Adam Walsh
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Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

Today I'm discussing the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh. What happens when your child goes missing in a store, when you leave them in another aisle for just a few minutes, and when you return, they're gone?

If you've worked for larger retail corporations like I have, you might be familiar with Code Adam. This is a policy many major retailers have adopted, where basically the employees shut down the store until the child is found. What if there is no Code Adam? You might ask for an Amber Alert. Well, what if there's no Amber Alert? And the police tell you that your six-year-old child, who is five miles from home, simply just walked home. Or ran away.

After all, that's what kids do, right? Well, I think most of us, myself included, would completely freak out. You would plead with the police that you know your child, and reiterate just how young they are. They wouldn't run away. They wouldn't try to walk five miles home. Your child needs help, and they need it now.

This was John and Revae Walsh's reality, long before these incredibly helpful policies and alert systems, before organizations like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children existed. When children being murdered or kidnapped wasn't everyday news, when it still shocked us,

On July 27th, 1981, six-year-old Adam Walsh was abducted from the Sears at a Hollywood, Florida mall. The police searched for Adam for weeks. Then, on August 10th, Adam's head was found in a canal, more than a hundred miles away from where he'd last been seen. His body has never been recovered. Adam and his family would go on to forever change the way we treat cases of missing children.

And because of Adam, countless children have been brought home. This is the case of Adam Walsh. On July 27th, 1981, Revae Walsh and her six-year-old son Adam drove to Sears, which was located in a Hollywood, Florida mall. Revae, an interior designer, wanted to look at some lamps they had on sale. At around 12.15 p.m., Revae and Adam entered the store, walked past the catalog desk, and entered the toy department.

There was a display of new video games, so of course Adam asks Revae if he could stay near the display. There was a small group of boys who were already there, so Revae says sure and tells Adam that she'll be in the lamp department just three aisles away. According to America's Most Wanted, just a few minutes later, a fight broke out between some of the boys who were playing the video game.

Sears employees called for a security guard, and a 17-year-old who'd only recently started working in security responded. The guard tells the boys to leave the store.

And Adam is really shy and mindful of authority, so he doesn't tell the security guard that he wasn't with those older boys. Instead, he just follows one of the boys at the west exit of Sears into the parking lot. And this is all happening within just a few minutes. So of course, Revae is extremely surprised when she goes back to the toy department and Adam and the other boys aren't there.

Ravaine looks around the store for a few minutes, and then asks the store to page him over the intercom. Of course, she continues to look everywhere for Adam, and then she runs into her mother-in-law, where they both start searching for him.

And what they do is share Adam's description all along the way. He was wearing a red and white striped short-sleeved shirt, green running shorts, yellow flip-flops, and a beige captain's hat. Of course, Reveille is instantly worried for Adam. He was just six years old and a sensitive boy. He loves Star Wars, baseball, and dinosaurs.

Revae and her husband John were really protective of him. They wouldn't let him ride his bike in the street or even go to a nearby park by himself, and he'd only been to his first sleepover just a few weeks prior. By 1pm, Adam still hadn't been located, so the Hollywood police were notified. Revae, her mother-in-law, Sears employees, and the police combed the store and the rest of the mall, but they couldn't find Adam. From

From here, they extended those searches into the areas surrounding the mall. There were volunteers, boats, and helicopters. They also shared Adam's description with utility workers, mail carriers, and taxi drivers. In addition, amusement parks, specifically Disney World, were given Adam's picture and told to look out for him.

Now, at this point, police didn't think Adam had been abducted. They thought maybe he'd wandered away. One Hollywood officer later told Local 10 News that in 1981, the majority of missing children cases were thought to be runaways. So, police never really thought much about the possibility that a stranger could have been involved.

Adam's story would end up highlighting the problems with how police responded to abducted children. At the time of Adam's disappearance, there was no national database for missing children. So unless a police department contacted other agencies to help, it was unlikely that authorities in other areas would be looking for the missing child. That's exactly what happened in Adam's case.

The Hollywood police didn't notify any other departments about Adam's disappearance, so authorities outside of Hollywood didn't really know to look for him. By the end of July 27th, there was still no sign of six-year-old Adam. Reveille and John spent the whole night looking for their son. They also left Reveille's car in the Sears parking lot with a sign that read, quote, "'Adam, stay in the car. Mommy and Daddy are looking for you. Stay in the car. Love, Mommy.'"

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The search for Adam continued the next day. There were police and hundreds of volunteers still looking in the areas around the mall. Police told the media that they still didn't have any indication, one way or the other, of foul play. They said, quote, We're still going under the assumption he walked away from the mall and could be lost. We have no leads whatsoever.

