Ripken Abduction: Cal Ripken Jr. Offers $100K Reward For Information On His Mother’s Kidnapper [VIDEO]

Baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr. announced a $100,000 reward Thursday for information that helps lead to the capture and conviction of the person who abducted his mother a year ago.

Police officials continue to ask the public for information in order to find the man who kidnapped Violet Ripken just last summer. She was taken from her Aberdeen home at gunpoint on July 24, 2012, and returned unharmed 24 hours later.

The abductor drove Vi Ripken around in her own Lincoln Town Car for hours through Central Maryland, before being returned to her neighborhood. The man was somehow able to leave the vehicle with Mrs. Ripken in it less than a mile from her home and flee the neighborhood even as police were patrolling there.

To this date, the kidnapper's motive and identity are still unknown.

In the crime's immediate aftermath, the Aberdeen Police Department released a sketch, photographs and a surveillance video that were believed to show the potential suspect. They shared it widely through local media and even on some highway billboards, but to this date, "no additional details regarding the suspect or his motive have been developed," according to the Aberdeen Police.

However, Ripken Jr. said he hopes this reward would re-energize his mother's unsolved case.

"I think in some ways maybe this should've happened earlier," Ripken said of the reward offered on behalf of his company, Ripken Baseball, and the Ripken family. "I think in the beginning ... we were all hopeful that (an arrest) would happen pretty quickly and we were all encouraged. But, you know, it is what it is."

Former America's Most Wanted TV host John Walsh has offered his help, saying the case would be featured on the franchise's website. He also said the reward had the potential to yield new information.

"The average citizen, they're not looking for the rewards," Walsh said. "But in the criminal community, amongst the lowlifes who populate this country, 100 grand is a lot of money."

Anyone with information about the case should call the America's Most Wanted hotline at 1-800-CRIME-TV or the FBI at 410-265-8080, according to a news release.