It was a week after the boy’s disappearance before the FBI got involved. The rest of his body was never found.Īuthorities made a series of crucial errors, losing the bloodstained carpeting in Toole’s car – preventing DNA testing – and the car itself. Fishermen discovered his severed head in a canal 120 miles away two weeks later. “This is not to look back and point fingers, but it is to let it rest,” he said.Īdam Walsh went missing from a Hollywood mall on July 27, 1981. Still, John Walsh praised the Hollywood police department for closing the case.
The Walshes, who appeared Tuesday flanked by their other children, long ago derided the investigation as botched. He was serving five life sentences for murders unrelated to Adam’s death. Toole died in prison of cirrhosis in 1996 at the age of 49. John Walsh has long said he believed the drifter was responsible, saying investigators found at Toole’s home in Jacksonville a pair of green shorts and a sandal similar to what Adam was wearing. Many names have been mentioned in connection to the case in the years since the killing, including serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, but Toole’s has persistently nagged detectives. Wagner acknowledged numerous missteps in the investigation and apologized to the Walshes. Toole’s niece told the boy’s father, John Walsh, her uncle confessed on his deathbed in prison that he killed Adam. He claimed responsibility for hundreds of murders, but police determined most of the confessions were lies. Toole had twice confessed to killing the child, but later recanted. “Ottis Toole has continued to be our only real suspect.” “Our agency has devoted an inordinate amount of time seeking leads to other potential perpetrators rather than emphasizing Ottis Toole as our primary suspect,” said Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner, who launched a fresh review of the case after taking over the department last year. They declined to be specific about their evidence and did not note any DNA proof of the crime, but said an extensive review of the case file pointed only to Toole, as John Walsh long contended. Police named Ottis Toole, saying he was long the prime suspect in the case and that they had conclusively linked him to the killing. Walsh’s wife, Reve, at one point placed a small photo of their son on the podium.
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