Ramsey Ad Offers Reward, Seeks ‘Male Approaching Children’

BOULDER, Colo. — JonBenet Ramsey’s parents, hinting at what their private investigators may have turned up, have bought a newspaper ad asking if anyone saw a man approaching children around the time their daughter was slain.

The ad, due to run in Sunday’s Daily Camera, seeks “information concerning an adult male approaching young children in Boulder in late 1996,” family spokeswoman Rachelle Zimmer said Friday.

Police spokeswoman Leslie Aaholm said that she was unaware of any reports of men approaching children in late December but that “if something comes of this, we will follow it.”

The district attorney’s office refused to comment.

The 6-year-old beauty queen was found strangled in the basement of her home Dec. 26, about eight hours after her mother discovered a ransom note demanding $118,000.

Dist. Atty. Alex Hunter identified the Ramseys as the focus of the investigation last month, and later the Ramseys broke their silence, talking to police and a select group of reporters.

The Ramseys hired their own attorneys, experts and investigators shortly after the slaying, but this is the first time they have referred publicly to a man approaching children.

Sunday’s ad, featuring JonBenet’s school picture, also offers a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. The family ran a similar ad in the same paper April 27. Both ads were sponsored by the JonBenet Children’s Foundation, created by the Ramseys shortly after the slaying.