New John Walsh show airing soon on Lifetime

[wiseguy182]

John Walsh investigates: Abduction in the Heartland is scheduled to air Wednesday June 19 from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Lifetime, rerunning a few hours later from 1:02 a.m. to 2:02 a.m. EST, check your local listings.

This is good news indeed

UPDATE: Okay, looks like Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton will be profiled on the show

http://www.13abc.com/story/20319297/...h-investigates

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...alexander.html

[wiseguy182]

I still haven't been able to find out much info online. I don't know if this is going to be a regular series, the occasional special or what. It would be good to see John Walsh back on t.v. full time.

This debut episode (?) found John starting off by talking about Amanda Berry & company. Things turned to Joseph Edward Duncan. You may remember him as this was a pretty infamous case in the news back in 2005. This creep had broken into a home in Idaho, killed the mother and 13 year old boy, and then kidnapped a 9 year old boy (Dillon) and 8 year old girl (Shasta) in the house. Kept them for 7 weeks, repeatedly raping and abusing them. Duncan wound up killing Dillon as well, Shasta lived. Duncan was apprehended a short time later. Walsh interviewed Shasta on the program. Sadly, the only other living member of Shasta's immediate family is her father, who is stricken with lung cancer and has to talk with one of those machines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_E._Duncan_III

Things turned to Alicia Kozakiewicz, who was 13 years old when she was abducted after meeting up with an adult male friend she had met online. She was living in Pittsburgh at the time, he lived in Virginia. He had taken her to his home in Virginia and locked her up on a wall in his basement where he had a variety of whips, paddles, chains, knives and other weapons. He raped her several times over 4 days and enslaved her. He videotaped some of this. He was caught after one of his perverted friends turned him after he uploaded some of the tapes online and even the perverted friend thought that was going too far. The perp was at his job at the time. John Walsh delegated interviewing Alicia to Polly from NCIS.

Then we turned to the missing Skelton boys, for the 3rd full segment. This happened in my state of Michigan, though I must confess I have no idea where Morenci is.
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...alexander.html
I have no idea how the mother can get full custody of the children when she is a registered sex offender.

Walsh closed the show by mentioning that they're still hoping to find Ashley Summers, who also had went missing from Cleveland.
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...rs_ashley.html

[Kane]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

I still haven't been able to find out much info online. I don't know if this is going to be a regular series, the occasional special or what. It would be good to see John Walsh back on t.v. full time.

I saw about the last 20 minutes of the episode. Chances are there will be more installments, but I'm guessing they are currently testing the waters before deciding on whether to turn it into a regular television series (similar to when Unsolved Mysteries began as a series of specials before being promoted to a regular series).

There have been complaints elsewhere on the Internet about Lifetime's apparent lack of promotion of the show. In fact, someone expressed suspicion that advertising it too much could result in Lifetime's message board being inundated with posts criticizing the network's decision to cancel America's Most Wanted. I don't know if that is the actual reason for Lifetime's insufficient (or lack of) advertisement of John Walsh Investigates, but it sounds plausible.

Even if John Walsh is truly moving on to a post-AMW life, I am happy to know that the essence of AMW isn't lost on him. Besides, in a recent CBS interview, he said in no uncertain terms that AMW needs to be on television.

[wiseguy182]

I think you may be right Kane. Walsh said "AMW" once in the program (spelling out the initials), but never outright said America's Most Wanted during the hour. So while he did allude to his previous show, he did it carefully.

[Kane]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

I think you may be right Kane. Walsh said "AMW" once in the program (spelling out the initials), but never outright said America's Most Wanted during the hour. So while he did allude to his previous show, he did it carefully.

I didn't notice that, Wiseguy. But I only typed "AMW" to save the extra typing. It's no different than someone typing, for example "ST:TNG", the abbreviation for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Anyway, in my previous post on this thread, I was generally noting John Walsh's understanding of the need for America's Most Wanted, and why it should remain on television.

It's interesting to note that John Walsh initially refused to do the show, and has been on record saying that he turned down the offer "for six months." The producers approached other people about hosting the show, including actress Theresa Saldana, but they wanted Walsh. It was the case of escaped murderer David James Roberts that finalized Walsh's decision to host AMW. (Roberts became the firtst AMW capture.)

Walsh has admitted that there was skepticism that AMW would work. But in one interview conducted by Geraldo Rivera, he also acknowledged the initial uncertainty as to whether law enforcement would support the show, noting that there hasn't always been a good relationship between law enforcement and the media. I guess it goes to show that selling a series like AMW (or even Unsolved Mysteries) is not as easy as 1-2-3.