In 1981, a parent’s worst nightmare happened to John and Reve Walsh.
Adam Walsh was 6 on July 27, 1981, when, while shopping with his mother, Revé, at a mall near their Hollywood, Fla., home, he was abducted. His mother and father, John, 51, then a hotel developer and now host of the TV show America’s Most Wanted, never saw him alive again. The crime remains unsolved.
Revé was three aisles away from Adam. He was watching four boys play video games. She was in the lamp department. When she returned three minutes later, he was gone. Revé demanded they start a search in the store. She called me at my office and said, “Something is terribly wrong.”
We searched through the night. I camped out at the Hollywood police department for two weeks. We distributed the first poster of a missing child all around the country. I was so naive. I didn’t know what a pedophile was. The police showed us a book of 200 child molesters on parole in Broward County. My heart started to sink. I didn’t know that such child killers existed.
At this time there was no 24/7 news to carry the news of Adam’s abduction, there was no Amber Alert to broadcast his description, and there was not internet to provide resources to parents with missing children. John Walsh didn’t know how to help law enforcement with the search for his son but he did have a resource who was able to get him an interview with Good Morning America’s host, David Hartman. It was while he and Reve were in New York for that appearance that they got the worst news possible for parents.
They found what turned out to be Adam’s severed head in a Vero Beach, Fla., canal. I started screaming and trashed the hotel room. I didn’t believe that someone could kill this beautiful little boy. The most horrible thing was telling Revé. It was unbearable.
Some people would have let the tragedy of their child’s death destroy them; Walsh decided to try to make the death a crusade to help others avoid the same pain that he and Reve experienced. He formed the Adam Walsh Foundation and has become an advocate for families of missing children. In addition, his television program, America’s Most Wanted has helped to bring over 1,000 fugitives to justice.
But though his efforts brought closure to many victims, his own son’s case has remained unsolved until today. Hollywood, Florida police have officially closed Adam’s case today pinning the crime on a Ottis Toole, a serial killer. Toole had reportedly confessed to Adam’s killing only to later recant. His death bed confession in 1996 was related to police by his niece.
Police said Toole was long the prime suspect in the case and that they had conclusively linked him the killing. They declined to be specific about their evidence and noted they had no DNA proof of the crime, but said an extensive review of the case file pointed only to Toole, as John Wash long contended.
“Our agency has devoted an inordinate amount of time seeking leads to other potential perpetrators rather than emphasizing Ottis Toole as our primary suspect,” said Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner. “Ottis Toole has continued to be our only real suspect.”
Many names have been mentioned in connection to the case in the years since the killing, including serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, but Toole’s has persistently nagged detectives. John Walsh has long said he believed the drifter was responsible, saying investigators found at Toole’s home in Jacksonville a pair of green shorts and a sandal similar to what Adam was wearing.
For any parent, the story of Adam and his death brings a shudder of dread. It is a legacy to him that his father and mother have taken the greatest sadness in the world and turned it into an opportunity to do something for others who are also experiencing a trial that no parent should ever endure.