How the Horrifying Murder of Adam Walsh Changed a Generation of Parents

For much of the 20th century, much of America lived in a sort of blissful, willful ignorance of the potential dangers lurking nearby. This sense of general safety, which was at its greatest from the late 1930s through the late 1960s, is borne out by statistics: U.S. homicide rates were fewer than seven for every 100,000 people for every during that period. By the 1970s, crime was on the rise again, even as many children had relative free rein to roam. However, that national innocence was shattered in 1981 by the abduction and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh.

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Taken by a stranger from a department store in Hollywood, Florida, Adam's case shook a nation, and altered the way parents viewed their children's safety. More than that, however, the tragedy led to new programs and laws dedicated to helping missing and exploited children.

The Kidnapping and Murder of Adam Walsh

Many of the details of what happened to Adam Walsh will never be known. But we do know some of what took place on July 27, 1981, the day the 6-year-old was last seen alive.

Adam and his mother, Reve, entered a Sears department store in Hollywood, Florida. As Reve shopped, she allowed Adam to remain in a toy aisle, where he was watching a group of older boys play video games. Granting a child this small degree of freedom was perfectly normal at the time.

When the older kids were asked by a security guard to leave the store because he found them disruptive, Adam left with them. He was too shy to speak up to say he wasn't part of the group. Those are the only specific detail we have, or will ever have, about his disappearance.

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Adam’s mother returned to the toy aisle to find her son gone. She had him paged over the store’s intercom, searched the store herself, and then called police. By then, it was too late. Adam had already been abducted, most likely from the Sears parking lot.

A frantic, two-week search began, driven chiefly by his parents, John and Reve Walsh. Sadly, it was in vain. On Aug. 10, 1981, fishermen found Adam's severed head in a canal near Vero Beach, Florida, more than 100 miles from the department store. The rest of his body was never found.

The Suspect in Adam Walsh's Murder

Authorities are convinced that convicted serial killer Ottis Toole kidnapped and murdered Adam Walsh. It's an opinion shared by Adam’s father, John Walsh. The case was officially closed in 2008, with Toole named by police as the killer. Still, a lot of questions remain.

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For starters, no ironclad physical evidence has tied Toole to the crime. He confessed to Adam's kidnapping and murder in 1983, while in prison for other crimes. He implicated serial killer, and frequent companion, Henry Lee Lucas as an accomplice. However, he changed his story when police established that Lucas was in prison in Virginia at the time.

Toole then said he alone abducted, murdered and dismembered Adam, only to recant the confession. He was never formally charged in Adam Walsh's death. Neither was anyone else.

How the Adam Walsh Case Changed Countless Lives

Within days of Adam Walsh’s disappearance, parents Reve and John Walsh embarked on a mission that would forever impact life in America. First, they founded the Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children, mere days after their son's funeral. They then lobbied Congress to pass the Missing Children’s Act, which established a missing child database to be used with the FBI’s National Crime Information Center. That would bring together all evidence in a case, and make it much easier to locate the child and to track down and punish the abductor.

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And then, in the late 1980s, John Walsh, now fully committed to victim advocacy, launched America’s Most Wanted. Airing for an astonishing 25 years, from 1988 through 2013, the TV show, hosted by Walsh himself, dramatized true crimes in hope of generating tips that would lead to the capture of the perpetrators. In many ways, America's Most Wanted was a precursor to the inescapable “true crime” television of today. Beyond entertainment, though, the series led to the capture of more than 1,000 fugitives who might otherwise have escaped justice.

However, Adam Walsh's case, and the 1983 made-for-TV movie Adam, are also viewed as responsible for creating the era's overblown panic about child abductions by strangers. It led to a generation of parents too afraid to let their children out of their sight, and a generation of kids wary of every stranger they encounter.

John Walsh is unapologetic about any role he may have played in whipping of those fears. “It's all about minimizing risks," he told The Wall Street Journal.

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