Reveille and John Walsh handed out flyers and offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to Adam. That would quickly be up to $120,000. The flyers included the now pretty famous photo of Adam. He was an all-star right fielder with his Little League team. In the picture, he's wearing his baseball cap and holding a bat. His front teeth were missing, and his face was dotted with freckles.

John and Revae also went on television to plead for Adam's return. John said that he wasn't a rich man, so he didn't know what the abductors were looking for. But he and Revae said that they were, quote, willing to negotiate. John added, quote, Adam's such a beautiful little boy, and he's so bright and well-mannered. Maybe someone just wanted him, but we want him back.

Every day for weeks, John would speak to the media to make sure Adam's case stayed active in people's minds. A local 10 News anchor later noted that in 1981, this was unprecedented. The anchor said, "...that seems like a no-brainer now, but back then nobody really had a sort of skill set or the idea of, how do we keep this story going? The Walshes were very good, although it must have been painful."

By now, the tips were starting to come in, and while police and volunteers were out searching for Adam, detectives were following numerous tips that Adam had been seen around town. One witness reported seeing Adam get into a white car that drove west on Hollywood Boulevard. Another said that Adam had been talking to a garbage pickup crew. He reportedly told the crew that he wanted to be a garbage man when he grew up.

Detectives also investigated tips about numerous suspicious people that were seen at the mall on July 27th. One lead came from two separate witnesses who were not together at the mall. Both said they saw a thin, disheveled blonde man acting strangely. One of the witnesses says he followed the blonde man to the Sears toy department because he was acting so strangely.

At least four other witnesses saw Adam getting into a blue van. According to a man in his 20s and a grandmother and her two 10-year-old grandchildren, Adam was in the Sears toy department around 1.30pm, which was after the store broadcasted Adam's description over the loudspeakers. Police believe that Adam was looking for Revae at this time, but couldn't find her.

And we know that from there, Adam walks out the north exit of the store and into the parking lot. Police believe that he was going back to Reveille's car. That's when the witnesses said a muscular man rushed out of the store after Adam. The man ran towards a blue van, got in, and drove towards Adam. The man nearly hit the grandmother and her grandchildren in the process.

Adam turned a corner, and the van followed him. One of the grandchildren looked around the corner and saw the van. One of its doors was open, but the child couldn't see Adam. The van then drove away. Despite all these leads, Adam was not located. By July 29th, two days after Adam went missing, the police came to the conclusion that Adam had been kidnapped.

They felt like if Adam had just walked away from the store, he would have been found by then. But police said that they still weren't sure what the motive for an abduction would be. At this time, John Walsh was the vice president of marketing for a hotel in the Bahamas. Some detectives did look into that possibility that his job may have had something to do with Adam's disappearance. But they didn't find anything. So they kept digging.

Before July 29th was over, John stood on a car in the mall parking lot and asked volunteers to not give up hope in finding Adam. He said that there was still a reward, and they had 150,000 flyers that they needed to be handed out.

John said, quote,

The flyers were put up everywhere. A local 10 News anchor later recalled seeing Adam's flyers. She said, "...there wasn't a place you could go in South Florida without seeing that all-American kid, with the gap tooth and the baseball bat and the baseball cap on, smiling. He was the all-American little kid. It was on every toll plaza you went through. It was in grocery stores. It was posted on signs and streetlights. You couldn't forget it."

Two weeks after Adam's disappearance, they started focusing their attention on Adam's godfather, Jim. John had known Jim for around 12 years. He had lived with the Walshes for two years, before moving out just a few weeks before Adam went missing. Detectives thought the timing of his move was suspicious. They wound up questioning Jim 20 times.

One of the investigators working on the case later told the local news that Jim had an airtight alibi, but it didn't matter to the lead detective, who he says was ignoring all other leads just to focus on Jim. This upset the Walsh family. Reve told the Indianapolis Star, quote, Reve explained the reason that Jim moved out.

Reveille explained the reason that Jim moved out. He knew that the Walshes had just celebrated their 10th anniversary, they were planning to start having more kids, and they needed all the space they could get in the house. Now, Jim was eventually ruled out as a suspect, and one detective later admitted to violating Jim's civil rights during his 20 interviews. But then, there was a break in the case, and I want to warn you that it's graphic.

On August 10th, two fishermen found the severed head of a little boy in a canal. This was near the 130 marker of the turnpike near Fort Pierce, Florida. Once police arrived, they were almost positive the head belonged to Adam Walsh. But due to decomposition, they wanted to wait until the dental records came back.

