Search for Ore. boy who vanished from school grows

[June 07, 2010]  PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Investigators trying to find a vanished 7-year-old Oregon boy interviewed nearly 200 of his classmates and their parents as the FBI sent a team to take part in the expanding search.

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

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.

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 second 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.

Stanton said investigators have also been working to determine a detailed timeline of the boy's movements on Friday morning.

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 often takes part 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.

[Associated Press; By ANNE M. PETERSON]

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