DENVER -- The Larimer County Sheriff said Tuesday that a missing boy was likely killed by a predator. Jim Alderden made the statement while talking about the tattered clothes found last week in the rugged Comanche Peak Wilderness. The jacket, shoes and pants belonged to 3-year-old Jaryd John Atadero, who has been missing since Oct. 2, 1999.

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Allyn Atadero talks about the discovery of his son's clothesAtadero's Clothes Are Shown To Reporters

Alderden said the condition of the clothes made it appear that some sort of a predator, like a bear or mountain lion, killed Atadero. He also pointed to dark and light hairs on the pullover that the Colroado Bureau of Investigtion will analyze. Jaryd's hair was dark, so investigators want to know if the hairs can be identified.

Two Fort Collins hikers found the clothes on Wednesday about 550 feet from the Big South Trail -- an area that had been searched numerous times after Jaryd was reported missing.

The clothes were found 600 feet up the side of a canyon, said Larimer County sheriff's spokeswoman Eloise Campanella.

The spot is not considered a crime scene, Campanella said. She said the area could have been an animal den.

"With all those animals up there, there is a strong possibility that some of this evidence could have been carried away," she said.

Testing on the clothes, which do not have visual signs of blood, could take weeks. No remains were found.

In the meantime, Jaryd's father, Allyn Atadero, is holding out hope that his son is still alive. He said he will not hold a memorial service for his son until he knows for certain what happened.

"Everyone else can come to a conclusion," Atadero said. "But I have to live with it every day. I can't sit here and say ... it's time for Daddy to move on."

Jaryd was on a hiking trip that day with his sister and 11 adults in a church group.

Atadero has kept mementos of the day his son disappeared -- rocks from the canyon, a bottle of water from the South Fork of the Poudre River where investigators thought the boy may have drowned and a walking stick. All are kept on a shelf at his Littleton home.

"Everyday I walk by it, touch it and make sure he's part of my life," he said.

Over the years, Atadero has talked to people who have offered him various theories on Jaryd's disappearance. Three months ago, a psychic group called him to say the boy had been abducted and taken overseas.

He said he's listened to such people with an open mind while waiting for evidence. That evidence came Friday when sheriff's deputies told Atadero about the clothing and e-mailed him photos of the discovery.

The camel-colored fleece jacket appeared intact, and the blue-and-white tennis shoes also appeared unscathed.

But the blue cotton pants appear to be turned inside out and the right leg is missing. Atadero said that doesn't make sense to him.

"There are several theories. That he could have frozen, been abducted, been taken by an animal or he fell in the river and drowned," he said. "Right now, all we know is that he is not in the river."

Fragments of material were scattered in a 100-yard radius around the clothing and may have been strewn by rodents building nests, investigators told Atadero.

Atadero said he probably will wait the weekend to visit the site. He smiles when the thinks of his son and he recalled the night before Jaryd disappeared, when the boy kept him up about a movie scene in which Godzilla destroys a town.

"We're sitting there, he's holding my hand sucking his thumb and when the scene is over he says, 'Daddy, did you see that?"' Atadero said with a laugh. "'Godzilla is a boy.'"