On this day, July 27, in 1981, six-year-old Adam John Walsh was abducted from a mall in Hollywood, Fla., and eventually murdered. His father, John Walsh, later became a victims’ rights activist and eventually the host of “America’s Most Wanted.”
In December 2008, Hollywood police claimed to have solved the case and it was closed. They blamed dead convicted killer Ottis Toole for the crime, citing a “vast amount” of circumstantial evidence against him. Toole at one point had confessed to killing Adam only to recant after police couldn’t find the boy’s body where Toole claimed it would be.
Toole died in prison in 1996 from AIDS.
Adam’s body has never been found. His severed head was discovered Aug. 10, 1981 by two fisherman in Vero Beach, Fla.
In 1984, John Walsh founded the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and he started hosting America’s Most Wanted in 1988.
