'America's Most Wanted' Begun With A Father's Mission To Honor His Own Son's Criminal Case

Oct 18, 2019 by apost team

Over the course of 25 seasons of "America’s Most Wanted", host John Walsh, with the help of viewers and law enforcement personnel, helped put over 1,000 criminals behind bars. Remarkably, over a dozen of those captures were criminals on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

While Walsh and the show made a discernible impact, many viewers do not know Walsh's own son went missing which prompted him to host the television show along with help begin the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Back in 1981, Walsh’s wife, Revé, was shopping with their young son, Adam, in a department store in Hollywood, Florida. When Revé went to look in another aisle, she found that Adam had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Law enforcement soon descended on the shopping center, with dozens of law enforcement teams and even a helicopter searching for Adam. Tragically, the search came to an end when Adam’s remains were found in a canal.

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Still grieving for the loss of their son, John and Revé were determined to help law enforcement develop a way to better search for missing children. The couple’s tireless campaign led to the establishment of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the signing of the Missing Children’s Act.

The Center for Missing and Exploited Children posted a facebook picture with a quote from John Walsh saying, "One day I went to work and never saw my son again. That day was exactly 36 years ago today. We love and miss you, Adam."

John’s campaigning on behalf of missing children is one of the reasons why producers picked him to host "America’s Most Wanted." In an interview with Nightline, John told of how talking with other parents of murdered children was difficult for him, saying that Adam is always on his mind. Thankfully, the Walshes eventually found a degree of closure in learning the identity of Adam’s killer.

In 2008, the Hollywood Police Department determined that serial killer Ottis Toole had taken Adam. In a press conference, authorities told of how Toole was a suspect during their initial investigation and had confessed to taking Adam multiple times.

Police doubted Toole’s role in the case at the time, Toole was notorious for confessing to crimes and then recanting his statements. Further review led detectives to conclude that Toole, who died in prison in 1996, was, in fact, the man who took Adam's life.

Having learned the identity of Adam’s killer, Walsh continues to help law enforcement in the quest for justice. He told ABC he thinks Adam would be proud of what he's doing. "I think wherever he is, he is [proud]. He would be a 35-year-old man," Walsh said. "I don't know, I hope so. I loved that little boy."

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