Arrest Could Come Soon in Kyron Horman Case

(July 27) -- A grand jury has convened in the Kyron Horman case, and a close friend of the missing 7-year-old Oregon boy's stepmother has been subpoenaed to testify. Although police have yet to name a suspect, the latest development could be a signal that an arrest is imminent.

"I have a lot of experience providing evidence and appearing before grand juries, and I can tell you that a prosecutor won't take a case before them unless he is pretty confident he has a strong case," said Harold Copus, a former FBI agent who has worked on dozens of missing-person cases.

The close friend of Terri Moulton Horman who has been called to testify has been identified as DeDe Spicher. She has reportedly been spending a lot of time with Horman and began staying with her after Kyron's father, Kaine Horman, filed for divorce.

On July 23, Kaine Horman and Kyron's mother, Desiree Young, released a statement describing Spicher as someone who "has been providing Terri with support and advice that is not in the best interests of our son," CNN reported.

The claims of Kyron Horman's parents have since been rebutted by Spicher's attorney, Chad Stavley, who has said his client has been fully cooperative, The Oregonian reported.

Kyron Horman was last seen by his stepmother walking to his classroom at Skyline Elementary School in Portland, Ore., 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 no sign of Kyron was found. Authorities have since reclassified the case from a missing endangered child to a criminal investigation.

Grand jury testimony is not open to the public, so the exact details of what is going on inside the courtroom remain unknown, but Copus speculates the hearing will be centered more on an alleged murder-for-hire plot against Kaine Horman involving his wife.

"I suspect that what they have is not going to be an indictment on the young boy," Copus, now head of Copus Security Consultants in Atlanta, told AOL News. "Unless the police have developed some evidence that shows where the body is, what you have is a missing child, and there is no law that allows you to indict someone because someone is missing, unless you have evidence of foul play. They are most likely seeking an indictment in the alleged murder-for-hire plot."

The reason for that would be to put pressure on Terri Horman so she "shares any information she might have on the child's whereabouts," Copus said.

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

Investigators have not charged Horman in connection with the alleged plot, nor has she been named as a suspect or person of interest in Kyron's disappearance.

Meanwhile, Kaine Horman's attorney, Laura Rackner, has filed a court motion asking that a judge order her client's estranged wife to disclose where she obtained the money to retain her criminal defense attorney. Horman claims he is in possession of a "written communication" that shows she paid her lawyer $350,000.

"If respondent has provided funds to her attorneys for her legal representation and considers them to be marital liability, these funds are marital property, and respondent should be required to pay one-half of these funds to petitioner to use for his attorney fees and costs," Rackner wrote in the motion.

There is no word yet on when the judge might rule on the motion.