School groundskeeper never saw Hormans’ white truck

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PORTLAND, Ore. - A groundskeeper who works at Skyline School says he never saw the white pickup truck on the access road investigators say it may have been parked on during the morning Kyron Horman disappeared.

Dave Stensen, a turf technician with the city of Portland, said he was not only at the school on the morning of June 4 but had to drive his truck up on that gravel road to access the soccer field he was mowing.

During a Wednesday news conference investigators asked members of the public to talk to them if they saw the white Ford F250 pickup truck that Kyron’s stepmother, Terri Horman, drove that morning. Investigators said they wanted witnesses to come forward if they saw it parked on that access road between about 8:15 a.m. and 8:45 a.m.

Stensen said he used the access road to get his truck and mowing equipment up to the soccer field like he always does.

He said he cut the grass on the soccer field between 7:45 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. the morning of June 4 and never saw the Hormans’ truck on the road.

Based on the investigators’ timeline, and if Stensen’s times are accurate, the window for the white truck to be on the access road narrows to the 15 minutes between 8:30 a.m. and 8:45 a.m.

If it had been there, or nearby, with anyone in it or around it, Stensen said he’s sure he would have noticed it.

“It would be impossible for me to either enter the field or exit the field if there was a car parked on the gravel road itself,” he said. “And then while exiting the roadway, if there was somebody parked that close to that hillside, it would have made it difficult for me to see who's coming down the hill (on Skyline Boulevard), I mean it would seem to me like I would have remembered, ‘Oh gee yeah,’ there was a big white truck in my way when I left that day. I would say I'm certain that it wasn't there.”

He said he remembers that even with the science fair taking place that morning things didn’t seem particularly chaotic.

“It seemed like just a pretty normal day,” he said. “It was kind of damp and wet. It had been wet for a while and the fields were hard to mow. (I) noticed that there was some children that came out the back door, and I thought, ‘please don’t come down and play soccer.’ But they came out and looked at some plants that were in the raised bed.”

Stensen’s own truck, with a trailer on the back, would have been parked in the area investigators are asking about, at least briefly, as he came and went that morning.

It would have been there on the way in, as he got out of the truck to unlock the padlock on the chain that allows him access to the field. It would have been on that road on his way out as he went behind the truck to put the chain back in place.

Investigators are talking to Stensen and checking his information against what they've gathered. They say they find him credible.

There was no activity Thursday from the grand jury hearing testimony in Kyron’s disappearance.

Related content: Investigators in the Kyron Horman case are asking for more witnesses to come forward to talk to them about what they may have seen on June 4, the day Kyron disappeared. But will they be able to remember accurately what they saw?

Watch: Putting memories to the test: Can witnesses retain the details?

Trying to find a new witness who has yet to step forward is a lot to ask for, according to memory experts. KATU News went to the Oregon Convention Center to put people's memories to the test because that's where some of the premiere minds in cognitive science or the psychology of the brain are having a convention. KATU News learned even if someone has a very vivid memory that doesn't mean their memory is correct.

Test your own memory and awareness: Check out this YouTube video