Kyron Horman's Mother: 'Kyron Is Still Alive'

PORTLAND, Ore. July 2, 2010 — -- Her voice shaking and her face overcome with despair, the mother of 7-year-old Kyron Horman said she knows there is still time to save her son.

"Kyron is still alive," Desiree Young said at an emotional news conference Thursday in which she and her ex-husband pleaded with the boy's stepmother to cooperate with the police investigation and help "bring Kyron home."

The stepmother, Terri Horman, has been at the center of growing suspicion that exploded in the past week when her husband, Kaine Horman, filed for divorce and was granted an emergency restraining order that bars her from seeing him and her children.

The Terri Horman seen only briefly since Kyron's June 4 disappearance appears in stark contrast to the tanned and toned woman who boasted rippling muscles as a body builder in 2005. By then she was already a mother to an older son from a previous relationship and was raising Kyron, then a toddler, with Kaine Horman.

But it was also during these years that she pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and to "reckless endangerment of another" for driving drunk with her then-11-year-old son in the car.

Now, she has been all but isolated from the family. The emergency restraining order a judge granted Monday is indicative, under Oregon law, that there is some kind of immediate danger to Kaine and the children, experts say.

ABC News has learned that not one, but two 911 calls were placed from the Horman's home last Saturday, the day Kaine Horman left the family's home with the couple's 18-month-old daughter.

The first call was made Saturday evening and lasted 13 minutes, the caller reporting threats of some kind. The second came in just after 11:30 p.m. and was written up only as a "child custody call."

The exact reason for the first call has not been released, and police said the call is now part of their case into Kyron's disappearance.

Kaine Horman filed for divorce and the restraining order two days later, on Monday.

Terri Horman this week hired prominent Portland criminal defense lawyer Stephen Houze and was seen in his company as she returned home Wednesday night.

Young and Kaine Horman were intent, however, on keeping the public interested in the search for their boy.

"We lean on each other. We use Kyron as our strength. We pray each day for resolution and for Kyron," Young said.

"Not knowing where he is is the most difficult."

Kaine Horman said, "We miss his toothless smile... that every day happy noise in the house when he's playing."

His mother added, "I want everyone in world to know who Kyron is and what he looks like."

"We are optimistic that Kyron will be found... All of us feel fully confident in investigation," she said.

Police have not named Horman or anyone else as a suspect or person of interest in the case.