SF Cops Name Suspect in 1984 Abduction Case

Search resumes for body of Kevin Collins
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 7, 2013 11:52 AM CST
SF Cops Name Suspect in 29-Year-Old Abduction Case
This driver's license photo shows Dan Leonard Therrien, a "person of interest" in Kevin Collins' disappearance.   (AP Photo/SFPD)

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." (More Kevin Collins stories.)

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