'It Was Just Another Day': Dad Says 6 Years After Son's Disappearance

“It was just another day,” Kaine Horman says as another June 4th falls off the calendar.

It’s been six years since Kaine’s seven-year-old son, Kyron went to school at Skyline Elementary in Northwest Portland and never came home.

It led to the biggest search and rescue operation in Oregon history, many leads, lots of suspicion, but still no resolution.

“We live every day without him and June 4th is just one of those days,” says Kaine.

Kaine and his daughter Kiara - who is now as old as Kyron was when he disappeared - spent the day at Washington County Fairgrounds helping the Mustang Wranglers with their annual Ford show.

“Kiara helped with goodie bags while I worked with Club getting people registered,” says Kaine. “It was our third year and we set up a booth set up and did outreach. And that’s the best kind of day.

“Raising awareness is the best thing that we can do.”

Kaine says he not “a memorial guy, seems too much like a funeral. And, besides, I really do think he is out there somewhere. Someone knows something. This is not in memory of. It is in search of.”

He sees his mission as getting out into the community.

“I want to bring people along on this journey we are making,” he says. “Everybody has to deal with grief, with tragedy. In our case, we happen to be doing it very publicly. But by doing so, I hope that we can show people they are not alone.”

While June 4th is the day that people associate with Kyron, Kaine spends each summer going to events like the car show to keep his son’s name, his picture in the public consciousness.

“Today’s the day we tend to get more phone calls from the media asking,” he says. “But to us, Kyron being gone is an everyday thing. And the amazing thing is that the more that we are out here, the more people become involved.

“The longer this journey goes, the more people who seem to be coming along with us.”

Working with the Mustang Wranglers is just part of it.

“I like getting out there and speaking with people,” he says. “I think it helps them as much as they helps me. Yes, they know my story. They know that Kyron is missing. But then they meet me, they see me as a person, not just someone whose story they saw on television.

“And I hope that by seeing me, getting to know me and see that while I have tragedy in my life, I am moving forward and trying to keep living, they will realize that they, too, are not alone.”

And Kaine is definitely trying to keep moving forward.

“There’s not a day that goes by he is not foremost in my mind,” he says. “But I have a job, I have Kiara. I have a life that I need to live. It just happens to be a life that involves a son I hope to find, who I hope to one day bring home.”

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As for Kiara, she knows her brother is out there, that they are looking for him.

“I always answer her questions,” Kaine says. “And I knows that one day those questions will become more complicated, I’m not worried about that day but I am definitely aware it will arrive.”

In the meantime, they lead relatively normal lives. Kaine works at Intel; he is right now on a regularly scheduled sabbatical that the company offers employees based on tenure. While the company has announced layoffs of some 13,000 people, Kaine does not know if he is one of them.

“I won’t hear until I return to work,” he says. “But so far I have not heard anything from anyone that would make me think I won’t be able to go back.”

He and Kiara just returned from a trip; they have another planned.

“She is her own person and she will be the first to tell you that,” he says of her. And at the Kyron Car Show in August, he thinks she will play a more prominent role.

“What’s strange is that she is now as old as he was and as we move forward I will be experiencing things with her that I never had a chance to do with him,” he says. “That, to me, is a little heartbreaking.”

Kaine switches back to more positive thoughts, Saturday, June 4th was a day where they were out in the community, doing good things, helping people.

“Honestly, it was a good day,” he says. “It was a day where we raised awareness. It was a day that was about Kyron. It was not about June 4th."