Police: 1981 murder of Adam Walsh solved

[Wetzelbill]

Source: MSNBC/AP

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Authorities in South Florida announced Tuesday that they've finally solved the 1981 killing of Adam Walsh, whose father later gained fame as the host of "America's Most Wanted."

Hollywood police held a news conference to close the case of the abduction and homicide of 6-year-old Adam. They identified the boy's killer as Ottis Toole, a drifter who confessed to the murder, then recanted before dying in prison in 1996. Toole's niece told the boy's father, John Walsh, her uncle gave a deathbed confession.

Adam's parents, John and Reve Walsh, long ago derided the investigation as botched. Both attended a news conference and gave a tearful account of what's it's been like not knowing for decades who killed their son.

The boy 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.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28257294/?GT1=43001

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Adam Walsh was around my age. I remember being so horrified hearing this as a little boy. It's been a long road, good to see it solved. It must be such a relief for his parents.

[Jim__]

1. It's good to see that solved.

I hope that fact brings some comfort to his parents.

[Wetzelbill]

4. yes, they had to have a tough time

for sure. I'm sure they feel some comfort at last.

[Dennis Donovan]

2. I'm glad John & Reve are getting some sort of closure on this...

At least something good came from this - America's Most Wantedand the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

[Wetzelbill]

5. good points

I respect the Walsh family for all of their hard work, it has to be devastating to even think of what happened to their little boy, yet they still get out and work for these causes out of his memory.

[hlthe2b]

3. Why did his niece wait nearly 13 years before telling anyone

He died in 1996... Maybe there is an explanation, but I find her failure to come forward this long to be absolutely cruel. :shrug:

[Wetzelbill]

6. I am not sure

what the article meant by that either, because they said something about recanting a confession and then reviewing evidence etc. It seems odd to hold that in for so long, if that's what she did.

[noonwitch]

18. Who knows-maybe there are deeper issues in that relationship

Maybe she did tell, and it's just taken this long for the police to clear up everything neatly.

But her uncle was a pedophile who killed a little boy-who knows what he may have done to the kids who were actually related to him.

[Mad_Dem_X]

7. John Walsh turned his grief and anger into something positive

by starting "America's Most Wanted." I'm glad he is finally getting some closure of his own.

[Wetzelbill]

8. exactly

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. John Walsh is a fascist dick

I'm sorry for the loss of his son, of course, but he operates as a key plank in the cultural normalization of the police state in America, along with Nancy Grace and various other professional victim/vigilantes.

[Festivito]

9. Adam would be proud of the work his parents have done. /nt

[Wetzelbill]

12. I am sure he would

They've really been inspirational people and have done lots of great work.

[roseBudd]

10. Was Otis Toole a room mate Of Henry Lee Lucas' as portrayed in Portrait of a Serial Killer?

[Wetzelbill]

11. They drifted together

Not sure about roommates or anything exactly, but they were associates.

[MnFats]

13. a friend of mine, a cop in fact, was always convinced that John Walsh himself...

...had sexually abused and then killed the boy.
the TV show was his way of atoning....sending bad people to prison...

I'll have to call him soon....

This is hard to believe....is there ANY other evidence?

[hlthe2b]

14. Ohhh, I NEVER thought John Walsh (or his wife) were involved

NEVER...


Unlike the Jon Benet Ramsey case that I admittedly was never certain.with respect to involvement of family members.


That picture of little Adam will stay with me forever. I too, remember full well when it happened. I wonder if that Sears Security guard was able to live with the "what ifs" in terms of throwing out the group of kids, including little Adam. :cry:

[Frank Cannon]

15. Oh, GMAFB

Amazing how the Walsh's three other kids managed to avoid being raped/murdered by their psychopath father.

Your cop friend is in major need of alcohol/drug-abuse counseling. I hope he's still not driving a beat.

[Wetzelbill]

17. Honestly I couldn't even reply to that post

It sickened me.

[undeterred]

20. What a terrible thing to accuse someone of with no evidence.

I'd hate to have to deal with your friend. I can see how Walsh rubs people the wrong way, but that is outrageous.

[Hannah Bell]

16. O'Toole, pal of Henry Lucas, the only person George Bush pardoned as gov of Texas.

Lucas, who confessed to every murder the cops brought to him, & apparently didn't do plenty of them.

The niece just now tells of the deathbed confession?

Hmm.


"In 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act to establish a national sex offender registry and to make it harder for predators to reach children on the Internet."

[undeterred]

21. I didn't know Bush pardoned anyone in Texas

except his friends.