Alibi Schmalibi, Part III

Alibi Schmalibi, Part III

Before we begin, I'd like to give a big THANK YOU to the many hundreds of readers who have been following this blog, and also to those who have taken the time to leave comments. Kyron's sweet smile has obviously affected a lot of decent, caring people, and I know we all want the same thing: ANSWERS. Let's hope we get those soon.

But I digress.

Earlier, I posted my ongoing thoughts about the e-mails Terri sent on June 5, 2010, portions of which were later published by KATU news. Like many of you, I've been fascinated with these e-mails because they are one of the few times in this case that we've heard from Terri personally. (Not counting the fake profiles she uses to post online - but we'll discuss that later.) This context is important. Terri's supporters like to claim that Kyron's disappearance was part of some vast, Kaine-and/or-Desiree-led conspiracy to frame poor, innocent, witch-hunted Terri for a horrible crime; that Kaine controls the media and law enforcement, etc. That's why it's important that these e-mails are not media interpretations of anything. These, my friends, are Terri's own words. And they speak volumes.

When last we spoke, Terri had just left young Kyron alone in a "chaotic" school hallway - despite having been told just a day earlier by her doctor that he was having "mini seizures." Terri says:

"Kids saw him after I left. Teacher put him as absent at 10am. Someplace between 9-10 is when we think it happened."

If there are verified reports of kids (or anyone, for that matter) seeing Kyron after Terri's self-reported departure time of 9:00 a.m. then this information has not been released. There is one boy (I will call him TP because he's a minor) who reported seeing Kyron around 8:45 a.m. - which would have been before Terri left the school (unless she's lying about when she left). Another, older, boy (TK) reports seeing Kyron in the gym that morning, but was asked by investigators not to publicly disclose the exact time. Either way, apparently investigators do not have a confirmed sighting of Kyron at the school after Terri's departure, since they have repeatedly stated she was the last person to see him.

"I have a receipt showing I was checking out at Fred Meyer 7 miles away at 9:12 a.m.  I went to another FM looking for meds for Kitty they didn't have at the first FM.  Then I was trying to get Kitty to sleep in the truck for a few minute, but no go, so off to the gym at 11:20.  Out at 12:20.  Home at 12:45.  Kaine home at 2.  Bus at 3:30.  That was my day - they keep asking me.  Now on my 5th interview with them..."

There have been endless discussions online about what Terri says in this statement...discussions about recalled medications, or the wisdom of driving a sick baby around on rural roads for 90 minutes,  or why a concerned mother would then take the sick baby to the gym daycare, why Kaine came home early, etc. etc. etc.  We can discuss these at a later date, but today I'd like to point out something very obvious that Terri is doing in this statement: she is building her alibi.

Please remember, dear reader, that this e-mail was written just 24 hours after Kyron had disappeared. Terri, in her own words, was on her "5th interview" with investigators.  And yet, Terri not only shows no concern for her missing child - she also seems to feel the need to explain in detail her timeline that day.  Again, a show of hands please: what innocent person would be concerned with such details so soon after her son had gone missing?  Why did she feel the need to insert exact times into this message?  

Perhaps my friend and fellow Kyron supporter Richard Cranium said it best in his recent "Smoke & Mirrors, Part 10" post on this very topic. Richard, I hope you don't mind me quoting you here:

"This is what this part of her email tells LE. It's rehearsed. She should only give times to LE when she is asked for them. She wouldn't give a detailed time account to a friend if she were innocent."

Or, to put it even more bluntly: who writes like that?! She is writing her alibi here, clear as day! There is no other logical explanation for it.

But here's the big problem. No matter what she says, no matter how she explains it, her alibi makes no sense. To summarize:

"They are blaming me in the blogs!"

"How do you mess that up?" 

Where's the concern for Kyron?  

Why is she trying to place blame on Mrs. Porter?

Makes no sense!

"It was highly chaotic - had to been 300 people running around..."
"...he's been acting really weird.  Starting off into space. Can't remember anything."

