Coming up on 9 Years

Happy True Crime Thursday my fellow True Crimers! Today I'm going to discuss a missing persons case that is still an open and active investigation. To my fellow Oregonians do you remember what you were doing on June 4th, 2010? Usually I would tell you I have no clue what I was doing on a random day almost 9 years ago, but this day I do. I was working at a retail store and as I normally did I went upstairs on my lunch, the news was playing in the background. As I stood there heating up my dinner it came across the TV that a 7 year old boy was reported missing after he was not on the school bus after school. My heart sank. I think about this case often, and every year that passes by it becomes more and more heartbreaking. This is the missing person case of Kyron Horman. 

Kyron Horman was born on September 9th, 2002 in Portland, Oregon to Kaine Horman and Desiree Young. The couple divorced when she was 8 months pregnant with Kyron and after their divorce they shared custody of Kyron until 2004. Desiree was diagnosed with medical conditions that required extensive treatment, because of this Kaine took over full custody, but Desiree remained very much a part of Kyrons upbringing. Kaine married Terri Moulton in 2007, the two had been dating since 2001 when Kaine was still going through his divorce with Desiree. Kaine and Terri Horman welcomed a daughter Kiara in 2008.

The day of June 4th, 2010 Kyron was brought to Skyline Elementary School  by his step mom Terri, the two arrived shortly after 8 am. On this day the school was open earlier than usual due to a science fair that Kyron was a part of.  Around 8:15 am the president of the school PTA arrives and sees Kyron with Terri in front of Kyrons exhibit about "The Red-Eyed Tree Frog." Terri snapped a picture of him standing in front of it, in which she later posted to her Facebook. Terri Horman states that she left around 8:45 am after she watched Kyron walk towards his classroom after they toured the science fair together. Normally Kyron took the bus, but on this day because of the fair he was given a ride. Before going to school Kyron talked with his father, he told him how excited he was about the science fair. Kaine promised him ice cream after school to celebrate, that was the last time his father ever saw him.

Around 3:30 pm Terri and Kaine go to meet the school bus and discover that Kyron did not get out, when they called the school they were informed he was marked as absent all day. The secretary at the school placed a call to 9-1-1 around 3:45 pm about Kyron missing. The secretary then called Kyron's mom Desiree. Desiree was wondering why Terri didn't personally call her about the situation. Officers arrive at Skyline Elementary and the Horman home, a broadcast message from Portland Public Schools is sent out to alert families of a missing student. The message read "Kyron Horman did not arrive at home today." At 7 pm the FBI is alerted about the disappearance and an official missing persons search begins, and shortly after a photo of Kyron is emailed to all local television stations and the Oregonian. Around 10:30 police report that they have completed a search of Skyline school and the Horman household, with no luck. 

The next morning more search and rescue groups are put together, a tip line is set up and word is spread about Kyron missing. Around noon during a news conference a sheriff spokesman says the search for Kyron is still a missing person case and not a criminal investigation. The FBI and National Guard joined the search shortly after, while relatives started handing out fliers and posting them up everywhere . The search efforts for Kyron carried out over the span of ten days and was the largest in Oregon history. 

On Sunday June 13th at a news briefing the sheriff's office announces that the massive search for Kyron has ended and it is now considered a criminal investigation. 

In late June 2010, in the middle of Kyron's disappearance investigation, Kaine was informed by investigators that his wife was involved in a murder for hire plot against him. Rodolfo Sanchez (a landscaper who had worked for the Horman's) stated that Terri had offered him "a lot of money" to kill Kaine Horman. Sanchez said 6 to 7 months before Kyron went missing Terri had approached him to help kill her husband. He testified in a deposition about the approach.  Investigators convinced Sanchez to confront Terri while wearing a wire, but they were unable to obtain any evidence and could not make an arrest. It was later reportedly learned that the DA told Sanchez his family would be deported if he didn't participate in a sting and testify. On June 28th Kaine filed for divorce and obtained a restraining order against Terri, restricting her from any time with their daughter Kiara. This accusation broke down Terri and Kaine's relationship and caused Kaine to think his wife was responsible for Kyron's disappearance as well. He got her out of the house he owned and had a pending motion to find her in contempt of court, stating she shared a sealed restraining order with a high school friend of his, Michael Cook. This filing also claimed Terri was "sexting" Cook and having an intimate relationship with him. A hearing on the contempt of court motion was set for September, but Kaine ended up voluntarily dropping his motion. 

