Tyson and his siblings Megan, Jakelyn, and Ivan disappeared from Reno, Nevada on July 9, 2009. They were abducted by their non-custodial mother, Claire Camille Tourand. A photograph and vital statistics for Tourand are posted below this case summary. A federal warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was issued for her on July 14, 2009. They may be traveling in a white 1998 Mercury Sable with the Nevada license plate number 369SDH and may be in Mexico. Tourand had previously said she wanted to take the children to Mexico City, where their paternal grandparents live.

Child welfare services had been involved with the family since 2001. Tourand's two oldest children, who are both in their teens, had been in the care of their maternal grandmother since 2002. Her ex-husband, also named Ivan Mata-Ramirez, was not the father of her four younger children and was serving a jail sentence on theft charges when they all disappeared. Tourand herself had just been recently released from jail after serving a nine-month sentence for child neglect; she, her mother and her live-in boyfriend had pleaded guilty to neglect for making five of the children live in squalid conditions and not feeding them. They lived in a home on Wewoka Way in Sun Valley, Nevada, which they shared with several dogs and cats. Social workers found the floor covered in animal feces, and there was no hot water. After Tourand's release from jail, social services still had custody of the children, but they placed them in her care temporarily and worked to reunite the family. Tourand was supposed to attend meetings and parenting classes, and submit to drug tests. Tourand refused a drug test just days before the abductions. She was supposed to meet with social services officials about the children's custody, but she took her children and fled less than a day before the meeting.

Authorities believe Tourand is a danger to the children and they may be at "immediate risk" of harm. Their whereabouts are unknown and their cases remain unsolved.