No Sign Yet of Missing 7-Year-Old Oregon Boy

(June 8) --- Relatives of a missing 7-year-old boy pleaded for assistance from the community in Portland, Ore., as 22 local, state and federal agencies began a fifth day of searching for Kyron Horman.

Kyron's aunt, Kelly Ramirez, asked residents to post fliers bearing a picture of the bespectacled second-grader last seen Friday morning after a science fair at Skyline Elementary School in Portland.

"The most important thing is to get his picture out there. We encourage everyone, if you would like to help, this is what you can do," Ramirez said in statement, according to local media outlets. "Print out his flier, put it on the counter of every business you go into. Kyron needs to be seen."

The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office has said it does not need "civilian searchers."

Officials have classified Kyron's disappearance as a "missing endangered child" case, saying they are "not prepared" to call it a kidnapping.

Detectives have prioritized more than 1,200 tips on the case, officials said. They are urging community members to submit any information they have about the boy, who was last seen shortly after his stepmother, Terri Moulton Horman, left the school science fair at 8:45 a.m. Friday. He never made it to his classroom, deputies said.

"We're following up on each and every one," Multnomah County Sheriff's Capt. Jason Gates said of the tips at a news conference Monday. "Every tip, no matter how insignificant, could be the tip we need. ... The tips will find Kyron."

Investigators have not said whether there is a suspect in his vanishing.

They are searching the two-mile area between Kyron's family home and his school, as well as local wooded areas where the boy may have wandered.

"We're eliminating those spots where Kyron is not, and we're continuing to move forward and find where Kyron is so we can bring him home," Gates said.

Investigators said they interviewed "about 90 percent" of the students at Skyline Elementary and were "appealing to the families who have not been interviewed to call the tip line and leave their information."

Kyron's disappearance left the school scarred as students returned from the weekend. More than 40 students were absent from class on Monday, KPTV reported, nearly double the amount of average absences.

"My daughter was scared. She didn't want to go to school," Deann Graham, whose daughter attends Skyline, told KPTV. "She's afraid that somebody is up there watching them and she's very frightened."

A spokesman for Portland Public Schools told the news station that every school employee must pass a criminal background check that includes being fingerprinted before they're permitted to work with children. School officials said there are no surveillance cameras at Skyline Elementary.

Portland Schools spokesman Matt Shelby told CNN that the morning of Kyron's disappearance was a hectic one at Skyline.

"There was a science fair here at the school," Shelby said. "You had a situation with lots of parents and friends coming through the school, going class to class."

Moulton Horman, who has raised Kyron since infancy, snapped a picture of Kyron in front of his science fair project on "the red-eyed tree frog."

"He was so excited about his science project," Carol Moulton, Moulton Horman's mother, told The Oregonian. "They had worked on it together. He was anxious to take it to school and show it off."

Moulton said her daughter frequently volunteered at the school and said a routine goodbye to her son.

"He told her, 'I'm going back to the classroom, Mom,' and she waves to him and left," Moulton said. "She thought he was safely at school just like he is every day."

Moulton Horman, Kyron's father, Kaine, and his biological mother, Desiree Horman, have not attended sheriff's department news conferences, allowing Ramirez's statement to speak on behalf of the family.

"Above all do not give up hope, as we certainly never will," Ramirez said. "He is out there, and we are going to find him and bring him home safe where he belongs."