Text messages sent between Terri and Michael (Warning some of them are graphic) 

During all of this Terri took 2 separate polygraph tests regards Kyron's disappearance, she failed them both. Desiree and Kaine also took one and they passed with flying colors. Terri had several reasons she stated as to why she felt like she failed. She went in for a third and ended up walking out. 

Terri stated to police that on the day Kyron went missing she left the school and went to the nearest Fred Meyers to pick up a specific medication for her daughter, but this location was out of it so she went to another Fred Meyers. At his Fred Meyers she purchased something at the Starbucks inside, the time stamped receipt showed the purchase was at 9:12 am. She was seen on surveillance at this location.

Next she went to the dry cleaners to drop off Kaine's dry cleaning, the owner said she came in shortly before 10. Next she went to the craft store Michael's. Around 10:30 am she received a phone call (unable to find information on who it was,) she either left Michael's during or right after the call. Then there is some unaccounted time. She says that she gave her daughter some medicine and rocked her to sleep, but she didn't specify where. When her daughter woke up she decided to go to the gym. She was at the gym from 11:39 am to about 12:20 pm. She arrived home around 12:40 pm. At around 1:21 pm she uploaded 9 pictures onto her Facebook page. 3 of them are from the science fair that morning, one is of Kyron smiling while wearing sunglasses, one is of her daughter and the rest were of either a friend or family member with some children. Around 2:00 Kaine arrived home from work, he sees Terri on the computer, he gets something to eat and takes a shower. At 3:30 they walk to the bus stop and discover that Kyron is missing. 

By July 2010 law enforcement figured out that Terri couldn't have done this… unless, she had help. That's when they moved onto the accomplice theory and started looking at Terri's friends. 

There was one friend in particular of Terri's that you will hear about a few times during this investigation, her name is DeDe Spicher. DeDe according to Desire and Kaine "has been in close communication with Terri" and "providing Terri with support and advice that is not in the best interests of our son." The Oregonian reported that detectives had asked Spicher about her whereabouts June 4th, the day Kyron was last seen. According to the newspaper, Spicher was doing gardening work for a Portland homeowner when she "abruptly left about 11:30 a.m." The homeowner tried reaching Spicher on her cell phone, the newspaper reported, but got no answer. Spicher returned to the house about 90 minutes later. It's unknown where she was during this time. DeDe did allow police to search both her car and home and she also went through over 3 hours of questioning. 

August of 2010 comes around and law enforcement announces they are searching for an individual allegedly seen by 2 witnesses sitting inside Terri's truck outside of Skyline Elementary the day Kyron disappeared. Bruce McCain, a former sheriff for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, told CBS News: "The identity of that second person, if he or she existed, could be critical in determining what happened to Kyron after 9 a.m. on June 4."

Let's skip ahead to June 1st, 2012, this is when Desiree Young filed a civil suit against Terri Horman for 10 millions dollars and the location of Kyron, the lawsuit was an attempt to prove that Terri was responsible for the disappearance of Kyron. Now Terri not only had an expensive divorce lawyer ($350,000), but she also had a civil attorney that came out of retirement to represent her. How did she afford these attorneys when she stated several times that she was broke and unable to keep a job due to protesters demanding she get fired? 

Now let's go back to Terri's friend DeDe. She was set to testify and was given full immunity for it, her immunity deal had nothing to do with Kyron or Terri though, it turned out she was committing unemployment fraud for the majority of the year and for this she could face jail time.  In October 2012, there was hope that with her immunity deal that more would come to light, but DeDe pleads the fifth on nearly every answer, 142 of the Questions

As part of her immunity deal she took a lie detector test, she wanted to take it immediately after testifying but wasn't allowed. She took it a few weeks later and passed. After passing the polygraph she was asked to meet without her lawyer, they wanted her to do a sting on Terri. She considered it but declined after her father (a retired detective) told her he didn't think it was a good idea.

On July 30th, 2013 Desiree dropped the civil suit saying they needed the case files to continue, which they could not receive due to the ongoing investigation. 

Over the next few years searches were conducted in several areas, but yielded no results. 

Terri Horman appeared as a guest on Dr. Phil in 2016, during which she told him: "I was advised from the beginning by law enforcement, by my husband at the time, by attorneys in the beginning, not to say anything. I've always wanted to. I've asked multiple times to speak out and have not been allowed."She denied having any involvement in Kyron's disappearance, and also stated her belief was that he was kidnapped. Please watch these clips of her talking about it all. Watching her facial expressions and her demeanor made me feel sick to my stomach, in my opinion it didn't seem like a mother grieving her missing child. 

