RCMP in British Columbia are combing through tips and leads in their search for three-year-old Kienan Hebert, who has not been seen since his parents put him to bed Tuesday evening.

The search for Kienan is being undertaken on two fronts. Police, volunteers and tracker dogs have been scouring the woods near the boy's Sparwood home, in the hope that he simply wandered away by himself.

But police are also pursuing a theory that the boy may have been abducted, and have 20 investigators pursuing leads and tips from the public.

On Friday, RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said investigators are asking residents and business owners in a growing radius from Hebert's home to check for evidence that may lead searchers to the little boy and the man they believe he may be with. Police have identified Randall Peter Hopley, 46, as a suspect in the case.

Late Friday, surveillance video from a gas station in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta showed a man resembling Hopley making a purchase at the cash register. The video was recorded at about 7 a.m. Wednesday.

Employee Vern Johnson said the man was alone.

"I didn't realize I'd seen anything until a policeman came in, looked at our videotape and he showed me a man walking through the front door and said ‘that is our suspect,'" Johnson told CTV News.

Police have not confirmed that the man in the video from Alberta is Hopley. On Friday, they were still pursuing several leads across B.C., including:

  • A tip that Hopley's brown Toyota Camry was spotted in a local ferry terminal. The boat was turned back and searched, but neither the boy nor Hopley were found.
  • An unconfirmed report that a man who looks like Hopley was walking with a small boy along Highway 97 about 30 kilometres south of Dawson Creek. Road blocks were set up in the area and police conducted a ground search with the aid of a police dog.

Moskaluk told reporters Friday that investigators would like to see surveillance video from businesses in the Sparwood area. They are also asking that residents who own summer homes in the region check the properties for evidence of a break-in.

"If anybody's a recreational property owner in the general area of this part of the province, certainly if you haven't checked your property of late it would be appreciated by the investigators to go to your property, check it out, see if there's anything suspicious," Moskaluk told a media briefing.

Responding to reports from the night before, Moskaluk also denied reports that police have video evidence showing the missing boy and Hopley together.

Moskaluk said that while police have received tips about "reported sightings" of both the boy and Hopley, "These are all they are at this time, until you hear from the investigative unit that we have a confirmed sighting."

Moskaluk also said the RCMP's major crimes unit searched Hopley's last known residence.

Orville Sheets said police searched the trailer that he rents to Hopley. In video taken at the trailer, police could be seen taking undisclosed items away in brown paper bags.

"They're just seeing if they can find anything that might help them pinpoint where he's at," Sheets said. "Myself, I haven't got a clue."

Hopley's mother, Margaret Fink, said she had been out of touch with her son for about a year before seeing him on Tuesday. She said he had been working odd jobs, and was excited that he had managed to get insurance for his car.

Fink issued an emotional appeal to her son in an interview with CTV British Columbia.

"I would like him to come home, and if he has the little boy that he bring him home safe," Fink said through tears and heavy breaths as a tube fed oxygen into her nose. "I would like for him to come and phone me, or get in touch with me or come right to the house or I will even talk to him if he'll come home."

Hundreds Join Search

Earlier Friday, the search for the little boy resumed with volunteers, police, special tracking teams and family members.

"Helicopter searches, ground searches, hundreds of volunteers, there's a special tracking searching through densely wooded areas," said CTV's Janet Dirks, reporting from Sparwood in the Elk Valley region, which is at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains near the B.C.-Alberta border.

"There is a lot of forest, there are creeks, there are mountains. The dad Paul Hebert said he had heard perhaps as many as 800 volunteers from Nelson, B.C., were coming to help in the search."

Volunteers had been focusing on an area within one kilometre from Kienan's home, which is about how far he likely would have gone had he wandered away by himself, according to search and rescue manager Simon Piney.

That search area widened late Friday.

Piney said that a three-year-old's chance of survival after four days missing outdoors is about 70 per cent. The fact that police are also working on the theory that Kienan was abducted has not deterred volunteers, he said.

"If it turns out that the person of interest (Hopley) is found and has an innocent explanation for everything, what we are doing now represents Kienan's best chance of survival," Piney told reporters.

"If he's not near his home, that helps the RCMP significantly."

Police have kept up their blockade of the street belonging to the Hebert residence. However, the police tape that was around the home has since been removed.

Police Appeal to Suspect

Hopley had just gotten out of prison a few days ago, Dirks said. Hopley has numerous convictions for break and enter and is a convicted sex offender after an incident in the mid-1980s.

The Canadian Press also reported Friday that Hopley faced an attempted abduction charge after an incident in November 2007. That charge was stayed in the case, although Hopley pleaded guilty to break and enter. A Crown spokesperson confirmed that the incident involved a 10-year-old boy.

CTV British Columbia's Rob Brown said the attempted abduction charge stemmed from an attempt Hopley made to pull the boy out of his Sparwood home via a basement window. In court documents obtained by CTV British Columbia, Hopley admitted to watching the boy's home for three weeks but said he was merely trying to take the boy from his foster family and return him to his biological family. In an interview with CTV, the boy's mother refuted that claim.

Hopley is also facing a court date on Sept. 19 on a dozen charges, including break and enter and possession of stolen property, relating to an incident in Crowsnest Pass in May 2010.

In that case, the owners of a cabin found Hopley squatting in their property. Inside, there were children's clothing, as well as sex toys and a photo of a young boy.

"I felt sick to my stomach," cabin owner Jennifer Skapin told CTV News. "As soon as I saw that I had to step outside, I needed a breath of fresh air."

Hopley was released on the condition he stay away from the child in the photo.

Police are still looking for Hopley's car in connection with Kienan's disapperance, described as a brown 1987 Toyota Camry with licence plate number 098 RAL.

Anyone who has seen Kienan, Hopley or the vehicle is asked to call 911 right away.

Police are also appealing to Hopley to visit a police station.

"We would ask that if he is aware that we are looking for him, to do the right thing, to approach any police service," Moskaluk said. "Rest assured that you will be treated with respect. We will work through this issue. The bottom line is we want and need to see Kienan Hebert returned."

Family ‘Emotionally Wrecked'

Kienan's father, who was upbeat and positive Thursday morning, told Dirks he felt numb by nightfall, noting that the family was "emotionally wrecked" but adding that "we have to have hope."

"Yesterday he went out to buy some school supplies for the kids and that's when he got choked up and almost started to cry and he said his brothers and sisters are really missing little Kienan," Dirks told CTV's Canada AM.

Kienan is the second-youngest of eight children in the family, which moved to Sparwood several months ago from Peace River, Alta.

On Thursday night about 150 people attended a candlelight vigil for Kienan.

After a prayer and a moment of silence Thursday, town Coun. Margaret McKie asked everyone to turn on their porch light to "light the way for him to come home."

"That's just a symbol," she said. "It's a hard knock for our community to have a little three-year-old that's been away from home."