Jessica Ridgeway's family asks missing children nonprofit to stop using girl's image

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Jessica Ridgeway

/ Westminster Police

(CBS/AP) WESTMINSTER, Colo. - The family of Jessica Ridgeway, a 10-year-old Colorado girl killed after being abducted on her way to school, wants a nonprofit group aimed at helping missing children to stop using her name for fundraising.

Pictures: Ten-year-old Colorado girl missing

The family has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Colorado's Missing Children Foundation to stop using Jessica's name or likeness to help raise money, said the Rocky Mountain Victim Law Center, which worked on the letter. The Ridgeways, through the center, declined to comment Wednesday beyond an announcement of the letter.

Ben Bargas, who said he's on the foundation's board, said he and others have raised money for Jessica's family, but now the Ridgeways want to form their own foundation.

Colorado's Missing Children Foundation was formed by volunteers who looked for Jessica after she disappeared Oct. 5, Bargas said. After Jessica's body was found, the volunteers formed a foundation to help all missing children in Colorado.

As of Wednesday evening, the foundation's website still included Jessica's name.

"It's not like we're using her name to make a profit. We're trying to use her name to tell a story of how the whole foundation was started," Bargas said.

More coverage of Jessica Ridgeway on Crimesider