Edmund Horman; Son’s Death in Chile Led to Rights Crusade

Edmund C. Horman, whose quest for information about his son’s disappearance and death in Chile during a 1973 military coup was turned into the Academy Award-winning film “Missing,” has died. He was 87.

Horman, who lived in Manhattan, died of pneumonia in New York City on Friday.

When he flew to Chile 20 years ago in search of his son, Charles, Horman knew that soldiers had seized the youth but not that they had killed him. The father gained entry to the National Stadium in Santiago where hundreds of prisoners were herded after the coup that overturned the socialist government of Salvador Allende Gossens. Horman called to his son over a bullhorn but got no answer; the youth had been dead for three weeks.

After learning the truth, Horman became a crusader for human rights, urging sponsors of hearings and conferences never to allow what happened to his son to happen to another American citizen.

Horman’s saga was turned into the 1979 book “The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice” by Thomas Hauser. The book was the basis for the 1982 film “Missing,” starring Jack Lemmon as Horman.

Director Constantin Costa-Gavras and Donald Stewart earned Academy Awards for their screenplay adaptation of the story.

Both the book and the film echoed Horman’s belief that the United States had abandoned young Charles, which the State Department denied in an unusual three-page statement on the eve of the film premiere.

The mystery of why Charles Horman, a 31-year-old Harvard graduate, was killed has never been solved. He was living in Chile as a writer and filmmaker. On the day the coup began, he and his wife, Joyce, sought a flight out of Chile. He was seized in his home as he collected his belongings.