Based on the lack of blood in the canal, instead, they theorized the killer parked the car on the side of the highway, then walked to the canal with Adam's head and left it there. Police, of course, searched the water and surrounding areas, hoping to find the rest of Adam, but they were unsuccessful.

The next day, they made a positive ID for Adam Walsh. Here's what the autopsy found. They believed that Adam had been murdered on or around the day he was abducted. He suffered blows to the area around his eyes and had a fractured nose. He had been asphyxiated before his head was removed, most likely with a machete or meat cleaver, although that piece of information was not released to the public for many years.

Following the identification, the Walshes spoke to the media. John broke down in tears and said, quote, I don't know who would do this to a six-year-old child. It's just beyond the realm of reality. Reve said, quote, Adam was too good for this world, and he didn't deserve to live in this world. He's too good. And you know that only the good die young.

And we know how the media is. The Indianapolis Star reported that Reveille was icy and stone-faced. Within minutes of their interview, numerous people called the Hollywood police to report that Reveille was the killer. Now, of course, both Reveille and John were looked at, and detectives realized that Reveille's behavior was due to shock, not guilt.

A few days later, John spoke to the media again. He said that he was thankful that the Hollywood police searched for Adam day and night, but he was frustrated about the lack of agencies that help search for missing children. Within days of Adam's funeral, the Walshes established the Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children. This later became the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC.

Following the discovery of Adam's partial remains, his abduction and murder became national news. The increase in attention led to a ton of tips being called in. At one point, police say that they were taking more than 200 calls an hour. One detective described it as a madhouse. By August 16th, detectives decided to focus on the tips they'd received about that blue van.

The man in his 20s and one of the young boys who saw the blue van underwent hypnosis to tell the police what they saw. They described the van as being a midnight blue, late-model Ford with a black front bumper, a chrome ladder on the left rear, tinted windows, ribbed mag wheels, chrome running boards, a rectangular window on a passenger side sliding door, and a black interior. The van had a Florida license plate, but no spare wheel.

The witnesses both described the man as being white with an olive complexion, around 23 to 26 years old, 5'10 to 6 feet tall, and 160 to 170 pounds. He had dark brown hair and a mustache.

They said the man was wearing a multicolored tank top and had muscular arms. The child also said that the man was wearing blue jeans and brown boots with a rounded toe. He also said that there was another man in the car. This man was around 30 and had straight, dark brown hair. He was wearing a short-sleeved blue shirt. From here, they released two sketches based on the witnesses' descriptions, and detectives focused their search on finding the driver of the blue van.

Similar to what we saw in last week's episode about Morgan Nick and the red truck, the Miami Herald reported that this led to blue van hysteria. Basically, police were just getting reports of every blue van in the area if it looked a little suspicious. Detectives ended up looking at over 6,500 blue vans that were sold in South Florida over the last three years. But it doesn't seem like they found anything. To my knowledge, the driver of the blue van was never located.

On August 29th, it was announced that the police were scaling back the search for Adam's killer, because they just didn't have the leads.

Then, in late September, a six-year-old boy named Antonio Castillo was brutally killed. They weren't able to identify his killer as Philip Atkins from Lakewood, Florida. Now, because Antonio and Adam were the same age, police looked into the possibility that Atkins was involved in Adam's case. But after speaking with Atkins' boss, detectives realized that Atkins was working at the time of Adam's abduction. He was ruled out, and police were back to no new leads at all.

This slowed the case down even further.

But all this time, John and Revae were working non-stop to change the laws on how authorities handled these cases. They didn't want any of their families to have to go through what they went through. In addition to starting the Outreach Center, they also worked on establishing the Missing Children Act. This would require the FBI to record missing children in the National Crime Information Center database, or NCIC. Congress enacted this in 1982.

Next, the Walshes were consulted on a made-for-TV movie about Adam's abduction. The hope was to bring in more tips. This was released in October 1983, and it was just titled Adam. 38 million people watched that first broadcast, which is absolutely insane for 1983. That's more than 10% of the entire US population at that time.

And for the next few years, Adam was rebroadcast multiple times. And one of the really cool things is at the end of the movie, the names and information for numerous missing children were included. And this led to the recovery of 65 children.

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But of course, there was an investigation still happening in the background. Around the time that the Adam TV movie was first broadcast, Florida detectives were interviewing serial killer Otis Toole and his partner Henry Lee Lucas. They had been on a four-year crime spree.

