Terri Horman, Stepmother Of Missing Oregon Boy Kyron Horman, Implicated In Decades-Old Murder-For-Hire Plot


Kyron Horman was last seen near Oregon’s Skyline Elementary School on June 4, 2010; according to investigators, the last person to see him alive was his stepmother, Terri Moulton Horman. The inexplicable and as-yet unsolved disappearance of Kyron Horman spawned one of the largest missing persons searches in Oregon history, but to date, not a trace of the then-7-year-old has been found.

While no one has ever been arrested or even charged in connection with the case, Kyron’s biological parents, Desiree Young and Kaine Horman, haven’t been shy about pointing the finger at Terri Horman. Desiree Young has publicly called Terri “the evil one,” and demanded repeatedly that she come forward with the truth about what happened on that day nearly seven years ago.

Following years of silence, relocation to California, and even an official name change (Terri Horman is now living under the name Terri Lynn Moulton in her new home state), Terri famously appeared on The Dr. Phil Show last September. Then, she admitted that she’d lied to the public and media following Kyron’s disappearance and touched on reports that she’d failed a polygraph test after her stepson’s disappearance.

While Desiree Young has had no qualms about publicly condemning Terri Horman in the wake of her son’s disappearance, Kaine Horman faced perhaps the worst of Terri’s wrath after Kyron vanished. As Oregon Live reports, Terri Horman allegedly attempted to engage a landscaper in a murder-for-hire plot to kill her now-ex-husband back in 2010, just after Kyron disappeared. While Terri was never charged with a crime in connection with the alleged plot, her murder-for-hire attempt reportedly cost her custody of her biological daughter, whom Kaine is now raising without the assistance of Terri.

Kaine filed for divorce from Terri just 24 days after Kyron Horman vanished, and after he was made aware (by law enforcement) that his then-wife had allegedly tried to hire the landscaper to end his life. He was ultimately awarded full custody of the pair’s daughter, and Terri’s visitation with the child was strictly limited and supervised.

In recent months, Terri Horman has begun to make headlines again, this time in California, and for increasingly disturbing and allegedly violent reasons. She was accused of stealing a gun from a roommate and committing domestic violence against a former live-in boyfriend. So far, she’s appeared in court only by proxy to answer to the California charges against her.

This week, however, Terri Horman’s past appears to be rearing its ugly head. The stepmother of Kyron Horman now stands accused of orchestrating another murder-for-hire plot nearly 30 years ago. As KGW 8 reports, Terri Horman’s ex-boyfriend is now alleging that the notorious stepmom tried to have him killed back in the summer of 1990.

According to the alleged intended murder-for-hire victim Sean Rea, he and Terri Horman had been eating Chinese takeout at a Roseburg, Oregon, park when a strange man with a gun came out of the bushes. That is when, according to Rea, Terri Horman (then only 20 years old) said something inexplicable and ultimately damning.

“Terri said, ‘He’s here for you!'”

Rea was just 18 years old at the time, and he says that the armed man didn’t fire any shots, and that he never bothered to report the incident to the police. He did, however, break up with Terri Horman shortly thereafter.

Fast forward to 2011, roughly one year after Kyron Horman vanished. That’s when Multnomah County investigators (who were investigating the disappearance of Kyron Horman) tracked down Sean Rea, seemingly out of the blue, to ask him about that long-ago day in the park. According to Rea, the investigators told him that a current inmate had confessed to being involved in a murder-for-hire plot against him in 1990, a plot reportedly orchestrated by Terri Horman.

What’s more, that unnamed inmate reportedly provided investigators with many specific details that matched Rea’s rendition of what happened nearly three decades ago. Rea further claims that investigators went as far as to drive him back to Roseburg to point out the park where the man with the gun appeared and that he was even called to testify before a grand jury regarding the alleged murder-for-hire plot involving Terri Horman.

That was six years ago.

Today, Sean Rea didn’t want to appear on camera and has shied away from encounters with the media. He has, however, told his story to KGW 8 both in person and over the phone. He reportedly claims to be frustrated that nothing has come of the case, and that it hasn’t moved forward after his interaction with both investigators and the grand jury.

The media became aware of the alleged 1990 murder-for-hire plot involving Terri Horman and her ex-boyfriend when the case was recently presented to the Douglas County prosecutor. No explanation has been given (neither to the media nor to the parties involved) as to why the case wasn’t referred to the DA years ago.

What’s more, Roseburg police have reportedly refused to honor a media request to access the 2011 police report detailing the murder-for-hire allegations.

At least one person is publicly calling for the Douglas County prosecutor to pick up the slack and file murder-for-hire-related charges against Terri Horman in the very near future. That person is Desiree Young, Kyron Horman’s mom. As KGW 8 reports, Young has known about the decades-old allegations against Terri for years, and has been waiting (somewhat impatiently) for authorities to act on what they know.

“We’ve been waiting patiently for Douglas County DA’s office to do something with this since 2011. I want the DA’s office to do something.”

According to Young, she wants justice for Kyron. And she wants Terri held accountable.

“We want her in jail. We want her held accountable. We want her to tell us what happened that day. We want the truth. We want Kyron to come home.”

Fortunately for Desiree Young, the State of Oregon has no statute of limitations when it comes to murder-related crimes, such as attempted murder, attempted aggravated murder, or solicitation of murder. This means that prosecutors have unlimited time to build air-tight cases against defendants before filing charges. It also means that a delay in filing charges doesn’t mean an accused murder-for-hire plotter is off the hook.

In fact, according to Yvonne Russell of Roseburg Police (when speaking of the 2011 police report), the case is still open.

“This report will be referred to the DA’s Office for review in the near future and remains open.”

Kyron Horman’s stepmother Terri Horman has declined to comment on these latest allegations.

[Featured Image by Yuba County Jail/AP Images]

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