Terri Moulton Horman, stepmother of missing Kyron Horman, has moved south to California, state DMV records show.

Horman, who investigators suspect played a role in the 7-year-old boy's sudden disappearance nearly six years ago, returned her Oregon license to the state Department of Motor Vehicles last May.

The department received notice on Sept. 21 that she had a new address in Sacramento, said Erin K. Soto, a spokeswoman from Motor Vehicles' record division.

Horman's attorney, Stephen Houze, declined to comment on her move. Horman had moved in with her parents in Roseburg shortly after her stepson vanished from Skyline School in Northwest Portland on June 4, 2010.

A criminal investigation has led to no arrests. The state's largest search-and-rescue operation turned up no sign of the boy or his remains.

Horman apparently found Oregon increasingly inhospitable.

She tried at least twice in state court to change her name but had no luck. She contended she was being harassed in the wake of Kyron's disappearance and was having a hard time finding a job.

When she tried to change her name to Claire Stella Sullivan in 2014, Horman told the judge that she needed a new name to start a new life without the stigma of Horman attached to it. The judge turned her down, saying a name change would not be in the public's interest.

She also tried to get a stalking order against a woman she said was harassing and threatening her on social media and at her court appearances.

"I have no knowledge where Kyron may be and have proclaimed my innocence of any wrongdoing to law enforcement as well as I was not the last person to be seen with him to which my attorney has stated in court, on the record,'' she wrote in the petition last year.

She wrote that she, along with others, "want nothing more than Kyron to be found and safely returned home.''

But the order wasn't granted.

Horman also quit her job in Eugene last year as a caregiver for Shangri-La Corp. despite a positive review from her employer. The company's chief executive officer said Horman quit because Horman "recognized the impact her employment had" on the nonprofit after news of where she worked leaked out. The company provides residential care for adults suffering from mental illness.

Before that, she had tried to get a job at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Roseburg. She said in court that she started out as a volunteer at the hospital, but wasn't allowed to work there. "Because of who I am, that was their words,'' she testified during a Douglas County court hearing on her requested name change.

Horman hasn't been allowed to see her daughter, Kiara, since shortly after her stepson's disappearance. Kyron's father, Kaine Horman, filed for divorce on June 28, 2010 -- 24 days after Kyron was last seen.

Terri Horman initially was barred from contact with Kiara by a restraining order filed by Kaine Horman and later by a civil order. Kaine Horman filed for the restraining order after he said investigators alerted him that Terri Horman had solicited a landscaper to kill him months before Kyron's disappearance. Police never charged Terri Horman in connection with the allegations.

In June 2014, a Multnomah County judge granted custody of the daughter to Kaine Horman, but approved a plan to help reunite the mother and child and allow visitation.

Terri Horman had started meeting with an assigned "parent coordinator'' as required, but the logistics and costs of having a psychological assessment done proved challenging, according to sources familiar with the case. The plan is now on hold.

Last month, Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill posted a message about the Kyron Horman investigation on his Facebook page, partly in response to citizen questions on the social media site.

He wrote that the sheriff's office and his office remain "steadfast in solving this crime" and that the case "remains active."

A full-time detective is "primarily assigned" to the case, he said, along with a retired FBI agent who has worked on the federal bureau's Child Abduction Response Team and is reviewing evidence in the investigation.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian