Some Closure for the Walsh Family...After 27 Years

By now those of you who were not familiar with incident surrounding John Walsh (host of "America's Most Wanted") are now intimately acquainted with the gory details of his son's death. For those who live under a rock-John Walsh's son Adam vanished from a Sears department store in Hollywood, FL on July 27th, 1981. Two weeks later and 120 miles away, Adam's decapitated head was found in a canal by two fisherman. Adam's body would never be found.

As I understand, there was a hat found near the cranium, one containing evidence of the perp. Ottis Toole, a slow (considered near if not mentally retarded) pedophile was in the vicinity. Evidence has always linked him to Adam Walsh. Toole was a disgusting human being if he could even be labeled such. Apparently, he palled around with Henery Lee Lucas (another sociopath). The nature of their relationship is rather blurry but they both committed unspeakable acts of homicide and mutilation. Ottis was a necrophiliac and was thought to eat his victims, much like Dohmar. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that. Both Toole and Lucas had horrible up bringings, which most likely contributed to their sociopathic behavior. Having said that you cannot blame everything on your parents (a serious nature vs nurture debate which I will save for another blog). Lucas was also thought to be a pathological liar, so it's hard to nail down details and I won't bore you with the macabre details of their youths. Long storyshort, there were thought to be some blood stains on a carpet which wastaken from Toole's home - stains which may have matched the blood of Adam Walsh. However, DNA testing was hardly existent and the police lost the evidence (carpet with the stain) so their leads went cold, as did the case.

John Walsh always figured Ottis Toole for Adam's murder. Toole even confessed to the crime (and then recanted on a couple of occasions, one being his death bed, which his niece bore
witness and testified to). However, Toole died in prison on September15th, 1996, from liver failure at the ripe old age of 46. He was serving five life consecutive life sentences, having been convicted of a series of other unrelated murders. John Walsh and his wife went on to lead a life of advocacy and they remain committed to doing so, Adam will not have died in vain. John Walsh has brought home many children and locked up many criminals thanks to his FOX show "America's Most Wanted".

Moreover, Walsh aided in passing the federal Missing Children's Assistance Act of 1984, which in turn created the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He changed the world, in my opinion. It was only yesterday that the Chief of the Hollywood FL Police Department apologized for "lapses" in the investigation. While he also stated there was no singular piece of evidence linking the departed Toole to the murder, they had enough evidence to rule him so. My point in writing this is that I truly hope that this brings theWalsh family some peace and a sense of justice. It was beyond a tragedy, but what was possibly worse was the lack of closure. Having had a family member go missing, I can think of nothing more painful. It is truly a crime to not know and it is, as Walsh put it, "torture." My own biggest nightmare is not a tragedy, but an unresolved tragedy - something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. While we will never know what was running through the mind of Ottis Toole, and how he could have done this to a sweet innocent six-year-old boy, we know tonight that it happened at his hands.


Reve Walsh candidly described the loss of Adam 27 years later as a Phantom Limb Syndrome. The sensation of him remains even now. It's something you never get over but learn to work around she said. I understand, it's not really ever something you never "get over" but you learn t o live with the broken heart and the pain.

To this day I still wake-up in cold sweats. Thankfully, those nightmares are few and far between but I would imagine I'll be dealing with for the rest of my life.


I wish the Walsh family, and especially Adam, some peace and solace after an excruciating 27 years.