Crews from across Oregon join search for Portland boy
PORTLAND – Hundreds of additional search and rescue experts from across Oregon were headed to a hilly area west of downtown Portland to assist in the hunt for a 7-year-old boy who went missing from his school six days ago, and one law official said Wednesday, “The clock is ticking.”
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday said it was making use of a state law passed in 2007 in response to criticism of the way authorities conducted the search in 2006 for James Kim, a California man who went missing in southern Oregon and was ultimately found dead of exposure.
“We should be bringing in hundreds of searchers this evening to assist in this,” Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton said at a Wednesday news conference.
He said a call “went out to all 35 other sheriffs” to help search for Kyron Horman, who disappeared Friday from his elementary school on a country road in hills west of downtown Portland.
Also at the news conference was Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger, who headed a task force that recommended changes that resulted in the 2007 law. He said the law foresees that local police conduct the search before crews from other counties are brought in.
“We pull out all the stops locally, initially; it starts getting prolonged, you go statewide. That’s how we do business now,” he said.
“The clock is ticking on this search,” Evinger said.
Kyron’s family released a statement Wednesday asking residents around the school to check and recheck their property, outbuildings and sheds for any sign of the boy.
“Please don’t stop,” the statement ended, as read by sheriff’s Capt. Mike Shults.
Shults said he has been with the family almost the entire time and said, “I stand here in front of you today because I carry the burden of sadness and pain they’re experiencing.”
The intense search has included helicopters and dogs, and has stretched to metropolitan Portland as it entered its sixth day. It remained focused primarily on a half-mile radius around Skyline Elementary School, which is atop a ridge with a mix of forest and open areas.
Kyron disappeared after a science fair he attended with his stepmother, who reported leaving him as he walked down a hall toward his second-grade classroom wearing a “CSI” T-shirt and dark cargo pants.
The search began after Kyron did not come home on the school bus after class and his stepmother called 911.
The FBI was installing a mobile command post to expand communications and computer resources. Investigators were still receiving tips and tracking them down.