Review: ‘Wild Boys: Strangers in Town,’ starring Kyle Horn, Roen Horn, Mary Horn, Joseph Horn, Tami Ryder, Timothy Sawa, Sean Harvey, Henry Proce and Randy Kolibaba

February 27, 2026

by Carla Hay

“Wild Boys: Strangers in Town”

Directed by Jeremiah Hammerling and Rita Baghdadi

Culture Representation: The true crime documentary series “Wild Boys: Strangers in Town” features an all-white group of people discussing the hoax perpetrated by American brothers Kyle Horn and Roen Horn, who illegally crossed the border into Canada in 2003; were homeless on the streets of Vernon, British Columbia; and told lies about being raised in extreme isolation in the rural British Columbia city of Revelstoke.

Culture Clash: The Horn brothers received donations and free lodging from charitable people who thought the brothers were vagrants who had difficulty adjusting to a modern lifestyle, but the brothers’ lies were exposed in 2004, after they were interviewed on the Canadian news program “Disclosure.”

Culture Audience: “Wild Boys: Strangers in Town” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about con artists, but this sluggish and lazy documentary doesn’t do much but let the Horn brothers gloat about their fraud and give a platform to the brothers’ enabling parents and the family’s conspiracy theories.

“Wild Boys: Strangers in Town” is a pointless and dull documentary that’s just a showcase for two mentally ill American fraudsters who pretended to be raised in the wilds of Canada and got charity donations out of their lies. They take no accountability for their crimes. This two-episode docuseries was filmed over an approximately nine-year period (from 2016 to 2025), but by the end of the documentary, almost nothing is revealed about what these two exposed con artists are doing with their lives except spouting conspiracy theories, talking about how they don’t trust society norms, and being enabled but their dysfunctional parents.

Directed by Jeremiah Hammerling and Rita Baghdadi, “Wild Boys: Strangers in Town” has a total running time of 91 minutes (46 minutes for Episode 1; 45 minutes for Episode 2), so it’s a little odd that this was made into a two-part series instead of just making it into a feature-length film. As it stands, “Wild Boys: Strangers in Town” is so scant on new and interesting information, this documentary could’ve easily been 60 minutes or less if the directors didn’t drag out the documentary with sluggish pacing and too much self-absorbed rambling commentary from the two fraudsters.

Episode 1, titled “Out of the Woods,” describes what the brothers’ lives were like when they were discovered as homeless people who claimed that they lived their childhoods in isolation and were taught to fear people. Episode 2, titled “Into the World,” shows what happened after the brothers did a TV interview and their lies were exposed, including footage of the brothers since they were deported back to the United States.

A press release for “Wild Boys: Strangers in Town” has this description of the documentary: “A decade in the making, the project gained additional traction following the release of the [2022] hit podcast Wild Boys, produced by Campside.” Translation: Some documentary filmmakers had some interview footage that no one cared to buy, until some people decided to jump on the bandwagon of a popular podcast by putting together this sloppily made and boring documentary.

Even if you’ve never heard of this story before watching this documentary, it’s so obvious from the way these fraudsters do their interviews that they seem proud of getting away with something in Canada that most people wouldn’t be allowed to get away with in the United States. Therefore, when the “reveal” comes that they were caught lying, this reveal is underwhelming. The only thing surprising is that these two hoaxers weren’t exposed earlier.

Here are the basic facts: In 2003, two homeless young brothers were seen wandering around the streets of Vernon, British Columbia. They told people their names were Tom Green (who was 22 at the time) and Will Green (who was 15 at the time), and they were living behind a grocery store. In the documentary, the brothers are identified as Tom Green and Will Green until the documentary reveals the truth: The older brother’s real name is Kyle Horn, and the younger brother’s real name is Roen Horn. In 2003, both brothers (especially the younger brother) were malnourished while they were homeless in Vernon.

A Vernon resident named Tami Ryder (who is interviewed in the documentary) inquired about these vagrants and found out where they were living. As a gift to the brothers, she left some quarter coins behind the store with a note that had her name and phone number. In the note, Ryder told the brothers to call her if they needed help. Kyle was the one who contacted her. The documentary includes a portion of this recorded phone call.

Kyle told Ryder and other people that he and his brother (who were still using the Green aliases) grew up in extreme “off the grid” isolation in the woods of Revelstoke, British Columbia. The story was that the brothers’ parents didn’t allow the brothers to grow up with electricity and indoor plumbing in the cabin where they lived. The brothers claimed they never went to school and never had a medical checkup. The brothers also said that they were taught to fear people outside of their small, tight-knit family.