Link here: https://www.drphil.com/shows/where-is-missing-kyron-horman-his-stepmother-speaks/

After the taping with Dr. Phil, police in California arrested Terri. Officers in Marysville said she stole a gun from her roommate. She was booked in the Yuba County Jail on July 4, 2016. She posted bail. Then, a couple days before Christmas, Terri was arrested for driving a stolen car in a town just outside of San Francisco. She was booked in the Marin County Jail and soon after posted bail. Charges we dropped due to insufficient evidence

Court records show Terri re-married to a man named Jose De Jesus Vazquez Martinez in Clark County, Nevada on March 17, 2018.

In June 2018, Horman's mother, Desiree, posted on the official Find Kyron Horman Facebook page: "Stay tuned, something big is coming, I promise you."

I could go on and on about all of the things I read and watched when researching for this case. I have provided a couple links below that I think are good for you guys to see. 

https://www.websleuths.com/forums/forums/kyron-horman.410/

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/96k7lj/kyron_horman_unresolved_disappearance/

We are coming up on the 9th year since Kyron has been missing and we are still left with so many questions. Terri has never been listed as a person of interest or a suspect in the disappearance.

Please feel free to share this, let's all continue to put his face out there in hopes that his family can get a resolution as to what happened.

Age progression photo

Link for information on where to submit tips- http://www.thekhf.org/missing-children/kyronhorman

Link to Kyron Horman's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/missingkyronhorman/

Resources:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/96k7lj/kyron_horman_unresolved_disappearance/

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2015/05/kyron_horman_timeline_of_event.html

https://ktvl.com/news/local/terris-troubles-recent-arrests-give-kyron-hormans-mother-hope

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/26/oregon.missing.boy/index.html

The Grimes Sisters

December 17^th, 1956 at the Brighton Theater in Chicago, two young sisters went to see their idol Elvis Presley’s new movie “Love Me Tender” for the 14^th time, little did they know this would be their last time. Today we are going to be talking about the cold case murders of Barbara and Patricia Grimes.

Barbara was 15, Patricia was 13 and like most teenage girls at the time they begged their mom to go see their favorite new movie that was just a short bus trip away. Their mom Loretta Grimes agreed to let them go. The girls left the house at 7:30pm and were told to be back before midnight, but by midnight the girls hadn’t come home and she began to worry. Two of the older Grimes children went to look for their sisters, they went to the bus stop in hopes that they would run into them at some point. Unfortunately by 2am it was clear to everyone that something had happened to the girls and they contacted the police.

Police Officers and Civilians combed through the streets to look for the sisters, adjacent towns and counties offered their services to help with the search. It turned into one of the largest city wide hunts in Chicago’s history. As the days passed the searches stalled and law enforcement was desperate for answers.

There were a number of sightings reported in Nashville Tennessee of the girls. Police thought maybe they had run away to see Elvis himself.  Elvis heard about the sisters and went on radio pleading for the girls to return home. Their mother never thought they had run away; they had no money, no change of clothes and had never done something like this before. She started fearing the worst. Police had no other leads and the case went nowhere for over a month.

January 22^nd, 1957 a man named Leonard Prescott spotted what he thought to be 2 mannequins on German Church Road in Willow Springs, Illinois. He didn’t approach them, but instead ran home to get his wife. Together they came back and as they inched closer they realized it was the naked bodies of Barbara and Patricia Grimes. Barbara was lying face down while Patricia was lying face up on top of her sister. It was evident that their faces had been damaged my neighborhood animals.

The police figured that their bodies had been lying on the side of the road since the snowfall occurred at least 2 weeks prior. Because of the cold the bodies were well preserved. An Autopsy didn’t occur until their bodies thawed. It revealed that the last meal they both had was dinner the night they went missing; this finding proved that the sisters were killed within hours of going missing. There weren’t any stab or bullet wounds or signs of strangulation on either girl. It determined that Barbara had experienced some sort of sexual activity before her death, but it didn’t seem to be violent. There was no alcohol or drugs in their systems. The doctors on the case stated “the killer was diabolically clever,” and was able to use a method of murder that was undetectable. The official cause of death was listed as murder, but the only explanation of their death was “Secondary shock due to exposure to the elements.”

Multiple witnesses saw them at the theater and after the movie was over, but no one quite knew what happened after they left.  Several people had said they saw the girls at different locations, but police were unable to pin point the series of events that followed them leaving the theater.