"The doc thinks that he is having mini seizures..."

"I watched him walk down the hall."

Why did she leave him in a chaotic hallway if he was having mini seizures?  

Why didn't she tell Kaine or Desiree about the seizures?  

Would a doctor even make such a diagnosis over the phone?

Makes no sense!

"I have a receipt....9:12 a.m."

"Gym at 11:20.  Out at 12:20.  Home at 12:45."

"Kaine home at 2.  Bus at 3:30."

Why is she giving such a detailed timeline in an e-mail just a day after Kyron disappeared?  

Why so rehearsed?  

Makes no sense!

Alibi, Schmalibi!!!

What's Loved Got to do With It?

What's Loved Got to do With It?

"A parent of a missing child will not refer to their child in the past tense unless they know the child is dead."

Peter Hyatt, Statement Analysis expert (September 2010)

Imagine, if you will, a horrifying scenario. If you don't have your own children, then think of a child - any child - who you are close to and love. A niece, a nephew, a grandchild, your neighbor's sweet little kid...just think of a little angel who tugs at your heartstrings. Maybe you're practically a kid yourself. Maybe you can think of a little brother or sister who you love dearly (even if they drive you crazy a lot of the time). 

Now, imagine this child goes missing. Maybe the circumstances are similar to Kyron's, maybe not. But the fact is, this child you love is missing. You have no idea where he/she is. Close your eyes and really think about it. 

Your child has been missing for a couple of days, you haven't a clue where he/she is, and you are just hoping beyond hope that nothing bad has happened. You hope he/she is just lost, hiding out in a dry cave or something, awaiting rescue. You pray he/she is not being harmed by someone. Deep down, inside, you won't let your mind (or your heart) go to that darkest place of wondering if your child is still alive. 

In this imaginary scenario you are sitting in a chair, trying to hold yourself together for just one more minute, one more hour, one more day until your child is found. And imagine there are other people around you; other family members who love your child, too. You've all been through the wringer. Tension is high. But you are all trying to hold it together because of that common bond you all have: a missing child. So as you are sitting in that chair imagine this. Close your eyes if you have to, but really think about this. One of those family members who you think loves your child as much as you do leans over to you and says "I loved your son."

 "I want you to know, I loved your son." 

Terri Moulton Horman

What would you do at that very moment? Honestly, I'm not sure what I would do. I'm not sure I would have the self-control to restrain myself from a physical altercation with that person (the same person who had been telling anyone and everyone that she failed a lie detector test that very day).  Yes, that's right.  This word, "loved"...was spoken by Terri Horman to Desiree Young just a couple of days after Kyron disappeared.  While Desiree and the rest of the family were holding out hope-beyond-hope that their son would be found alive, Terri apparently felt the overwhelming need to let Desiree know just who was in control of Kyron's fate, and to let his terrified momma know that this was not going to have a happy ending.

Some have argued that this was just a slip of the tongue.  But even the experts agree that referring to a missing person in the past tense can be a big sign to investigators that something is hinky.

"Most people hold out hope that their missing loved one will be found alive.  Referring to a person in past tense, saying I really loved her orhe and I were happily married, is incriminating."

Stacy Dittrich, crime expert and former police detective

Sadly, in other high-profile crime cases we have seen this same telling use of the past tense when a child has not yet been discovered deceased:

"She loved that."

Casey Anthony
(referring to missing Caylee, who had supposedly been abducted by her nanny)

"She loved playing."

Robert Smith
(stepfather and, later, confessed murderer, of then-missing Kiesha Wieppeart)

"My children wanted me.  They needed me.
And now I can't help them."

Susan Smith 
(before her murdered children were found)

"I loved that little girl."

Misty Croslin 
(referring to her still-missing stepdaughter, Haleigh Cummings)

Perhaps one of Terri's own longtime supporters sums it up best:

"If those are the exact words Terri used, to me, that is telling.  
Most of the time a parent doesn't speak in the past tense 
when their child (or step child) is missing."

