An aggressive review of the investigation into the unexplained disappearance of 7-year-old Kyron Horman from a rural Northwest Portland school is being promised by Multnomah County investigators and prosecutors ahead of its 15th year anniversary.

Kyron disappeared from Skyline School on June 4, 2010. Despite extensive searches and subsequent investigations by multiple law enforcement agencies, his body has never been found, and no one has ever been charged in the case.

Now both the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office have announced efforts to solve the puzzling case.

Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez announced his office will conduct an exhaustive review of the case on Monday, May 7.

“This is a painstaking process involving tens of thousands of pages of reports, records, and other evidence. We have a dedicated team assigned to the case and I am now being regularly briefed on its current status and what steps may follow,” Vasquez said.

Two days later, the Multnomah County sheriff’s Office announced it is reorganizing and digitalizing its investigative files for reexamination by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, which uses behavioral analysis to assist in criminal investigations. MCSO detectives will also meet with Vasquez and his team in coming months.

“We have never stopped searching for Kyron. We remain steadfast in our commitment to bring resolution to this case, for Kyron, for his family and for the community. With the support of our partners and the public, we are actively pursuing every credible investigative opportunity. Kyron and his family are at the heart of our work,” Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell said in the announcement.

Such reviews had been personally requested by Kyon’s mother, Desiree Young, who did not believe previous Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt was interested in the case. Vasquez was a senior Multnomah County DA when he defeated Schmidt in the 2024 primary election. Vasquez said that he met with Young about the case before he took office in January.

“I never thought I would be here. I’ve always thought Kyron would be home by now, whatever happened,” Young told the Portland Tribune.

Young may be right about Schmidt, based on a preliminary review of financial records in the case generated by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office in response to public records requests by author, former Portland Tribune reporter, and former Clackamas County prosecutor Janine O’Neill Robben. She found that only limited time has been spent on the case in recent years, suggesting that neither office has been preparing to present the case to a grand jury.

“It looks to me like an open investigation, not an active investigation,” O’Neill Robben told the Portland Tribune.

The new reviews now being undertaken by both offices is a good idea, according to Thomas DiBiase, a retired federal prosecutor considered an expert in murder cases where the victim’s body has not been found. He has documented hundreds of such cases that have been taken to trial in his book, “No-Body Homicide Cases: A Practical Guide to Investigating, Prosecuting and Winning Cases When the Victim is Missing.”

“The body is always the best evidence, but cases can and have been successfully prosecuted without them. Having all of the evidence reviewed (in cases that have stalled) by someone who has never seen it is always a good idea. New people can see things that have been overlooked or taken for granted,” DiBiase told the Portland Tribune.

Vasquez cautioned against expecting quick results from his office’s review, however.

“At this time, I will not comment on the substance of the investigation. Our focus remains where it has always belonged—on Kyron and his family. We hope to share further updates this fall,” Vasquez said in his statement.

Young is reportedly planning a pulic candlelight vigil for her son on the 15th anniversary of his disappearance, June 4, at 7 p.m. at Skyline School, 11536 N.W. Skyline Blvd., in Portland.

Desiree Young’s crusade for justice

The fact that no one has been arrested in the case is one of Oregon’s most puzzling mysteries.

Kyron’s stepmother, Terri Horman, emerged as a possible suspect early in the investigation. She drove him to Skyline Elementary School that morning and was widely reported as the last person to see him alive.

Terri Horman, who has remarried and is now named Terri Vasques, has denied knowing anything about Kyron’s disappearance. Contacted by the Portland Tribune, her attorney, Stephen Houze, said she would not be commenting on the anniversary of the disappearance.

Despite that, Young has long claimed that Horman is responsible for Kyron’s disappearance, however. She sued Horman, as she was still named, in Multnomah County Circuit Court within two years of the disappearance to hold her accountable. She only dropped the case under pressure from investigators.

“I didn’t want to do it, but I was told investigators would stop sharing information with families going forward if I continued, and I didn’t want to be responsible for that,” Young said.

But Young has continued to build a circumstantial case against Horman since then in numerous interviews, publications and public appearances. She most recently spoke publicly about the case at the True Crime Fest Northwest in Portland over the 2024 Labor Day Weekend.

Among other things, Young has repeatedly said:

• Contrary to Horman’s claims that she left Kyron at the school, four people saw her leading him back to her truck on the morning of his disappearance.
• Horman failed two lie detector tests in the days following Kyron’s disappearance, then refused to take a third one. Everyone else passed their test, including Young and Kaine Horman, Kyron’s father, who was at work when the youth disappeared.
• Horman cannot fully account for all of her time after leaving the school on the morning Kyron disappeared, instead saying that she was mostly driving though the heavily wooded West Hills trying to comfort an ailing young daughter. A close friend of Horman’s named Dede Spicer was working in the West Hills at the time and was reported missing for a couple of hours by co-workers.
• After Spicer came under investigation, she admitted using disposal burner phones to communicate with Terri Horman around the time. The phones have been recovered by investigators, where evidence related to the investigation has been recovered from them.
• Horman was investigated for murder-for-hire plots three times before Kyron disappeared. She allegedly hired an ex-con to kill a boyfriend before moving to Portland and tried to hire two men to kill Kyron’s father, Kaine Horman, before they separated and divorced following Kyron’s disappearance.

Asked about Young’s accusations, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office declined to confirm or deny them.

Records suggest lack of active investigation

Janine O’Neill Robben was a prosecutor in Oregon for over 20 years. Later, she was a reporter for the Portland Tribune, where she covered the Oregon City missing girls’ case. She also was the first executive director of the Oregon Crime Victims Law Center, during which time she argued, and won, the first crime victims’ rights case heard by the Oregon Supreme Court. Most recently, she published a book about the families in the Oregon City case, including those of killer Ward Weaver III and his young victims, Ashly Pond and Miranda Gaddis, titled, “CLOSE TO HOME: Sexual Abusers and Serial Killers, Memoir and Murder.”

“I’ve spent most of my professional life pursuing facts, pursuing justice, and trying to protect the interests of victims of crime,” O’Neill Robben said.

Last fall, O’Neill Robben heard Desiree Young speak about her ongoing crusade to find justice for her missing son, Kyron. She was impressed by the amount of work Young had put into her efforts and the circumstantial case she built against Terri Horman. She became obsessed with the case and began researching it, including by making public records requests of both the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.

“I’m a complete outsider in this case,” O’Neill Robben said. “But based on my decades of prosecution experience, and what I’ve found out so far, I don’t believe there is currently an active—as opposed to open—investigation into Kyron’s disappearance or any plan to submit the case to a grand jury any time in the near future.”

For example, although files in open investigations are exempt from public disclosure, O’Neill Robben has obtained preliminary information in the time spent on the case in recent years. She was told MCSO only spent an estimated 287 hours on the case in fiscal year 2023, 371 hours in fiscal year 2024, and 29 hours during the first three months of fiscal year 2025.

“Those numbers, in my experience, are representative of a law enforcement agency that has someone assigned to pursue leads as they come in, 15 years out,” O’Neill Robben said. “They are not representative of a law enforcement agency that’s trying to track down witnesses from 15 years ago to see who’s still alive, who’s dead, and who remembers what they knew then to help the DA prepare for a grand jury. They aren’t representative of an agency that’s actively reviewing 15-year-old cell phone records, using 2025 technology, to see if additional proof surrounding the facts of Kyron’s disappearance can be developed.”

O’Neill is hopeful the recently announced reviews foreshadow real progress in the case.

“Maybe things have changed since the end date on these records, which was April 3.”