SAN DIEGO -- Police have declined to confirm media reports that Jahi Turner was not at a Balboa Park playground the day he was reported missing and that his stepfather's account of the events of that day are inconsistent.

San Diego police information officer Dave Cohen would not comment on a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune that the 2-year-old boy's stepfather, Tieray Jones, failed a polygraph test.

MISSING JAHI TURNER Light-skinned African-American 30 pounds, 30 inches tall Black hair Wearing blue "Winnie the Pooh" T-shirt, blue pants, and gray tennis shoes INFORMATION Citizen Access Phone System: (619) 570-1070 Tip Hot line: (619) 235-8477 Download A Missing Flyer SOUND OFF Share Your Thoughts

"We have not commented on details of the investigation in the past, and we're not going to start today," Cohen said.

Both the Union-Tribune and KOGO Radio quoted unnamed law enforcement sources as saying that a lie-detector test indicates deception by Jones, with KOGO quoting unnamed high-ranking San Diego police sources as saying that he "failed the test miserably."

Video

Local Marines Assist In Landfill Search

Evidence technicians also did not find Jahi's fingerprints on the playground equipment, indicating the toddler likely had not been there recently, according to the newspaper's sources.

The sources also said Jones, 23, was questioned Wednesday by homicide detectives, who confronted him with inconsistencies in his version of the boy's disappearance.

The newspaper's sources did not say that Jones is a suspect and would not say whether police believe that Jahi is dead.

Jones told police he left the 2-year-old boy with a woman and two other children while he walked a few hundred yards to a soda machine about 2:15 p.m. a week ago.

When he returned to the playground off 28th and Beech streets 15 minutes later, his stepson was gone, along with the others, Jones told police.

The police search for clues into Jahi's disappearance continued to focus on the Miramar landfill. A crew of about 40 searched through the debris night.

A "larger contingent," including about 100 local Marines, will join in the search during the morning hours Thursday, Cohen said at an afternoon news conference Wednesday.

"We will continue to be here for 24 hours a day, as long as it takes to get through the area that we want to have a chance to look at," he added.

Authorities have also announced that a person they had questioned in the case was not the woman the boy's stepfather reported seeing just before the toddler disappeared from the city's landmark downtown open-space preserve.

"We now believe that the woman we did contact was not in the location Mr. (Tieray) Jones described the woman he saw as being," Cohen said.

The mysterious park-goer who Jones described remains a much sought-after potential key witness in the case, the spokesman said.

"So we are pleading with this woman, whoever (she) is out there, to in fact come forward, to give us a call," he added.

Jahi is a light-skinned African-American, about 30 inches tall and weighing 30 pounds. At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing a blue long-sleeve T-shirt with a rendering of the "Winnie the Pooh" cartoon character on it, blue nylon pants with an orange drawstring and gray Michael Jordan tennis shoes.

Officials urged anyone with information in the case to call the SDPD's Central Division "juvenile hotline" at (619) 744-9521 or San Diego County Crime Stoppers' anonymous tip service at (619) 235-8477.