Musterion (JusticeQuest, June 2011 - post #611)

Big Gaping Holes

Big Gaping Holes

Terri Moulton Horman isn't the first parent/stepparent to participate in the abduction and/or murder of a child entrusted to her, and (sadly) she won't be the last.  Is this the face of a killer?  I hope not, but the evidence seems to say otherwise.

“...you can connect the dots yourself. If you’re a reasoning person you can come to your own opinion about that.”

Tony Young, Kyron's stepfather
(and Medford Police Detective)

Over the next few entries I'll discuss some of the holes in Terri's story, things that just don't make sense if you are to believe that she had nothing to do with this crime.  Perhaps on their own these inconsistencies don't point to anything heinous; but when you connect the dots there really is no other logical conclusion. Terri was involved in this crime. 

Pick A Store, Any Store

Pick A Store, Any Store

It's hard to choose which "Big Gaping Hole" in Terri's story to tackle first, but this one has always bugged me a lot. 

Big Gaping Hole #1:

Why did Terri Horman go to two
Fred Meyer stores that morning?

If you're a parent, or have ever taken care of a sick child, you know they are in absolute misery and your primary concern is to help them.  You don't want to dilly dally around, wasting time before you find your child the medication they need to relieve their pain.  But that's just what Terri did on the morning of June 4, 2010, and any reasonable person should be asking her: why?

Now Hiring: Medication Stockboy Needed PRONTO!

Terri said she left Skyline School at 8:45, loaded BabyK into the truck, and immediately drove to the nearest Fred Meyer store on Imbrie Drive.  This would be an approximately 10-minute drive, according to Google Maps.  Upon arriving at "Fred Meyer #1" (FM1) on that rainy June day, Terriparked her truck far away from the building, (presumably) unloaded the baby, headed into the store, and found that the medication she was looking for (it was Motrin, according to Desiree Young, though some early reports stated it was Tylenol) was out of stock.

Location where Terri parked her truck at Fred Meyer #1, according to investigators.

Hmmmmm.

I don't know if you, dearest reader, have ever been to a Fred Meyer store, but let me tell you I have shopped at them for a number of years and have never experienced an "empty shelf" when looking for anything.  But again, let's give Terri the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe the Stockboy didn't show up to work on the night of June 3.  And maybe FM1 was not only out of baby Motrin, but was also out of all other brands of infant pain relievers, including their own generic label as well as other name brands.  So Terri was in a bit of a pickle, standing there with her sick baby, wasn't she?  Hopefully she took the time to find an employee and ask about all those empty shelves of baby medications.  But apparently she didn't, because let's not forget by 9:12 (just 27 minutes after she left the school) she reports that she had purchased something else (we're not sure what, except we know it wasn't medicine) and had a hot little receipt in her hand to prove it.

What to do?  What to do?

So it's 9:12 a.m. on a rainy June day, your baby is sick and miserable, and the giant mega-store closest to your house is out of Motrin.  What do you do?  My guess is that you - like most people - would find the next closest drugstore and go there to get some medication, right?  Well, that's NOT what Terri Horman did.

Terri hauled her sick baby, her 9:12 receipt, and whatever item it was she *did* buy all the way out to the edge of the FM1 parking lot and hauled her butt to another Fred Meyer Store (FM2), this one located on SW Walker Rd. in Beaverton - a 12-minute drive from FM1.   Why did she go to this store specifically, when there are several drugstores much closer to FM1?  Here's a map of the drugstores she had to bypass in her quest for that rare product, Motrin, to sooth her fussy baby.

We aren't sure exactly what time Terri and BabyK arrived at FM2.  But we do know that, once again, she parked far from the store.  Once inside, she chatted it up with Andrea Leckey before leaving.  Did she find the medication she was looking for?  We don't know, she didn't say in any of the e-mails that were released to the public.  

Location where Terri parked her truck at Fred Meyer #2.