Now, Toole and Lucas would end up confessing to hundreds of murders, but the vast majority of these confessions would later be dismissed as lies. Toole was only convicted in six murders, while Lucas was convicted in 11. In October 1983, Florida detectives questioned Otis Toole about a murder which occurred in Cocoa Beach. Toole said that he didn't know anything about that murder.

But he had another crime to talk about, the abduction of a boy from outside a Sears near Fort Lauderdale. The detective believed this to be the Adam Walsh case, so the Hollywood police were notified and they traveled to visit Toole. America's Most Wanted reported that when detectives spoke to Toole, he said that he and his partner, Henry Lee Lucas, had abducted a young boy they saw in a Sears parking lot.

and put him in the front middle seat of their 1971 white Cadillac. Toole said that he drove north on the turnpike toward Jacksonville, while Lucas terrorized the child.

Toole went on to say that they pulled over in a wooded area off the turnpike. While there, they murdered the boy. Toole held him down, while Lucas used a machete to remove his head. When asked to describe the boy, Toole said that he was between 7 and 10 years old. He described him as being dressed in overalls, a blue shirt, and sneakers. This description didn't match Adam Walsh at all.

At the time of his disappearance, Adam was only six and a half. He had last been seen wearing shorts and flip-flops. Detectives showed Toole a picture of Adam, and he said he didn't think Adam was the boy that he and Lucas kidnapped and murdered.

Following the interview, detectives set out to see if any part of Toole's story could be true. They soon found that Lucas couldn't have been involved at the time. He was in a Virginia jail on charges for car theft. So detectives go back to Toole and tell him that they know he's lying. And Toole admits to lying, then tells a different story. This time, he says that he was alone when he kidnapped and murdered Adam.

Toole tells them that he saw Adam on the west side of Sears. He talked to him for about 15 minutes before getting him into his car with the promise of candy and toys. Once Adam was in Toole's Cadillac, he locked the doors and windows, then drove toward Hollywood Boulevard and got on the turnpike headed toward Jacksonville. He told detectives that at first Adam was quiet, but he became restless and wanted to go back to Sears. Toole ignored Adam and kept driving.

But eventually Adam started yelling, which irritated Tool, so he slapped him several times. Tool then pulled over at a service plaza and choked Adam to unconsciousness. After this, Adam did not wake up again. Tool told detectives that he thought Adam was smart, so he grew concerned that Adam would recognize him if he let him go. So, Tool kept driving, looking for a place to kill Adam.

He says that after about an hour, he found a wooded area that he could pull into and not be seen from the road. He then removed Adam, who was still unconscious, from the Cadillac and laid him on the ground. He then took a machete he kept under the driver's seat and used it to remove Adam's head. He then buried Adam's body, then put Adam's head on the front floorboard of the car before moving it to the rear floorboard. Toole says it was only a short distance before throwing Adam's head in the canal.

He then returned to Jacksonville.

Now, detectives felt like this story was a lot more believable. They noted that his description of the murder weapon and the number of times he used it to sever Adam's head was consistent with the medical examiner's findings. His story also matched at least one tip detectives had received in the first few days of the investigation, the one about Adam being seen getting into a white car which drove down Hollywood Boulevard. Detectives asked Toole why he did it,

and he said it was because he wanted to raise Adam as his own son. He further said that he lied about Lucas' involvement because he wanted to get even with him. Toole explained that Lucas had recently admitted to murdering and decapitating Toole's favorite niece.

Detectives were able to find the Cadillac. When they looked inside, they found a machete. They also sprayed luminol and found the presence of blood on the front and rear floorboards of the car, exactly where Toole said he laid Adam's head. Seven squares of carpeting were removed for further testing.

The Hollywood Police Department asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab in Jacksonville to handle the evidence. The Cadillac, machete, and carpet squares were sent to the lab for processing, but they weren't able to determine if the blood on the carpet belonged to Adam. And my team wasn't able to find what, if anything, was determined with the machete.

Before the month of October 1983 was over, Otis Toole was transported to Hollywood so he could walk detectives through the events of July 27th, 1981. According to America's Most Wanted, Toole identified the correct Sears store where Adam was abducted and the correct canal where Adam's head was found. Toole further showed detectives a wooded area where he said he severed Adam's head and then buried the rest of his remains.

That night, Hollywood Police Chief Sam Martin announced that Otis Toole was responsible for Adams' abduction and murder.

The following day, John Walsh told the media, "...my heart will always be broken for the rest of my life. I miss Adam more now than when he went missing, because the reality hadn't set in at the time." John said that he prayed that the "...criminal justice system will not break down, and that Adam will receive justice." Now, justice looks different for everyone.

