Search for Kyron Horman Now Has a Phone App

An Oregon company with a phone application intended to reward people who don't text while driving is using its high-tech advertising method to aid in the search for missing 8-year-old Kyron Horman.

"When we started this company, we had no idea our application could be used to help a missing kid, but we now love that it can be a benefit," Rodney Stearns, CEO and founder of TextNoMore, told AOL News.

According to Stearns, the Kyron Horman Foundation recently approached him about the idea. He said he did not need convincing -- he was on board from the start.

"I am a father and I would be devastated if my kid went missing," Stearns said. "Our application sends out thousands of coupons a month right now, so imagine if that many people are able to see this little boy's face. It makes everyone a volunteer."

Kyron was 7 years old when he disappeared on June 4. His stepmother, Terri Moulton Horman, told police she last saw the little boy walking to his classroom at Skyline Elementary School in Portland, Ore.

The search for Kyron has become one of the most intense in recent Oregon history and has attracted national attention. His parents have held countless vigils, passed out thousands of fliers and issued numerous public pleas, all to no avail.

The Kyron Horman Foundation and TextNoMore are hoping that adding Kyron's photo and information to the application will result in new leads and illustrate how experimental high-tech tools can be blended in with traditional missing-person search methods.

TextNoMore is a mobile phone application that, once activated, holds all incoming texts and prevents the users from sending texts while they are driving. If drivers have a Bluetooth device connected, they can still receive incoming calls. For incoming texts, TextNoMore sends a standard reply along with a reward coupon good for free or discounted products and services.

"Anyone who texts you while it is active, regardless of what kind of phone they have or whether they have the app, will get an auto response and free reward," Stearns said.

Stearns said he got the idea for the application when he was working as a paramedic.

"I would usually see what happened after you text and drive," he said. "The apps that were out there before would detect if your car was moving and shut down your phone. They are expensive and the number of deaths was still going up. I figured the way I could get people to do something was to give them something. The user gets a reward when they activate it and the people who text them get a reward. If you get 25 texts, 25 people get coupons."

Stearns said his application is used all over the world and sends out an average of about 300,000 coupons a month. The application is available on the Android phone right now and will be available for the BlackBerry next week. The company is also working toward getting other providers to offer the application.

The application is free to download. Advertisers pay $149 a month to use the service. Right now, the company is donating $100 to the Kyron Horman Foundation for every new business that signs up.

"We are not charging for adding Kyron to the queue," Stearns said. "The great thing about this is that people will get an actual photo and description of Kyron. There are some similar alerts out there people can sign up for, but they are a text description -- the typical height, hair, eye color. That really can't compare to a color photo you can see."

Stearns hopes use of tools such as TextNoMore will become more widespread in future missing-person search efforts and says he would like to partner with Amber Alert.

"All they have to do is give us the picture and the info and we'll put that in the queue," Stearns said. "It will then go out to everyone's phone."

Kyron is the only child being featured by the application; however, AOL News has put Stearns in contact with authorities in Maryland, and the two are working on adding 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes' photo and information to the application. Barnes, a resident of North Carolina, disappeared while visiting relatives in Baltimore on Dec. 28.

"This is exactly the type of thing we have been looking for to help get her photo out," Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told AOL News.

Stearns said his company will be adding Phylicia to the queue as soon as it receives her information from the Police Department.

"Our application saved lives by preventing people from texting and driving, but now it could also potentially save lives of missing kids and family members," Stearns said.