Kyron Horman's Stepmother Allegedly Tried to Hire Hit Man, Report Says
One month missing, 7-year-old Oregon boy still inspires searchers, police.
PORTLAND, Oregon, July 4, 2010 — -- One month after the disappearance of 7-year-old Kyron Horman, police reportedly said a landscaper told them the Oregon boy's stepmother tried to hire him to kill her husband, Kaine Horman.
The allegation, first reported in The Oregonian but confirmed by ABC News affiliate KATU-TV in Portland through a source close to the investigation, thickens the cloud of suspicion surrounding Terri Horman, the last person to see Kyron before he went missing on June 4.
Sources close to the investigation told the newspaper that police alerted Kaine Horman to the allegation on June 26, which they said is what prompted him to move out of the family home with his 19-month-old daughter and to file for divorce and a restraining order against his wife.
Two 911 calls were placed from the home of Kaine and Terri Horman that day. The first call was made in the evening 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 landscaper allegedly told police that Terri Horman approached him about killing her husband six or seven months before Kyron disappeared, the sources said.
Terri Horman denied the allegation when confronted by detectives, the newspaper reported, and she has not been charged, though the investigation is proceeding, the sources told The Oregonian.
Terri Horman hired prominent Portland criminal defense lawyer Stephen Houze early last week and was seen in his company as she returned home Wednesday night.
Kyron has been missing since June 4, but police say they have no reason not to believe he is still alive.
Related Stories
ABC News Live