'The Potential to Still Bring Him Home': Sheriff Staton on the Kyron Search

Revealing several eye-popping statistics, Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton today held a news conference to update reporters on the ongoing search for missing 7-year-old Kyron Horman.

Staton's overall message was this: Law enforcement is running on the assumption that Kyron is still alive, and investigators are determined to find him after the boy went missing four weeks ago.

"This is not an investigation that is stalled," Staton said. "We have the potential to still bring him home."

About those statistics — Staton said there are now 20 detectives working the case "24/7." That includes the sheriff's office as well as the FBI and other agencies, Staton said.

Staton said investigators have received 2,877 valid tips and have covered about 60 percent of those tips so far. Staton said the work investigators have done since Kyron disappeared about a month ago would normally take six months to accomplish.

On the cost of the investigation, Staton said the sheriff's office has spent nearly $300,000 so far.

Asked about Kyron's stepmom, Terri Moulton Horman, Staton said there's no indication she's been uncooperative. At a news conference yesterday, Kyron's biological mother urged Horman to cooperate fully with the investigation.

"She has been cooperative throughout this process," Staton said. "Other than that, I cannot comment."

In other news, Staton confirmed that "there were indications" both Kyron and his stepmom were seen at Skyline Elementary School on June 4, the day Kyron disappeared. Asked about the search of Sauvie Island, Staton simply said it was searched along with other areas of interest.

(The photo above of Staton is not from today's press conference.)