tinkerbowler
Disney Fan Since Birth!
- Joined
- May 31, 2010
- Messages
- 17
I just saw this on the local news and thought that the word should be spread.
I cannot post a link until I have more then 10 posts. I have been a long time lurker and finally decided to come out and post!
I cannot post a link until I have more then 10 posts. I have been a long time lurker and finally decided to come out and post!
Missing Child-Link to StoryPORTLAND, Ore. -- The search continued Monday for the seven-year-old boy who vanished from inside his elementary school in Northwest Portland on Friday.
Kyron, were going to get you home buddy, Capt. Jason Gates said Monday, his voice cracking and his eyes tearing up during a press conference Monday. "Nothing is more important to your family, your friends and to us."
Video: Capt. Gates promises to find Kyron
In an afternoon news conference, Gates said they were following hundreds of leads pouring into a special tipline. Those leads involved information being sent to state and federal law enforcement agencies from across Oregon and in parts of Washington.
Noteworthy in the afternoon press conference was the information Gates would not share. The Captain said investigators were not ready to release information about who saw Kyron last, or whether he attended his first class.
Boy missing since Friday
Kyron Horman and his step-mother, Terri Moulton Horman, arrived at Skyline Elementary School around 8 a.m. Friday and attended a science fair at the school. Around 8:45 a.m. Terri said goodbye to Kyron and watched the second-grader walk down the hallway toward his classroom. Police say that the last time the boy was seen was about 9 a.m.
Investigators were trying to interview all the families of some 300 Skyline students. Gates said parents had been very cooperative.
Timeline: Search for Kyron Horman
At 3:45 p.m., when the school bus arrived at Kyron's stop without him on board, his step-mom called the school. She was told he was marked "absent" by his teacher. She called 9-1-1 just before 4 p.m. and the search effort was launched.
More: School auto-alert system could have helped
Portland schools sent an automated message to parents in the school district that the boy was missing. Meanwhile, police walked the school grounds with K-9 tracking teams, searched every room and closet inside the school and even checked the roof.
FBI and police coordinating search effort
The search quickly snowballed as word of the little boys disappearance spread among the small schools community in Northwest Portland. Police said the search area was spread across 20 miles of roadway and two square miles of land. Officers also handed out flyers and questioned drivers and area residents Monday.
Map: Search area
Several area police agencies teamed up with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Oregon National Guard to try and figure out what happened to little Kyron Horman. By Monday, the search included 22 law enforcement agencies, according to Capt. Gates.
Photos: Search for Kyron Horman
Capt. Gates said 1,200 tips had been received by Monday, and characterized some as "viable leads", but pleaded with people to call with more tips. "Every tip, no matter how insignificant, is important to us," he said.
Sheriff Dan Staton said late Sunday night that he was "not prepared" to call the boy's disappearance a kidnapping. He described Kyron as 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.
Police indicated their search was not limited to the area around the school but they would not specify where else they were searching.
Also over the weekend, an FBI profiler was flown in from the agencys headquarters to join the case. He will study everything from Kyrons schoolwork to his friends, to try and determine where the little boy might be.
More: FBI profiler helps in search effort
Investigators on Sunday interviewed parents of other students at the school, trying to come up with even the smallest clues about what could have happened. The parents and Kyrons fellow students came to the school voluntarily on a staggered basis to interview with detectives. Authorities were also reviewing photos and videos taken during the school's Friday morning science fair, where several people reported seeing Kyron.
Kyron described as a "really good kid"
Parent Gina Zimmerman said she last saw Kyron in the morning, when he posed in a classroom in front of his "red-eyed tree frog" science project. She said her daughter is one of Kyrons best friends and she knew him well.
Zimmerman said that Kyron was not the type of child to wander off. "He knows 'stranger danger," she said. "He's a really good kid."
Parents were shocked at the disappearance, she said, and have been calling to share concerns at "our little school where everyone knows everybody."
To try and quell those fears, security was increased at the school Monday. Counselors were also on hand to talk to distraught students and staff members. In addition, the district began mandating the use of an automated attendance call system to notify families of any unexcused absences.
More: Security increased at school
No Amber Alert issued
Some parents wanted to know why an Amber Alert wasnt issued. Sheriff Gates said that tool works only when citizens can be offered descriptions of specific suspects or vehicles, which was not the case in this situation.
Parents were urged to talk to their children about stranger danger and explain what to do if they were in Kyrons situation.
More: How to teach kids about stranger danger
Distraught family working with detectives
Meantime, Kyrons family was doing the best they could to cooperate with police and talk with searchers under traumatic circumstances, Capt. Gates said. The birth mother came to Portland after her son was reported missing and all the parents have been in constant contact with detectives, he said.
Anyone who has seen Kyron or knows of his whereabouts was asked to call (503) 261-2847.
It's so scary that he just disappeared in a second, in his own school. 
And science fair with lots of people who aren't normally at school. Add in all the hours that went by before they realized he was missing. He could be well into CA or Canada by then.

