by LE and thus having the most info about her in the public domain there is enough for me to mostly dismiss her as a suspect due to the tight timeline, complete lack of evidence and credible witnesses and the improbable and unlikely scenario that were required for her act. There may be things that counter my two scenarios above as well, but for now they have no evidence against their culpability, unlike Terri.