But that just didn't happen. Otis Toole was never charged with Adam's murder. When investigators searched the wooded area Toole said he buried Adam in, they didn't find his body. According to America's Most Wanted, without any physical evidence to officially tie Toole to Adam's murder, the state attorney refused to bring charges against him. And it wasn't long before Toole started changing his story again.

In another conversation with detectives, he said that he had not buried Adam in the wooded area. Instead, he'd taken Adam's body to Jacksonville and cremated him in an icebox in his mother's backyard. He says from there, he took the remains to the city dump. Then, in January 1984, three months after his first confession, Toole recanted everything, saying he didn't kill Adam at all.

Not a lot happened over the next 10 months, and in October 1984, Hollywood police announced that they were putting the case into an inactive file. They said Toole was their only suspect, but there wasn't enough to convict him. And like we see happen, as time passed, Toole changed his story again and said that he was responsible for killing Adam.

Now, according to ABC News, Toole made a total of 24 confessions and three recantations. But it should be noted that those numbers may be exaggerated. Some sources say Toole confessed less times. Unfortunately, there's just a lot of inconsistent reporting.

But according to NBC, Toole's confessions often included different details. Sometimes he said he abducted Adam by the mall merry-go-round instead of Sears. In one story, he said that he bribed Adam with candy. But at another time, he said it was a baseball glove. In some confessions, Toole said that he decapitated Adam. While other times, he said he left his body intact. Once, Toole even claimed to have thrown Adam's head and body into the same canal.

But detectives didn't believe that could be true because Adam's body has never been recovered. Unfortunately, this is a game that sometimes these people play. At one point, a detective from a county police department asked Toole why he kept recanting if he was truly responsible for Adam's murder. Toole replied that every time he told the Hollywood detective something, they said he was lying. That made Toole mad, so he would just say, "'You're right, I didn't do it.'"

And unfortunately, the torment for the Walshes did not stop. In 1988, Toole writes them a very vulgar letter. He says he kidnapped, raped, and murdered Adam. He said that for $50,000, he'd tell them where the rest of Adam's body was located, but only if they didn't go to the police. John later told ABC News, quote, I read that letter and went into the bathroom and threw up.

I said, this son of a bitch. We have to figure out a way for him to tell us what happened. That same year, 1988, John started hosting America's Most Wanted, continuing his mission to help other families. Now, you guys probably know this, but the show would go on to help locate more than a thousand fugitives, including at least 17 from the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. And of course, tips were still coming in about Adam's case.

Three years later, in July 1991, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in Wisconsin. Two Hollywood, Florida residents called police to say that they had seen Dahmer at the mall on the day of Adam's disappearance. These were the same people who called police about a thin, disheveled blonde man acting strangely in the mall.

the one that was apparently acting so suspicious that someone followed him into the Sears toy department. Police interviewed Dahmer, and he said he did not kill Adam. Eventually, he was rolled out altogether.

A month later, in August 1991, a Hollywood resident named William read an article about the 10th anniversary of Adam's murder. He came forward and told police that he saw Toole and Adam in Toole's car back in July 1981. William said that he was waiting for traffic to move in the parking lot when he saw Toole double park his car, get out, take a child by the hand, and open up the car.

William was put under hypnosis, and he gave a perfect description of Toole's Cadillac, including a special dent that hadn't been made public. William's wife would later tell police that when William saw Toole's photo in 1983, he told her that he thought he'd seen that man. But William just didn't connect the dots at the time. This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series, Back in Crime.

If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.

In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poliansky. But what if we were to turn back the hands of time and relive these events as they unfolded? Follow along each week as we take a fresh look at crimes from the past. Back in Crime is available now.

In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that everyone has a different version of events.

Hear the story on Where's Dear? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In 1994, a new detective was assigned to Adam's case. Now, quite a bit of time had gone by, so the first thing he did was look at the evidence the department still had. Technology had changed quite a bit, and he wanted to send everything off for testing.

But he found that all of the physical evidence was gone. The carpet squares, the machete, and the car were all gone. Apparently, because Toole had recanted, someone in Jacksonville felt that the evidence was no longer relevant, so it was thrown away. And the car was sold, and later junked for scrap.

So, the detective worked with what he had, and when he was done looking over the case, he believed that Toole could be the person responsible for Adam's abduction and murder.