We also know that - after she left FM2 - Terri (and BabyK) pretty much disappeared for over 1 hour and 15 minutes.  But that's another story for another day.

Fighting With Her Silence

Fighting With Her Silence

One of the claims that Terri's supporters love to make is that she has spent the past 3.25 years "fighting with her silence".  The question is, fighting for whom?

Big Gaping Hole #2:

Is this how an innocent person acts
when her child is missing?

Terri on her way to court in 2010, getting ready to plead the 5th if needed.

It seems obvious - to me at least - that if you are not involved in a crime you would want to let the world know; especially if this crime involved the disappearance of a small boy you had helped raise for several years and who apparently called you Mom.  Not only that, it would seem you would be eager and willing to join that child's other family members in pleading for his return, planning and organizing searches, distributing informational materials and planning events to bring awareness to his disappearance, etc. etc. etc.

But Terri has done NOTHING.  To this day (three years, three months, and 29 days after Kyron disappeared on June 4, 2010)...

Terri has not publicly:

• Said she had nothing to do with Kyron's disappearance
• Said she loved Kyron
• Said she wants Kyron found
• Organized any searches for Kyon
• Attended or participated in any searches for Kyron
• Attended or participated in any awareness events for Kyron

In fact, Terri has pretty much done the opposite of what any loving parent would do if their child was missing.  She has remained steadfastly silent, hired a prominent criminal attorney even though she hasn't been charged with a crime, refused to cooperate with the investigation, hiddenlike a coward in her parents' Roseburg home, and has actually threatened to plead the FifthAmendment if asked any questions about the case.  Not only that, but she tried to stop her older son from giving a deposition about what he knew.  And just this week we learned that - despite her own attorney claiming in open court that someone besides Terri was the last person to be seen with Kyron - Terri refuses to provide any information to Kaine Horman about this mystery person despite the fact it might actually help find Kyron (not to mention exonerate her in his disappearance).

Terri's attorney claims she has evidence as to who "really" took Kyron, but won't provide that information to Kaine so he can find his son!

Is any of this the behavior of a loving mother or stepmother?  No, it's not.  It's the behavior of someone who wants to hide her involvement in a likely horrific crime.  Terri Horman is not "fighting with her silence" - she is doing everything she can to hinder the investigation into Kyron's disappearance and keep her butt out of prison.

Good luck with that, Terri.

Big Truck, Big Problem

Big Truck, Big Problem

It seems like a small detail, but it's not.  On the day Kyron disappeared, Terri swapped cars with Kaine - he drove her Mustang to work, and she borrowed his truck for reasons we'll explore below.

Big Gaping Hole #3:

Why did she drive the
truck that day? 
(Oh and the day before, too.)

Wanted: one big white truck.  Purpose: to transport a baby, a small child,
and a folding cardboard display.

There's been a lot of talk about the white Ford truck Terri Horman was driving on the day Kyron disappeared.  (The white truck actually belonged to her husband, Kaine.  Terri's regular ride was a red Ford Mustang.)  In this 2010 Oregonlive audio interview, Kaine confirms a few things about the truck:

• Terri borrowed the truck on June 3, 2010 to drop off the science fair project at the school
• Terri borrowed the truck again on June 4, 2010 to pick upthe project
• The project was to be on display until 10:00 a.m. on June 4
• Terri left the school - in the truck - on June 4 but did not take the project with her
• Terri never returned to the school that day to pick up the project (or Kyron)

Please, someone, tell me how this makes sense.  Let's assume that the Mustang was too small to both transport the science fair project safely to the school and get it home safely on Friday.  Why, then, did she not pick up the project on Friday, if that's the specific reason she borrowed the danged truck in the first place?!  Perhaps Kaine says it best:

"Why would you need the truck to pick it up if it had to stay there? You pick it up after school. So, take the truck after school to go pick him [Kyron] up and the project, but why would you go pick up the project at 8:45 before the science fair even starts? It makes no sense."

You're right, Kaine, it makes no sense.

