2502 Sutter Street |
The story of Kevin
Collins is San Francisco's
heartbreak. Kevin was last seen on February 10, 1984, waiting for the northbound
No. 43 bus at the corner of Oak Street and
Masonic Avenue. His disappearance from the City's sidewalks came at
a time before Americans had adequately responded to the tragedy of missing
and exploited children. There was no Megan's Law, America's Most Wanted,
nor the many groups, toll free numbers, web sites, child I.D. kits, and
other resources that will help the parents of a child who is abducted today.
It may never be known if any of these resources would have found Kevin or
prevented his abduction. Kevin was one of nine children from a working class
family. His father, David Collins, was a truck driver and nursing student.
Kevin was a bright, well-liked 4th grader. On the day of his disappearance,
Kevin, of St. Agnes School (755 Ashbury Street),
left the school's gym at a separate facility on Page Street between Ashbury
and Masonic at or around 6 p.m. Those closest to the boy speculate that
he slipped out of the after school basketball practice in order to catch
the 43 and avoid piling in the coach's van with bigger, perhaps more intimidating,
kids. Students up to the 8th grade were participating in the practice while
Kevin's brother Gary, a 6th grader and constant companion of Kevin's, was
sick and stayed home that day. Kevin was last seen at 6:30. In the hours
and days after he failed to arrive home at 2502 Sutter Street, volunteers
circulated 2000 posters in a 200-block radius of St. Agnes. The well publicized
photo of Kevin is haunting because his vulnerability is so obvious and the
reality of his vanishing so sad. Kevin
Collins would be 30 years old at this writing on the 20th anniversary of
his disappearance.
National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children |