A son is gone; the case lives

Tim Horne, an investigator for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, bumps into the box every time he sits down at his desk.

He set it up that way.

The box contains all the paperwork, photos and reports of a missing person murder case that has nagged at him for nearly 10 years.

The box's presence under Horne's desk is a daily nudge to keep looking, to keep trying.

"There are parents out there somewhere who are missing a 10-year-old boy," Horne said. "They are either heartbroken and wondering whatever happened, or they're suspects."

It was one of the first cases Horne worked as an investigator.

To this day, he remembers details of the morning of Sept. 5, 1998. The heat. The bugs along the roadside. The new pair of gray dress slacks he nearly ruined.

Horne and his partner, one of the most senior investigators for Orange County, were called to the spot along Interstate 85/Interstate 40 after a guy hired to bushhog the ground under a billboard spied a skull along a nearby line of woods.

It belonged to a skeleton lying mostly intact, trousers still in place, shoes on the feet.

From the sizes of the clothing, the investigators quickly determined it was a preadolescent boy. And because of the way the body had been left -- legs together, hands above his head -- they thought he had been murdered elsewhere and disposed of on a roadway parallel to the interstate.

At the time, DNA technology was far less sophisticated than it is now. But Horne tried. He visited a forensic lab known as the Body Farm in Virginia and quizzed the teachers there about what might be learned from the crime scene in Orange County.

He pursued every missing person lead. No matches. He tracked down every item of clothing. Everything came up short.

It's difficult to determine whether the child was Caucasian or Hispanic, though, again, Horne is considering tapping new forensic bone expertise.

Investigators think the boy was killed sometime between April and July of 1998.

All they do know for certain is that he stood about 4 feet 11 and had dark brown hair, 3 or 4 inches long. He wore tan shorts that were Polo knockoffs, white athletic socks and black and white athletic shoes. The soles were barely worn.

He had $50 in cash in his pocket.

But the detail that got to me was that the boy's teeth showed evidence of dental sealants, the stuff dentists coat young teeth with to help prevent cavities.

It was a sign that at some point, somebody cared about this boy. Somebody loved him.

Horne is married now and has a son of his own.

He understands more than ever what it might mean to lose a son, something all of us who are Christians think about on Good Friday more than any other.

So Horne keeps that box stuffed in the well under his desk, taking up enough space that he bumps it every time he sits down.

If you have information or questions about this case, contact Tim Horne at the Orange County Sheriff's Department at 644-3050 or 942-6300. The Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation is offering $5,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case.