The younger brother said he was a vegetarian but he had bizarre eating habits: He refused to eat any fruits or vegetables that had to be pulled out of the ground in order to be harvested because he said that type of harvesting was “killing” these fruits and vegetables. He also resisted going to a hospital, although he eventually had to go to a hospital for treatment of his malnutrition. He was involuntarily admitted to a hospital under Canada’s Mental Health Act, which gives government officials the authority to put people in a hospital if those people are a danger to themselves or others.

Ryder took pity on the brothers and led the donation effforts to give the brothers whatever they needed, such as cash, food and shelter. She took them into her home, treated them like family, and let her kids spend time with these vagrant brothers. Ryder eventually arranged for the brothers to stay at a hostel. Kyle seemed excited that the hostel had a computer, and he used the computer on a regular basis. That was one of the first indications that Kyle didn’t grow up as isolated, uneducated and “off the grid” as he said he did.

Kyle and Roen, still using their aliases, would only tell people that their parents’ names were Joseph and Mary, which was actually one of the few things that they said about their family that is true. Local authorities tried to track down the brothers’ parents but could find no records of anyone with the names Joseph Green, Mary Green, Tim Green and Will Green in British Columbia who matched the descriptions of this family. Kyle and Roen said they didn’t know about any other family members except each other and their parents.

Why wasn’t the underage brother living with the parents? Kyle (who did most of the talking for the two brothers) said that he and his underage brother were “let loose” by their parents, who felt that Kyle was old enough to take care of his younger brother. Kyle said that he didn’t want to tell authorities where their family home was because he said that he didn’t want his parents to get in trouble. When asked if he thought his isolated parents were fugitives from the law, Kyle said he didn’t know.

The local media picked up the story about the brothers and nicknamed them Bush Boys. Soon, their story made national news in Canada. For several months, the brothers refused to do interviews or make any comments to media. Ryder says she helped shield them from the media because she believed at the time that the brothers needed privacy to focus on adjusting to their new lives.

But from the beginning, there were skeptics. Henry Proce and Randy Kolibaba—two members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) who investigated this case—are interviewed in the documentary. Proce says the lack of public records for the family (authorities couldn’t even find birth records) made him very suspicious. Kolibaba comments on the brothers’ story: “Just because someone tells you something doesn’t mean it’s true.”

Sean Harvey, who was mayor of Vernon from 1999 to 2005, describes Vernon this way in the documentary: “It’s a great place to visit and an even better place to live.” However, Proce has a less flattering description of Vernon by saying at the time the brothers were in the news, Vernon had experienced a string of gang-related murders. Understandably, many of the residents of Vernon were suspicious of the brothers and who they really were.

The “Bush Boys” brothers also had their share of loyal supporters, including Ryder. However, Ryder says she began to have her doubts when Kyle agreed to take her to meet his parents, but it ended up being a “wild goose chase.” And there were inconsistencies that she noticed in conversations with Kyle, such as he seemed to be knowledgeable about pop culture (including certain movies) in a way that someone wouldn’t be if they really grew up as isolated as he said he did. The brothers also didn’t know how to chop wood, which is ignorance that contradicts the skills that people would need to live “off the grid” in the woods for several years.

The turning point in solving the mystery of the “Bush Boys” brothers happened after Kyle and Roen agreed to be interviewed by the CBC news program “Disclosure.” Timothy Sawa, a CBC journalist, was a producer for “Disclosure” at the time. He describes how “Disclosure” was able to get the interview in March 2004, after months of pursuing the brothers for this interview. Some clips from the interview are shown in the documentary.

After the interview was televised, Sawa says “Disclosure” received an email from a California woman named Mary Horn, who was certain that “Tom Green” and “Will Green” were really her sons Kyle and Roen, who had both disappeared without telling their family where they were. Ryder found out the awful truth on camera. “Disclosure” documented the phone conversations when Mary spoke to Ryder and then Kyle, who was hesitant to talk to his mother Mary on camera. When Mary talked to Ryder, Mary mentioned a scar on Roen’s abdomen as an identifying mark, and this information convinced Ryder that Mary was telling the truth.

“Disclosure” cameras were also there when Mary and her husband Joseph Horn eventually reunited with their missing sons. The documentary includes a short “Disclosure” clip of Joseph and Mary’s reunion with Kyle. Sawa says, “It was a weird, awkward reunion in a parking lot.” Sawa also remembers that Mary and Joseph were eager to have the reunion filmed for TV, whereas he thinks most other parents (especially Canadian parents) would want to keep this type of reunion private.

