For a second week in a row, the TV show “America’s Most Wanted” will air a segment on the Ayla Reynolds case.

At 9 p.m. Friday on the Lifetime channel, host John Walsh will address a national audience with an update on the investigation, including the announcement on Monday of a $30,000 reward for any information that leads investigators to 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds, who was reported missing Dec. 17.

“It is extremely troubling that Ayla has been missing for almost two weeks and that someone is holding back an important nugget to help bring her home to her family,” Walsh said Wednesday in a prepared statement.

Walsh added that last week’s show generated new leads for local investigators.

During a phone interview Wednesday, show producer Michelle Sigona said her staff learned about Ayla Reynolds through the news and decided the case was appropriate for “America’s Most Wanted.” Although the show’s main focus is hunting fugitives, it also devotes time to active missing persons cases, she said.

“It’s about engaging with an audience,” Sigona said. “It’s about pulling on the heartstrings of that person who knows something about the case and encouraging them to call us.”

In the past 25 years, “America’s Most Wanted” has helped recover more than 60 missing people and capture 1,165 fugitives, Sigona said.

The show maintains an anonymous tip line at 1-800-Crime-TV.


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