Because this case had been so widely publicized the crazies came out of the wood work. Mrs. Grimes received several phone calls and letters from people claiming to have murdered her daughters or knew how they died. The police tracked down the information, but most of it appeared fabricated and were just people seeking media attention. However there was one caller that really stuck out to Mrs. Grimes, it was a man claiming to have killed her daughters; he gave details about the girls and the crime that were never published. The police had no way of identifying the caller or tracking him down.

About a year after the Grime sister murders a 15 yr old girl by the name of Bonnie Leigh Scott was murdered in another part of Illinois. After this murder Mrs. Grimes received another phone call from the same man. In this call he said he not only killed her daughter, but he also killed Bonnie Leigh Scott.

A man by the name of Charles Leroy Melquist was arrested and convicted for the murder of Bonnie Leigh Scott and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Later Loretta heard his voice in an interview and she knew immediately that it was the same man that had called her, his voice was unforgettable. He served 11 years of his sentence before his release, and later married and had two children. Melquist was never officially implicated in the Grimes killings.

There were a few other suspects in the Grimes murders, but there was never enough evidence to prove that they committed the crimes. The first suspect was Walter Kranz. Before the bodies of the sisters were found and they were presumed missing Kranz called the police station and said that the girls were dead and told the cops where to find them. He claimed that the information came to him in a dream. Given the bizarre nature of the call the police picked him up for questioning. He was questioned, but he didn’t have any other information so he was released.

The next was a bum from skid row named Bennie Bedwell, he looked like he could have been Elvis’ twin, he suggested that he had lured the girls to a bar using that resemblance to entice them. He ended up weaving a complicated story that culminated in his confession of murder the girls. He concocted a story about how he and his friend had partied with the girls for days before finally knowing them out and leaving them naked in the snow. Throughout the investigation he made up three different stories about how the girls were killed. Later he recanted all three confessions, saying he was mistreated by the police and he had confessed in order to stop the abuse. The forensics also didn’t support any of his stories, so he was release and never convicted.

As with many murder cases, there were many arguments over which police department had jurisdiction to investigate the crime. The departments were not sharing information early on in the investigation, meaning crucial details could have been missed. The coroners and forensic investigators were also not cooperative with each other because of the debate over the cause of death. A group came to the conclusion of death due to exposure, but the lead corner publicly disagreed. He believed the girls had been beaten before their death and possibly molested. He was fired over this disagreement.

Loretta Grimes never gave up on finding out what happened to her daughters. She dedicated her life to finding out who did it, she believed police never interviewed a strong suspect, she begged the police to never stop looking for the killer or killers. Unfortunately she died in 1989 at the age of 83 without answers, and to this day almost 63 years later we aren’t any closer to solving the murders of Barbara and Patricia Grimes.

 

Resources:

https://the-line-up.com/the-grimes-sisters 

https://www.thetalko.com/15-things-we-know-about-the-unsolved-murders-of-the-grimes-sisters/

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/elvis-presley-loving-grimes-sisters-found-dead-60-years-article-1.2922567  

Dear Ol' Granny

Nancy Doss AKA “The Giggling Grandma,” seemed to be a friendly and happy neighbor, a good wife and mother on the outside, but on the inside was there something much darker brewing?

Born Nancy Hazel in 1905 to Louisa and James Hazel in Blue Mountain, Alabama, she was one of 5 children. James would force his children to work on the farm rather than going to school, when she did go she had a poor academic performance. When she was 7 the family was taking a train to visit relatives when Nancy hit her head on a metal bar when the train stopped suddenly. For years she suffered from severe headaches, blackouts and depression; she blamed these and her mental instability on this accident. James forbade the Hazel sisters from wearing makeup and attractive clothing to prevent them from being molested by men. This however still happened; Nancy had been molested by a string of local men before reaching her middle teens.

At the age of 16 she married Charles Braggs and quickly after they married they had 4 children. Braggs was baffled when 2 of them died suddenly and only a few months apart, each child seemed perfectly healthy when Charles left for work, but died in convulsions soon after breakfast. Small insurance payments started to come through for the children they lost. As time went on Charles became increasingly suspicious of his wife. One afternoon he took his oldest child Melvina and left Nancy and their other daughter Florine behind. A year later he returned with Melvina and a new girlfriend who had a child of her own. The 2 divorced and Nancy took her 2 daughters and moved back in with her parents until she met Frank Harrelson through a classified column, the 2 met, married and lived together in Jacksonville. Harrelson was not the man she thought he was, she found out that he was a drunk, had been arrested before and was in debt. Despite this they stayed married for 16 years.