The fact that Adam's severed head was found 124 miles north on the Florida Turnpike, which would add credence to someone from Jacksonville being involved, kind of fit. He further noted, "...all the reports I read indicated that Toole was accurate as far as where he pulled off and decapitated, and then he went farther north and discarded the severed head in the canal. All the reports indicated that he was apparently and pretty much accurate about the description."

But still, no charges against Toole were filed. And then, as we see happens all the time, in September 1996, Otis Toole died in prison. Following his death, Henry Lee Lucas told the media that Toole was responsible for Adam's murder. He said Toole showed him his remains, and they were in a shallow grave. He said he didn't say anything at the time because he didn't want to get involved.

A year later, in 1997, John released the book Tears of Rage, and John harshly criticized the Hollywood Police Department's handling of Adam's case. He called it shocking, inexcusable, and heartbreaking.

The Walshes later sat down with ABC's Nightline to speak about the investigation. They said that from the beginning, they were disappointed with the Hollywood police. When Adam went missing, they just didn't take the case seriously enough. Then when Adam was found dead, the department botched the murder investigation. John called it, quote, "...one nightmare after another."

In the years after John released his book, he remained the host of America's Most Wanted. He and Reveille also continued their mission to help make the world a safer place for children.

In 2006, on the 25th anniversary of Adam's disappearance, President Bush signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act into law. The act expanded the National Sex Offender Registry, created a new child abuse registry, and strengthened penalties for crimes against children. Around this same time, the Walshes decided to hire someone to go over Adam's case, starting from the beginning.

They ultimately hired Joe Matthews, a retired police detective who had briefly been involved in the case early on. He had been critical of how the initial investigation was handled, so John and Revae felt like he was a great fit.

And Matthews found something major. Detectives hadn't developed a roll of film from Toole's car. This film had several photographs of Toole's car. In one photo, Matthews could see bloody footprints on the driver's side. In another photo of the rear floorboard, where Toole said he put Adam's head, he could see the bloody outline of a face. The Walshes did view this photo. Reveille later told ABC News that she saw Adam's face in the photo.

She said, quote,

In the end, Matthews concluded that Toole was responsible for Adam's abduction and murder. He felt that all the evidence against Toole had been there the whole time, but the initial lead detective decided to ignore it and not focus on Toole.

Now, of course, Matthews shares this information with the Hollywood police, and after going through everything, the new police chief, Chad Wagner, was also convinced that Toole was responsible. And then they finally announced it. On December 16th, 2008, Chief Wagner announced to the public that Otis Toole was responsible for Adam's murder.

and that the case was being closed. Wagner said the evidence was strong enough to have Toole charged prior to his death, and that he regretted that the case hadn't been closed earlier.

After the conference, John and Revae released a statement, which read in part, quote, "...from all the evidence presented to us, we agree with the conclusion shared by the key investigators, that it is clear and irrefutable that Otis Toole was the abductor and killer of our son, Adam. We can now move forward knowing positively who killed our beautiful little boy. We pray for the thousands of parents of murdered and still missing children."

We continued to fight for their safety and to make sure that no child, especially Adam, died in vain.

Which brings me right to our call to action. As you might have noticed, Adam's case is a little different from what I normally cover here on Voices for Justice. I know that there are a lot of theories out there about this case that don't always include Tool, but if John and Revae Walsh have made peace with the answers they've been given, I won't argue with that. I won't define what justice, answers, or closure looks like for them, because I can tell you that is a deeply personal thing.

The reason I wanted to cover Adam's case is because you guys know I have a soft spot for these kids who set precedents. There's no way around it. It's just not fair. It shouldn't take something like this to happen for us to implement policies and programs that protect children. But what Adam's family has done since his murder is nothing short of incredible.

Adam's case has touched my life in so many different ways. At the beginning of this episode, I mentioned something called Code Adam. But basically, you know, in every store is a little bit different, but in the stores I worked for, the whole idea was get as much information as possible. You report that information as soon as possible to the police, and you man those doors. Any entrance, any exit, any way that a small child could get out, you need someone posted there.

And of course, if you see a child with someone who is not their parent, you do your best to delay them. Basically, you lock down that store until that child's found, or the police say that they are not there. And of course, Adam's case has affected my life in other ways.

John Walsh is a personal hero of mine, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children helped a lot with Alyssa's case. I and my sister Alyssa have directly benefited from Adam Walsh's legacy, and I don't want that legacy to fade in all the noise of true crime. So hopefully this episode can be a small part of that. I'm gonna try not to get emotional. I'm already there, I'm already there. It's just...