How did Kyle and Roen travel into Canada without being detected? The answer is surprisingly simple. According to Kyle, he and Roen were dressed as hikers and simply walked over the border near a checkpoint area. He describes border patrol agents being busy with cars that were lined up to go through checkpoints. Kyle and Roen simply walked past the border patrol into Canada, and no one stopped the brothers, according to Kyle.

The brothers (especially Kyle, since he was the adult responsible for underage Roen in this situation) got off very easily for this fraud. They were simply deported and did not face any criminal charges. In the documentary, the brothers seem to be proud that they didn’t face any legal consequences, such as being arrested, jailed, sued, or ordered to pay restitution for the donations that they received. Unfortunately, even if they had faced any legal consequences besides being deported, the brothers probably would’ve found enough gullible supporters to pay their legal fees, just because the brothers had a certain amount of “fame.”

Perhaps the most infuriating part of the documentary is how Kyle repeatedly says in archival interviews, as well as his interviews in this documentary, that he has no remorse for the fraud he committed and the harm that he caused. “It’s not my job to tell you the truth,” Kyle says with a contemptuous smirk in the documentary. Kyle also has a victim-blaming mentality by saying people who believe his lies only have themselves to blame.

Roen shows a little bit of remorse but doesn’t seem to care too much about how people were hurt by the fraud. Roen also doesn’t seem to have a problem with telling lies that hurt people. He has this to say about stories that he or other people might tell: “It matters more how it affects people than if the story is true … Truth is secondary to survival.”

And speaking of survival, this documentary gives way too much time to showing Roen’s obsession with immortality, which he says was sparked by his interest in wanting to be like Peter Pan. The documentary includes 2016 footage from Roen’s YouTube channel called Eternal Life Fan Club, where he babbles about ways to live forever. He’s also shown thanking his parents for giving him the camera that he uses to film videos for the YouTube channel.

As for the brothers’ former supporter Ryder, she says she went through every possible emotion when she found out that she was a victim of this fraud. Ryder comments that she felt like a fool when she found out the truth, but she doesn’t regret helping people whom she thought needed the help at the time. Ryder believes that although Kyle and Roen were wrong for conning people, she also puts some of the blame on the U.S. medical system for “misdiagnosing” Roen, because Ryder thinks Roen and Kyle would not have run away if Roen had gotten proper medical treatment. Ryder also mentions that the experience of being conned has made her more likely to not always believe what people say and be more discerning with her charity efforts.

The brother’s parents Mary and Joseph (who are from Roseville, California) are interviewed in the documentary, which shows how much these parents enable Kyle and Roen. In the documentary, Joseph’s occupation is listed as claims adjuster, while Mary is described as a movie theater employee. Mary and Joseph also have two other children (another son and a daughter), who are seen in family photos, but those siblings are not interviewed in this documentary. Their daughter is briefly seen doing an interview in archival news footage.

In the documentary, Mary and Joseph say that they’re a “normal” family, but these parents also admit that they raised their youngest child Roen to live without rules and boundaries. Someone needs to tell these parents that’s not normal. Joseph and Mary also admit that they’re conspiracy theorists who don’t trust a lot of modern science, mainstream media, and government policies. For example, Joseph says he believes that Earth is flat. They also raised their kids to listen to conspiracy radio programs. Later, Kyle and Roen say they got a lot of conspiracy theory information from the Internet.

As for being a “normal family,” it’s not normal for a family to have a child who writes about wanting to blow up buildings where credit card companies do business. Mary says Kyle wrote about that extreme violence a lot when he was a teenager, and it caused enough concern from adults in his life, he was reported to law enforcement. Mary says that law enforcement interviewed Kyle, but they determined that he posed no real threat. However, Kyle’s violent fantasies are indications of some sort of mental illness that his parents probably left untreated. The documentary never asks these parents what they did to help Kyle with this troubling mentality or if he was ever in therapy to treat his disturbing thoughts.

In the documentary, Joseph and Mary at least have the decency to say a message of thanks to Ryder for looking after Kyle and Roen when the brothers were in Canada. By contrast, Kyle and Roen do not express any gratitude in the documentary to anyone who gave them charity and support during the brothers’ fraudulent life in Canada. In the documentary, Kyle and Roen seem mostly unbothered by their lies and are more concerned with showing that they want to continue to live selfishly and irresponsibly in the type of mindset where they think rules and having jobs don’t have to apply to them.

Mary says in the documentary that Kyle is the type of person who doesn’t want to have a job because he thinks it’s conforming too much to society standards. It’s no surprise that Kyle was willing to live off the charity of others while he and Roen were living their lies in Canada. Mary mentions that after Kyle got deported back to the United States, Kyle moved to Arizona and was working. The documentary frustratingly gives no information on what types of jobs Kyle has held or how he gets money.

