Adam Walsh's Killer FINALLY Confirmed

[TripperFan]

Fla. police close books on '81 Walsh killing

Fla. – A serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh in 1981, police in Florida said Tuesday.

The announcement brought to a close a case that has vexed the Walsh family for more than two decades, launched the television show about the nation's most notorious criminals and inspired changes in how authorities search for missing children.

"Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" an emotional John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know. The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over."

Walsh's wife, Reve, at one point placed a small photo of their son on the podium.

The suspect, Ottis Toole, had twice confessed to killing the child, but later recanted. He claimed responsibility for hundreds of murders, but police determined most of the confessions were lies. Toole's niece told the boy's father, John Walsh, her uncle confessed on his deathbed in prison that he killed Adam.

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."

Wagner acknowledged numerous missteps in the investigation and apologized to the Walshes.

"I have no doubt," John Walsh said. "I've never had any doubt."

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.

The Walshes long ago derided the investigation as botched. Still, he praised the Hollywood police department for closing the case.

"This is not to look back and point fingers, but it is to let it rest," he said.

Adam Walsh went missing from a Hollywood mall on July 27, 1981. Fishermen discovered his severed head in a canal 120 miles away two weeks later. The rest of his body was never found.

Authorities made a series of crucial errors, losing the bloodstained carpeting in Toole's car — preventing DNA testing — and the car itself. It was a week after the boy's disappearance before the FBI got involved.

"So many mistakes were made," John Walsh said in 1997, upon the release of his book "Tears of Rage," which harshly criticized the Hollywood Police Department's work on the case. "It was shocking, inexcusable and heartbreaking."

For all that went wrong in the probe, the case contributed to massive advances in police searches for missing youngsters and a notable shift in the view parents and children hold of the world.

Adam's death, and his father's subsequent activism on his behalf, helped put faces on milk cartons, shopping bags and mailbox flyers, started fingerprinting programs and increased security at schools and stores. It spurred the creation of missing persons units at every large police department.

It also prompted national legislation to create a national center, database and toll-free line devoted to missing children, and led to the start of "America's Most Wanted," which brought those cases into millions of homes.

What it also did, said Mount Holyoke College sociologist and criminologist Richard Moran, is make children and adults alike exponentially more afraid

"He ended up really producing a generation of cautious and afraid kids who view all adults and strangers as a threat to them and it made parents extremely paranoid about the safety of their children," Moran said.

[JamesG]

There is still a following of people who say that serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was responsible for Adam Walsh's death; it made the news some time ago and caused a minor media frenzy.

Dahmer was discharged from the military due to disorderly conduct and when discharged he had told the Army to send him to Florida because "he never been there before". Dahmer was supposedly in Florida around the time of the Walsh incident.
Some witnesses came forward to state that they saw a tall, thin man wearing an army jacket carrying little Adam into a van. How credible these witnesses are is questionable and this is not considered to be a proven fact.

Some people also state that Dahmer "wasn't interested" in little boys because many of his victims were African-American men in their 20s. I wouldn't go by that because after all Ted Bundy raped and murdered an 11 year old girl (his last victim)when his MO was college-aged women. Sociopaths are unpredictable.

[MonarC]

That whole story is so sad but if you look at the positive side so many people have been brought to justice from AMW. It's amazing.

[AKA]

http://www.amw.com/features/feature_...il.cfm?id=3078

Statement From John & Revé Walsh:

It has been more than 27 years since our son Adam was abducted from a Hollywood, Fla. mall, then murdered. The situation that we have endured since then is beyond a parent's worst nightmare.

Despite an ongoing, 27-year investigation, our son's murder case has remained open -- until now.

Although Adam's killer never served one day in prison for destroying our son's life and almost ruining ours, nor will he ever because he died in prison serving time for an unrelated murder, we are satisfied that the main suspect in Adam's murder –- Ottis Toole -- has now been positively identified and that this chapter in our lives is now closed.

There are two agencies we would like to thank for never giving up: the Broward County State Attorney's office; in particular, assistant State Attorney Chuck Morton, and the Hollywood Police Department; and specifically, the courage of Chief Chad Wagner for moving this case to its conclusion.

We want to express our deepest gratitude to two men who worked with us all these years pro bono to get justice for Adam and give us some answers: Kelly Hancock, former Broward County State Attorney Prosecutor and now prominent private attorney with the law firm of Krupnick, Campbell, Malone, Buser, Slama, Hancock, Liberman and McKelly.

From the beginning, Kelly Hancock worked within the Criminal Justice System to make sure that Adam’s case did not fall through the cracks and to ensure that there was a resolution for Adam and our family.

Secondly, former Miami Beach Police Homicide Detective Joe Matthews, who worked this case tirelessly for 27 years and developed so much of the crucial evidence to close this case.

From all of the evidence presented to us, we agree with the conclusion shared by the key investigators that it is clear and irrefutable that Ottis Toole was the abductor and killer of our son, Adam.

We can now move forward knowing positively who killed our beautiful little boy. We, along with our children, Meghan, Callahan and Hayden, pray for the thousands of parents of murdered and still-missing children. We continue to fight for their safety, and to make sure that no child -- especially Adam -- died in vain.

John & Revé Walsh
Hollywood, Fla.

[catlover79]

John and Reve Walsh took the worst thing to ever happen them and used it to help others. God bless them both!! I'm happy that there is some closure for them.

[TripperFan]

Originally Posted by JamesG

There is still a following of people who say that serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was responsible for Adam Walsh's death; it made the news some time ago and caused a minor media frenzy.

Dahmer was discharged from the military due to disorderly conduct and when discharged he had told the Army to send him to Florida because "he never been there before". Dahmer was supposedly in Florida around the time of the Walsh incident.
Some witnesses came forward to state that they saw a tall, thin man wearing an army jacket carrying little Adam into a van. How credible these witnesses are is questionable and this is not considered to be a proven fact.

Some people also state that Dahmer "wasn't interested" in little boys because many of his victims were African-American men in their 20s. I wouldn't go by that because after all Ted Bundy raped and murdered an 11 year old girl (his last victim)when his MO was college-aged women. Sociopaths are unpredictable.

If you know the Dahmer case inside and out (and I think I know about as much as you can without being directly invovled in the case - I've read 3 biographies and recorded the entire trial as well as followed him once jailed) there's no way it was Dahmer.

I'm pretty sure they caught the right guy. John Walsh isn't a dummy and with the assistance he could get, I'm sure he knew the probability of Ottis as much as the cops did.

I hope this does bring some sort of closure for he and Reve now at least.

[janet42]

I'm glad that they finally confirmed Adam's killer. I hope this gives the Wash's family some closure that they so much deserved.

REST IN PEACE ADAM!!

[Janice]

So sad. I saw the Walshs crying at the press conference on tv. I always though that Ottis Toole killed Adam, yet I'm wondering what new evidence was found that made the cops close the case. I'm just glad that Adam did not die in vain, and that many lives were saved due to his father's activism.

[Lee]

I am glad that there will be closure for the Walshes. What do you all think
of the police officials in this case?

[sunshinefizzy]

Hallelijua (I'll be shocked if I spelt that right), praise the lord!!!