Like I said, the moment I don't get emotional about these cases and what I do, I think is the moment I need to step away from true crime. So bear with me, I have recorded this and re-recorded it, and I am trying my best not to cry. It just is what it is, you guys. But I have directly benefited from Adam's case. When the Phoenix Police Department failed to investigate my sister Alyssa's case for so many years after she went missing, NECMEC was there. They created the first age-progressed photo of Alyssa.

In those first few years, they were the only organization getting her name and face out there, all while the police and local news just weren't pursuing it. While I can't go into all of the details right now because of the trial pending, if you listened to season one of this podcast, you know just how much Nick Mech helped Alyssa.

I also think Adam's case is, unfortunately, a learning moment for so many people. Yes, it wasn't and still isn't common for a six-year-old to be abducted by a stranger, but it does happen. What looks like irrelevant evidence today could be extremely important in the future, and sometimes, even with strong circumstantial and, in my opinion, physical evidence, these cases never see a courtroom.

Sometimes legal justice just doesn't align with common sense. And that's the reality that so many families live with today. But I will say that NCMEC is a bright light for many families going through very dark times. And that's all because of Adam. So that's my call to action. Raising awareness for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

They've assisted in almost half a million cases. That's a number that really feels too large to grasp.

But this is how the Walshes have chosen to honor Adam's legacy. So I hope you feel compelled to do the same. You can support them at missingkids.org or on any social media platform. Please donate if you can and feel compelled to do so. But at the very least, I really hope that you share the cases they feature. Sometimes, like in my sister's case, they might be the only organization fighting for that child.

As a reminder, six-year-old Adam Walsh went missing from a Sears store in Hollywood, Florida on July 27th, 1981. While Adam's case is closed, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you to contact the FBI should you have any valid tips about his case. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.

Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. This episode contains writing and research by Haley Gray, with research assistance by Anna Luria. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to follow, rate, and review the show in your podcast player. It's an easy and free way to help us and help more people find these cases in need of justice.

Welcome to the secret after show, the door to the studio. My spare bedroom is open, the air conditioning is on, and the dogs are in. Now, obviously, this was a tough one for me. Like I said, and I think that's when I really lost it, and I'll probably lose it again, just who I am, you guys.

I feel that I have personally benefited from Adam's case. And because of that, I felt a responsibility to help continue this mission that his parents have set forward. And I also just want to say that I think the way that people handle their loved one's legacy becoming policy, becoming something kind of larger than their case, is valid.

Amber Hagerman's mom is 100% valid in being upset that Amber's been kind of lost in the story of the Amber Alert. And the Walshes are 100% valid in that they enjoy Adam's legacy continuing on through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Both sides are valid. These journeys are just so personal. But yeah, I know it's one of those cases where you get that feedback of it's played out or whatever, but...

I couldn't sit here and benefit from Adam's case and what he had to go through without trying to raise awareness somehow. Of course, if you guys have followed me on social media, you know that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has been my charity of choice outside of Season of Justice for a very long time.

And that's because I have, like I said, seen and directly benefited from the work that they do. So if you are looking for a charity of choice that focuses on missing children, that would be my top pick. Now, it's been a while since we've done this, but there's been some updates in the cases that I've covered. Let's start with Madeline Kingsbury.

Now, if you guys follow on social media, like I asked you to, if you follow her sister Megan, you will know that Madeline's remains have been found and the father of her children, Adam, has been arrested. That's basically it for now. Again, I encourage you to go follow Megan. You can find her on TikTok under her personal account, which she doesn't mind you following there. She gives updates. It's kind of for that, just like my personal account.

Or you can follow them. I was like totally out of breath. This is what happens. I get so worked up and I get so out of breath. Of course, you can also follow the Facebook page and just show them some support. And next, if you haven't heard already, there's been a break in the Tara Calico case. Officials say that they have a suspect and they think it might go to the DA soon.

Again, that is really, really brand new, so there's not a ton more information, and I don't want to report what I've seen that's a little conflicting, so you can follow that on your own. Otherwise, keep checking back here for more solid updates.

Now I want to talk about a new segment I'd like to introduce here in the Secret After Show. Now I feel like because I primarily focus on, you know, unsolved cases, I don't really get to tell you guys a lot about the hope, right? I only do usually these big updates like once a year. I don't really get to tell you guys a lot about the hope, right?

I don't like making an entire episode off of an update, especially when the case is now closed. It's just not my style. I like to highlight things that need our attention, things that need justice. And of course, you know, as these updates come out, I'm not saying that those people don't deserve attention. That is not what I'm saying. I am saying I make true crime content to advocate for cases that need help, that need justice. That's my focus. And...

