Thread: missing 7 yr old boy in Oregon

FBI joins search for boy who vanished from school
By ANNE M. PETERSON Associated Press Writer

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The FBI has joined the search for a 7-year-old boy who vanished after his stepmother left him at his Northwest Portland elementary school on Friday morning.


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Story Published: Jun 6, 2010 at 3:20 PM PDT
Story Updated: Jun 7, 2010 at 7:06 AM PDT
This photo, taken the morning of Kyron Horman's disappearance, shows Kyron in the shirt he was wearing at the time he went missing. His science fair project is in the background. (Photo courtesy of KATU-TV, Portland. Ore.)
Comments (49)PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Detectives hunting for clues in the disappearance of a 7-year-old Oregon boy interviewed some 200 of his classmates and their parents Sunday as the FBI joined an expanding search.

Kyron Horman vanished sometime after after his stepmother left him at his Portland elementary school on Friday morning.

The boy and his stepmother, Terri Moulton Horman, attended a science fair at the school early Friday, and she last saw him walking down a hallway toward his 2nd grade classroom at about 8:45 a.m. He was wearing a "CSI" T-shirt and dark cargo pants.

Police said Kyron did not return home on the bus as scheduled. The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office was contacted at about 4 p.m., and authorities have been searching the school and the surrounding area since then.

Sheriff Dan Staton said late Sunday night that he was "not prepared" to call the boy's disappearance a kidnapping and there were no suspects at this time.

But he said Kyron was a "missing endangered child" because more than two days had elapsed since he disappeared and because search efforts were hampered by rainy weather.

"We have developed a lot of information which has to be processed thoroughly, and I am not in a position to divulge any specifics of our investigative plan at this time," Staton said in a statement.

Investigators have been working to determine a detailed timeline of the boy's movements on Friday morning, Staton said.

Investigators asked Kyron's fellow students and their parents to come to the school Sunday and said they spoke with some 200 of them in an effort to glean clues into his disappearance. Relatives also distributed flyers with the boy's picture.

Authorities were reviewing photos and videos taken at the school's science fair. The last photo of Kyron shows the boy smiling Friday in front of his project on the red-eyed tree frog.

Asked if there were any persons of interest, Staton replied: "In this type of situation I think everyone is of interest to us."

The FBI has dispatched its Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team, as well as its Behavioral Analysis Unit, which is often dispatched when a young child disappears. Its presence doesn't mean law enforcement has determined the child has been abducted, FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said in an e-mail.

The boy's parents were not ready to speak, Lt. Mary Lindstrand said Sunday.

Multnomah County sheriff's deputies, the county's search and rescue team, the Oregon State Patrol and police officers from Portland, Gresham and Fairview were taking part in the search, which focused on the area surrounding the school and the two miles to Kyron's house.

Superintendent of Portland Public Schools Carole Smith would not comment on the details of the district's policy for reporting school absences. Details about whether Kyron was reported as absent were not known.

"The reported disappearance of a child from one of our schools is unprecedented and deeply troubling," she said.

She said crisis counselors would be at the school on Monday.