Walsh Murder Made America Focus on Child Safety

CLEVELAND - Adam Walsh was a young boy born just a couple years before me. When he was abducted and murdered in the summer of 1981, he transformed a nation that far too often neglected its innocent youth. Shamefully, his murder remained unsolved for all these years.

Until yesterday.

A Hollywood, Florida police chief officially closed this iconic case at a news conference by naming Walsh's long suspected assailant; deceased pedophile Ottis Toole. The young boy's parents and siblings that he never lived to meet were present and struggled to hold back tears and heavy emotion. His father, John Walsh became a relentless activist for justice against fugitives and child abductors and became the host of a show he created in 1988 called, "America's Most Wanted." His response to the closing of this haunting case:

"For 27 years, we have been asking ourselves, 'Who would take a 6-year-old boy and murder him and decapitate him? Who? ' " Walsh said. "We needed to know. Today we know. The not knowing has been a torture but now that journey is over. It is only fitting that it ends here at this police department.

The boy's mother, Reve thanked her other children as tears streamed down each of their faces.

This historic case transformed America in its aftermath. Young Adam went missing from a Sears store while shopping with his mother on July 27, 1981. His severed head was found in a canal more than a hundred miles from where he was last seen. His body was never found.

The awful scenario inspired a 1983 television film based on the crime. Every time I saw it, it was a truly chilling experience. It always makes a person wonder how anyone could do something so heinous. Thankfully, much good has come from the tragedy. The elder Walsh was able to influence the passing of critical legislation which aimed to protect children from these nut jobs. As a result, the faces and vital statistics of missing children have appeared on milk cartons and mailers for decades. There's even safeguards in place at department stores all over the country with the code for a missing or potentially missing child called, "Code Adam."

Thank goodness.

With the mishandling of the evidence in '81, Toole was essentially allowed to escape justice in spite of the fact that he twice confessed to the crime years ago. He also recanted both times and ended up dying while imprisoned on unrelated charges in 1996.

I hate that the entire situation happened to begin with, but I am very grateful that real healing can finally begin for Mr. Walsh and his family. They have been given a life sentence that they didn't deserve and an innocent child lost his life.

I was four in 1981. That could have been me.