Now, some people might say...well, maybe she couldn't make it back there to pick up the truck.  Maybe because the baby was sick.  Or maybe she planned to pick it up on Monday.  Except that Desiree herself stated that the plan was that Kyron was going to bring the science fair project to her house on Friday evening to show it to her.  So Terri knew that she needed to pick up the project so Desiree could see it.  Again, it makes no sense.

But, once again, let's give Terri the benefit of the doubt.  Let's say she had a sick baby and had to leave the school earlier than planned - without the science fair project.  Why didn't she just go back later and pick it up?

Opportunities Terri had to pick up the science fair project:

• During that mysterious 90 minutes of missing time when she was driving around in the vicinity of Skyline School trying to get the baby to sleep
• On the way home from the gym (she would have had to drive practically right by the school)
• When Kaine came home early from work that day (she could even have sent him to get it - and Kyron)

Yet, she never picked it up.  You have to wonder why.  It's almost like she knew they wouldn't need it to show to Desiree that evening.  It's almost like she knew they wouldn't be driving Kyron to meet his mom later that day.  It's almost like - gasp - she didn't actually ever intend to pick it up in the first place.

Which begs the question: why did Terri need the truck that day?

I guess this is one of those pesky details Terri will someday clean up for us when she decides to clear her name, right?  I'm not holding my breath.

The Cinderella Effect

The Cinderella Effect

It's sad and horrible to think that a grown woman who helped raise a little boy would have something to do with his disappearance.  It's almost impossible to wrap our minds around the fact that she wrote hateful e-mails about him and blamed him for many of the problems in her life.  But, sadly, these kinds of tragedies do happen.  In fact, they happen often enough that there's a name for it: The Cinderella Effect.

  

According to Wikipedia...

 "The Cinderella effect is the alleged higher incidence of different forms of child abuse and mistreatment by stepparents than by biological parents."

In fact, according to one well-known study:

• Stepchildren are from 40-100 times more likely to be murdered or maimed as those who live with two biological parents.
• Stepmothers are also substantially and significantly more likely to kill young children than genetic mothers.
• Only 53% of the stepfathers and 25% of the stepmothers felt able to say that they had any “parental feeling” (much less “love”) for their stepchildren. 

Now, let's put this in perspective.  Are all stepkids at risk?  No.  Are all stepparents evil?  Of course not.  But statistically, Kyron Horman was in a situation that put him at a substantially higher risk of being abused and/or murdered than a child in a two-biological-parent household.  And - no matter what kind of a pretty pink bow Terri, her mother, and her supporters try to wrap around it - there is some strong evidence that Terri may have fallen into the category of a stepmother who came to resent and hate the little boy in her care, especially when her care of him came to interfere with her care of her own biological children.

For example, Terri wrote e-mails stating she hated Kyron and blamed him for her failing marriage.  In her recent appearance on the Dr. Phil show, Kyron's biological mom, Desiree Young, described these e-mails and that they convinced her Terri was not only capable of harming Kyron, but likely did harm him.

Terri was also harsh in her discipline of Kyron.  One example was her demand for daily behavior reports from his teacher, and that Kaine Horman punish him if he brought home anything but a "green" behavior card.

"Terri blamed Kyron for her failing marriage, and wanted him out of her life.  She put that all in writing."

Desiree Young

By the time June 4, 2010 rolled around, Terri Horman was in a stressful situation to say the least. Her older (biological) son had recently moved out of the family home.  She had also been treated for post-partum depression and experienced weight gain after the birth of her and Kaine's daughter. And her marriage had apparently deteriorated to the point where she was willing to pay someone to kill her husband.  Combine these circumstances with a woman who may have already had some serious underlying personality issues, and it was a recipe for disaster.

So next time someone tells you it's "impossible" that Terri hurt Kyron (Dede Spicher, I'm looking at you) just remember the Cinderella Effect.  And trust me, that fabled glass slipper did not fit Terri Horman's foot.