In 1943 Nancy’s oldest daughter Melvina had her first child, a son that she named Robert and soon after that she gave birth to her daughter in 1945. The second child however died soon after being born, she was a healthy baby girl that passed away from unknown reasons. Even though there is no proof of this incident Melvina recalls while she was in and out of consciousness after a difficult delivery she saw her mother stick a hatpin into the head of the baby girl. Moving forward to July 7^th of 1945, Nancy and Melvina got into a fight over Melvina’s new boyfriend and how Nancy disapproved of him. Later that night Robert was in the care of Nancy and died from what doctors said was asphyxia from unknown causes. A few months later she collected a life insurance check of $500 that she had taken out on Robert.

Now back to good ol’ Frank, their marriage was in turmoil the majority of the time, but on September 14^th, 1945 Frank had come home and was obliterated, he had been drinking and ended up raping Nancy. The next day Frank up and died. Nancy told the coroner that Frank was an awful drunkard, so he put down cause of death “acute alcoholism.”

Nancy figured she had found her last husband in the classifieds why wouldn’t she be able to do it again? This is where she met husband #3, Arlie Lanning, within 2 days of meeting each other they were married (don’t recommend this folks)  Just like her last husband Arlie was a drunk, but the upside was that he wasn’t violent. Within 2 ½ years of marriage Arlie became ill, he showed signs of having the flu that was going around; fever, vomiting, stomach pains. He died and doctors stated it was believed to be a heart attack brought on by his sickness, because he was an alcoholic his body just couldn’t handle it. An autopsy was never performed. The house was left to Arlie’s sister, but right before she was to take ownership the house burned down.  Nancy moved in with her mother in law, this arrangement didn’t last long as Nancy was set to leave as soon as she received the insurance check from the burnt down home. Just before Nancy was set to move in with her sister Dovie, her mother in law died in her sleep. Then soon after moving in with Dovie (who had cancer), Dovie passed away while she was in the care of Nancy.

Now at this point you might be thinking damn, this woman has some serious bad luck, but this is a true crime blog, so chances are it’s something else entirely!

Now Nancy just can’t be without a man so she joins a singles club where she meets husband #4, Richard Morton. This love story doesn’t last a long time, Nancy is excited that Richard isn’t an alcoholic like the last 2, but he was still seeing his ex-girlfriend on the side. At the time of finding this out Nancy’s father died and her mother came to visit her. Well within days her mom started complaining of severe stomach pains, she later died. And guess what? Richard succumbed to the same fate just 3 months later. At this point Nancy already had her eyes on another man by the name of Samuel Doss.

You probably already know where this is going, but soon after Richards’s death Nancy soon became Mr. Samuel Doss, husband #5. Now Samuel was a good and decent man, he was a minister that was dealing with the death of his previous wife and 9 children that had been killed during a tornado. He wasn’t a drunk, womanizer or abuser; he was a church going man that fell madly in love with Nancy. But, no one is perfect. He in her eyes was boring. He led a very regimented life and expected the same from Nancy. He kept very tight control over the money, and let Nancy have very little. No romance novels or love stories on television were allowed and bedtime was 9:30pm every night. This did not go over well with Nancy so she left. Soon after Samuel agreed to sign her onto his checking account, she returned and she became a doting and caring wife. You know by having access to all of his money and convincing him to take out 2 life insurance policies, leaving her to be the only benefactor.

Not too long after they crossed their T’s and dotted their I’s, Samuel ended up in the hospital with…..Stomach Pains! Shocking…I know. He recovers and returns back home. Nancy being the caring wife she is makes him a nice home cooked meal his first night home, within hours Samuel is dead. This time doctors were actually alarmed at such a sudden passing and finally an autopsy was ordered. They found that his organs were filled with arsenic, enough to kill 20 men.

Police brought Nancy in for questioning and she confessed to killing Samuel and her three other husbands, and her mother, and her sister, and her grandson and her former mother in law. Despite committing these murders she seemed to have an upbeat attitude which is even more sickening. She would often joke about her dead husbands and the methods she used to kill them, such as making them a sweet potato pie with the special ingredient of arsenic. Prosecutors never pursued charging Nancy with any of the other murders, just Samuels. She was sentenced to life in prison, in 1963 after 8 years in jail she died in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary of Leukemia.

She always insisted that despite the insurance payments she received her motive was not money. She said the main reasons for murdering her husband’s was motivated by marital boredom, she dreamed of finding the perfect mate, one that you would read about in a true romance novel. How Romantic.

Resources:

https://www.thoughtco.com/serial-killer-nannie-doss-973101

https://murderpedia.org/female.D/d/doss-nannie.htm

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nannie-doss-41380.php