Kyron's Dad Says Stepmom 'Involved' in Disappearance

(July 8) -- A Portland, Ore., judge today unsealed the petition for the restraining order that the father of a missing 7-year-old boy obtained last month after learning that his now-estranged wife was allegedly involved in a murder-for-hire plot. The order also details Kaine Horman's belief that his wife played a role in his son's disappearance.

"I believe [Terri Moulton Horman] is involved in the disappearance of my son Kyron," reads Kaine Horman's request for a restraining order. "I also recently learned that the respondent attempted to hire someone to murder me. The police have provided me with probable cause to believe the above two statements to be true."

The restraining order not only prevents Terri Horman from having contact with her husband but also prohibits any contact with their 19-month-old daughter.

On the same day that the request for the order was filed, Kaine Horman also filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.

The alleged murder-for-hire plot mentioned in court documents came to light late last month when The Oregonian reported that a landscaper once employed by the Horman family told police Terri Horman had offered him a "large sum of money" to kill her husband.

Investigators have not charged Terri Horman in connection with the alleged plot, nor has she been named as a suspect or person of interest in Kyron's disappearance. She has, however, hired prominent criminal defense lawyer Stephen Houze.

Terri Horman has said she last saw Kyron walking to his classroom at Skyline Elementary School in Portland on June 4. When the boy failed to return home later that day, his family called the school and discovered he was missing. Search teams scoured an area spanning several miles, but they found no sign of Kyron.

Authorities have since reclassified the case as a criminal investigation. Previously, it was a missing endangered child case.

Kaine Horman and Kyron's biological mother, Desiree Young, released a joint statement earlier this week, asking Terri Horman to fully cooperate with investigators -- something they say she is not doing. Kyron's parents also said they and Young's husband, Tony, "have taken polygraphs and have voluntarily undergone any and all sessions with law enforcement and will continue to do so as long as it takes."

The boy's parents said in their statement that they still believe their son is alive. Authorities have not yet commented on whether they are still considering that possibility; however, Harold Copus, a former FBI agent who has worked dozens of missing-person cases, says he thinks it is unlikely.

"I suspect, now that all the searches and everything are pretty much exhausted, that the police will soon announce their belief that the child is presumed dead," Copus, now head of Copus Security Consultants in Atlanta, told AOL News. "But because there is no body, it will be hard to work this case."

Yet despite such difficulties, people should not discount the capabilities of law enforcement, Copus said.

"[The police] are not stupid or blind," he said. "If they have a [person of interest] in mind, and they know they can't make the [murder] case, they'll try to file charges against the person on whatever else they can, to give them some time to work the other case.

"One of the reasons they do this is so the person can sit in jail," he continued. "Then their conscience or other pressures might get the best of them, and they'll try to make a deal."

While no suspects have been named in Kyron's case, Copus said the person responsible is likely a cold and calculating individual.

"The fact the body has not surfaced -- keeping in mind all the effort that's gone into locating this child -- says to me, from an investigative standpoint, that the person who did this did not wake up that morning and say, 'OK, I'm going to kill this child and just go over here and dump [the body],' " Copus said.

"No, this person made a very calculated move, and they were very determined in what they were going to do. They thought a long time and planned this thing. It wasn't [done on the] spur of the moment."