As for Roen, he seems to be dependent on his family for everything, although it’s not specifically stated if Roen has any income or has ever held a job. At the time of the documentary’s 2025 interviews with Roen and Kyle (who admit they have a very co-dependent relationship with each other), Roen was homeless, and Kyle says Roen’s homelessness is not by choice. Just like Kyle, Roen does not mention what he’s doing with his life. And whoever conducted the interviews for the documentary didn’t seem to ask those questions. It’s a huge failure for a documentary about two people who committed fraud where they convinced strangers to financially support them.

The Horn parents say that Roen’s health problems caused Joseph and Mary to declare bankruptcy. They quickly mention that Roen has dental issues because of gastric acid from his eating disorder. Another deficiency in the documentary is not interviewing any health experts to give more information on the types of medical problems that are discussed in the documentary.

Roen’s health problems started when he was 9 years old and had a bike accident that resulted in his spleen having to be removed. Roen and his parents believed that he didn’t need to take the prescribed medication. And by then, Roen had already developed an eating disorder. He was eventually diagnosed with orthorexia, which is a fear of food that the person with the disorder thinks is unhealthy and an obsession with eating only food that the person with the disorder thinks is healthy.

Roen’s eating disorder became so severe when he was a teenager, child protective services intervened when Joseph and Mary refused to put him in an institutional medical facility. With Joseph and Mary experiencing the very real probability of losing custody of Roen, who would likely be made a ward of the state, Kyle took it upon himself to run away with Roen, so they could “disappear” in Canada. In the documentary, Mary says Kyle had often talked about living in Canada, but when Kyle and Roen went missing, she had no idea where they could be if they were in Canada.

Mary also describes putting up missing persons flyers of Roen. The documentary has a ridiculous-looking and unnecessary re-enactment showing Mary—not an actress made to look like the 2003 version of Mary—putting up these flyers, even though Mary is obviously much older than she was when she distributed those flyers in 2003. Although Mary says she actively looked for Roen, she admits, “I do wonder if a part of me didn’t want them [Kyle and Roen] to be found.” She believed that Roen was most likely with Kyle and remembers thinking, “Maybe that’s part of the solution.”

In his documentary interviews, Kyle isn’t concerned at all that he put Roen’s health in serious jeopardy by running away and depriving Roen of the medical treatment that Roen needed. “I didn’t think he would die,” Kyle nonchalantly says. “I think it’s just a matter of respect for your freedom.”

Kyle and Roen both say that their main motivation to run away and hide was because they didn’t want Roen to be put in an institution where Roen would be force-fed through a tube. Roen is defensive of Kyle’s decision to run away with Roen to Canada: “I’d much rather have a brother who did what Kyle did than a brother who would’ve turned me in. Kyle did the best thing he could’ve done for me.”

However, Roen also admits feeling uncertainty during their life of hiding and fraud in Canada: “Part of me wanted it to end. I was thinking about, ‘What am I missing in school? How long is this going to go on? When am I going to see my parents again?'”

It goes without saying that if the brothers were going to face any legal punishment (besides deportation) from the Canadian government, then Kyle (who was the adult at the time) would’ve faced harsher consequences than Roen. However, “Wild Boys: Strangers in Town” is such a terrible documentary, it never explains why Kyle never faced any legal consequences besides deportation. Kyle was admittedly the mastermind of this fraud, as well as the crime of transporting an underage child across international borders without parental consent.

Vernon’s former mayor Harvey generously says that he believes that Kyle and Roen were in a “mental health crisis” when they committed their crimes. Proce of the RCMP isn’t willing to let Kyle off the hook so easily with that “mental health crisis” excuse. In the documentary, Proce remembers that when Kyle and Roen were getting on chartered aircraft for their deportation, Kyle was very cold-hearted and didn’t acknowledge any of the supporters who were there to say goodbye to him.

In its own way, “Wild Boys: Strangers in Town” is also callous about the victims in this case because the documentary does not go into details about all the time, money and trust that people wasted on these two losers. Ryder wasn’t the only victim. The taxpayers of British Columbia and other many other people were affected.

This shoddy documentary also gives no sense of how the perpetrators of this pathetic fraud might have evolved or changed from this experience. The brothers and their parents are not asked any tough questions in this documentary. Ultimately, “Wild Boys: Strangers in Town” mostly seems to care about letting these two mentally unwell brothers show their smugness about breaking laws and how they wallow in self-delusional arrogance.

Paramount+ premiered “Wild Boys: Strangers in Town” on February 18, 2026.