Rewards Offered in Search for Boy, 10

Rewards totaling $17,000 were offered today in the fearedabduction of a 10-year-old boy in Kankakee County as residents fromthree states called in hundreds of tips.

Undersheriff Tim Bukowski said a search was continuing for adark-haired man who was seen with the boy, Christopher Meyer, alongthe Kankakee River, where the boy was fishing Monday beforevanishing.

A composite sketch of the suspected abductor also "lookssomewhat like" a man sought for questioning by Gary police in thetriple slaying of the man's mother, father and grandmother July 30,Bukowski said. The Gary suspect escaped on foot into a cornfieldafter a police chase ended near Rensselaer, Ind., a number of daysafter the slayings.

Christopher's family today posted a $5,000 reward, KankakeeCounty Crime Stoppers offered $2,000 and an anonymous individualoffered a two-part reward - $5,000 for the boy's safe return and$5,000 if somebody is convicted.

Police were trying to determine if the suspect was the same manwho showed up in the area recently, talked about salt-water fishingand may be from Florida, Bukowski said.

"We believe the boy's body may be in the water" because both ofthe boy's tennis shoes and his bicycle were found along the river,Bukowski