Kevin Collins case: SFPD looking at man Kevin Collins 
 
 1982 mug shot of Dan Therrien, identified by San Francisco police on Feb. 6, 2013, as a "person of interest" in the disappearance of 10-year-old Kevin Collins. The boy vanished in February 1984. 1982 mug shot of Dan Therrien, identified by San Francisco police on Feb. 6, 2013, as a "person of interest" in the disappearance of 10-year-old Kevin Collins. The boy vanished in February 1984. Photo: Photo From San Francisco Police, San Francisco Police Photo: Photo From San Francisco Police, San Francisco Police Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Kevin Collins case: SFPD looking at man 1 / 7 Back to Gallery 
 
 (02-07) 09:16 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco police probing the 1984 disappearance of a 10-year-old boy sought the public's help Wednesday in providing information about a man with a history of kidnapping and molestation in Canada and San Francisco who died five years ago. 
 
 "This is a case that haunts the San Francisco Police Department and the city of San Francisco," Chief Greg Suhr said at a press conference at which investigators identified a person of interest in the long-cold case of Kevin Collins' disappearance. "We carry it with us every day." 
 
 The man on whom police are focused was last known as Dan Leonard Therrien, but also used at least four other names in his life. 
 
 He was living in a Masonic Avenue home in 1984 not far from where Kevin was last seen near the Panhandle. Police working the renewed investigation into the boy's disappearance searched the home last week, but found only what are believed to be dog bones. 
 
 Therrien matched the description of a 6-foot-tall man who was sitting on steps when he was talking to Kevin shortly before the boy was last seen Feb. 10, 1984, at Masonic and Oak Street, police said. Kevin was waiting for a bus after leaving basketball practice at nearby St. Agnes School. 
 
 The man had a large, black dog, witnesses said. Therrien had such a dog, but two witnesses who were shown pictures of Therrien could not identify him as the person they had seen talking to Kevin, police said. 
 
 "They saw him just in passing, so they might not remember his face well enough," homicide Inspector Joe Toomey said. 
 
 Therrien allowed police to search the Masonic Avenue home in 1984, but authorities found nothing, Suhr said. 
 
 Authorities knew then that Therrien had been arrested in San Francisco under the name of Wayne D. Jackson in April 1981 in connection with an incident in which a 7-year-old boy had been kidnapped at Fisherman's Wharf and molested, police said. 
 
 Therrien jumped bail but was caught in March 1982 at the home on Masonic, where he was living under the name Kelly Sean Stewart. 
 
 Therrien was sentenced under the name of Jackson to six months in jail and three years' probation for felony lewd acts on a child, court records show. 
 
 Although investigators looking into Kevin's disappearance were aware of that case, they did not know that Therrien had also been accused of kidnapping and molesting two 13-year-old boys in 1973 in Canada, because he had been arrested under the name Raymond William Stewart. 
 
 Therrien fled to the United States after being released on bail. He was never prosecuted for the crime, "in part because of the multiple identities he used," homicide Lt. Tim Plyer said at the press conference. 
 
 He died under the name of Therrien in February 2008 in San Francisco. He was listed as 51 under that name, but ages he gave with other aliases would have made him 61. 
 
 In addition to searching the home where he once lived, police showed a photo of Therrien to Kevin's mother, Ann Collins of Concord, Suhr said. She could not be reached for comment Wednesday. 
 
 Suhr said Therrien's multiple aliases had contributed to the "rather winding road getting to this guy." 
 
 "What we're looking for now is anybody that saw this guy back in 1984, anybody who talked to this guy back in 1984, anybody who talked to somebody who talked to this guy back in 1984," the chief said. 
 
 "We would love to find out the whereabouts of that little boy." ||||| A man known as Dan Leonard Therrien (top), and Wayne Jackson (bottom) is seen in these photographs released by the San Francisco Police Department February 6, 2013. 
 
 Dan Leonard Therrien, also known as Wayne Jackson and three other names, is seen in this California drivers license photograph taken April 26, 1999 and released by the San Francisco Police Department February 6, 2013. 
 
 Wayne Jackson, who was known to go by four other names, is seen in this police booking photograph taken June 18, 1982 and released by the San Francisco Police Department February 6, 2013. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO Police using cadaver dogs and jack hammers have renewed their probe into the fate of a young San Francisco boy who became a national symbol for abducted children three decades ago, and they publicly identified their prime suspect for the first time on Wednesday. 
 
 San Francisco police held a news conference to enlist the public's help in learning more about a man investigators had questioned in the disappearance of 10-year-old Kevin Collins just days after he vanished in 1984. 
 
 The suspect, Wayne Jackson, who was known to go by four other names, lived across the street from the Catholic grammar school that Kevin attended in the Haight-Ashbury District. He had a history of sex crimes against children and died in 2008, police said. 
 
 The American public came to know Kevin after he was among the first missing children to have his picture printed on milk cartons distributed throughout the nation. Newsweek magazine ran his photograph on its cover under the headline "Stolen Children." 
 
 "This is a case that haunts the San Francisco Police Department and the city of San Francisco," police Chief Greg Suhr said. 
 
 Kevin was last seen at a bus stop following a school basketball practice on February 10, 1984. Normally, Kevin traveled to and from school with his brother, but his sibling was home sick that day. 
 
 The last two people known to have seen Kevin alive said the boy with the gap-toothed smile had been talking to a blond, 6-foot-tall man with a large dog. 
 
 Jackson, who listed his birth date as between 1947 and 1956, fit the description and had a dog like the one the witnesses described. Police also learned then that he had been arrested in 1981 for kidnapping a 7-year-old boy and attempting a sex act with the child. After skipping bail, Jackson was re-arrested and ended up serving six months in jail, police said. 
 
 After Kevin's disappearance, police searched Jackson's home but found nothing. The two witnesses who reported seeing Kevin talking with a tall blond man failed to identify Jackson in a photo lineup, and the lead seemed to die there -- until last month. 
 
 A new group of cold-case detectives decided in recent days to try turning up fresh clues with cadaver dogs, and two dogs were brought in for a first-ever search of the basement and garage of Jackson's old home last week. 
 
 Both dogs independently responded to the same spot in the garage, and a city crew jack-hammered through the concrete and unearthed fragmentary skeletal remains last Tuesday. So far, however, the bones appear to be from an animal. Additional tests are continuing in a state crime lab. 
 
 Meanwhile, investigators recently learned that Jackson had been arrested in 1973 in Canada on charges he kidnapped two 13 year olds but fled Canada before that case could be resolved, police said. 
 
 Kevin's disappearance tore up his family. His parents divorced, and his father dedicated himself to finding his son and other missing children by starting the Kevin Collins Foundation for Missing Children. 
 
 On the 10th anniversary of Kevin's disappearance, when the boy on the milk carton would have been 20, his parents and his eight brothers and sisters held a private memorial service at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, south of San Francisco. 
 
 There they dedicated a bench to him inscribed with his name, a cross and the words, "Forever in our hearts." 
 
 (Reporting and writing by Ronnie Cohen; Editing by Steve Gorman and Lisa Shumaker)
– San Francisco police have reopened a 29-year-old abduction case, renewing the search for the body of Kevin Collins, who disappeared in 1984 when he was 10 years old, and publicly naming a suspect for the first time. That suspect, who was last known as Dan Leonard Therrien but has gone by at least four names, died in 2008, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Therrien had a history of pedophilia, and matched the description of a 6-foot-tall man seen with Kevin shortly before his disappearance. Investigators searched Therrien's home back in 1984 and found nothing. But in recent days, police used cadaver dogs and jackhammers to search his property, Reuters reports. They quickly found bones buried in the garage, but initial testing seems to indicate that they're from an animal. Kevin was one of the first missing children ever put on a milk carton. "This is a case that haunts the San Francisco Police Department," the police chief said. "We carry it with us every day."