I don't know. I might do in the future, maybe in special cases. And I have played around with ideas, you know, ways to do it, I should say. But for the most part, when there's like a huge update in the case, it doesn't make me feel good as a creator to make an entire episode off that content to tell you everything that you already know, everything I already told you in the episode before and kind of end it with like 10 to 15 minutes of an update, um,

I don't like that feeling, so I do not do it. But I think here in this after show moment, I have an opportunity to bring you stories of hope, things that happen in true crime that are good, things that can help us keep that hope alive, keep it, you know, well within our hearts. And something really, really amazing happened this week. I'm super excited about it. Um,

So if you guys follow me on social media, and I touched on it in a recent Disappearances episode, but I have been talking about the Indian Child Welfare Act. Now, there are a ton of creators out there that can, you know, indigenous creators that have been very, very vocal that I encourage you to follow. I've been posting their TikToks on my Instagram left and right, which I know posting TikToks on Instagram is like a whole thing, whatever. Right.

All I'm trying to say is I encourage you to go on TikTok and just, if you use TikTok, I'm not trying to pressure you. I'm just saying that's where I know a lot of these videos live. I can't say the same for Instagram or Twitter because they are inferior apps. I'm sorry I had to say it. But if you go to TikTok and you search Indian Child Welfare Act...

you will find a ton of Indigenous creators on there talking about it. And I would love to send more traffic their way instead of my way. But I want to talk about it because, of course, they are asking people to talk about it. So I have been. I have been. Like I said, if you look at my Instagram, I have been all over this because it was infuriating. And now we're in a good place. This is our segment of hope. This is new for me. I'm trying to be hopeful, at least in this segment. So...

Oh my gosh, you guys, I do not know what I'm saying today. Anyway, this is our segment of hope, which again, just like this after show is, is not named well, we'll have to, we'll have to work on that. But basically if you guys are not familiar, um, there is something called the Indian Child Welfare Act. And, um, this was enacted like 50 years ago to basically remedy, um, a

All these laws and policies that would allow the government to take indigenous children away from their families, right? This is why we saw so many boarding schools or residential schools, excuse me. Basically, kids were being taken from their homes in just crazy numbers, right? And placed with non-indigenous families, you know, and it's a way to kind of wash out their culture. Let's be real, right?

So, you know, because the world is ending or whatever is happening, the Supreme Court was basically, you guys, I'm so bad with government. So please forgive me. I had a really, really bad education, which is not an excuse because I'm so old, but bear with me.

Basically, they were trying to threaten that. They were trying to repeal it, take it back, so that way that they could basically just rip Indigenous kids out of their homes and put them with white families all over the place. And essentially taking away the oversight that these communities had to make sure that these children are still placed in areas where, you know, their culture could be respected, that they're placed with, you know, Indigenous families. It is what it is. But everyone...

was scared that this was going to be repealed. They're like, no way, it's going away. We're going to go back to the old times where they're taking our kids away from us and putting them in these boarding schools and washing away our culture. And in a really amazing turn of events, the Supreme Court left it intact, which means that so many kids are going to be able to stay with their families and so many kids are going to have...

from people in their community who understand their culture and understand their beliefs. And,

And it's a huge, huge win for the Indigenous community that has not been spoken about or talked about enough. And I'm really bad because I'm not scripted here. I probably should have scripted this part. But I 100% encourage you to go look this up, read an article about it, because it's really, really cool. I'm really excited that this happened. And just to give you some more background, I pulled up an article right now so that I am not completely...

Speaking uneducated here. You guys, I'm not forming sentences anymore. Bear with me. So this is NPR. I am reading straight from this article. Do not come for me. It says, quote,

The Indian Child Welfare Act, known as ICWA, was enacted in 1978 after a congressional investigation found that in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, over one-third of all Native children had been removed from their homes, some forcibly, and placed with non-Indian families and institutions with no ties to the tribes.

To ensure that that would never happen again, the law established three preferences for the placement of Native children when they are adopted or put in foster care. The first preference is for the placement with the child's extended family, then to other members of the tribe, and if neither of those is available, to members of another tribe. So, end quote, excuse me. So that's what they were trying to take away, and it did not get taken away.

So again, this is a huge win for the Indigenous community. So I'm excited. I hope that makes you hopeful about the world and true crime, that things are not reverting back to normal.

scary, scary ways. So that is our hope segment of the week. Please comment on social media and give me a better name for this segment and I will credit you a thousand percent. My brain's not fully working right now in terms of creativity, so please forgive me. But as always, thank you. I love you. And I'll talk to you next time.